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Originally posted by Russian soldier
I will Die for Russia!!!!!!!!!!!
Do you think its easy when your country gets devided? Imagine if in 1991 USA broke up into 50 countries?
The impressive production of weapons was achieved by turning the whole of the remaining Soviet area into what Stalin called 'a single armed camp', focusing all efforts on military production and extorting maximum labor from a workforce whose only guarantee of food was to turn up at the factory and work the arduous 12-hour shifts. Without Lend-Lease aid, however, from the United States and Britain, both of whom supplied a high proportion of food and raw materials for the Soviet war effort, the high output of weapons would still not have been possible.
The chief explanation lies not in resources, which Germany was more generously supplied with than the Soviet Union, during the two central years of the war before American and British economic power was fully exerted. It lies instead in the remarkable reform of the Red Army and the Russian air force, undertaken slowly in 1942.
Introduction
In his prison cell at Nuremberg, Hitler's foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, wrote a brief memoir in the course of which he explored the reasons for Germany's defeat.
He picked out three factors that he thought were critical:
the unexpected 'power of resistance' of the Red Army; the vast supply of American armaments; and the success of Allied air power.
This last was Hitler's explanation too.
Yet within a year Soviet factories were out-producing their richly-endowed German counterparts - the Red Army had embarked on a thorough transformation of the technical and organizational base of Soviet forces, and a stiffening of morale, from Stalin downwards, produced the first serious reverse for the German armed forces when Operation Uranus in November 1942 led to the encirclement of Stalingrad and the loss of the German Sixth Army.
The transformation in Soviet fighting power and morale has a number of explanations.
In the first place the Red Army learned a great deal from German practice and from their own mistakes.
The air and tank armies were reorganized to mimic the German Panzer divisions and air fleets; communication and intelligence were vastly improved (helped by a huge supply of American and British telephone equipment and cable); training for officers and men was designed to encourage greater initiative; and the technology available was hastily modernised to match German.
Two other changes proved vital . First, Soviet industry and workforce proved remarkable adaptable for a command economy long regarded as inherently inefficient and inflexible.
pre-war experience of economic planning and mobilisation helped the regime to run a war economy on an emergency basis, while the vast exodus of workers (an estimated 16 million) and factories (more than 2,500 major plants) from in front of the advancing Germans allowed the USSR to reconstruct its armaments economy in central and eastern Russia with great rapidity
The southern attack failed at Stalingrad. After weeks of chaotic retreats and easy German victories, the Red Army solidified its defense and against all the odds clung on to the battered city. In November 1942 Operation Uranus was launched by the Soviets, and the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad was encircled.
Some historians have seen this as the turning point of the war. But not until the Red Army had decisively defeated German forces in the more favourable summer weather of 1943 did the tide really turn.
The Battle of Kursk in July 1943 was one of the greatest set-piece battles in military history. The Red Army withstood a massive German assault, and then counter-attacked. For two years Soviet forces pushed the German army back into Germany, until in May 1945 Soviet forces accepted the surrender of the relic of Hitler's army in Berlin.
The second factor lay with politics. Until the summer of 1942 Stalin and the Party closely controlled the Red Army. Political commissars worked directly alongside senior officers and reported straight back to the Kremlin. Stalin came to realise that political control was a dead hand on the army and cut it back sharply in the autumn of 1942.
He created a deputy supreme commander under him, the talented Marshal Zhukov, and began to step back more from the day-to- day conduct of the war. Given the freedom to work out their own salvation, the Soviet General Staff demonstrated that they could match the Germans on the battlefield. Not until the later stages of the war did Stalin begin to reimpose control, when victory was at last in sight.
Turnaround
The central question of the German-Soviet war is why, after two years of defeats, and the loss of more than five million men and two-thirds of the industrial capacity of the country, the Red Army was able to blunt, then drive back, the German attack.
The impressive production of weapons was achieved by turning the whole of the remaining Soviet area into what Stalin called 'a single armed camp', focusing all efforts on military production and extorting maximum labour from a workforce whose only guarantee of food was to turn up at the factory and work the arduous 12-hour shifts.
Every area of Soviet military life was examined and changes introduced. The army established the equivalent of the heavily armoured German Panzer divisions, and tank units were better organised - thanks to the introduction of radios. Soviet army tactics and intelligence-gathering were also overhauled.
Camouflage, surprise and misinformation were brilliantly exploited to keep the German army in the dark about major Soviet intentions. The air force was subjected to effective central control and improved communications, so that it could support the Soviet army in the same way as the Luftwaffe backed up German forces.
…….US and the Brits helped us so did we …….If you say without US help soviets have lost …then I ll say if the Soviets haven’t retaliated the then the Germans would have easily defeated the Brits and with the help of the Japs would have fu..ed the yanks
As for others who are educated : the GLORY THAT THE RED ARMY INHERITS IS HIGHER THAN ANY (i repeat ANY) ARMY in this world.......
[...]
The Red Army deserves the glory of saving the humanity from Nazism..and that glory is more than enough to cover all these half-educated propagandas by the Western Media (Hungary, Baltics, Beslan and Chechnia )
Originally posted by Russian soldier
I will Die for Russia!!!!!!!!!!! I am not afraid of death, but rather dying before I accomplish my task. My task is to defend Russia! I don't care how tough any country is, but I will fight to the death.
