BERLIN REPORTS RECAPTURE OF KHARKOV; CAPITAL AGREED ON POST-WAR PLANS (3/15/43)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 3/15/43 | Ralph Parker, W.H. Lawrence, Ray Brock

[Jimmy Valentine]

I thank the Lord that we did not experience what the Russians did. Had we lost 20 million soldiers/civilians killed I am not sure we would have recovered.

My sense is that Russian demographics are so bad today due to the fact that they lost so many people during the war.

[donmeaker]

No doubt. For Stalin they had to invent a new term: democide.

Genocide was too restrictive.

My limited understanding is that Stalin had more killed, but Hitler killed at a higher rate, but for a shorter duration. Hitler had a particular habit of attacking and invading his allies.

[donmeaker]

Russian demographics are bad today because of low birth rate.

70 years ago is a long time.

That does not reduce the shocking numbers: 20 million dead from the Great Terror, 35 million from the Soviet side in WWII.

[donmeaker]

I have an interesting book that I recommend for specialists:

” Slaughterhouse: The Handbook of the Eastern Front”

by David Glantz

It is not an easy read, but has great information. Glantz had significant access to the Soviet archives, which he compares favorably to German military archives. He notes that every event has separate reports from command and commissar channels, so there are usually multiple views of major events.

[henkster]

I have the following Glantz books in my library:

When Titans Clashed
Stumbling Colossus
Colossus Reborn
Zhukov’s Greatest Defeat
Stalingrad Trilogy
Smolensk Vol. 1
Red Storm Over the Balkans

There may be a couple others; that’s just off the top of my head.

[donmeaker]

Good set! After reading Glantz we get an appreciation of the price paid by Soviets, and the paranoia (PTSD) suffered by soviet leaders from that price.