The Bloodiest Conflict least known in the West.24/1/25
In WW2 450,000 Americans died while in the Soviets 27,000, 000 died, and unlike US territory, Russia's land was left devastated. The Soviets tore the guts out of the German war machine. Even at the end of the European war the Soviets in Manchuria overwhelmed the Japanese defenses and then it was impossible for Japan to continue.
1944 June to August Operation Bagration the massive attack in Belarus the Germans lost 450,000 while the Soviets lost 600,000 men.
The powerful countries like Britain and France failed to grasp the signals heralding the storm.
1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria.
1935 Italy invaded Ethiopia
1936 Spanish Civil War. Western Governments supported the Spanish Republic with volunteers but remained neutral while fascist governments sent massive aid. This was an ideological war.
1939 The Spanish Falange government was recognized and implicit admission of defeat for democracies. Mikhail Tukhachevsky a Marshal of the Red Army collaborated with Trotsky to build up the Red Army, and represented the Soviets at George V funeral in London. In both London and Paris he proposed a pre-emptive trike against Germans growing danger of armaments. Tukhachevsky was executed on trumped up charges in 1937 with his associates. 35,000 officers out of 144,000 were purged. All 8 Admirals and 3 of 5 Marshals were removed.
1938 Munich Conference showed that Western powers were prepared to appease Hitler. Once the war started the Germans occupied Denmark and the Norway to have access to Swedish iron ores.
The Finish War indicated how unprepared the Red Army. The Russians lost more soldiers than there were soldiers in the Finnish army. Finland 25, 904 soldiers killed while the Soviets 126,875 killed.
Now Generals in the gulags were reintegrated into the army including Rokossvsky. The Soviet spy Richard Sorge in Tokyo was able to inform Moscow exact day threat the attack from Germany would come.
Once France fell the Japanese marched into French Indochina without firing a shot.
1941 June 22, Operation Barbarossa, during World War II, code name for the German invasion of the Soviet Union,3 days later Finland declared war on Russia. The Germans estimated that it would take 3 or 4 months for decisive victory on the Eastern Front. The Germans sent 3 army groups North to Leningrad, Centre to attack Belarus, and Moscow and South which included 200,000 Romanians into Ukraine. Here the Germans plundered without regard for the native population. Russians units were alerted only a few hours before the German attack began. The vastness of European Russia and lack of roads made it hard to keep the German divisions supplied, especially where the dirt roads turned into swamps.
Stalin called for the entire population to start partisan warfare. Soldiers had been trained for this before the war started. Especially in Belarus, but as the Germans penetrated it was more difficult for partisans to get supplies. They attacked railway lines and trains later leading the Germans to keep more troops back from the front. In the first 3 days of war the Germans destroyed 3100 airplanes.to a loss of only 78 German planes. Operation Silver Fox was to take the port of Marmusk but with heavy Finn and German losses only got to 50km of it and remained here till wars end.
Battle of Kiev 90% of the troops 760,000 were trapped, this was the greatest of encirclement battles in history. The Romanians offensive to take Odessa stalled due to their exhaustion. Soviet reinforcements came by sea but then evacuated their troops as German troops after the fall of Kiev were heading that way.
1941 October more that 350,000 Russian troops and civilians were taken out surpassing the Dunkirk( where 338,000 troops fled to England on in 8 days after 1940 May26.) In Odessa there were 2,000 Soviet women snipers but only 500 survived.
The German southern fronts objective was to get the oil fields of the Caucasus and the Ukraine where the majority of the Soviet factories were or the precious mines of the Donbas.
The British immediately acted to aid Russia. If the Germans managed to get hold of Russian unlimited resources the British would have to capitulate to Hitler.
1941 August the first of 78 conveys departed to Russia. The Germans had air bases along the Norwegian coast.
The Germans now sent their Central group to attack Moscow, whose defenses was entrusted to Zhukov by Stalin. Richard Sorge told Stalin that Japans intentions were not to attack Russia but the USA. The Germans used horses to bring artillery but their difficulty in the mud resulting in the exhausted horses having to be shot. The Russian gauge railway was unsuitable for German trains. Moscow citizens mobilized into a Red Militia building barbed wire and tank ditches. Stalin proclaimed his intention to remain in the capital. November 6th the 14th anniversary of the Revolution was celebrated with soldiers marching out to the battle front.
