What did German commanders expect Operation Barbarossa to accomplish by October 1941?

German commanders and Adolf Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa with the conviction that the Red Army could be decisively defeated within two to three months.12

By the end of October 1941, they expected to achieve the following objectives:

• Territorial Conquest: The German leadership aimed to have conquered the entire European portion of Russia and Ukraine located west of a line stretching from Arkhangelsk to Astrakhan.12
• Political Collapse: Beyond military victory, the Germans operated under the mistaken political assumption that the Soviet regime would collapse from a lack of domestic support within three to six months of the invasion.2

These expectations were driven by a belief in the superiority of German military technique and a significant underestimation of the Soviet Union's ability to mobilize fresh reserves from the depths of its territory.2