Since the 1990s and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, this theory has received some support among historians in some post-Soviet and Central European states, but some Western scholars have criticized his conclusions for lack of evidence and documentation.

Then, Stalin planned to seize an opportune moment to attack Germany from the east, overrun Europe, and establish Soviet control.

[5] Suvorov considers Operation Barbarossa to have been a pre-emptive strike by Hitler,[6] an act of self-defence in an attempt to prevent imminent Red Army assault.

[3] Suvorov offers as another piece of evidence the extensive effort Stalin took to conceal general mobilization by manipulating the laws setting the conscription age.

Suvorov's main points include the following: The book is based on an analysis of Soviet military investments, diplomatic maneuvers, Politburo speeches and other circumstantial evidences.

[21][6] Glantz argues that the Soviet Union simply was not ready for the war in the summer of 1941[22] Robin Edmonds said that "the Red Army planning staff would not have been doing its job if it had not devoted some time between 1939 and 1941 to the possibility, at some future date, of a pre-emptive strike against Wehrmacht".

[24] The book was enthusiastically accepted by a fraction of a German society that hoped to reintroduce Hitler as a legitimate part of the patriotic historical discourse.