The temperature dropped and German panzers had no antifreeze in the radiators and the engines broke and soldiers lacked warm clothing and and got frost bite while the Russians prepared for counter offensive, led by Zhukov. General Konev and General Timoshenko and Zhukov converged on the Germans and drove them back 90km.
1942 Jan to 1943 March. Battle of Rzhev or the Rzhev meat grinder as over 700,000 were killed on missing after this. Rokossovsky was released from the Gulag and reinstated. Unlike Hitler who overruled his generals Stalin delegated the work to them.
Evacuation in the first 4 months of the war 19million people and 2,500 industrial plants were relocated to eastwards, especially places like Novosibirsk. In the occupied areas the German soldiers had a license to kill civilians. There was Germanization and subjugation of non Germans. Many Baltic cities the Germans returned the old German names. Jewish property was confiscated. Mannesmann . IG Fabens and Siemens took control of Soviet State owned property. The Germans wanted to set up Germanic farmers to control areas where folkdeutchers were. Ostkompany a Dutch German company wanted to colonize with Dutch citizens. Hitler ordered the complete destruction of Kiev the Ukrainian capital. This was not carried out instead the inhabitants were starved by confiscating food resources. 100,000 people perished shot in Babi Yar canyon - Jews, Roma, communists Russian prisoners of war and sailors of the Black Sea fleet captured in Sevastopol
Of 5 million Russians captured the death rate was 57% compared to 4% of Anglo American prisoners. Soviet POWs were stripped of their winter clothing and boots that were used by the Germans. They were put into open fenced off fields without any shelter, the dug holes for shelter. The Red Cross tried to improve the situation but this was rejected by Hitler.
Wilhelm Kube the governor of Belarus was assassinated. Ukrainian nationalist were pro Nazi and it took till 1949 to pacify them completely. The Waffen SS accepted people who signed a declaration that they were Aryan and so 50% of them were non German volunteers. About 500,000 men from Italy, Romania and Hungary Slovakia and Croatia. Finland was meanwhile waging it war of liberation. Spain and Portugal formally neutral also waged a war against Bolshevism. In October 1943 the Allies pressured Franco and he withdrew the 50,000 men who were used in the siege of Leningrad.
1941 August Siege of Leningrad till 1944 Jan. The Russian Baltic fleet was housed here. Hitler ultimate plan was to raze this to the ground. They wanted to cut the city off and let it starve and freeze. It had a population of over3 million before the war. Once Lake Ladoga froze supplies were sent in and people and wounded soldiers were evacuated. By the end of the war there were 700,000 people left most of them combat troops 670,000 deaths were recorded. Most food in ware houses was destroyed by the bombing and people lived on only rationed bread. There were cases of cannibalisms and bodies buried without edible parts. Following the victory at Stalingrad, the Soviets launched and new offensive on Leningrad.
Baku the Capital of Azerbaijan had some of the worlds biggest oilfields and provided 80% of Soviet Oil. The Caucasus also has abundant reserves of coal , peat, manganese as well as areas producing wheat , corn sunflower sees and sugar beets. The Germans got close but faltered from lack of fuel. The Soviet started counterattacks.
1942 July Stalin ordered the "No one step back " No commander could retreat without permission.
There was a shortage of fuel supplies for the Germans and they increasingly call for more support. Horse drawn carts were requisitioned on the spot.
1942 July Stalingrad till Feb 1943
The Germans were 250km away from their objective Baku and from their could threaten British Middle East possessions. The name Stalingrad was significant but it was an important industrial centre and crucial for the line to the oil fields. The Massive bombing of the Luftwaffe was second only to Guernica. The book Enemy at the Gates is about the famous Soviet sniper Vasyli Zaitsev who killed 225 German soldiers including Colonel Heinz Thorwald specially sent against him. Just when the Germans felt victory was at hand orders came to halt the offensive to cover the front on the Don, where the Russians had overwhelmed the Italian 8th army.
Operation Uranus The Russians with great skill to conceal this attack with decoys and dummies. (These deceptions were used in again in Kursk and Bagration) When they attacked they trapped 250,000Axis soldiers. This encirclement lasted 2 month in which time the Luftwaffe brought in supplies but not enough, and evacuated 25,000 wounded and officers.
