Counter-Barbarossa?

[CruelDwarf]

I'm not a military expert.

You do not need to be a military expert to see the obvious difference between left (blue) side of the border and the right (red) one. To the left you see a force prepared to the offensive. To the right you see the force prepared to defend the border but otherwise in very much 'peaceful' position.

He described in detail all units, their position, composition, etc. Those details were rather tiresome reading for me, and to large part I could not understand their meaning or significance. But I could understand his summary, and that's what I reproduced above.

It is a problem because by 'tiresome detail' you can attempt to prove pretty much anything. I can note a few things too for example. Soviet mechanized troops in Western military district had 1,5 to 2 ammo loadouts per vehicle on average. The main fuel storage facility for the Western Military district (modern Belorussia) was stationed in Maikop (it is near Caucasus mountains, so you can look on Google maps for distance between these two points).

SImply put - Soviet military was in no position to attack Germany in 1941. And it would be most likely not ready to do it in 1942 or even 1943.

He clearly preferred the explanation that the headquarters expected German attack, and believed they'd be able to crush it and launch a counter-offensive.

Oh, of course they are were expecting to crush German offensive. Soviets were pretty optimistic about their capabilities at the time. People tend to ascribe the shock suffered by Soviet command to the 'surprise' nature of the German attack but in fact the shock happened not because of surprise (the attack was indeed expected) but because of the sheer force of the blow delivered.