I try not to write about Russia too often, and certainly not two days on the trot. In keeping with this commitment, I’m here acting only as a translator, not a writer.
Vlad Putin, addressing the military parade on Victory Day (VD for short), 9 May, 2021:
“During the most critical time of the war, in the decisive battles determining the outcome of the struggle against fascism, our people stood alone, alone on the arduous, heroic, sacrificial road to Victory…”
Stalin replies, 29 March, 1943 [the emphasis is mine]:
“Personal and secret message from Premier I.V. Stalin to Premier Mr W. Churchill, 29 March, 1943
“I have received your message of 28 March.
“I congratulate the British Air Force on its latest successful raid on Berlin.
“I hope the British armour will use the improved situation in Tunisia to deny the enemy any breathing space.
“Yesterday I and my colleagues viewed the film you have sent, Victory in the Desert, that made a great impression. The film expertly depicts England’s war effort, while giving the lie to the blackguards – and they exist even in our country – who claim that, rather than fighting, England is only watching the war from the sidelines. I eagerly look forward to your similar film about the victory in Tunisia.
“The film Victory in the Desert will be widely shown to all our armies in the frontline and also to the country’s civil population.”
Stalin, speaking at the Tehran Conference, 28 November – 1 December, 1943:
“Without the machines we received through Lend-Lease, we would have lost the war.”
Nikita Khrushchev in his Memoirs, 1974:
“If the United States had not helped us, we would not have won the war. One-on-one against Hitler’s Germany, we would not have withstood its onslaught and would have lost the war. No one talks about this officially, and Stalin never, I think, left any written traces of his opinion, but I can say that he expressed this view several times in conversations with me.”
Is Russia’s youth more or less ignorant of history than ours?
Not much in it, I’d suggest.
Do you think Churchill and company were right to team up with the most evil regime in history to defeat another equally evil one?
They really had no choice. After Hitler’s invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war, which didn’t stay phony for long. After the Nazi juggernaut turn westwards and rolled over France, Britain found herself one one one with Hitler. The air Battle of Britain was fought heroically, but the writing was on the wall. The RAF was running out of planes and pilots, Nazi U-boats cut off most of the imports. Churchill desperately needed Hitler to divert his attention elsewhere. Hence the 22 June, 1941, attack on the USSR was a godsend. Alliance with Stalin was effectively made not by Churchill but by the situation. Hitler also made the choice for Roosevelt, by declaring war on the US after Pearl Harbour. And Britain was America’s natural ally anyway.
Without wishing to wax fatalist, it’s hard not to think the Third Reich was doomed from the start.
Perhaps. But that doesn’t mean we needn’t have bothered to fight it.
Those supplied delivered to the Soviets just through Murmansk during the war enough to equp an army of 2 million men. And that amount only 1/4 of the whole sent by the USA to the Soviet during the war. Soviet soldiers it is said even enjoyed American rations, thought they were rather good.