Status Updates From The Road to Stalingrad: Sta...

Locked up in the Kremlin, master of a world which he had created by his own selective killings & which reflected back upon him only those images he had himself ordained, steeped in his own genius & fed on its outpourings, Stalin could rage away dissension and doubt from whatever quarter it came.

The designation of Special to a military district signified that these were operational groupings capable of carrying out operations for a limited period without the mobilisation of additional reserves; ordinary district armies were for all practical purposes administrative organisations. The special districts had their headquarters in Riga (Baltic) Minsk (Western) & Kiev.