Opinion Piece - Myths and Realities of the Great Patriotic War

[Al]

As my history professor used to say about some of my less than stellar work, "too cliche-ridden". I started to count how many times he used the word "Ivan", but quit after ten.

Interestingly, during the war the Soviet soldier was portrayed in the West much as Soviet propoganda portrayed them - as brave patriotic men fighting the enemy. Only after and with the onset of the Cold War did this view change. The pendulum of history does swing wildly at times.