Stalin wanted 20 million dead to give him a bargaining chip.
They lost 100,000 alone in taking Berlin. The Western Allies could have waltzed to Berlin taking a fraction of the casualties.
The Western Allies could have waltzed to Berlin taking a fraction of the casualties.
True because the germans had to fight the Soviets to the death because the alternative was a one way ticket to the Gulag in Siberia. Surrender to the US or Brits meant a hot meal warm cloths and quick repatriation to there families after the war.
Like “waltzing” through the Hurtgen Forest? Or Market-Garden?
Yes, quite true— a bargaining chip for Yalta. There is a true story of the “repatriation” of Russian POWs who included the Ukrainian divisions who fought for the Nazi’s against the Holodomor NKVD run Soviets. The Ukrainians cheered the Nazis coming into liberate the Ukraine—and put on the uniform.
Stalin demanded the POWs be returned, and FDR and Churchill, who knew this included over 100K pro-Nazis (and would have been a formidable anti-Stalin force to make use of post war)- and yet let them across the border— where they were summarily murdered by massed NKVD. The story was researched and written about by a direct descendant of Tolstoy (who is himself a principled conservative UKIP Farage supporter).
Victims of Yalta: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victims_of_Yalta
Count Nikolai Dmitrievich Tolstoy-Miloslavsky:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Tolstoy