Surprise now assumed a central role in Soviet military strategy. In the month after Rotmistrov’s article an editorial in Voennaia Mysl’ repeated his words that “we should always be ready for preemptive actions against the perfidy of aggressors.”85 It went on to criticize the Stalinist version of 1941. A revisionist historiography now began to appear, blaming Stalin for his failure to anticipate the German attack and to make the Red Army ready.86 Zhukov had been Chief of the General Staff in 1941 and had witnessed the build-up of German forces with alarm; according to some recent accounts, he
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