Best Soviet strategy to win quickly on the eastern front

Soooo, what strategy could the Soviets pursue Post-1941 to get a total victory over Nazi Germany by late 44?
 
Soooo, what strategy could the Soviets pursue Post-1941 to get a total victory over Nazi Germany by late 44?

Avoid all-out counterattack in Winter 1941-42 and May 1942. Slow retreat in frot of futher German attack, with "second echelon" used against armored penetrations; buy time; avoid human wave attacks; mass armor and air reserves for later strategic and in-depth counterattacks.
in August 1942, with such spared elements, a powerful strategic counterattack along the Don, against the Hungarians and Italians, is possibile, just when the Germans are pressing on Stalingrad. With which, the city is likely spared its ordeal, and the invaders forced to stop their advance to the Caucasus to avoid being cut off. The outcome, though, is a likely defensive German success.
 
Limit the counteroffensive of early winter 1942 to Army Group Center. Doing this there was a strong possibility of completely destroying it. The Nazis have the capacity to rebuild armies but the logistical and manpower losses are even higher at this phase, and the need for them to do so means the Soviets have the initiative for up to the summer (as the Rasputitsa will see a lot of German logistical build-up required to reconstruct Army Group Center before heading on an offensive elsewhere).

When the Soviets take the offensive here they may decide to break the Siege of Leningrad first, as the Germans need to rebuild from losses in the Center and to do that in the short term means stripping existing formations of lines to preserve the one in the center. In this case the USSR likely does free Leningrad in summer 1942, meaning that instead of loads and loads of dead people there and one of the major cities of the Soviet Union in a 900-day siege the Siege is broken after an extremely lethal few months, meaning fuller access to Leningrad's industry.

The Germans will likely ITTL attack in the Center as Hitler won't accept that blow to German pride, meaning they'd hit right where the majority of Soviet strength would be likely to be concentrated when they do. Meaning a possible reversed Battle of Rhzev-style bloodbath that hurts the Germans far worse than it does the Soviets, and by Winter of 1942-3 the Germans have made two large-scale offensives to Moscow that ended in defeat.

The Soviets, once equipped with a large number of radios and Willies then proceed in 1943 to start thumping them like big bass drums with fewer casualties and a larger industrial base to amplify the existing edges over the Germans. The front South of the Pripet becomes for a time ignored by both sides due to the focus of the war north of it, in the two attempts to capture Moscow and in the breaking of the Leningrad Siege.

As a result the Bagration-level victory would come in the south. One thing that would be interesting is if a Soviet victory that's much more rapid and sees more decisive Soviet victories earlier ends up having some major impacts on the Holocaust. As the Germans won't retain access to all the Jews they slaughtered for as long ITTL and maintaining the Camps in 1942/3 against superior Soviet generalship that's getting a chance to sign earlier means they just get defeated worse. If they do it, the Soviets liberate the camps faster as it is and means fewer Jews die.

If they do not do this, the Endoslung is unlikely to happen on the OTL scale. Even a smaller scale would be plenty disgustingly horrible in its own right. :( The only good thing would be that millions of people dead IOTL are likely to be alive ITTL, and those millions not dying is arguably an improvement insofar as the horrific deaths never happened. And that Nazi racism is discredited much earlier and with much less evil having proceeded it. The Soviets gut Army Group Center in December and Hitler's racist delusions have gone from being unstoppable everywhere else to having the heart torn out of one of their most powerful army group by the Soviets.........
 
The Red and I's failure before Moscow is the answer to this question

Let army group center reach Moscow in their last breath in 1941, get them embroiled in a street fight then can open their flanks once winter comes in
 
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