67 karma · joined August 26, 2016
What media tells us: Russian state-sponsored hackers breach the deepest secrets of the country.
What really happened: script-kiddie pwned the WordPress blog through hacked Russian VPS.
Of course there were stupid commanders who wasted soldiers's lives, as there were very good commanders. You should look at the big picture:
1) Ratio of Wermacht - Red Army losses is somewhere around 1:1.3, only 30% more. 2) Germany had fully deployed and ready to attack army on the June, 22nd, while USSR was in the process of deployment: second and third line divisions were moving towards the border, stretched for 500-600 kilometers. 3) Wermacht was trained in doing blitzkriegs: Poland invasion, France invasion gave them a lot of experience, Red Army did not have a lot of experience in defending against such an attack (no one had). 4) Germany attacked without a warning, without a formal war declaration, and most of those 30% come from the first stage of the war. 5) Germany had its full industrial potential, together with Poland, Czechoslovakia and France working to provide tanks, guns, food and supplies, while USSR had 1/3 of its territory captured and 20+ million people under occupation for the first two years.
Just a quick historical recap of what was happening prior to the September the 1st, 1939.
After Hitler comes to power and starts hidden re-militarization of the Germany, Britain, France and Poland do nothing, silently looking how American and Sweden companies are building guns and ships for the Germany.
In 1938 Hitler demands control of the Sudetenland(part of Czechoslovakia). USSR starts negotiations with Britain, France and Poland willing to use army to protect Czechoslovakia. Poland refuses to let Soviet troops through its territory. Negotiations are artificially prolonged by Britain. Munich agreement is signed by the Britain, France and Germany, and Hitler gets a nice gift in a form of Czechoslovakia (you never see Britain and France talking about this, do you?).
On the 1st of September, 1939, Hitler invades Poland (Britain and France did not help their 'ally' in the slightest). USSR invades Poland 16 days later, when Poland ceased to exist as a sovereign state.
There were two pragmatic choices for the USSR: let Germany capture all the Poland and have their border be right at the gate, or prepare for the inevitable war with the Germany by capturing additional territory. No one in the USSR believed that Hitler will be a nice neighbor - there were a lot of information available on the Germany's descent into Nazism.
There is a similar story with Finland: USSR wanted to move their border further from the Leningrad (it was ~10-20 kilometers), because Leningrad is a major industrial center. USSR pragmatically wanted to trade territory with Finland, giving them a lot of land in exchange for that border shift. Finland refused. USSR was left with two choices: leave the border near your second largest city for an inevitable war (Finland was pro-Nazi) or solve this problem while Hitler is busy with France.
No it does. German documents clearly say "if they try to flee the city - shoot them". Hitler had specific plans to destroy it completely after the war.
> but not everyone was killed.
Out of 27 million deaths only 8 millions were combatants. Do the math on civilians.
> is whether a timely evacuation of Leningrad
Leningrad is a major industrial and cultural center, second city in the USSR, its loss would've dealt a colossal moral blow to the Soviet people. It also tied a lot of Nazi forces, that could've been used elsewhere (i.e. Stalingrad battle).
> Stalin intentionally left much of the civilian population in the siege.
No he didn't. Siege started in September, only 3 months after Nazis attacked. It is not possible to evacuate 3+ million city in such a short time. 659,000 were evacuated before the siege began, and 30,000 after. Many people didn't want to leave their homes.
> is used for silencing honest, civilized discussion about WW2 history.
No it is not.