So either: 1. If Hitler didn't launch Barbarossa in 1941,

I'm pretty sure that seizing 'living space' from the east was one of Hitler's major goals. He was going to attack the USSR no matter what.

>>2670432
But either scenario would require Hitler to be less retard than he is.

>>2670432
Neither. 2 is less wrong, as Satlin had never particularly shown himself willing to embark on risky adventures like that, but if Hitler doesn't launch an attack, sooner or later you get atomic fire in Berlin, which loses the war if he doesn't lose to the Western Allies in a more conventional sense.

>>2670432
2

I'm of the mind stalin just wanted to sit and chil, socialism in one country and al that.

>>2670432
>2. Stalin would have never
>[therefore Hitler] would have essentially have won the war.
Not wanting to do something doesn't equal not being able to do it.

They are merely correlated. Maybe the USSR would be capable of invading Germany, but has no incentive to, or the costs just heavily outweigh the gains? This is not covered by scenario #1.

>>2670432
2 is false. Germany did not have oilfields and was facing a world-wide boycott after invading Poland. Germany would have slowly starved to death without launching any new campaigns.

Barbarossa being successful was the only option left at that point.

>>2670432
>
1. If Hitler didn't launch Barbarossa in 1941, Stalin would have attacked him sooner or later in the next few years as the USSR grew stronger, in which case Hitler was justified in preemptively attacking Russia,

This is the dumbest fucking statement I've ever seen on /his/

Why in the name of fuck would Stalin attack the Reich?

>>2670432
1. Hitler stated in Mein Kampf that Lebensraum (living space) was one of his main goals and that could be found in the east (Poland, Baltics, Russia, etc.). Also, he saw Communism as a threat to Nat Soc and sought to eradicate it as he already did in Germany. He was going to attack in the east without fail.

2. It is rather unlikely that Stalin would've attacked. I'm sure he knew as well as anyone that the purges of the Red Army had weakened his position militarily and would take time to rebuild. Also, Communists saw war as a tool of the ruling classes and sought to gain power through the Comintern (Full disclosure: Stalin dissolved the Comintern in 1943).

>>2670771
Uh, something about communism being an internationalist ideology, duh.