Although the Soviet Union reportedly lost over 25 million citizens in World War II, most Americans are unaware of the brutal fighting that occurred between the Soviets and Germans in the heart of the USSR. The NY Times has an interesting article about the opening of the Russian State Archives and some of the history that has come to light since researchers have been able to access Soviet documents:
[NOTE: These are excerpts from a NY Times article. I did not write them (although I wish I did, and someday perhaps I will). I am merely including them because I think they make some very important points about the Soviet effort in WWII.]
…military historians have always known that the main scene of the Nazis’ downfall was the Eastern Front, which claimed 80 percent of all German military casualties in the war.
The four-year conflict between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army remains the largest and possibly the most ferocious ever fought. The armies struggled over vast territory. The front extended 1,900 miles (greater than the distance from the northern border of Maine to the southern tip of Florida), and German troops advanced over 1,000 miles into Soviet territory (equivalent to the distance from the East Coast to Topeka, Kan.). And they clashed in a seemingly unrelenting series of military operations of unparalleled scale; the battle of Kursk alone, for instance, involved 3.5 million men.
In short, the war fought on the Eastern Front is arguably the single most important chapter in modern military history, but it is a chapter that in many essential ways is only now being written. From evidence released from Soviet archives since the mid-1980′s, scholars have learned, for example, that Soviet deaths numbered nearly 50 million, two and half times the original estimate; that the Red Army raped two million German women during their occupation to wreak revenge; and that an astonishing 40 percent of Soviet wartime battles were for decades lost to history.
[....]
Military historians like Williamson Murray, professor emeritus at Ohio State University and a defense consultant in Washington, hold that the Soviets probably documented their war more fully than any other of the combatant states. Yet the war on the Eastern Front is still obscure, largely because of the cold war. During that period, the U.S.S.R.’s immense archives concerning the conflict were essentially closed to Western scholars. At the same time, the decisive impact of America’s erstwhile ally was often deliberately underplayed in the West for political reasons.
[...]
…the Soviets’ brilliant use of encirclement and what they called “deep battle”, extremely rapid, far-reaching advances behind the enemy’s front lines, constituted the most innovative and devastating display of “operational art” in World War II. Soviet operations from the summer of 1944 to the winter of 1945, they conclude, were far superior to those of the German Army at its best.
One of the more surprising statements:
….specialists in the field say that what may turn out to be a bigger problem is the dearth of Russian military historians in the West who can take advantage of the documentary material already available…
Send me! Send me! Send me!!!!!!! I would love to get my hands on those documents…I should probably start brushing up on my Russian, though.
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From Anonymous:
A pertinent reminder of the sacrifices that the Russian people made and a useful point about how the west underplayed the scale of the Soviet battle losses. However, I thought the comment about the rapes by the Russian troops incongurous. Of course, it is important to mention it but not in the same breath as “Russia lost 50 million dead”. Besides, we don’t hear a great deal about how the friendly old Whermarcht treated the unfortunate Russian women in 1941…But then again, it’s probably all too horrific for us lucky 21st century, well fed un-mortared, non-conscripted chaps and chapettes to ever full understand. Interesting site – thanks!
Dr. Steve Brown
Head of History and Philosophy
T.V.University
UK
From Komsan Duke:
I agree, the Russians made a lot of sacrifices and we owe it all to them in the war. Without them Hitler could have used all the troops on the Eastern front to invade Britain. If that had happened, Hitler would probably have got hold of the important documents giving information on how to build a nuclear bomb. This would have meant Hitler could have built the first atomic bomb and who knows what would have happened if that occured. I think the rape of the German women by the Red Army is not wrong. Think of how many Russians died at the hands of the Wehrmacht. The pain and suffering of the people of Leningrad. The Russians fought bravely in the war. The longest battle of the war was on Russian soil, the longest siege of the war was on Russian soil and the largest ever tank battle was on Russian soil. Kursk, Leningrad and Stalingrad.
Komsan Duke
aged 14 (October 2004)
Tiffin boys school
UK
From Vasili Borodin:
Greeting tovalich im am russian myself and i have to say this is a very good piece of information my grandfather himself fought on the eastern front serving as a sniper.My uncle was in the tank crews driving the less famous KV-1 heavy tanks. I think that the russian army was itself a brilliant army but with poor leadership by the commisarrs and Josef himself.I myself have no sympathy for the Nazis i dont mind the wehrmacht becasue they were half decent but the SS………I aboslutely hate them with good reasons to i hope.
Dasphande!
Vasili,19,Volgograd
From Aaron:
I have learned alot about the eastern front and would like to comment on the figures. 50 million seems steep but assuming it is I could see why. The numbers include Russian civillians which the SS routinely massacred and slaughtered. As well it includes a sum of the Jews who were killed by the SS. While Russians may have raped they were fairly strictly against butchering German captives or civillians.
From Komsan (again):
privet tovarish vasili,
i would be very proud of my father if he had fought in the red army against the nazis, especially about the fact that he was actually a sniper, i watched a film once, i think it was “enemy at the gates” where it told a story about a russian sniper. I know of the KV-1s, the Klim Voroshilovs, i agree that the russians were let down by iosef but luckily for them he had not purged Zhukov, I think people do not respect him as much as they do for the western generals.
Also I want to say dont forget about the war in the east. My family fled China during its civil war, or at least before it and I have recently heard of the crimes those dirty Japs committed in cities such as Nanjing and Shanghai, my great grandfather was forced to work on the Thai-Burmese railway even though he fled from China, he died on there and although some may say it was a long time ago I will always hate the Japs for it. Ok they had Hiroshima and Nagasaki but that was not enough, I and most of the Chinese population would wish to punish the Japs for what they did. You should understand us.
poka vasili, i ura za lenina!!!