Posted on 10/25/2008 7:57:11 AM PDT by PotatoHeadMick
Relations between Russia and Germany have not been good since Vladimir Putin's nationalist sabre-rattling this summer, but they are about to get a whole lot worse.
A new film about to be released in Germany will force both countries to re-examine part of their recent history that each would much prefer to forget. Yet it is right that the ghastly truth should finally be acknowledged.
The movie, A Woman In Berlin, is based on the diary of the German journalist Marta Hillers and depicts the horror of the Red Army's capture of the capital of the Third Reich in April and May 1945.
Marta was one of two million German women who were raped by soldiers of the Red Army - in her case, as in so many others, several times over.
It was a feature of Russia's 'liberation' and occupation of eastern Germany at the end of World War II that is familiar enough to historians, but which neither country cares to acknowledge took place on anything like the scale it did.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Welcome to Free Republic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (Russian: Влади́мир Ильи́ч Ле́нин; April 22 [O.S. April 10] 1870 – January 21, 1924), born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Russian: Влади́мир Ильи́ч Улья́нов) and also known by the pseudonyms V.I. Lenin and N. Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, a communist politician, the principal leader of the October Revolution, the first head of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic and, from 1922, the first de facto leader of the Soviet Union. In 1999, he was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.[1] His contributions to Marxist theory are commonly referred to as Leninism.
WOW notice how many names Lenin went by
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin
Your link also has this:
After the 1917 February Revolution in Russia and the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, Lenin realized that he must return to Russia as soon as possible, but this was problematic because he was isolated in neutral Switzerland as the First World War raged throughout neighboring states. The Swiss communist Fritz Platten nonetheless managed to negotiate with the German government for Lenin and his company to travel through Germany by rail, on the so-called “sealed train”. The German government clearly hoped Lenin’s return would create political unrest back in Russia, which would help to end the war on the Eastern front, allowing Germany to concentrate on defeating the Western allies. Once through Germany, Lenin continued by ferry to Sweden; the remainder of the journey through Scandinavia was subsequently arranged by Swedish communists Otto Grimlund and Ture Nerman.
On April 16, 1917, Lenin arrived by train to a tumultuous reception at Finland Station, in Petrograd.[20] He immediately took a leading role within the Bolshevik movement, publishing the April Theses,[21] which called for an uncompromising opposition to the provisional government. Initially, Lenin isolated his party through this lurch to the left. However, this uncompromising stand meant that the Bolsheviks were to become the obvious home for all those who became disillusioned with the provisional government, and with the “luxury of opposition” the Bolsheviks did not have to assume responsibility for any policies implemented by the government.[22]
Meanwhile, Aleksandr Kerensky, Grigory Aleksinsky and other opponents of the Bolsheviks accused them and Lenin in particular of being paid German agents.[23] In response Leon Trotsky, a prominent new Bolshevik leader, made a defensive speech on July 17, saying:
“ An intolerable atmosphere has been created, in which you as well as we are choking. They are throwing dirty accusations at Lenin and Zinoviev. Lenin has fought thirty years for the revolution. I have fought twenty years against the oppression of the people. And we cannot but cherish a hatred for German militarism. … I have been sentenced by a German court to eight months’ imprisonment for my struggle against German militarism. This everybody knows. Let nobody in this hall say that we are hirelings of Germany.[24]
And yet, despite what the politician Trotsky said, the charge was still true -- at least in a sense.
My understanding of the facts is as follows:
Lenin was shipped to Russia by the Germans, and paid by the Germans, to do the Germans' bidding, which was: take Russia out of the war!
First of all, how could this NOT be true?
The Germans had already invested untold sums of money and almost countless German lives in trying to defeat Russia. How could they NOT see the opportunity Lenin represented?
Second, let us just suppose, for sake of argument, that my understanding here is FALSE! Let us just suppose that IT'S NOT TRUE, let's say that LENIN WAS NOT PAID BY THE GERMANS to take Russia out of the war.
Suppose that Lenin provided that service to the Germans FREE OF CHARGE! Would we not then say that the Germans of 1917-1918 had received one of the best bargains of any nation in history?
Would we not say the Germans were "brilliant," to get Lenin to do their bidding WITHOUT PAYING HIM?
But I don't think I am wrong. I think Lenin probably was paid by the Germans, and if I can find you a source (beyond what I remember reading somewhere) for that, I will.
Naturally, Lennin & company would deny it, and we have no proof one way or the other.
But we do have evidence, and here is a curious example indeed:
Note that the author, in 1922, speaks of German General Ludendorf shipping the bacillus of Marxism to Russia, and of receiving payments from the Germans.
An Eyewitness Account of Lenin's Sealed Train
So I'll say again, given the historical context, how could it NOT be true?
"This is Michael Pearson's astonishing book The Sealed Train (1975) which documents Lenin's mysterious journey from Switzerland to Russia where together with his followers (and millions in gold) he was able to start the bloody Bolshevik revolution.
"In March 1917, Lenin was living in Zurich in poverty, the exiled head of a small extremist revolutionary party that had relatively little following even within Russia. Eight months later, he assumed the rule of 160,000,000 people occupying one-sixth of the inhabited surface of the world, something no other conquerer in the history has done before.