Stalingrad showed that the Red Army had learned to win and was greeted with enthusiasm in America. Time magazine had Stalin on the cover as Man of the Year 1942. This was a serious setback for Germany even though their propaganda played it down. The Axis lost here 70 divisions (30 German 15 Romanian ,10 Italian, 10 Hungarian. A total of a million soldiers including 400,000 taken prisoner.
Kursk July/ August 1943
1943 Jan the Soviet managed to capture an intact Tiger tank and tested that it was immune to antitank current weapons. Spies in German informed that an offensive was planned for April on the Kursk plain. Ivan Konev set up defensive works including damaged tanks that were to be buried and used as fixed batteries. Soldiers were offered 1000 rubles for every destroyed tank. Model was Hitlers most esteemed General and had doubts about this attack so did von Manstein. The American were now landing in Italy and German forces were sent there.
1943 Italy exited the war. the Luftwaffe and German troops had now been hollowed out from the Soviet Front. Allied air raid were continuous on German cities. The Allies were now in possession of the initiative, while Hitler more and more interfered in military matters at every command level. Soviet General were left greater freedom while Stalin wanted to win and take credit for it.
The German retreat was orderly and they systematic destroyed remaining bridges adn railways, power plants. The Soviets perused them fleeing to exhaustion.
Kiev This had 900,000 inhabitants before the war. Fewer than 200,000 remained. 100,000 deported to Germany as slave laborers. The Germans took factory machines , trams, trolley busses and church bells to Germany and destroyed everything else left. Hitler still wanted to keep Crimea with its manganese mines of Nikopol.
In Ukraine the enemy had lost a million men and 1,800 tanks a loss that the Wehrmacht could not afford.
The US Priority was to defeat the Axis powers while the British priority was to maintain their colonies. Roosevelt had very little sympathy for British and French colonial policies.
1943. Nov. Meeting in Teheran of 3 leaders. The British were more inclined to landing on he Yugoslav coast and support the partisans there who kept 8 German divisions engaged. Russia would take Polish Territory and Poland would get German lands east of the Oder - Neisse as compensation. The Soviets would enter the war against Japan.
Just by preparing for the Normandy landings would force the Germans to divert their troops. WW2 started with Britain undertaking to defend Polish sovereignty but that would be sacrificed.
Leningrad
1943 Jan they started planning an offensive across the frozen Lake Ladoga to move the Germans further away and pushed them a hundred Km. The German North Army had been weakened to support Manstein's troops in Ukraine.
In Ukraine 2 staunch Nazi fighter each led a Ukraine Army Group under Model and Schorner. They replaced the professional strategists Manstein and Kleist.
1943 August Ploesti Romania, was the last source of oil in German hands, now the Allies bombers were close enough to bomb. The Romanian dictator Antonescu had secret talks in Stockholm about Romania exiting the war.
One of the Soviet techniques was to move men and tanks, trucks in the dark without lights and only fluorescent white paint on the back and front, so that the planes above could not see them. At the same time they sent a convey of tractors in another direction with their lights on. By now they had a massive supply of Studebaker US6 trucks and M4 Sherman tanks.
The Germans now had to pin down the Allies on Anzio beach in Italy and so the Luftwaffe deployed most of their fighter from the Eastern Front, and they were also needed to protect the German home front from the increased Allied bombing.
General Rokossovsky was preparing to fight on the Dnieper and engineers and combat troops were building tracks with huge quantities of tree trunks, fascines and timber, for mechanized troops to travel and in 2 days the surrounded and took Babrusk, Belarus.
1944July20 High ranking German officers realized that with Hitler alive it would not be possible to get out of this lost war. Operation Valkyrie with van Stoffenburg setting the bomb. The plot failed. In 1944 the west was known for the Normandy Landing the scale and defeat with 900,000 Germans killed wounded or taken prisoner.
1944 22nd August Operation Bagration lasted just less than a week. German troops in Romania and those stationed in Yugoslavia and Greece all retreated towards Hungary. The previous year King Michael had Antonescu arrested and concluded an armistice with the USSR and declared war on Germany. Germany lost not only an ally but is source of oil. Bulgaria had been neutral but were now quickly occupied by Russia and so declared war on Germany.
