Posted on 02/09/2014 4:59:04 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Losing the war would have meant destruction and slavery for them.
The Right-Bank Ukraine Offensive, which is essentially all of the activities of Vatutin’s First Ukrainian Front and Konev’s Second Ukrainian Front from December 23, 1943 to April 17, 1944, involves 2,406,100 Soviet soldiers, with KIA of 270,198, and 839,330 wounded.
During the opening ceremony of the Olympics, when they did the “History of Russia,” Mrs. henkster asked if there was any positive history from Russia. I replied that there certainly was a lot from the arts and music. But for most of the rest of it, what they did accomplish was done at a human and environmental cost that Americans would consider unacceptable.
The Russians have every reason to be proud of what they accomplished in the Great Patriotic War, but the cost was staggering.
The numbers are so big that they’re just a blur. The Western front is small by comparison, but there are still so many men and ships and everything that it’s dizzying. I’ve just begun reading “The Day of Battle”; the war may be over before I finish it. I’ve learned why the Italian campaign news is marked as originating in Algiers!
So Dell wishes he could run around nekkid like the natives.
Attaboy!
Isn’t Anzio where Audi Murphy began his Italian adventures?
for a microsecond I thought the Russians had won a town in the Olympics, lol
love the maps
every reason to be proud? of expanding their communist empire?
Every reason to be proud of the sacrifices they made to keep from being exterminated as a nation, and triumphing in the end. It wasn’t a regime worth fighting for, but it certainly was worth fighting for their children. However bad the USSR was, and it was all that, it was far better than the future the Nazis had in store for them.
Audie Murphy was in the 3rd Infantry Division and was at Anzio. It was there he and his men knocked out a German tank from an abandoned farmhouse. He then went out alone and destroyed the tank, for which he was awarded the Bronze Star. He was in Italy until the 3rd I.D. invaded Southern France.
I was glad to see Peter the Great figure so prominently. I guess these days it's OK to talk about the Czars. Catherine the Great made Russia a great power, but she could never institute the reforms she wanted that would have made Russia more European. She badly wanted to end serfdom, but just couldn't overcome the aristocrats' opposition.
I agree with your comments about WWII, or the Great Patriotic War. They were fighting for each other and over the last year have learned from eyewitnesses how brutal the Nazis were in occupation.
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