Originally Posted by
DC10RealMan
I wonder if that statement encouraged the USSR to fight on as it had been feared that they might make a separate peace due to the rapid advance of the Wehrmacht.
Was there ever a realistic prospect of a separate peace? True the Soviet had done just that in 1917. In WW2 Germany had only just attack Russia in 1941 having abrogated their previous Pact. In 1942 Germany was winning both in Russia and North Africa, why would they accept a separate peace except on such impossible terms that Stalin could never have accepted.