Leadership

The leadership during the battle of Moscow 1941-1942

First of all we have to mention that the political leaders, Adolf HITLER the Germany leader and Joseph STALIN the soviet leader, were both dictators. They were both authoritarian leaders, especially Hitler in this battle which considered for him as his own battle. They did not give allowance for cooperation or collaboration for their subordinate’s military leaders.

Until the occurrence of this battle, the German army had not lost any war during the Nazis era, which motivated HITLER to conduct the assault against Russia even with the approach of winter, where snow accumulation in large quantities and “low temperature reaches 42 degrees Celsius below zero”, thereby hindering any offensive military operation. Hitler was fully aware of the risk of Russian winter and it will be impossible to attack unless in the summer. Despite the opposition from German military leaders against the time of the attack, “including the commanding general of the Air Force, Marshal Hermann Goering who was one of the most important political and military leaders, not only because of the weather in Russia, but also of being cannot be fighting on two battlefronts in Russia and North Africa at the same time”, but Hitler insisted to conduct the war which was a strategic mistake, that the Nazi army started invincible to regress. When Hitler took his last decision on the process of the attack called Barbarossa plan, the military commanders had nothing to do unless to comply with the decision, so they decided to conduct a very fast attack, whatever the human cost will be.

In the Russian side who had signed the 1939 non-aggression treaty in order to keep the risk German from Russia for 10 years, the Russian leader STALIN was also a dictator, which had previously “killed executed or imprisoned ​​in 1938 many of the military leaders if there were any suspicion of their loyalty even been eliminated the most efficient military commanders”, creating...