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Sent home but never arrived... Of course, those Russian officers deserved their fates. So did those wealthy peasants, capitalists and pesky intelligentsia.
The anti soviet spies within the USSR were created by Stalin's purges. Not everyone was willing to accept his tyranny. Of course, like anyone against him at the time, they were described as created by Germans not as a natural response to Stalinism. All the people in Europe from France to western Russia who answered the call to fight communism were conveniently labeled fascists, because some of them were.
Funny how even today there are many Stalin apologists who reject the deStalinization program. They probably think Beria was a good guy too. Nevermind that it was they and not the Germans who introduced gas vans as a means of controlling through terror. If not for them murdering millions of Russians in the late 30s, they would have not won the war by sending another 20 million to grind down the Nazis as fodder.
Stalin murdered at least 30% of the military officers during one of his purges. Without help from the UK & America, via the polar convoys, Germany would have crushed Russia. Stalin was woefully unprepared for Germanys attack, a huge shortage of weapons and even uniforms and boots cost the Russian people millions of lives.
It cost the allies lives too, supplying Russia with armaments and food via the polar convoys, meant that between 1941/45, 87 merchant ships and 18 Royal Navy vessels were sunk with the loss of over 3,000 lives.
There wasn't a huge shortage of weapons but certainly a shortage of modern ones. By sacrificing the western side of the USSR, Stalin bought the time and energy he needed to let his incompetence be made up for by Russian tenacity. They would have one without the convoys but it would have been even more destroyed than it was. Belarus still hasn't recovered...
Belarus reached population levels of pre WWII levels in 1971. Last time I was there the country was doing pretty well, my ex wife has family in Orsha and Gomel. It's not as vibrant as Western Europe or as rich but it's stable and people people are able to live good lives. I really don't know how to explain the contrasts. The problems Belarus has seems to stem from forces outside the country trying to impose certain agendas regardless of the consequences.
Here's a video by a youtuber that explains a lot about Stalins order 277. Not one step back. He goes into detail about the distortions and outright lies you find all over the place about it.
I've read a lot about Gergori Chuikov. I like the guy, he was often in his staff car out in front of his advancing troops. Just short of the Vistula one morning he set up his cp in a house and about 30 minutes later some Russian troops come out of the woods across the field. He asked them what unit they were with, they said they were the recon of one of his advancing lead divisions. The Soviets had many excellent generals, Rybalko and Bogdanov were some others.
I know, but he was claiming that Kazakhstan's oil development was thanks to Russians. Completely not true. I was only responding to yet another false claim, he's like Chekhov in Star Trek. This stereoptype of Russians claiming they invented everything exists due to brainwashing them in school that Russia is responsible for many great things in the world which they actually did not do.
Let's try one more time;
"Although Kazakhstan became an oil producer in 1911, its production did not increase to a meaningful level until the 1960s and 1970s, when production plateaued at nearly 500,000 barrels a day , a pre-Soviet independence record production level. Since the mid-1990s and with the help of major international oil companies, Kazakhstan's production first exceeded 1 million barrels a day in 2003.<>"
Stalin murdered at least 30% of the military officers during one of his purges. Without help from the UK & America, via the polar convoys, Germany would have crushed Russia. Stalin was woefully unprepared for Germanys attack, a huge shortage of weapons and even uniforms and boots cost the Russian people millions of lives.
It cost the allies lives too, supplying Russia with armaments and food via the polar convoys, meant that between 1941/45, 87 merchant ships and 18 Royal Navy vessels were sunk with the loss of over 3,000 lives.
One more time, slowly.
Stalin industrialized the country; without this speedy and timely industrialization Russia wouldn't have had a chance to defend herself during the WWII.
You like to repeat a MYTH, that Russia was saved by the Lend-Lease, but it's simply not true. Lend-Lease was ADDITIONAL help to Russia, ON TOP of her own industrial production. And without her own ability to produce the armament, NO Lend-Lease would have mattered.
Here it is, from the older thread ( where this subject has been discussed earlier.)
"80% of the Lend-Lease supplies went to the UK and only 20% went to the USSR. And the vast majority of the small amount of Lend-Lease aid that did go to the Russians, was received after Stalingrad and Kursk were settled with the Germans defeated...And those two conflicts are considered the decisive point for when the Germans were in full retreat and on their way to defeat, especially Kursk. Kursk was a nail in the coffin after Germany lost at Stalingrad, and Kursk was over long before "D-Day"."
P.S. Now regarding Stalin's paranoia and his purges - I suspect that it had a lot to do with his suspicion of insubordination from *secret followers of Trotsky* and may be even dormant *monarchists* - god knows, since it was not all that far away from the recent civil war.
The first convoys arrived in Archangelsk and Murmansk starting in September 1941 Erasure. During the battles around Kalinin in 1941, 1942 the Soviets tried to use the Matildas and Valentine tanks they were given. It was winter and since the treads of the British tanks did not have grousers (cleats) they were all but worthless. They could not maneuver on the icey roads and most of them had to be used as pill boxes while others were simply abandoned. The 2 pounder guns on the tanks were worthless against German tanks and did not fire any HE rounds making it all but worthless against personnel to boot.
Keep in mind 4 million tons of LL goods came through Iran and over 8 million came through Russias East. Coming from the East by ship and rail was only "commercial" goods by agreement with Japan. For whatever reason. Raw materials such as bauxite and aluminum helped Russia immensely. The engine of the T-34 was aluminum. Aircraft were aluminum. Russia could not have built what they had as fast as they did without a lot of raw materials shipped in.
The first convoys arrived in Archangelsk and Murmansk starting in September 1941 Erasure. During the battles around Kalinin in 1941, 1942 the Soviets tried to use the Matildas and Valentine tanks they were given. It was winter and since the treads of the British tanks did not have grousers (cleats) they were all but worthless. They could not maneuver on the icey roads and most of them had to be used as pill boxes while others were simply abandoned. The 2 pounder guns on the tanks were worthless against German tanks and did not fire any HE rounds making it all but worthless against personnel to boot.
Keep in mind 4 million tons of LL goods came through Iran and over 8 million came through Russias East. Coming from the East by ship and rail was only "commercial" goods by agreement with Japan. For whatever reason. Raw materials such as bauxite and aluminum helped Russia immensely. The engine of the T-34 was aluminum. Aircraft were aluminum. Russia could not have built what they had as fast as they did without a lot of raw materials shipped in.
I don't remember all the dates and numbers of course - that's why I left a link to that thread; it has a break-down of everything what was supplied, how much and when. ( And speaking of raw materials - this is bringing a point across yet again - what good would they do, if the production process was not in place?)
What I do remember however, is that the novel of V. Pikul
"Requiem for Convoy PQ-17" was one of the most moving books I've read in my childhood. ( I think I cried when I was reading it, because the characters of that book came across so alive, so real )
This is the description of the tragic events in the WIKI;
"Although Kazakhstan became an oil producer in 1911, its production did not increase to a meaningful level until the 1960s and 1970s, when production plateaued at nearly 500,000 barrels a day , a pre-Soviet independence record production level. Since the mid-1990s and with the help of major international oil companies, Kazakhstan's production first exceeded 1 million barrels a day in 2003.<>"
You are again responding to an argument I did not make. Its called a Straw Man. Depending on my mood, I may not take the time to explain it to you...but I Kazakhstan's current oil infrastructure is not from Russians. I'm glad they used to pump oil 50 years ago thanks to "Russians"
Forgive me for assuming you resemble the dead war criminal in your profile.
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