The military defeats of 1941 were so unexpected, and the losses of the Red Army were so great that this wound in the people's memory has not yet healed. To this day, fierce debate continues about the causes and perpetrators of the tragedy. And the main question is - was it possible to avoid it? In a new, substantially revised and supplemented edition of the book, leading military historians prove: there was no real alternative to the catastrophe. The tragedy of 1941 was not accidental - it was due to objective factors, such as the real state of combat and mobilization readiness of the Red Army, the level of the economy of the USSR and the system of making the most important decisions. The book will be very useful for those who want to understand why the Red Army, having lost many battles in the first half of the war, nevertheless defeated the Nazi military machine and hoisted the Victory Banner over the Reichstag.