Comments by "TotalRookie_LV" (@TotalRookie_LV) on "TIKhistory"
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+Chong Li
A bias based on experience. And Isaev is affiliated with, if not strictly subordinated to, the Institute of Military History of Russian MoD, which in Soviet era was a tool of propaganda, not an objective science of history. There is a sad joke... Well, not a joke, really - "Россия, это страна с непредсказуемым прошлым" - "Russia is a country with unpredictable past", common, they often prefer the term "Great Patriotic War" instead of WWII, as it conveniently leaves out 1939-1941 period of WWII - roughly 1/3 of WWII, when USSR and Nazi Germany were sort of friendly.
You likely can trust Russian specialists on some specific technical details, like characteristics of weapons, but not the bigger picture, as depending on whether a given person is a "patriot" (in current meaning of the word, a subject to change) or a "liberal", he likely will call actions of Soviet forces reasonable or stupid and a waste of human lives. In any case, expect them to be exaggerated.
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"Liberating" and "Red Army" adds up to a sort of oxymoron, at least in the context of territories that were under Soviet-Nazi-Soviet occupation like is the case here.
As far as I know, one of my grandfathers - a Sovieg officer, participated in the "liberation" of Riga, while my wife's grandfather (he was a private and as scout) got into "meatgrinder" in Jelgava, that bloodshed is also known as "the Baltic Stalingrad", he survived and later took part in he assault on Kenigsberg. Ond of my other relatives, only 17 then, got "volunteered" through a concentration camp, where he got put for "a tour of persuation", into Latvian SS Legion. Soon he was injured, taken to hospital in Germany, then sent back and captured by Soviets in Courland and... enlisted into Soviet army. Common, both sides needed cannonfodder, so few cared where it came from.
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"..lightly armoured and obsolete..." Soviet tanks statement is largely BS, most Axis tanks were not better, but Germans had radios, which turned it into a fight of able man against a blind and deaf one.
And "Germans outnumbered Soviets at the border "is a very careful choice of words XD
Yes, it's true, an it at least partly explains how Soviets blew it in 1941 - Soviet forces were separated in echelons, and the second one was too far to help those at the border. You often see this in online team games too - one team ("Germans" have only two players left, the other ("Soviets") have six, and those in numerical superiority then come after those two and all die, because they come one by one, thus their absolute numerical superiority is completely lost, as it's never exploited.
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The list of literature on Russian version of Wiki article about this battle have nine books (three if them written by this same author - Isaev) mentioning this subject. At least one of them written (or naming him as author) a man who actually participated, or at least belonged to a unit (he was a political officer - a commissar) that participated in the battle.
I wonder, what Germans have written about it? Russian article doesn't name any German book.
P.S. German article names two German books, one Russian and one English : David M. Glantz: The Border Battles on the Lutsk-Rovno Axis, 22 June – 1 July 1941, in: ders. (Hrsg.): The Initial Period of War on the Eastern Front, Frank Cass Pbl., London 1993, S. 248–344. ISBN 0-7146-3375-5.
So, a sloppy work on your part, turns out this actually isn't the only book English about this battle. XD
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Well, I live in one of ex-USSR countries, and it experienced both world wars (unlike current Russia), both times industry got at least partly evacuated to Russia, and loss of life during WWII was one of the greatest in USSR (certainly greater than in Russian SFSR, but smaller than in Belarussia, which suffered the most), and we have no natural resources except some timber and sand, yet we have recovered better and are economically stronger than Russia (per capita, of course, as we have 1/73 of Russia's population).
So, I'd argue, it's not the war to blame, it's current political/economic system.
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LoL, "because of war" was a common excuse even in 1980s, also a source for jokes, especially after Perestroika begun and Iron Curtain got lifted at least a bit, which caused the reaction of "wait a minute, some parts of Germany were obliterated, but look at Germany now, and now look at us, WTF?!"
Also, there was the Cold War, and military-industrial complex had priority over civilian economy, like that was not bad enough, military production was largely made for the sake of production. Even worse, just as TIK mentioned, some share of economy was plain made up, learn this Russian/Soviet term - "приписка", which describes "on paper only" numbers. And Soviet economy... well, there was and still is a proverb - "они делают вид, что платят, а мы делаем вид, что работаем" (they pretend to pay us, while we pretend to work). [Edit] Damn, this was already included in the video! XD
P.S. BTW, have you ever plowed a field the old way - walking behind a horse? It was common in USSR in 1980s, not on large collective farms, of course, but on "private" fields.
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BTW, did the West really fear Soviet invasion so much? Thing is, my country is just next to Russia, yet up until 1939 all defence plans were made against German invasion, and Germans didn't t like us either. Of course, in 1939, even before Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland and Winter war with Finland, there was a big "oh shit" moment, when it became obvious USSR is a threat too, but... one can't defend from all sides at once (Finland at least didn't have that problem, but we were more like Poland - next to Russia and close to Prussia) and it was too late anyway.
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And you are right, people are still defending soviet socialism, even those, who experienced it, of course, they are mostly those, who live on current CIS, as to many of them life has turned to worse. But there is another kind of guys nostalgic for USSR - those, who see corruption in Russia now, and believe social security was better before (guaranteed job, shelter, "free" medicine and education); with these I got into arguments pretty often. Common, are there mass shootings of protesters now, like those in mid 1950s, when people were protesting against rising food prices?! No! Sure, current Russia has had several internal wars, most media are state controlled, and there are no real elections; yet despite all that, even this loathsome state has more freedom than totalitarian state of the past ever had.
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BYW, did the West really fear Soviet invasion so much? Thing is, my country is just next to Russia, yet up until 1939 all defence plans were made against German invasion, and Germans didn't t like us either. Of course, in 1939, even before Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland and Winter war with Finland, there was a big "oh shit" moment, when it became obvious USSR is a threat too, but... one can't defend from all sides at once (Finland at least didn't have that problem, but we were more like Poland - next to Russia and close to Prussia) and it was too late anyway.
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First, I believe Rezun's "Suvorov's" "Icebreaker" came out in 1980s.
Second, I don't think it matters for "Suvorov's" argumentation if Germans attacked in a preemptive strike or not, neither is Keitel's diary, it just supplements it. Main suspicions of coming Soviet strike against Germany were sparked in Rezun by Soviet propaganda of 1930s, belief in coming world wide revolution and preparations involving pretty much every Soviet citizen (I was trained to shoot at school from age 10, and that was in the peaceful 1980s when Gorbachev was at power) - all pointing to coming major war, and not a defensive one, even Soviet constitution basically stated, that USSR should be expanded until whole planet is "liberated", then there was placement of Soviet forces and insane amounts of armament.
Where Rezun is clearly wrong - he overestimated characteristics of Soviet hardware and underestimates German one - especially German anti-tank capabilities in 1941.
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