1944 August the Polish nationalist underground of 45,000 in Warsaw revolted and expected Russian help. This was irresponsible and had not been coordinated with the Red army. This was by Free Polish led from London who in any case Stalin would purge after the war. They had wanted a National Liberation rather than a Soviet one. Before the Germans left Warsaw they deported the inhabitants and destroyed the city.
The Red Army entered Slovakia and the Balkans then Belgrade Oct. 1944.
1944 Oct. Admiral Horthy announced a armistice with the USSR. The Germans kidnapped Horthy and forced him to resign. 2 German divisions occupied Budapest and Ferenc Szalasi the head of the Arrow Cross Party was installed as the new head of government. This enabled the oil supplies from the Lake Bataton area to continue. With 50,000 German soldiers ,100,000 Hungarian soldiers remained trapped in the Soviet Grip while Ferenc Szalasi fled to Germany.
Zhukov now planned a new winter offensive along the Warsaw Berlin axis. While Allies were occupying Belgium a new massive offensive of forces started in Poland and the Ukrainian front under Zhukov. The Belarus under Rokossovsky and General Chernyakhovsky the attacked East Prussia. The last 2 years of the war this army was well equipped an well trained buy furious from the depravations they had suffered.
In East Prussia there were 500,000 German soldiers plus 200,000 Volksturm who were poorly armed and poorly trained adolescents and elderly or disabled and were massacred in the last battle in 1945. Although the Germans now brought out their Konigstiger the Red army was unstoppably overwhelming. The antitank Panzerfaust was much more effective against tanks.
The Germans abandoned Silesia without a fight as they didn't have the resources to. Industrial Silesia had been the region that contributed most to the war effort in the last years, it was less exposed to Allied bombing than the Ruhr. the main industrial center.
1944 Dec. Budapest the Hungarian Capital was one of the bloodiest urban battles. of the entire war with hand to hand fighting, this was a great victory and a test for the subsequent Battle for Berlin.
The Soviets would retain the territory of Easter Poland annexed in 1939 and Poland would be compensated by extending its wester n borders at Germanies expense.
Poland the pro Soviet or Lublin Poles was chosen, ending recognition of the Polish Government in exile in London.. Silesia, Pomerania part of East Prussia, the city of Danzig would now become Polish. Not the Polish issue is the one of first causes of the conflict.
1938 Marshal Blucher dealt a sever blow to the Japanese army in the battle of Lake Khasan. At the Battle of Khalkhin the Japanese were defeated again by Zhukov. Japan realized that she could not wage war against both China and the Soviets at the same time.
1941 Japan signed a nonaggression treaty with the USSR as it suited both as Russia was dealing with the German invasion. The Atomic bomb was well underway but there was o guarantee of its success. Russia agreed to fight Japan with an official US recognition of Mongolia's independence from China. Mongolia had been a Soviet satellite since 1924.The US recognized the Soviets interest in the Manchurian railways and Port Arthur as well as Sakhalin and Kuril Islands. The soviets' would enter into war against japan 3 months after Germanys Surrender. is often referred to as the conference that divided the world into 2 blocks and the Cold war ended in 1989. Charles de Gaul was resentful that he had not been invited. Note The USSR was not given any more than what it conquered on the battlefield. 80% of German forces been defeated in Eastern Europe.
The Germans kept fighting Russia because of the relentless propaganda and sense of duty, the terror and revenge of the Soviets had a decisive influence on German motivation. In the USSR after 20 yeas of propaganda about their beautiful country , but then were shocked to see the prosperity of German cities in East Prussia and this added to their hatred of the motherland sufferings sand abuses. Russian looting was regulated to 5 kilos to a soldier and 10 for officers and what could not be transported was destroyed. It is estimated that about 2 million women were raped but it cost 600,000 Soviet soldiers lives. The scale of rape of Polish women led to a pandemic of sexually transmitted diseases. This was considered the largest mass rape in history. Abortions in Germany were illegal' till 1945.
American historian Norman Naimark. In Asian societies dishonor is repaid by raping enemy women, he also notes the Russian tendency to drink. The desire for honor and to seek revenge.
For Berlin the Soviets deployed 2.5 million men and 6,200 tanks. They also resorted to flame throwers and demolition techniques. The Tempelhof Airport was the last escape route. Many civilians died in a last final attempt to reach American lines.
