1920s-1940s worst weather year for Soviet defense?

Does anyone have any feeling for what year between 1920 and 1950 had the worst weather for Soviet Defense? I guess this means both a warm (for the area) winter *and* a dry fall/spring. I'm trying to figure out what year's winter the Nazi would have hoped 1942/1943/1944 would have been most like. (for example *not* 1946/1947 or 1948/1949 as far as I can tell)

If that isn't clear, I'm hoping for a response like....
"In the fall/winter/spring19XX-19XY, Minsk, Kiev and Moscow got less than half of the normal precipitation from October to April and Minsk had the fewest nights below 0 degrees F in December, January and February of any winter between 1900-1950.
 
I don't know about rainfall etc., but in Finland (and presumably much of the north-western parts of the USSR) the mid-30s were very warm. Look at this graph of annual average temperatures by the Finnish Meteorological Institute:

12304.png


Also according to Wikipedia, in the 30s for example northern Greenland had temperatures 5 degrees above the 20th century average.

Like the graph shows, especially 1935 was a warm year. This maybe anecdotal, but interesting none the less:

“Remarkable Changes”

“Our generation is living in a period when remarkable changes are taking place almost everywhere throughout the world,” writes Professor L. Berg, of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. ”‘Certainly these widely distributed phenomena cannot be due to the action of the Gulf Stream, which, however, naturally receives its share of the greater general warmth.” The slow thawing of the Arctic is given as a partial explanation for the record voyages of Soviet ice-breakers to northern latitudes, which have never before been reached by navigating vessels. The Sadko in 1935, in ice- free water of the North Kara Sea, steamed to 82 degrees, 42 minutes of northern latitude—an all-time record.
 
Of course, had the Germans tried an invasion in '35 the Soviets would probably have stalled them before kicking them to the curb whether with or without winter. Soviet military theory was well developed and decently implemented, the purges of the officer corps was another two years off, and the Germans still had a view of mechanized warfare closer to that of World War 1 then what Blitzkrieg was.

The weather wasn't the main reason for the failure of Barbarossa... although it certainly helped.
 
Of course, had the Germans tried an invasion in '35 the Soviets would probably have stalled them before kicking them to the curb whether with or without winter. Soviet military theory was well developed and decently implemented, the purges of the officer corps was another two years off, and the Germans still had a view of mechanized warfare closer to that of World War 1 then what Blitzkrieg was.

The weather wasn't the main reason for the failure of Barbarossa... although it certainly helped.

No doubt. I'm not saying that the Nazis should have tried invading in 1935, I'm trying to figure out which winter would have been used as the optimistic end of the possible weather scenarios by the Nazis. Also, it depends on the Fall/Winter/Spring rainfall as well. While not as famous, General Mud did just as much to help the Soviets as General Winter, IMO.
 
Weather had nothing to do with Soviet victory in WWII. The Soviets had everything to do with it. General Winter hurt the USSR just as much as he hurt the Nazis, and the Rasputitsa could and did derail the Soviets as much as it did the Nazis.
 
Why not, it had worked reasonably well a couple of decades earlier....

Not so good when your enemy has moved on and you haven't. The Soviets in 1935 are more ruthless than the Gentleman aristocrats and their peasant army of 1914-17. Also in 1935 the Soviets had the most modern army in the world and some of the best and most experienced officers.
 
Why not, it had worked reasonably well a couple of decades earlier....

Yes, when Russia was already fragile going in and the Germans were paying the most dangerous group of revolutionaries to knock Russia out of the war and damn the consequences of Commies taking over the largest overland empire in the world at that time.
 
Weather had nothing to do with Soviet victory in WWII. The Soviets had everything to do with it. General Winter hurt the USSR just as much as he hurt the Nazis, and the Rasputitsa could and did derail the Soviets as much as it did the Nazis.

Well, General Winter helped Soviets because they knew what to expect and had knowledge how equipment behaves in such temperatures.

I don't buy whole "Siberian divisions could fight in winter while Germans froze on the spot" myth. It was just that Soviet troops knew how bad winters can be and developed stuff that allowed them to operate in it with greater efficiency than Germans.
 
Well, General Winter helped Soviets because they knew what to expect and had knowledge how equipment behaves in such temperatures.

I don't buy whole "Siberian divisions could fight in winter while Germans froze on the spot" myth. It was just that Soviet troops knew how bad winters can be and developed stuff that allowed them to operate in it with greater efficiency than Germans.

So what happened to those same troops in Finland?
 
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