Opinion Piece - Myths and Realities of the Great Patriotic War

[schnurbart]

i think once both sides were in it to win or be destroyed that politics etc ceased to be a motivator accept maybe if used to exploit the peasants hatred. i think the soviets had a good corps of elite operational experts..had planned for war by gearing the economy etc. the decisive time of the battle was barbarossa and typhoon...after that soviets had the inititive and soon grew so strong well we know what happend.

[Marquo]

"this strategy almost faild becasue of soviet communication problems"

In fact, the most important commodity the Russians received from the west was telephone wire, to help set up mobile communication.

Several years ago I read an article in the Washinton Post which detailed a plan that the Russian Embassy had devised to award medals to American soldiers who had participated in joint military operations with Soviet soldiers during the war. The Russians had developed a sense that the American public had developed a false sense of history over time, perhaps related to years of Cold War anomosity. The Russians, as explained in the Post, felt that many Americans of the current generation beleive that America and Germany were allied together to fight Russia in WW2!

I brought a picture of my father (2n Lt, 65th ID) on a bridge, arm in arm with a Soviet Lt, with their helmets exchanged (see attachment) to the Embassy to get a medal for my Dad. After examination, it was determined that this encounter was right after the war, so no medal. But...:), we were invited a celebration of Zhukov's 100th birthday party, where his 2 daughters signed the picture, which is now of course a treasured family heirloom.

Marquo :-)

[Bear]

Bravo Dodger and Epoletrov!

It is scary to read that some posters here are reiterating, with their political correct veil, the very nature of the social Darwinism which the axis fascists used to sway the masses for their New World Order.
And Brecht is a prophet...and President Eisenhower warned us about what we're facing today. Beware of the Military - Industrial - Congressional combine. That is the core of 21 Century fascism. Our frontier and borders are not secure because "they" will get their "Reichstag Fire" served up nice and neat. The everything we say here openly will deemed subversive and no one will ever hear from me again, will they?

[jonnymacbrown]

"That is the core of 21 Century fascism. Our frontier and borders are not secure because "they" will get their "Reichstag Fire" served up nice and neat. The everything we say here openly will deemed subversive and no one will ever hear from me again, will they?"

I was just re-reading 1984 the other day, the funny part where right in the middle of the frenzy of Hate Week, it is suddenly announced that the enemy is now the ally, and vis a versa. Anyway, your 1st amendment rights are guaranteed as long as no one is listening, and since there can't be anyone silly enough to monitor this forum, I'd say your secret identity is safe, for the time being! von ege :rolleyes:

[Afro Thunder]

Don't worry, if the 1st Amendment somehow disappears, we've got the 2nd Amendment to back it up! :2guns:

[Sgt Barker]

[Sgt Barker]

Back on topic, Marquo, with your permission I'm going to post your story on another site. I collect Soviet WWII era orders, medals, and documents. And I've never heard of the awards you mention. I wonder if other medal fanatics have, and if anyone knows it'll be those guys.

[USS Wyoming]

Just got around to reading this thead and I just happen to have finished Merridale's, " Ivan's War" a couple months ago.

I concur with the notion that the USSR's pounding of the German armies was decisive in ending the war, but I was struck by a couple other things I gleaned from the book.

How the total control of communication within the country allowed the Red army to hide the massive casualties they continued to suffer throughout the entire war from the general public. Had the public been aware with some certainty of the human cost, they may have pressed for an end to the fighting once the Germans had been pushed firmly out of Russia.

While the Eastern Front consumed men from both sides, its appetite for war material was just as great. Despite the rapid growth of Soviet material production I do not think they could have out produced the German's had it not been for the Allied bombing of Germany.

Finally, the discussion seems to suggest that the sacrifice by the Soviet soldier was never appreciated by the Allies. That shouldn't be a surprise considering the Soviet Union cloaked all of its operations in secrecy following the war. Combined with the aftermath of the war that included the annexing of previously independent eastern European countries by their new liberators and the failure to repatriate thousands of prisoners (two wrongs don't make a right). I shudder to think what the West would have concluded if the information contained in Merridale's book about the unneccessary sacrifice of Soviet troops during the battle of Berlin, the sanctioned conduct upon the civilian population by the Red Army and the broken promises of the Soviet state following the return of those Hero's of the Soviet Union to the motherland would have become common knowledge at the end of hostilities.