1945 May 2, General Alfred ordered German troops to avoid being captured by the Soviets. Once the Wehrmack was in disarray SS officers took command of German forces. Donitz ordered naval units to put to sea before the surrender terms came into effect. Czeck troops rose up to liberate Prague before the Soviet troops arrived at the same time Americans attacked from the West and experienced no resistance.1945 9th May in Moscow a second surrender was sighned by Mashal Keitel and Zhukov.
1945 April 12th Truman became US President. Secretary of State James Byrnes was hostile to the USSR.
Till 1949 in the Ukraine anti Soviet partisans continued.
1946 till 1949 Greek Civil War
1945 Tito annexed Trieste to the resurrected Yugoslavia.
Austria was also divided into 4 parts
Nemmerdorf (now Mayakovskoye, Kaliningrad Russia) the first East Prussia centre to fall under Soviet occupation Oct1944 unarmed civilians were massacred. These reports swelled the ranks of the Volkssturm and induced civilians to withdraw to the west. Mostly it was women and children that fled and once the overland route was cut off they were evacuated by ships from Danzig and Gdynia. Men were forced to stay and pressed into the Volkssturm and then massacred by the Red Army.
1945 Jan to May. Operation Hannibal was a German naval operation involving the evacuation by sea of German troops and civilians from the Courland pocket East and West Prussia and Pomerania This was the largest maritime evacuation in history 850,000 civilian and 350,000 soldiers. These evacuation continued a wee after Germanies surrender. May 8th 1945.
Ukraine nationalist partisans were fighting the Soviets and this continued till 1949.
1945 May. Tito's partisans occupied Trieste to annex to the rest of Yugoslavia.
1946 till 1949 there was a civil war.
Austria was divided into 4 parts.
1945 April the Stalin announced he was not renewing the Japanese non aggression pact. Japan had about 800, 000 men in Manchuria. After a week the Japanese surrendered and the war ended. However the Soviet landed on the Kuril Sakhalin islands. Mass suicides were organized by the Japanese themselves in Manchuria. Japan had been defeated before the Soviets invasion and the Atomic bomb.. Japan had depended on raw materials from the Asian mainland . The Japanese navy ceased fighting as they ran out of fuel. Bomber had destroyed 69 Japanese cities. The Japanese were concerned with the fate of the Emperor if he fell into Russian hands.
Within a few years the British Empire dissolved. The US had not suffered losses on its own territory and had suffered less than any of the other powers. The Soviet had suffered the brunt of the losses 27 million people about 15% of the entire population.
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Battle of Kursk 2019 Hourly History 40 pgs. 18/1/25
The Bolsheviks brought down the Romanov Dynasty and governed with an iron fist that crusaded for the rights of workers while crushing dissent. At Stalingrad the Germans had been defeated bringing and end to the ambitions' of Operation Barbarossa.
The Battle of Kursk was the biggest Tank battle in history. The German Panzers against the Russian T34. The Germans lost 750 tanks while the Russians lost more than 6,000. The Russians had been privy to German intelligence.
Vienna was the city where Stalin , Trotsky and Bolshevik leaders hid from the Tsarist government and they met at Cafe Central near Cafe Landtsman which was where Sigmund Freud often went. Less than half of the Viennese two million residents were born there, so it was easy for foreigner to mix in.
Alexander Nevsky movie 1938. Directed by Sergei Eisenstein. The prince of Novgorod prevented the Teutonic knights from succeeding. After the Non Aggression Pact this movie was withdrawn from theaters. Stalin forced modernization selling grain abroad to finance industrialization. Russia's foreign minister who was pro western and popular and Jewish was replaced by Molotov.
1939 August Molotov- Ribbentrop Pact divided Poland into Russian and German territory.
Russia could now move into Poland and it is doubtful that they would ever leave, and now Hitler could invade Poland without opposition.
For Germany the Ukraine was a grain powerhouse and could provide her with food and captured Slavs as slaves labourers would boost German war production. After Russia was conquered the British would seek peace. The Caucasus oilfields were Germany's first priority.
The plan for the campaign was not to take the German army into the Soviet winter and so no need to provide warm cloths and winterize the vehicles.
