[gazaim]

> Though, because Stalin had decimated the red army leadership (including most of the veteran officer who had Russian civil war experience) during the Moscow trials purges, the German almost succeeded.

There were many counter revolutionaries among the leadership, even those conducting the purges. Stalin was like "ah fuck we're hella compromised." Many revolutions fail in this step and often end up facing a CIA backed coup. The USSR was under constant siege and attempted infiltration since inception.

[littlestymaar]

> There were many counter revolutionaries among the leadership

Well, Stalin was, by far, the biggest counter-revolutionary in the Politburo.

> Stalin was like "ah fuck we're hella compromised."

There's no evidence that anything significant was compromised at that point, and clear evidence that Stalin was in fact medically paranoid.

> Many revolutions fail in this step and often end up facing a CIA backed coup. The USSR was under constant siege and attempted infiltration since inception.

Can we please not recycle 90-years old soviet propaganda? The Moscow trial being irrational self-harm was acknowledged by the USSR leadership as early as the fifties…