Minimum and maximum extent of Soviets in 1945

[MattII]

Those were not a separate purge but rather a continuation of the previous ones. Not only were these purges smaller then all the previous ones, continuing the trend of the purges tapering off, but I have never seen any evidence they actually impacted the progress of the reform and rearmament programs nor the Red Army's fighting capability... probably because there wasn't any further down for the Red Army's fighting capability to go. The Soviets were already at rock bottom in '41, there was nowhere for them to go but up.

Maybe you should read up on what happened in the Red Air Force. They lost a lot in 1941, in the March-May period. Not just in leadership either, the relatied industries were also, hit.

 

[ObssesedNuker]

Maybe you should read up on what happened in the Red Air Force. They lost a lot in 1941, in the March-May period. Not just in leadership either, the relatied industries were also, hit.

The Red Airforces effective leadership, and hence its combat capability, had already been decimated in the 37-38 purges. It was already at rock bottom in 41 and the 41 purges hardly affected that. As with the Red Army, the Red Air Force in 1940-41 identified it's short-comings, began the development and deployment of new modern aircraft, and was in the process of developing a new officer corps and better training corps. The main problem was that not enough time had yet passed for any of that to take effect. Red Pheonix goes into some detail on this.

Then the Germans invaded and turned all the plans, as well as what little progress had been made, into ash.