The Soviets had undergone the Great Purge of the 1930 and many military officers had been executed. If France was defeated with such ease how could the backward Slavs hope to do. 3 million German soldiers with 3 thousand tanks crossed into the Soviet Union 6000 motor vehicles and half a million horses. In encircling Kiev captured 600,000 Russian troops. Moscow was vulnerable but winter was coming and the Russian counter attack stopped them in December.
1938 Panzerkampwagen series, these were no longer secret after this. The first ones that invaded Poland had 15mm. armor. Panzer 2 were inferior to the British and Soviet tanks but Panzer 3 had 50mm amour but was no match for the swift Soviet T34. Later the Panzer 4 in 1943 would be the main German tank and had frontal armor. of up to 80mm. The Panzer 5 known as the Panther entered combat in 1943 in the Battle of Kursk. The Panzer 6 known as Tiger and had frontal armor. of 100mm but was over 55 ton and slow and heavy.
The Russians fled eastwards and destroyed all that they never took.
The German invasion was so swift that it outran supplies and communication then in Oct 1941 temperatures dropped and there was no antifreeze for vehicles. By this time the Soviets had 5 million soldiers. A million women serving as fighter pilots, antiaircraft gunners and partisan guerillas even in the front lines.
The T34 used diesel and had 45mm front armor. These also had railings so that troops could travel on the tank and was superior to what was sent against it. The Soviets had 22,000 tanks more than the rest of the world combined 4 times as many as Germany and there was never a shortage of them for the battle of Kursk.
1943 February the Battle of Stalingrad was a turning point in the war. As the Volga froze the Soviets were able to transport soldiers and equipment into the city. Paulus and 22 of his general as well as 91,000 soldiers surrendered. Less than 6,000 of these returned home. More than 800,000 Germans were killed, wounded or missing here.
Hitler reasoned that if Russia could be defeated the alliance between Britain and America would end. Germany could not afford to be seen as weak. By summer of 1943 two thirds of Germany army was in Russia.
The Germans tried to surround Kursk in this salient from the north and south. This however was delayed from March as they were waiting for supplies. The Soviets knew months in advance about the attack location they prepared for the battle and in July the pre-emptively started an artillery's bombardment on the Germans.
The Red Army discovered that the new Tiger tanks had a weakness if hit from the sides.
1943 July the allies began invading Sicily. Within 2 weeks with the second part of the plan the Russians offensive pushed the Germans back expelling them from Kharkov to Western Ukraine. the battle of Kursk had lasted one and a half months.
The Germans suffered 200,000 casualties including 80,000 deaths and lost 750 tanks. The Soviets suffered 850,000 casualties and lost 6,000 tanks. However the blow to the German confidence was conclusive, their technological advantage could not over come the Red Army. For Russia people were expendable, not with the Germans who could not launch a new major offensive. Stalin allowed his commanders the freedom to make vital decisions on battle plans while Hitler had insisted on interfering with his generals. Kursk was the defining battle of this war.
Russians soldiers were drawn from a society and culture where suffering and pain and inflicting it were stuff of every day
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Nikita Khrushchev Hourly History2023 40 pg 16/1/25
1894 born in Kalinka close to the Ukrainian border and they moved to the Dombras region in 1908 where work was better for his father who was a labourer. He was apprenticed at the local Bosse Ironworks factory where in 1910 was involved in strikes.
1914 wedded to Yefrisubua and they had 2 children. In the civil war he was promoted to commissar of a full battalion of troops. After this war in 1921 his wife died of typhus and at the age of 30 married Nina with whom he had 3 children.
1925 was a delegate at he 14th Congress of the Communist Party and in 1928 Lazar Kaganovch the party head in Ukraine recruited his as deputy. He then followed him to Moscow . Here he became the leader of the party in the Russian capital and involved in the Moscow Metro which was completed in 1935 and received the order of Lenin. He showed complete support for Stalin's purges and almost all his friends and colleagues were killed or arrested in this period. 1937 appointed by Stalin to be party head in the Ukraine and was involved in the revision of Ukraine's history and like the Tsars tried to Russify Ukraine. They forced the Russian language but Ukraine was the breadbasket.
1939 Molotov Ribbentrop Pact. in dividing Poland with Germany. The Soviets too eastern Poland and this was a necessary evil to prevent conflict with Germany. This got territory from Poland that had once belonged to Belarus and Ukraine. Now 1.2 millions Poles were deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan.
