Stalin&#x27;s military lacked in organization, tactics and strategy due to the purges and was surprised by Operation Barbarossa&#x27;s timeline, but it was well armed and well equipped. Case in point being the Soviet tank forces, which were much more numerous and advanced than German intelligence had suspected.<p>The population&#x27;s ability to bear sacrifices and Stalin&#x27;s willingness - matched by Hitler&#x27;s - to sacrifice millions of civilians alongside the soldiers were instrumental, but it certainly was the military - rather than civilian resistance - that ultimately broke the German war machine.