Day 770 October 9, 1941

There are massive encirclements of Soviet troops from Leningrad in the North to the Sea of Azov on the Black Sea, with the largest pockets in the middle around Bryansk and Vyasma. Coupled with the destruction of Soviet Southwestern Front around Kiev, these cauldron battles (Kesselschlacht) will result in 2 million unrecoverable Soviet losses. However, Stalin knows from his spy in Tokyo (Richard Sorge) that the Japanese have no plans to attack USSR and instead intend to expand South by moving on British and American interests. Stalin transfers troops from the Far East to protect Moscow.