History

The defector you mention in your first claim is Alfred Liskow, a German pioneer who harboured communist sympathies and defected mere hours before the invasion. There was simply no time to relay Liskow’s warning up the chain of command, especially in the middle of the night on the eve of the invasion.

Liskow was neither executed nor disbelieved seeing as his claims were quickly verified, however during the war he disappeared into the Soviet prison system and there is no record of his existence post late 1942.

In 1943 Stalin ordered the execution of a German defector for misinformation, although there is no evidence that indicates the executed man was Liskow.

Lastly, while a lot of the information surrounding Stalin’s dismissal of the German invasion is weird pop history misinformation, we do know that Stalin was in possession of detailed information pertaining to the German invasion prior to Barbarossa.

Primarily, Richard Sorge, a Soviet spy in Japan passed along sensitive communiques that his spy ring in Tokyo intercepted from the German embassy nearly three months before the invasion, along with a memorandum stating that he believed the Germans would invade between the months of April to May. Stalin chose not to believe Sorge’s evidence as the information reifed a potential worst case scenario that no one hoped would come true. Further assuaging Stalin’s worries was Sorge’s predicted start date coming and going without any sign of a German offensive, which lulled Stalin and the high command into a false sense of security. However, Stalin was no fool and ordered the Soviet Western Army to assume combat readiness in anticipation of a potential invasion, though many of these divisions were unable to mobilize in time and were at peacetime strength.

History would vindicate Sorge, as the Germans had originally planned to invade in late April, but were delayed by the Greek offensive which pushed Operation Barbarossa to the invasions historical start date of June 22nd.