[concerned about politics]

Yeah, sure, and Clinton was a righteous man. Tell me another story. Sheesh!

[Democratshavenobrains]

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?

[xJones]

"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.

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.

[OK]

"COURAGE OF THE SOVIET PEOPLE WAS THE MAJOR FORCE THAT DESTROYED NAZISM"

Too bad Stalin replaced Naziism with something just as bad.

[inquest]

...but also liberated 11 European countries during World War II...

He's still pulling this "liberated" malarky. Is there any serious doubt remaining that Putin never really left the KGB?

[injin]

"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

[Malesherbes]

No one should doubt the heroism and sacrifice of the Russian people in fighting the Nazi invaders. The issue is the Stalinist tyranny they brought with them into eastern Europe - and where it was imposed for a half century.

[bnelson44]

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

[Kirkwood]

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.

[Supernatural]

There have been some very interesting stories on the "History Channel" this week on the last days of WW II in the European Theater. The fall of Berlin was especially good.

[montag813]

Putin speaks the truth. If Eisenhower wasn't such a pussy, the Western front could have been over months earlier, saving millions from Soviet tyranny.

[hosepipe]

[ COURAGE OF THE SOVIET PEOPLE WAS THE MAJOR FORCE THAT DESTROYED NAZISM - PUTIN ]

Nyet... BULL Squish..

[montag813]

Putin speaks the truth. If Eisenhower wasn't such a pussy, the Western front could have been over months earlier, saving millions from Soviet tyranny.

[Cicero]

Certainly the war on the eastern front was on a far larger scale than the war in the west, and the Russians suffered huge casualties. They deserve credit for that.

It's not certain if they could have held out without supplies provided by the West via the Murmansk convoys, which were marked by extreme courage on the part of our merchant marine.

I draw the line, however, at that word "liberated." Bush just made a statement in the Balkans, reported on NPR, that the Yalta conference should be held to blame for turning the free people of Eastern Europe over to tyranny, something we should never do again. I don't think Yeltsin will be pleased by Bush's remarks, and I didn't think the snot-nosed NPR commentators were pleased, either.

Methinks Bush understands history better than the liberals do. I was just delighted to hear about these remarks, the first time, I believe, that an American president has ever said anything of that kind about Yalta.

[pepsi_junkie]

This debate about who did more is foolishness. Hitler sealed his fate when he decided to do away with his non-agression pact with Stalin and fight on two fronts. Had he left Russia alone and consolidated his victories in the west, he might have been able to finish off Britain and then the inevitable face off with Russia over the east could happen under far more favorable terms for Germany. Russia needed us as much as we needed them.

[jimfrommaine]

I had a college professor, a Russian, that I believed consulted for the CIA. Anyway he said that the U.S. supplied Russian soilders with about a pound of foodstuffs for everyday of the war. I don't know where he got the information from, but since he was an anti-communist I'll take his word for it. The russians sacrifed their blood to defeat the Nazis. But they didn't operate in a vaccum, without help for the corrupt imperialist powers.

[Little Ray]

Don't think I'd argue the Soviet achievement, but they had commissars and NKVD waiting behind their troops to kill 'em if they didn't advance.
And the Soviets didn't "liberate" anything except the stuff they stole - they put a new and worse set of chains on Eastern Europe.

[rkhampton]

Not so sure that it was all heroism. There's a fairly well know story about an Allied general, who after seeing the Red Army forces in action, turned to Stalin and said, "It must take a brave man to fight in the Red Army." Stalin turned to the general and calmly said, "It takes a brave man to run."

[ExtremeUnction]

The Russian people suffered gravely. Let them have their day. What are we supposed to do about this anyway? This is Russia's celebration, on their soil.

[Eagles6]

Lots of folks seem to forget that we were singlehandedly taking on the japanese with no help from the soviets.