If a military leader's job is to simply win the war regardless of the price it will take, then Stalin is without a doubt one of the greatest military leaders in history. He was able to muster a significant amount of forces that would go into battle knowing that they would probably die, he won the war, and he effectively secured communist dominance over fascism. So, he must have been one of the greatest military leaders of all time, right? Wrong, a military leader's goal is not to simply win the war, but they must also protect their people from the threat that their country faces. How can it be possible to be considered a great wartime leader if you win the war, but fail to protect the nation you were fighting the war for?
Stalin neglected the reports that the Nazis were amassing an army on the Soviet border and his negligence to act upon the reports cost many civilian lives. With his orders such as 227 he ordered the murder of his own troops if they did not move fast enough or attempted to retreat. Stalin's tactics were clumsy, barbaric, and ruthless. He was detached from reality and the true implications of his actions and as a result many people died unnecessarily for the "glory of the motherland." He did not appear to have a true strategy other than throwing his people at the Nazi forces until they were so overwhelmed that they could not survive. Human lives should never be used as the primary fuel for a war machine because many are guaranteed to die without proper munitions. Stalin was a horrendous leader and the only reason that I believe the Soviets won the war was that they feared Stalin's power more than a death in fighting the Nazis.
So why is Stalin such a beloved figure in Soviet history? Perhaps it is because he accomplished something that no other Russian leader was capable of in history. He left a significant mark on world history that Russians today can look back to and be proud of. Their ancestors "saved the world" from the Nazi threat. They were the ones that truly subdued the Nazi threat and crushed them until nothing was left standing. The world had them to thank, and as leader Stalin was a representation of them, so perhaps this is why Russians still admire him today. History is always open to interpretation and Stalin is one of the most controversial characters, because he puts a face on the philosophical question; do the ends justify the means?
World War Two was the deadliest war in history with approximately 61 million casualties in only about six years.The Germans suffered 3,250,000 military and
3,810,000 civilian casualties, which equals 7,060,000 total casualties. This seems like an incredibly substantial sum, but it pales in comparison to the total for the Allies. Great Britain had
388,000 casualties, 62,000 of which were civilian and America had 295,000 total casualties all of which were military. These numbers for the Allies may not seem that large and the German casualties may appear substantial, but once the numbers for the Soviets are factored in for the Allies, all of these statistics appear miniscule.
The Soviets had a total of 25,568,000 casualties with
16,900,000 being civilian and
8,668,000 being military. This number for the Soviets is so immense that is unimaginable to even begin to comprehend its true magnitude. We are detached from the true scale of Soviet loss and cannot even fathom over 25 million people being dead or wounded. This is also how I believe Stalin viewed this number with one of his most famous quotes being "The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic." This is an accurate view, but was this detachment from the scale of events appropriate for the leader of the Soviet people? Probably not, but how else can someone even begin to rationalize the number of casualties and make sense of why so many people died. Their deaths were on Stalin's hands and I don't believe he was ever able to truly face how many people were killed or injured under his leadership.
The following video from France 24 briefly discusses the use of rape by the soviets in WWII and the effect it has left on the survivors.
This documentary begins with the account of a woman who remembers that when the soviets entered the town in Germany where she resided all of her friends ran, but her leg was injured so she had no choice but to stay. She was only nineteen and was raped by four different Soviet soldiers. It is estimated that two million women shared this fate and are still terrified by the events of their past. Most of these events are believed to have taken place in the post war years, but no one focused on the suffering of German citizens because the World was too preoccupied with viewing the crimes of the Nazis.
I believe that the Soviets thought they could utilize rape as a method to strike back at the Germans for invading the Soviet Union, but such crimes are unforgivable. Whether or not it is true that many Soviet women were raped during the Nazi invasion, it does not justify terrorizing the populace and using them as a tool to strike back at the Nazis. Also, the war was over when most of this was believed to have taken place, the Nazis were in ruins and this would not be a strike against them, but instead a strike against the German civilian. This distinction between civilian and political party however, is unfortunately rarely determined in times of war and if one is believed to be "the enemy" than they both are the enemy. The behavior of Soviet soldiers was unjustified, unforgivable, and quite simply a crime against humanity.
The Amount of destruction that the Soviets unleashed during the Battle of Berlin was astounding, but was the magnitude of this destruction necessary for success?
