Could Stalin have been the first to attack Hitler? Is it true that the 1941 catastrophe is explained by the unwillingness of the people to fight for the "criminal Stalinist regime"? Or was the reason the conspiracy of the high command against the "Kremlin highlander"? What predetermined the defeat of the Red Army in the first weeks of the war - incompetence of military leaders, cowardice or treason? After analyzing the loudest myths about 1941, this book not only proves: everything was wrong! - but also names the true causes of the tragedy that other historians overlooked.