1941 German invasion of Russia and Khrushchev was in Kiev in a desperate situation as Stalin had delayed mobilization. The city of Kiev was surrounded and abandoned the Red army had to make a desperate dash out, and abandon the city. While Stalin was out of touch in Moscow.
1942 Spring Khrushchev had 640,000 troops to fend off the German advance on Kharkov the again dashed out before encirclement at the last minute with enormous loss and thousand of soldiers taken prisoner. Despite all he was put in charge of Stalingrad as the Germans planned to drive all the way to the oil rich Caucasus. General Georgy Zhukov led Operation Uranus who outflanked the Germans beat them. In 1943 Khrushchev son Lionid was a fighter pilot and shot down, in was claimed that Leonid had turned informant and died under strange circumstances.
With the end of the war 5.3 Ukrainians had been killed and 700 towns destroyed. Ukrainian guerillas were now attacking Soviet occupying troops, some of these had supported the Germans. Ukrainian nationalism was very strong and armed resistance continued into the 1950s.
Stalin at this stage was far more interested in hosting parties than running the affairs of state. Khrushchev organized that Pravda showed that Lavrently Beria , had become a western imperialist, he was executed. Khrushchev had signed all the execution documents so could not accuse Beria of the killing. Now everything bad that happened Beria was blamed.
1957 Kaganovich, Malenkov and Molotov were actively trying to remove Khrushchev, so he gave the speech of the 20 Congress of the Communist Party condemning Stalin's brutality. Khrushchev lined up people behind him and shuffled the 3 opponents off to meaningless posts.
1957 Sputnik went into space and later Yuri Gagarin in 1961 and this showed the growing technological capability of the Soviets.
1961 Bay of Pigs a CIA disaster for the Americans to get rid of Castro's regime. Castro was aware of the plot and routed it.
1962 With U2 planes Washington knew of the nuclear missiles in Cuba. Khrushchev was forced to back down but in exchange America secretly agreed to remove missiles from Turkey, and the US pledged never to invade Cuba.
1955-56 The Sino Soviet split - this was over various ideological reasons, and Mao decided to break off relations.
With East Germans fleeing to West Germany Khrushchev decided to build the Berlin Wall
1964 Khrushchev celebrated his 70 birthday and he received the prestigious Hero of the Soviet Union and the last decade was referred to as the Great Decade. However crops were failing and agriculture was getting behind and there was underperformance of industry. Khrushchev jumped from one reform to another most of which failed to bare fruit. Khrushchev had groomed trusted Brezhnev to be his successor and Leonid Brezhnev played in his downfall. This was without bloodshed and it was quietly done. He was transferred to the Petrovo Dalneye, Moscow to a 5 bedroom house.
1966 Khrushchev began writing his memoir. Opinion on him had always been split on his decision to denounce Stalin. This was at a time that he was worried that Stalin was about to be rehabilitated.. Then in 1967 Lucy Jarvis conducted a documentary film that interviewed him. Soviet Officials warned him to cease this project. From 1968 he leaked it out abroad to the Russian corresponded of the London Evening Standard. 1969 he spoke about Stalin's entire reign. The KGB led by Yuri Andropov with increased surveillance was ready to take him down when he died of a bad heart attack in 1970. He managed to reach his 77th birthday. That year the book Khrushchev Remembers was published.
Western media sung praised for him that he brought about greater accountability was against corruption and greater freedom of thought to Soviet citizens. Pravda barely mentioned his demise.
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Panzer Destroyer: memoir of a Red Army commander. by Vasiliv Krysov 2010 300pg 30/1/25
When he started training they never had a tank for his crew. First they had at KY 15. After a year training their class was sent by train to different fronts. Bashkir national are Turkic speaking in the Caucasus. The Volga German Republic were Soviet citizens who had been there since Katherine the Great. Stalin deported them to Kazakhstan and Siberia.
In the tank they all learned each other role. Russian forces were retreating along the whole front. In battle they tossed a smoke grenade, to hide behind so that the could check on the engine. Junker planes flew over in squadrons of 30. In Nov they closed in on Stalingrad and when they were hit and the tank caught on fire they escaped via the floor hatch, if they came out the turret they would have been shot.
