Approximately 80% of all German casualties during World War II occurred on the Eastern Front, highlighting the massive scale of combat and loss experienced in this region.
Russia destroyed more than 40,000 German tanks from June 1941 to November 1944. By the time the Allies came ashore at Normandy, the Germans had already lost the war
I don’t believe that what I was taught in school.
Oh well I was told in the main stream media & the President Bush that a result of the War on Terror would be flourishing of democracy.
I seem to have been subjected to propaganda lies.
But I have been told that only happens in commie Russia/Soviet Union & China.
Next you will be telling me I don’t need professional Wall Street management of my wealth.
Brain washing & manipulation begins early in this country.
I definitely wasn’t taught that. As a complete aside;
Anyone who’s read Guy Sajer’s The Forgotten Soldier (the All Quiet on the Western Front of WWII) knows what the Soviet contribution was and it was, in a word, awesome.
That wasn’t my takeaway, but it is a great book. Sajer was born in Alsace, a region that has been either German or French at various times. He joined the Germany army even though he only spoke French at the time, so he was initially isolated from his comrades. He was assigned to the eastern front, where the Wehrmacht proceeded to lose battle after battle for the next three years, as they suffer from ammo shortages, incompetent leadership, and were basically are starving to death.It is wild that someone went through all that and survived.
We weren’t taught that he Soviet Union lost around 27 million people during the war, including 8.7 million military and 19 million civilian deaths. The USSR lost by far the most people although Poland lost the largest percentage of its population (many of the Jews murdered in the Holocaust).
Of course, Stalin murdered many of his own citizens at the same time as Hitler.
There’s plenty of nationalism to go around regarding the victors of the Second World War. In Russia, residents learn that the defeat of Germany was entirely the doing of the Soviet Union. In the West, we get a large helping of Anglo-American triumphalism. In fact, the contributions of both East and West were crucial. Agreed on the sacrifice and success of the Red Army against Germany. However, American Lend-Lease to the Soviets was absolutely indispensable to their success. Without U.S. food, raw materials and equipment, the Soviets may not have been able to turn the tide and roll back the Wehrmacht.
Nothing positive could be said about the Soviets in the 50s. I have read “Action In The North Atlantic” was Bogart’s favorite film. But it caused him to be under scrutiny during the Commie hysteria. In the film, Bogart’s freighter makes it’s way to Murmansk, and shows the Soviets as friends and allies. fwiw, my dad’s older brother was a Merchant Marine officer during the war, and made that run to Murmansk a couple times.
Great Britain’s cowardly and short sighted abandonment of Czechoslovakia in 1938, followed by the secret and now infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, put Europe on a hair trigger towards war. Stalin and Hitler were willing to destroy nations and murder millions of people in pursuit of their parallel and conflicting goals of controlling the grainlands of Poland, Ukraine, and adjacent lands and peoples. Hitler turning his aggression against Russia, dooming so many (the terrifying number of deaths quoted in the records referred to upthread crucially disproportionately include huge Ukrainian rates of death that Stalin never gave a damn about).
The short sighted cupidity, cowardice and fecklessness of Great Britain, France, and the USA populace (FDR was a different matter), combined with Russian/German aggressions, brought on the horrors.
The above statement implies that “Great Britain, France, and the USA populace” should have taken on the role of the world’s police force. The USA did become the world’s police force at Bretton Woods. Was it altruism or self interest? In 1956 the Hungarians kicked out the Russians and were “free” for a few days. My mother being Hungarian and having family in Budapest, I hoped that America would use the window of opportunity to guarantee Hungary’s freedom and independence. These hopes were soon shattered. I have always been grateful to America for saving my mother and me from the Holocaust but in 1956 I realized that America didn’t do it for us but out of self interest. And that is how it is and how it should be. Good deeds are appreciated but they cannot be expected or mandated. It ls still a dog eat dog world and expecting altruism is a pipe dream.
Judaism is the world’s oldest surviving culture, creed, or whatever you want to call it. I think the reason for the longevity is based on realism. A line from The Fiddler on the Roof says it best, “Dear God, I know we are the Chosen People but, once in a while, can’t you choose someone else?”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Jewish comedian, actor, screenwriter, film producer, and director turned president didn’t let the White House bully him. He won!
The Captain
The Fiddler on the Roof was the first play I was going to work on with the amateur Caracas Theater Club but IBM sent me to the boon-docks to install an IBM 1401 at Orinoco Mining, the US Steel subsidiary. Puerto Ordaz was remote and didn’t even have telephone connection with Caracas. It was a fantastic job assignment. I learned a lot.
I saw Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway with my family. When the local high school theatrical group mounted a production of Fiddler I was their consultant, loaned them my ketubah for the wedding scene and made the huppah myself.
My father’s father’s father was born in Odessa (then Russia, now Ukraine). If anyone asks me if I originate in Russia, I answer, “As far as I’m concerned, Russia is a good place to leave.” I’m 100% American – and Russian Jews were never Russian.
Wendy
Yep
Brainwashing & large dose of propaganda in school preparing the male masses for military service. And in 8th grade we were taught how to write a check. Preparation for conspicuous consumption of good little consumers. Sadly calculating compound interest was omitted. Well I suppose that’s is what a “free” state education provides. It is for the state’s benefit. Any benefit for the individual student is an accidental plus.