"The Sealed Train is the story of those thirty-four fantastic weeks.
"The train itself and the bizarre journey across Germany, then at war with Russia, are a vital and dramatic link in the story. For without the train, Lenin could not have reached St. Petersburg when he did, and if Lenin had not returned to Russia, the history of the world would have been very different.
"It is one of the great ironies of history that without the help of the German Emperor - the archproponent of the imperialist capitalist system that Lenin was dedicated to destroy - Lenin could never have achieved what he did. His establishment of a socialist state, the first stage in what he hoped would be a world Communist system, was made possible only by German cooperation, a German train and the massive German finance that followed it.
"Lenin gained his revolution even if it did not assume the immediate global proportions he expected.
"The Kaiser gained the separate peace he wanted on the Eastern Front so that he could concentrate his forces in France - as well as a side benefit of vast areas of territory that had once formed part of the Tsarist Empire.
"Find out how supposed enemies were in reality secretly cooperating together in order to enslave millions of people and cause untold suffering which later followed. 265 pages. A must read for everyone."
I’ve read that the japs were taught that surrender was not an option, that it was dishonorable, and thus any captives from the other side that they took were dishonorable as well. Then throw in the inherent Japanese racism, and voila, atrocity.
Not German? What a strange argument!
Isn't that a bit like saying a Texan is not American?
Hitler was born to a German speaking family in Austria.
He served in the German Army during the First World War, and was awarded for bravery.
Germans of the 1920s & 1930s considered him German enough to elect him to their parliament.
He became Chancellor of Germany and Leader of the Third German Reich.
In 1938 he annexed Austria, making all Austrian Germans citizens of Germany -- wouldn't that include himself?
In 1941, he lead Germany to invade the Soviet Union.
So, in exactly what sense, pray tell, was Hitler NOT German?
Well one has had the name for around 2000 years and the other for a little over 200. ;~))
LOL
I did not see it mentioned in the article but I wonder if the film will also address the huge number of women who committed suicide after being raped.
But of course! How would you do it?
Invade Russia?
;OD
All of my history classes left this out.
Hitler was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Is that so difficult to understand?
You ought to take a look at the maps. The only "German" territory that went in to Polish hands after the First World War was the very narrow Danzig Corridor that gave Poland access to the Baltic. Germany maintained East Prussia.
95% of pre WWII Poland were Polish speaking lands that were previously part of the Russian Empire before the 1917 Revolution. The Poles fought Lenin's Red Army for their independence in 1919/20 and won.
Europe, 1914
Europe 1939
You need to go back up and look at the context of this little "debate."
In post #99, our pal "Just mythoughts" responds to my factual statement that in 1941 the Germans invaded Russia. "Just mythoughts" responds:
"Hitler was an EVIL lunatic, but he was not German."
Of course he was born in Austria, but in what sense was he not a German who invaded Russia in 1941?
He was then the Fuhrer of ALL GERMANY, which then INCLUDED AUSTRIA.
Indeed, much of what Hitler said & did was all about improving the lot of Germans, in WHICHEVER country they happened to live -- just consider the Sudeten Germans of Czechoslovakia.
If everyone then considered those people Germans, how could Hitler himself NOT be German?
And what sense does a "not German" argument make anyway?
That Germans invaded Russia in 1941 is a simple fact of history, regardless of where Hitler was born.
Do you disagree?
Invade Russia?"
Were you on vacation, while all this excitement is going on? ;-)
Of course, I would not invade anyone!
But the German military mindset in those days was much different.
German generals saw France as a declining power, easily bumped-off, and Russia as a rapidly rising power, which must be reduced soon, before it was too late.
Yes, by standards of today, German behavior in 1914 was totally unacceptable.
But by standards of, say 1814, Germans were entirely rational and justified.
And the Germans themselves in 1914 understood that they could no longer go willy-nilly invading their neighbors, without just cause. It had actually sunk through their skulls that they needed a serious excuse.
And when the Kaiser's best pal, the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand got murdered, German leaders figured they had the best excuse they'd ever get. It was time to make hay!
No, I was just agreeing with you, rather belatedly, but certainly wholeheartedly.
I do find it a bit curious why the only focus appears to be upon the German people and ignoring what the rest of Europe, including Russia were doing as well. My response to you was regarding the getting what was deserved by Stalin's army of rapists....
I was born in Germany, my father was in the US military. There was a German gal that married a man in the US military and she talked about as a young girl hoping it would be the US military, that got to her before the Soviets because of the awareness of just what would be her lot in life.
I also remember Stephen Ambrose's book Citizen Soldier describing the different mentality of US military and Soviet style revenge of raping and destruction during WWII.
I cannot help but recall a certain Senator demanding that legislation of our US military to prevent them for torturing the enemy during war. So I am NOT about to dismiss the brutality of Soviet uncivilized barbarians in their march across Europe.
Would Pan-German work? I’m just trying to keep the historical facts straight. I don’t know if Hitler actually ever sought legal German citizenship or not. Seeing as he enlisted in the German Army, I’d assume either he did or they didn’t care.
Thanks for the pictorial confirmation of my point.
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