Stalin Line - Definition and Overview

The Stalin Line was a line of fortifications along the western border of the Soviet Union. Work began on the system in the 1920s to protect the USSR against western aggression. The line was made up of concrete bunkers and gun emplacements, some similar but less elaborate than the Maginot Line.

With the westward expansion of the USSR in 1939 and 1940, into Poland, the Baltic, and Bessarabia the decision was made to abandon the line in favour of construction further west. A number of Russian generals felt that it would be better to keep both lines and have defence in depth, but this conflicted with the pre-World War II Soviet military doctrine.

Thus the guns were moved, but were mostly in storage as the new line began construction. The 1941 German invasion caught the new line unfinished and the Stalin Line largely abandoned and in disrepair. Neither was thus of any use in stopping the onslaught of Operation Barbarossa.