[rwissmann]

Stalin's military lacked in organization, tactics and strategy due to the purges and was surprised by Operation Barbarossa's timeline, but it was well armed and well equipped. Case in point being the Soviet tank forces, which were much more numerous and advanced than German intelligence had suspected.

The population's ability to bear sacrifices and Stalin's willingness - matched by Hitler's - to sacrifice millions of civilians alongside the soldiers were instrumental, but it certainly was the military - rather than civilian resistance - that ultimately broke the German war machine.

[scurvy]

Your ordering is off. Their initial tanks were old and ineffective. It was after the sieges that tank production in the east ramped up with T34's. If the civilians had not taken the brunt and fought back, there wouldn't have been enough time to produce any tanks on the other side of the country. The Soviet tank forces of 39-40 couldn't hold a candle to the later version.