They were wearing winter garb, valenki (felt boots), quilted pants, quilted jackets ,underneath greatcoats with fur lined tankist helmets. Later he changed from being a tankist to commanding a S122 in a self propelled howitzer regiment. With enough of medium to heavy of these in defense it was difficult for the enemy to break through
1943 June they were transferred to Kursk. Here the Germans were using Nebelwerfer rocket launches.
Ossetian are Christians in Russia north of Georgia. The 122nn howitzer could penetrate the Tiger armor. General Rokossovshy was the Central Front Commander. Ponyri. was a big battle in the battle of Kursk. Russian Il 2 planes fought in this.
Russian soldiers would only abandon a tank if it was on fire so so badly damaged it could not shoot or move, otherwise they could be charged for cowardice. The equipment was valued more than the men inside. If you could hit the Tiger under the turret it jammed this and it lost the ability to turn. The Tiger would then throw out a smoke grenade turn around and retreat.
The Russians had dogs trained to go under German tanks and blow them up. This did not always work as the were trained using tanks that looked like German ones but Russian tanks smelt of diesel and German ones smelt of petrol. The Germans learned to shoot the dogs.
One tank they had a Udmurt a Kazakh , an Uzbek and a Ukrainian. Only educated men of other nationalities who spoke Russian well were recruited into the armored corps as they had to think in Russian.
After action you had to take care of the vehicle, refuel , clean components and weapons and check the electrical contacts.
They had lice but unlike with the infantry they were not widespread. Here they would discard underwear and try get clean underwear if it was replaced by army issue. The front line has its own rules and military hierarchy doesn't exist. Front line fraternity. Each man knew that the others would fight for his like to the very end. at motionless target become enemy prey.
1943 Dnieper River Battles A 12 year old boy crawled up to their battery from Sal'noya and told them that his family had been killed by the Germans 3 weeks earlier. He informed them that there were large building where the Germans were storing ammunition. They moved their guns to a high point fired 2 well placed shots and quickly returned. The enemy depots burned all night.
To hide from dive bombers the went into a hemp field which was similar color to the armored vehicles. At this stage the replacements were new Russian recruits of 17 years old.
The Russian forces defeated the Germans at Konotop , Ukraine so quickly that the Germans did not have time to blow up the communications centre railway station or pumphouse. They found a German military cemetery with graves in straight lines and crosses on each individual grave.. Russian soldiers were buried in common graves or 20 or even 30 bodies just thrown in.
1943 Nov Kiev. They sent the convoy of tanks , vehicles north at night with darkened lights while at the same time a convey of tractors was sent south with all lights on. When a river was crossed on a ferry you had to be out of the vehicle. In one case a ferry capsized and they managed to rescue someone trapped in a truck. Overt displays of religion were officially banned. Before the war 80% of the population were peasants with there various superstitions.
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The Gun that Changed the World 152pp 2003 23/9/15
by Mikhail Kalashnikov (Author), Andrew Brown (Translator), Elena Joly (Contributor)
Born in Kunya 1919 died 2013 Not a well written book but easy reading
This is the story about the designer of the gun that changed the world. The AK 47 is on the flag of Mozambique and Hezbollah. Saddam Hussein had a gold plated one. The inventor never had a patent on it and did it for patriotic reasons. You get the accurate single bullet rifle still used today by snipers and then the machine gun which is heavy. This combines both and is light and doesn’t jam with dust or mud.
His parents were Kulak's that were deported to Tomsk in Siberia and made a living by farming and hunting thus he learned to use his father's rifle. He returned to their village and became a tractor mechanic, then a tank mechanic and tank commander when conscripted to the army in 1938
Automat Kalashnikov 1947 AK47.
Luckily the engineer around him saw the value of his ideas, then competition, then improvements then meeting the big people in the field. His moving from one factory and agency to another and finally settling where his rifle was manufactured. It strikes one that something that the state wants somehow progresses but privately designed products for consumption have no hope of advancement. It also means that the development of something like that cost more that in a free market society. Certain weird thing that the prototypes that were developed were destroyed instead of being kept as research samples. Later when Russia opened up he met the important weapons designer like Stoner of the F16 and Uzi Gal who lived in the States. Over the years he met many of the Russian leaders. The end of the book also describes the break down of the USSR into the mess it is today. The inequality and the lack of purpose for the younger generation. "I sleep well it is the politicians that fail to come to an agreement"
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