What if Hitler had not managed to catch Stalin by surprise, had the Red Army been put on full alert in a timely manner, did we have a chance to win the Border Battle and avoid the 1941 disaster? What if the Soviet Union struck first - could our troops defeat the Wehrmacht in a matter of weeks, as the notorious Viktor Suvorov claims, or would they suffer an even more terrible defeat than in the current reality? What if the USSR managed to create its own version of the "blitzkrieg," bringing to mind the theory of "strategic tanks" and turning the monstrous, almost uncontrollable mechanized corps of 1941 into well-balanced, mobile and effective elite formations that could change the course of the Great Patriotic War? A new book by a leading military historian takes the study of historical alternatives to a truly scientific level, turning the game into an "if" from the leisure fun of science fiction writers into professional research!