I believe the magnitude of destruction that the Soviets was more personal than necessary. The Nazis were surrounded on all sides without any method of exiting the city, but the Soviets destroyed, not just a small portion of the city, but almost the entire city. I do not believe the Soviets goal was ever to simply defeat the Nazis, but instead crush the Nazis in an effort to make them pay for their crime of attacking the Soviet Union. However, the SS remaining in Berlin were the best the Nazis had to offer and were superior to the Soviets, so some artillery would have been necessary to break defensive lines and advance forward. But, this looks like payback in a similar manner to what the Nazis did to Leningrad. By surrounding Berlin the Soviets had secured their victory, but the battle that took place in Berlin itself, truly demonstrates that the Soviets were driven by a personal vendetta against the Nazis that did not stop until they were decimated.
The Battle of Berlin was the final step in stopping the Nazi war machine and ending the war. Hundreds of thousands had already died for the Soviets to make it to this point and in the 16 day operation known as the battle of Berlin, an estimate of 200,000 more soviet soldiers ere killed. In the following documentary from Russia Today the Battle of Berlin is discussed from the crossing of the Oder river to the capture of Berlin itself.
After the liberation of Poland the Soviets were able to cross the Oder river in under 20 days, which enabled them to cover 500km in a matter of almost three weeks. This placed the Soviet forces within 70km of Berlin, but Stalin ordered all forces to hold their position. The battle of Poland had exhausted most of the Soviets supplies and it was crucial to send munitions to these forces before beginning the final assault. However, simply resupplying their forces took the Soviets approximately two months. During this time the Nazis were preparing a defensive line that was 20km long and only 6.5km from the position where the Soviets were waiting. This area was known as the Seelow Heights and faced the brunt of the Soviets final offensive. Historian Anatoly Davydenko claims that before the battle began "a total of 3.5 million troops from both sides, some 10,000 tanks, scores of thousands of assault guns, and 11,000 aircraft" were gathered to decide the fate of Berlin.
Joseph Stalin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill
By this time in the war the Americans were advancing at a rapid pace towards Berlin because most of the Nazis were pulled from the Western front and were placed on the Eastern Front to engage the Soviets. Also, the leader of the British, Winston Churchill, stated "If the Russians also take Berlin, will their impression that they have been the overwhelming contribution to our common victory be unduly imprinted on their minds, and may this not lead them into a mood which will raise grave and formidable difficulties in the future?" Meaning, that he did not want the Soviets to take Berlin because they would see themselves as the victors of the war and not the Allies, which would lead to them becoming a dominant force politically and militarily. What Churchill wanted was for the Soviets to handle most of the attack and being weakened, while also weakening the Nazis to the brink of destruction. The Americans also wanted the Soviets to handle the majority of the conflict, which is evident through the fact that when it was estimated that 30,000 soldiers would die if they advanced towards Berlin, the Americans were ordered to hold their position because the estimate would be an unacceptable loss. Stalin however, trusted FDR and is believed to have been open to the American playing a role in the battle for Berlin, but when FDR died Stalin saw it as a necessary action to take Berlin without aid, which would prevent the Allies from using their involvement in the final days as a political tool.
Map of the Seelow Heights
When the Soviets began their attack on Seelow Heights an initial barrage, that included thousands of arttilery pieces, shell the Nazis fo over half an hour. After the barrage tanks and infantry moved in and the battle ensued. Also, after the barrage, the Soviets used 140 high-power searchlights to aim at the Nazis and prevent any kind of adequate return-fire. Tens of thousands of Soviet soldiers lost their lives in this battle and the Nazis retreated to the small town of Halbe, but at this point it was clear that Germans could not organize a resistance to repel the Soviets. In one case, that the Video points out, the Nazis already in Halbe opened fire on the retreating Nazis mistaking them for a soviet advance. This confusion on the part of the Nazi's allowed the Soviets to enter Halbe with relative ease. By the end of a three day battle in Halbe, 60,000 Nazis were killed and another 120,000 are taken prisoner by the Soviets. One day after the conflict in Halbe one group of Soviets enter the town of Torgau on the Elbe river and are surprised to see the Americans on the other bank. The Soviets and Americans then began to celebrate, because they knew the war was coming to an end and the Nazis would be defeated.
