Posted on 05/07/2005 4:37:28 PM PDT by Lessismore
MOSCOW, May 7 (RIA Novosti) - The Soviet people not only defended the Motherland from the Nazi aggression, but also liberated 11 European countries during World War II, announced Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday during the opening ceremony of the memorial on the Poklonnaya Hill dedicated to the Victory in the Great Patriotic War.
"During fierce battles on the front that stretched from the Barents Sea to Caucasus, the Soviet Union broke the backbone of the German military machine. It was on the Eastern front where the Nazis suffered three-quarters of their losses," Putin said.
"Courage, resilience and unity of the multi-national people became the major force that destroyed Nazism," Putin stressed.
He said the world has never seen such an example of mass heroism, such a spread of partisan movement, such enthusiasm and effort of workers at the home front that provided the army with all necessary means to defeat the enemy.
"We will always remember and respect the feat of the generation of victors," the Russian President stated.
"They defended our right to live, to preserve our statehood and culture. They defended the future of our children. Their heroic deeds will always serve as a moral model for us," Putin said.
The Russian President concluded his speech with the words, "May the glory of those who perished for the freedom and independence of our Motherland live forever! We bow deeply to the veterans of the Great Patriotic War!"
The new memorial is a gigantic colonnade consisting of 15 bronze steles.
Ten of them represent the feats of Red Army soldiers and officers. Three are dedicated to courage, resilience and heroism of the Navy personnel. One of the steles is dedicated to fearless partisans and members of underground resistance, and the last one - to workers at the home front.
To any old timers: Did the Russians pull this pissing contest stuff about who deserves more credit for destroying the Nazis during the Cold War or is this a new phenomenon?
No one can question the heroism of the Red Army soldiers, and the Russian civilians living on the front lines. They could and did take enormous punishment and would have never dreamed of pulling a 'France'.
That said, the Russians themselves have an old saying that their greatest generals are General Snow and General Mud. The weather destroyed Napolean's Grand Armee, and the German troops, who invaded wearing only summer uniforms found out the hard way about the Russian winter.
"During fierce battles on the front that stretched from the Barents Sea to Caucasus, the Soviet Union broke the backbone of the German military machine. It was on the Eastern front where the Nazis suffered three-quarters of their losses," Putin said.
So what is incorrect in the above statement?
"COURAGE OF THE SOVIET PEOPLE WAS THE MAJOR FORCE THAT DESTROYED NAZISM"
Too bad Stalin replaced Naziism with something just as bad.
No one can question the heroism of the Red Army soldiers, and the Russian civilians living on the front lines.
But didn't General Snow and General Mud equally hamper military operations on the Russian side? The Russians were not immune to the effects of bad weather.
He's still pulling this "liberated" malarky. Is there any serious doubt remaining that Putin never really left the KGB?
Actually the Soviets taught in their schools that the efforts of the other "allies" were minimal in the defeat of Germany. They didn't even teach students that the allies invaded Germany from the West. They told students that Stalin in his maganimity gave them shares in the administration of Germany after the war was over.
I know this because the wifey grew up in the Soviet Union and that is what she was taught.
Just my two cents... but I think victory/defeat had alot to do with how the various combatants used or failed to use those two famous generals strategically.
"the Soviet Union broke the backbone of the German military machine"
and the Lend Lease Program ,
without which the Russians would have never withstood the
early onslaughts of the Wehrmacht
Bad, certainly, but not "just as bad." There were no extermination camps in Communist East Germany bringing trainloads of Jews to the ovens like there was under the Nazis. The Nazis wanted to exterminate all the Jews in Europe as if they were a pest, just like you would insects or rats. East German communists, bad as they were, were never that bad.
Well we had General Motors and General Electric.
By any measure the battle of Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest, arguably the largest single battle in human history. It raged for 199 days. Casualties for the Axis totalled at around 850,000. Among those lost were 400,000 Germans, 200,000 Romanians, 130,000 Italians and 120,000 Hungarians. Soviet military losses totalled at 750,000. More than 40,000 Soviet civilians died in Stalingrad and its suburbs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad
20 Million dead Russians, might as well tell those old widows something nice. After all, if you can't say something nice, Don't say...
And who made it even possible for Russia to fight the Germans? Gee, could it have been the good ol' US of A?
http://www.geocities.com/mark_willey/lend.html
Also don't forget that the Russians were aligned with the Germans early in the war and also with Japan.
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