My wife’s grandfather was Red Army all the way from the Volga to Berlin. Her other grandfather was captured by the Germans in Sevastopol. While Ukraine had its Vlasov and Bandera and others who went to the German side even the Russians had those who went to the German side and today there are many skinheads in Russia who scream such things as “Russia for Russians”.
My wife believes in honoring those who fought against the Germans even though her family suffered under Stalin with some sent to the gulag at Solovki near the Arctic Circle. Many in the Red Army had mixed feelings such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn who served the Red Army faithfully in spite of his cynicism toward Russia’s supreme commander.
“My wife believes in honoring those who fought against the Germans”
And she is right.
The heroism of the Red Army military is indisputable.
They had millions of casualties, but won.
They fought like lions.
Even women fought on the front.
Maj. Lyudmila M. Pavlichenko was the top-scoring woman sniper of all time, with 309 confirmed kills, of which 36 were enemy snipers. Wounded in June 1942, she was pulled out of combat and sent on a tour of the U.S., Canada, and Great Britain, becoming the first Soviet citizen welcomed at the White House by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Woody Guthrie even wrote her a song.