... I am sad that only 2 people have said in favor of Russia in this thread besides me. For me Russia always is and always was the greatest. Nothing anyone will say will change it.
1 Soviet Union Won not only due to US aid but mainly due to the reforms that were bought in the army: a war technology was improved and updated
Originally posted by prelude
Since there are a lot of topics to counter claim and sine I don’t have much time I ll replying to all/most of your claims your in one post
Claim 1 Soviets wont have won without US Aid
Claim 2 WW2 wasn’t only a Russian achievement but a combined achievement
WW2 was my topic and I have read views of 10 historians regarding the great patriotic war 2 of them were communist 3 liberal 3 capitalist and the rest had their own views …all of them differed in opinion but not a single did support your opinion ie “”””””Soviets wont have won without US Aid”””””””””
Following are my arguments against your claim
3 These aids were given as “Lend-Lease aid” USSR returned them with full interest …
4 the Trucks that ur speaking of was given to soviet union during the End stages of the war (1945) when the USSR has already defeated Germany and was approaching towards Berlin ….so they played no role as far as protecting our country was involved
Needless to say that the WW2 wasn’t won by a single party be it the British or the US or The USSR each of them helped the other in various way …but ur claims like USSR wont have been to do it without US aid contradicts the view of most historians
…….US and the Brits helped us so did we …….If you say without US help soviets have lost …then I ll say if the Soviets haven’t retaliated the then the Germans would have easily defeated the Brits and with the help of the Japs would have fu..ed the yanks
Moreover Stalin Himself thanked the US officially for their help.
Originally posted by Venoaris
people, like i say, not all russians are as rude and childish as this one, please dont think all of us the same, thank you.
-Vladimir
Originally posted by ch1le
Your country gets divided? YOUR COUNTRY? Those bits and pieces were INVADED territories thank you very much, sure, i can imagine USA breaking up IF different states had different history (drastically different) and a different language - very different a whole other group actually......!
That is the SILLIEST Example ever, sorry, but its just utter bull# that I can't stand.
If the German could have matched your manpower, they wouldn't have been stopped at all. They would have steamrollered over teh pittiful Red Army.
Originally posted by Russian soldier
The winter did not win the Germans, the Russians did. Just a reminder.
posted by xmotex
Critics say, “If the Germans could have matched Soviet manpower, they would not have been stopped at Stalingrad or Leningrad . . They would have steamrollered over the Red Army.”
The myth of the invincible Nazi Ubermenschen rears its ugly head. I think the Germans could not have beaten Russia under any circumstances. [Despite initial German successes, Voltaire’s Rule prevailed; in the end, God was indeed and once again, on the side of the largest battalions. DW]
In many parts of the Soviet Union, especially the Ukraine, the population was tired of Moscow’s rule and were prepared to see the Germans as liberators. The brutal SS implementation of Hitler’s “Liebestraum” plan to depopulate the Ukraine breadbasket and turn it over to German farmers, put a quick end to any potential Ukranian collaboration.
US aid was a great help to the Russians. I wouldn't say it made the difference between victory and defeat. The fact is, the Soviet Union was simply too big a meal for the German Reich to absorb.
I don't think WW2 could have ended any way other than it did. The Axis countries had stunning initial successes against their unprepared foes, but exceeded their own reach. Driven by fanatical ideologies that made them overconfident and blind to their own weaknesses and unwilling to exploit the conquered territories portended defeat in the end. That is the legacy of fascism. [Edited and bowdlerized by Don W]
posted by ignorant_ape
posted by Russian soldier
The winter did not win over the Germans, the Russians did. Just a reminder . .
Then why is "General Winter" cited as a key factor in the reversal of fortunes of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union? All credible historians including Soviet official records and now Russian scholarship agree without the winter and the mud, the Soviets would not have prevailed in the early months of 1942.
No disrespect intended to the Siberian divisions [who made the first sucessfull counter attacks] - but they were not elite troops. Their strength was they could fight at or near 100% efficiency in the Russian winter whilst the Nazis could not. If the Siberians had faced the Nazis in August 1941, they would have been swept aside. APE OUT [Edited and bowdlerized by Don W]
The Red Army was far from glorious, they raped and pillaged their way half way across Europe, just the Nazi's actions in Russia reversed. Remember the 3 days at Demmin, the Red Army acted like the wild monkeys they were.
posted by dax 13
The Russians are superior in every way but economically to the US. And I say this not as a Russian, because I'm not, but as someone that has an open mind about these sort of things. I am Mexican and have a clear understanding of World History. Sure the US has a lot of money and people here live well, Nuclear weapons aside, The Red Army - because it did not die with communism - will always be superior to The US.
Someone tell me where the best scientists in the US are from? Most are foreigners. This is because Americans are lazy. I am tired of watching tv feeding the people of this country lies. "The FA-22 Raptor is the best plane in the world." This is false. The MiG is the better fighter. But understand, this is not because Americans are not capable of building better weapons its just that we would rather watch American Idol than spend an hour a day reading a book.
[Edited by Don W]