steverodgers801 wrote:It made sense to Hitler, but Stalin assumed that Hitler would think like other people, he should have realized Hitler had his own logic
Yes and no
In august 1914,the Germans went West,because it was (rightly) assumed that it was impossible to eliminate Russia in a short campaign .
After the war,a lot of persons in Germany (including Hitler) claimed that the 2 front war was the cause of the German defeat,not realising/ignoring the fact that it was hardly possible for Germany to start a one front war in 1914,and that the influence of the Russian front on the Western front was asserting itself only after the Marne battle,when all chances for victory in the West were gone .
Whatever,after WWI,the 2 front war being the reason for the German defeat,became a dogma,and Stalin assumed that Hitler would not repeat the mistake of the Kaiser.
But,in june 1941,the Germans were going West,because in the West,they had landed in a dead end :it was not possible to eliminate Britain in a short campaign,before the US would officialy intervene .
There was also a second psychological reason for Stalin's refusal to accept the possibility of a German attack :in a short campaign of 6 weeks,Germany had succeeded to eliminate France,the army of whom was considered as invincible and Stalin knew that the situation of the Red Army was deplorable (to use an euphemism) and that it was impossible to do something about it in the short run .
The SU was as a man who was tied up on a railway line,while in the distance a train was arriving,the only thing the man could hope was that at the last moment,the train would stop or take an other direction .