Soviet Flag over the Reichstag
On April 28th the Soviets had entered Berlin and encircled the center of the city, focusing their efforts on the Reichstag. However, the Germans had blown all of the bridges to cross the canals throughout the city and the Soviets were forced to cross only a few at a time in small rafts. The documentary estimates that over half of the men whose role was to secure the canal were killed before they could even cross. All that was left after the this was the Reichstag, but the only Nazis that remained to defend the city were some of Hitler's most elite soldiers from the SS. On April 30th Hitler committed suicide knowing that he had no chance of surviving the war, but his SS still continued to fight. Shortly after the Soviets successfully captured the top floor of the Reichstag and raised the Soviet flag above it to show that they had captured the Reichstag. The fighting did not stop until May2nd though, when the Nazi General in charge of the defense of Berlin met with the Soviets to request a cease fire, which he was granted. This was the end of the war for the Soviets.
The Battle of Berlin was not only one of the most important events of WWII, but also for the history of the Soviet union. By ending the war the Soviets achieved a triumphant moment where they were able to demonstrate their military superiority and achieve a moment of nationalism for their country that I believe is unsurpassed. It was a moment when the Soviet people could stop worrying about the problems their country faced in ways such as, production, and the poor economy; but instead this was a moment where the people could simply be proud that they were a member of the Soviet Union, and that their country had just been victorious in the bloodiest war that they had ever seen.
The Katyusha rocket launcher was an invaluable tool of the Soviets in WWII. It allowed for massive rocket volleys that were capable of large-scale destruction. The base of the vehicle was a truck, so it was agile and could be readily pulled from a position depending on how close the Nazi advance was getting and how fast they were approaching. The launcher on the back of the truck consisted of 16 rail guides, which could each hold one missile. This capability to hold a vast number of rockets that all could fire simultaneously. For instance in the image above it is hard to tell but there appears to be approximately six launchers, which adds up to 96 rockets. Although, it did take longer to reload these artillery pieces they were capable of mass destruction through the sheer number of vehicles that were located at a given location. Along with this, the Katyusha was cheap to produce because it was basically just a truck with a steel frame mounted on to the back for the missiles. Overall, the Katusha's capabilities were a significant factor in helping the Soviets achieve victory in the war and were one of the most effective tools to suppress the Nazis.
Below are some of the features of the Katyusha BM-13 and facts regarding its development
(If the image is too small, click on the link below it for a much larger version)
A pogrom is a Russian word that is defined as “to wreak havoc, to demolish violently,”but through the actions of the Russians in the 1800's it became a term to describe the eradication of Jewish populations. The first pogrom is believed to have occurred in Odessa in 1821 during anti-Jewish riots, but these events did not become common until the assassination of Tsar Alexander II. In the years 1881-1884 Jews were scapegoated as the Tsar's killer's and thousands of Jews were killed as a result. However, these events did not stop with the fall of the tsarist regime. In the years 1918-1920, immediately after the Bolshevik revolution, Ukrainian nationalists, Polish officials, and Red army soldiers waged a pogrom in western Belorussia and Poland's Galicia province, which resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Jews.The Soviet Union did engage in behavior similar to the Nazis during the Holocaust, but this would not be the end of pogroms.
Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass)
In 1938 the Nazis infamously engaged in what can be considered their first "pogrom"" on November 9-10 in Berlin, during what is now known as Kristallnacht. During these two days Hitler encouraged the population to take up violent actions against Jews leaving through such actions as destroying their homes and businesses and also physical assault against individuals. Following these events and after the invasion of the Soviet Union the Nazis created mobile killing units to carry out the Holocaust. However, these groups did not work alone. In many instances the Nazis were ordered to encourage the people in the areas they had taken from the Soviets to launch pogroms in "towns such as Bialystok, Kovno, Lvov, and Riga." It may never be known how many times this occurred after the Nazi invasion, but through these actions the Nazis would achieve success in their goal to eliminate the Jewish population of the Soviet union.
So, what is the difference between the Soviets and Nazis in regards to their treatment of the Jewish population? They both used them as a scapegoat for problems their countries were facing and destroyed them to appease their people. The soviet union had engaged in pogroms after its founding and before being occupied by Germany, so it is obvious that this mentality was never truly absent from the early Soviet Union. There is no difference between the Nazis and Soviets in this regard, both the Holocaust and pogroms were cold blooded murder for no other reason than placing a face on the problems their countries faced.
"Pogroms." United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum . January 6, 2011.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005183 (accessed April 22,
2012).
