Some people believe that the Soviets planned a surprise preemptive attack on Germany in 1941.

Viktor Suvorov believes that Operation Barbarossa was, in fact, the preemptive strike that Germany was planning when they discovered that the USSR planned to break the Molotov pact.

The distribution of Soviet troops at the frontiers were described by Eric Von Manstein in his book "Lost Victories" as being somewhere between Static defence and Offensive preparation. This would have been in the northern sector of the front where he fought with 56th panzer corps. The concentration of the heavier T34 and KV1 tanks in the south would also suggest that capturing more territory in the Balkans could have been on Stalin's mind, although he would have known that a push closer to the Ploesti oilfields would provoked Hiltler to certain confrontation and probable war. Considering the professional capabilities of the red army in June of 41, and after the debacale of Finland and the knowledge of the German swift victories in the west the previous summer, I find it hard to believe that Stalin could have felt that his Red Army was capable of defeating the German Army. However, as we were to see, Stalin had no problem sacrificing hoards of his soldiers to acheive his own politrical objectives.Still I'm not a believer that the Germans "barely" pre-empted the Russians.