I had in mind some specific remarks by Stalin, but let’s say Hitler’s invasion had no such effect.
What makes you think he was paranoid before this? His mass-murders didn’t stop him from dying in his bed at an advanced age, nor from forcing the Soviet people to defend him and his power from Germany. He could easily have enjoyed killing people. On what grounds would you call his behavior irrational?
Define terms. Do you use the word “paranoia” is its clinical meaning? as a shortcut for “he values his safety much more than lives of others”? and how does irrationality play into this? For one thing, without the purges of 1937, the Russian army would have been much more capable in 1941.
There is a bit of a problem with this theory in that Stalin’s paranoia was very visible starting from 1934 and, arguably, it peaked in 1937.
I had in mind some specific remarks by Stalin, but let’s say Hitler’s invasion had no such effect.
What makes you think he was paranoid before this? His mass-murders didn’t stop him from dying in his bed at an advanced age, nor from forcing the Soviet people to defend him and his power from Germany. He could easily have enjoyed killing people. On what grounds would you call his behavior irrational?
Define terms. Do you use the word “paranoia” is its clinical meaning? as a shortcut for “he values his safety much more than lives of others”? and how does irrationality play into this? For one thing, without the purges of 1937, the Russian army would have been much more capable in 1941.