Posted on 04/11/2015 5:00:22 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
A central Russian gallery has cancelled the opening of an exhibition of World War Two images by US and British photographers, sparking claims that the event was pulled for political reasons.
[....]
A staff member at the state-run gallery told the BBC that the decision to cancel the exhibition was "political", and said they did not believe it would ever open. They said they had been "ordered" not to comment further.
Gallery manager Raisa Zorina had previously dismissed the official explanation of "technical problems", telling local media "this is very serious" and advising them to "read between the lines".
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
RESET
From Glasnost back to cold (for now) war.
In the west Russia gets little credit for their role in WWII.
That said, this whole Cold War thing is stupid. The Russian economy could not support a war against NATO.
And withholding pictures? Ooooohhh. Scary museum!
Putin is a petty tyrant like Obastard.
Yagottabekiddingme!!!
US aid (not to mention that from the British Empire) to Russia amounted to the equivalent of ONE THIRD of their pre-war GDP.
Have YOU ever seen pictures of the HALF-MILLION US-made jeeps and trucks used by the reds??
Betcha the Russians haven’t either, and the Commies intend to keep it that way.
“In the west Russia gets little credit for their role in WWII.”
If you mean “Russia gets little credit for their role in WWII” as an ally of Hitler’s NAZI Germany and co-conspirator in launching WWII against Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bessarabia, and Bukovina; you are correct.
If you mean “Russia gets little credit for their role in WWII” as a member of the Allies, you are incorrect. Western media gives Russia extensive credit for its role in WWII, and arguably much more credit than Russia earned.
If the Russians hadn’t spent millions of lives, we never would have beaten Hitler.
It doesn’t mean I am a commie for God’s sake.
Sometimes the ignorance around here is staggering.
How many Russians died at Stalingrad or Kiev?
American would not have tolerated those losses.
And how long would it have taken us to march across Europe if the German troops killed in Stalingrade had been on the western front.
I am not saying the Russians “won the war” but it certainly would have been a different affair had they been turned to our side.
“If the Russians hadn’t spent millions of lives, we never would have beaten Hitler.”
That’s nonsense. Hitler and NAZI Germany were destined to be defeated by the Western Allies in 1945-1946 with or without the Soviet Union and with or without the atomic bomb. The strategies would had to have been different, but the outcome was certain to be the same with the collapse of Germany’s defenses.
“It doesn’t mean I am a commie for God’s sake.”
No, of course not, but you have made an uncritical acceptance of the Russian propaganda circulating in the Western media. If you investigate the details you find the oft repeated claim simply doesn’t hold up.
“Sometimes the ignorance around here is staggering.”
That is true, and your uncritical acceptance of the so oft repeated claim of the Soviet participation being indispensable arguably qualifies as such.
You talk in hypotheticals.
I talk in reality.
Look up American deaths, wounded and missing. Then look at the other allies.
Then tell me the Russian “contribution” was not significant.
You talk in hypotheticals.
Rusiian Military Deaths: 8,700,000 on the low end.
US and UK military deaths: about 800,000
Now tell me they did not contribute.
“Any “knowlegable” WWII historian knows that, while Stalin was personally an evil SOB, he did lead (or order at the point of a bayonet) some ten million Russian soldiers to their death to defeat Hitler on the Eastern Front.”
The Soviets incurred something on the order of 9.5 million military dead on their Western front, 3 million POW deaths, and another 2 million military dead on their Far Eastern front, totaling about 14.5 million military deaths. In return they inflicted a small fraction of the Soviet casualties in German military dead, wounded, and captured. Depending upon the German and non-German sources used, the Russians inflicted somewhere between about 1.1 million to somewhere over 2 million military dead upon the Germans. With this rate of exchange the Soviet Union was basically committing suicide to little purpose, until the United States brought its forces against the Third Reich. Using a fraction of the military personnel and incurring less than 150,000 U.S. military deaths in the ETO, the United States and its Western allies inflicted more killed, wounded, and captured casualties than the Soviet Union did. Furthermore, the U.S. inflicted a major fraction of those casualties upon the German military in only about 2.5 years, whereas the Soviet Union required four years to reach its score of German casualties. Consequently, by reason of casualties and an extensive assortment of other measures, the Soviet Union and Russians tended to be highly ineffective at inflicting casualties with British and U.S. assistance to keep them in the fight. Without British and U.S. assistance, Moscow would have fallen in 1941 and Russia would have surrendered by the time the first U.S. 8th Air Force bomber squadrons began flying combat missions out of England. Yes, Russia sacrificed a terrible toll in lives, but their role contributed little that the Western allies proved capable of doing twice as fast with a tiny fraction of the casualties while inflicting a far greater toll of casualties and material losses upon the German military.
“Rusiian Military Deaths: 8,700,000 on the low end.
US and UK military deaths: about 800,000”
Soviets suffered more on the order of 14.5 million military deaths.
“Now tell me they did not contribute.”
The subject was not whether or not the Russians contributed to winning WWII against Germany, Italy, and the rest of the Axis. The subject was whether or not the West gives credit to the Russians for contributing to the Allied victory over Germany. My answer was, yes, the West gives Russia such credit and perhaps more credit than Russia earned. In other words, you don’t earn credit for suffering 14.5 million military deaths and vastly more other casualties while failing to inflict more than a tenth of such casualties upon the Germans. Greater credit goes to those military forces who inflicted equal and greater casualties upon the enemy while defeating the enemy’s defenses in a fraction of the time and with a very small fraction of the casualties. it’s like Patton said, you want to make the other SOB die for his country rather than you die for your country without accomplishing a thing.
The Russians were also persuaded at Yalta to renounce their neutrality agreement with Japan, which they did in April 1945. This saved Allied lives by speeding up the Japanese surrender and capitulation.
“The Russians were also persuaded at Yalta to renounce their neutrality agreement with Japan, which they did in April 1945. This saved Allied lives by speeding up the Japanese surrender and capitulation.”
In the end, the bombing of Nagasaki compelled Emperor Hirohito to order his government to surrender whether or not Russia entered the war against Japan. So, the Russian war upon Japan saved little or no American lives, but it did set the stage for the Russians to take a large number of American lives when they planned and staged the Korean War only five years later with the participation of the Soviet air forces, air defense forces, intelligence groups, and assorted other Soviet units.
The Russians also imprisoned and liquidated the lives of more than about 36,000 British Commonwealth and about 24,000 American POWs taken into Soviet custody in the German POW camps in 1945.
I would suggest that if you went onto to the street of any US city and asked people, there would be complete ignorance. Yes, students of history would get it, but not the average joe.
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