[ArneFufkin]

On Anzio beach, the Americans suffered 950 casualties in five hours.

The Allied Command would send hundreds of bomber crewmen to their deaths as a feint to mask another campaign. What a human tragedy. Counting the civilians, there may have been 70 million deaths because Hitler always dreamed of conquering Russia. The Japanese were building their little War Machine to mass murder Chinese and they needed oil that we didn't think they should have given their bad behavior.

What an absurd history Russia has. They must procreate like rabbits there. How do you lose 50-70 million people, 40-50 million men in 35 years? Volume. Volume. Volume.

What a place to grow up in the 30s. You had a good chance of being dead by 1950.

[Burkeman1]

I often think about that. Chances were good if you were born in 1920 in Russia you would not have made it to your 30th birthday. First- you had to live through the Civil War and the first famines of Lenin. Then you had to live through the terror famines of the early thirties under Stalin. Then you had to survive the Great Purge of the mid to late 30's. Then you had to survive the war. Then you had to survive the post war purges and famine! Unreal suffering.