Stalin's 1939 pact with Nazis was designed to allow capitalists to weaken each other, and be ready to confront them later. Stalingrad, and other victories, provided the second chance to implement this strategy, I was told this summer, by a friend. I finally found a book about this. The title is "Germany's Key Strategic Decisions 1940-1945." The author is Heinz Magenheimer, an Austrian military historian. All this is in Chapter IV, in a section named : "The Question of 'Closing Down the Eastern Front' and a Separate German-Soviet Peace," (pages 192 to 201). It is clear to me, after reading this section, that both Hitler and Stalin were aware of this option. It was not implemented because Hitler believed that he will win militarily, even after Stalingrad. Mussolini was not the only one to suggest this idea to Hitler. Here is a quote: "Mussolini's attempts, which became tangible in written and verbal form after 6 November 1942 and which were presented to Hitler on 18 December 1942 by Foreign Minister Ciano in the form of appropriate recommendations, were based on the idea of reaching a settlement with the Soviet Union--a second 'peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk.' Mussolini and Ciano argued that within the foreseeable future all available forces would be needed to repel the anticipated invasion of Sicily and Italy by the Western powers." Sweden was a neutral country and several meetings took place in Stockholm "via various German and Soviet contacts . . . to discover how serious Germny was to conclude a separate agreement, on the basis, for example, of a return to the mutual frontiers existing before June 1941." On page 307 I see a quote from reference 49: "By a note of 12 November Molotov informed the Western Allies of the Soviet feelers via representatives in Stockholm. It appears that Stalin took this step in order to strengthen his political position vis-a-vis Great Britain and the USA." Why was Hitler so stupid? P.S. I tend to agree with Magnenheimer that the Soviet Union would lost in WWII if Germans started recruiting their war prisoners in 1941, as suggested by some German strategists. Millions of Red Army soldiers surrounded to Whermacht in the first three months of the war. But Hitler and Himler were against this; they started doing this at the end of the war only. That was too late. Another factor that contributed to German defeat was brutality toward civil population in the occupied territories.