Posted on 06/15/2018 5:55:32 AM PDT by C19fan
Beginning in 1936, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin set about deliberately murdering 700,000 people in the Great Purge, an act of mass killing that “constituted a form of rule” unto itself, as Stalin biographer Stephen Kotkin explained.
The armed forces were not spared. The purges swept through the officer corps, including 154 division commanders — of 186 in total — and resulted in the NKVD executions of several of the country’s most innovative and senior military thinkers, including Mikhail Tukhachevsky who was forced into signing a confession under torture before his murder. Thousands of officers were executed.
(Excerpt) Read more at warisboring.com ...
Everyone in Stalin’s USSR had a close call with Stalin’s killers. Even the killers themselves were not always lucky.
Stalin’s USSR was where the term “politically correct” originated, and even the most politically correct didn’t always survive the inquisitions. Many of our modern Leftists would take us down the same path given the chance.
> Everyone in Stalin’s USSR had a close call with Stalin’s killers. <
Yep. I read about one show trial where the defendants were charged with treason. They were all shot after being convicted by a panel of judges. Most of those judges were later shot for treason.
When you consider what he did, and that in less than four years...they had to face off the Nazi invasion, it was a miracle that the Soviet Army didn’t fall apart.
Also, the Purge of the Armed Forces went a long way toward helping the German success in Operation Barbarossa. Although some of the higher level commanders were an old guard for whom modern warfare would have been baffling, the real negative effects were down at the divisional and regimental ranks. Officers were being promoted above their levels of experience and competence. Also, because of a fear of doing something wrong, they would not exercise any initiative. He wound up with an officer corps that wouldn’t pee if their pants were on fire without a written order.
This was exacerbated by a simultaneous rapid expansion of the armed forces. For most of the 1930s, the Red Army maintained a stable force structure of about 1.5 million men. Knowing that war was inevitable, Stalin ordered the Red Army expanded to 5 million men. That meant fewer officers to command more units. Instead of being promoted one or two levels over their ability, Soviet officers were being promoted two or three levels. Further, there were not enough trained officers to adequately fill the important staff billets.
Add to this that the large forces were not well trained or equipped and lacked the logistical support structure necessary for a modern army. Their equipment, particulary tanks, was old and obsolete. Only a few of the new T-34s had been delivered at the time of the German invastion. Also, the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland in 1939 deployed the Red Army forward away from their existing fortified regions on the previous border, and into a new country where they had no installations, and the local populace was less than thrilled to have them there.
It was all a recipe for disaster, which is what happened. There was one benefit from the rapid expansion, though. Under Chief of Staff Boris Shaposhnikov, the army created administrative machinery geared towards quickly mobilizing and inducting large numbers of men. This machinery allowed the USSR to conjure up new armies faster than the Germans could destroy them. They may have been poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly led, but they were willing to fight and die, and the Germans had to deal with them.
In the end, that’s probably what saved the USSR, despite the disadvantages they had under Stalin’s policies.
As I understand it, Stalin’s main executioner, Beria, when it became his turn, went to his own murder believing it was for the best - to advance Communism. That’s commitment, if true.
The NKVD (People's Committee for Internal Affairs) chairman at the start of the purge was Genrikh Yagoda, who was arrested and executed. The same thing happened to his successor Nikolai Yezhov. His successor, Lavrenti Beria, survived Stalin only to be executed by Stalin's successors in 1953.
“but they were willing to fight and die,”
They would die whether they fought or not.
Add to this the Political Officers assigned to every command that had more authority than the military commanders. Those generals were afraid to make mistakes such as withdrawing a few miles to a better defensive position because the Political Officer would order an attack that usually ended in disaster for the soldiers and the commander who was blamed for the debacle. When this was done on a “Front” (Army Group) level, the Red Army would lose hundreds of thousands of soldiers in one battle because the party apparachiks blindly attached to party doctrine interfered with sound military strategy.
It was all a recipe for disaster, which is what happened. There was one benefit from the rapid expansion, though. Under Chief of Staff Boris Shaposhnikov, the army created administrative machinery geared towards quickly mobilizing and inducting large numbers of men. This machinery allowed the USSR to conjure up new armies faster than the Germans could destroy them. They may have been poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly led, but they were willing to fight and die, and the Germans had to deal with them.
In the end, that’s probably what saved the USSR, despite the disadvantages they had under Stalin’s policies.
Exactly correct. Stalin was one of the worst disasters ever to befall Russia and its empire. A sucessful conquest by the NAZIs would have been worse, but that is the best you can say.
“in less than four years...they had to face off the Nazi invasion, it was a miracle that the Soviet Army didn’t fall apart.” .................................... LOL, that’s because their production of Vodka probably was greater than their production of armaments. Georgi was getting to be too popular with the masses, Comrade Stalin apparently was afraid of losing his position. Lots of iffy history out there.
I heard that Beria cried like a baby and begged for his life. Well, that’s what Zhukov said anyway.
During the war, we sent a high ranking military group on a diplomatic mission to Moscow. During the state dinner, Admiral Ernest J. King made a toast to the "heroic fighting qualities of the Red Army." Stalin replied "it takes a brave man to not be a hero in the Red Army."
Well he might have been right ironically.
Other came closer the Zhukov. Future MSU Konstantin Rokossovsky was arrested by the NKVD on charges of treason. Rokossovsky refused to sign a confession and was tortured. At his trial, he said he would sign the confession if the Court would produce the man making the accusations. The NKVD found out the “accuser” had actually died in 1922. Rokossovsky was sentenced to 10 years for anti-Soviet activities anyway. When the Soviet Army was expanding just before the war, Rokossovsky was released from prison and returned to active duty. One of the first things he did when he returned to duty was have a new set of teeth made to replace those knocked out by NKVD interrogators.
There's an argument to be made that Stalin was building toward a 1942 invasion of Germany and had plenty of tanks and planes, just more oriented toward offense than defense.
Stalin had 6000 tanks running on rubber tires with amphibious capability. Useless on the fields of Russia as few paved roads, but great for the German autobahn and an advance into France. They had to be abandoned when Germany attacked.
Georgy Zhukov was a brutal commander. Russian troops were shot by their own if they retreated or were sent on suicide missions. Explains the 20 million killed. Most by the Russians themselves.
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