RUSSIA AT WAR
1941  1945
The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union
Dedicated to
The Blessed Memory of Those Millions of
Valiant Men, Women, Children and Old People
Who Gave Their Lives in the Sacred Fighting for
The Freedom and Independence of Our Motherland
During the Great Patriotic War in 1941 - 1945
Our Cause Is Right
The Enemy Will Be Smashed
Victory Will Be Ours!
Наше Дело Правое
Враг Будет Разбит
Победа Будет За Нами!
A PARADE OF GRIM DETERMINATION
In the louring morning of 7th November 1941, with the enemy having already approached Moscow at a distance of only 15 miles, nevertheless, Stalin did intrepidly take a military parade in the Red Square as usual to celebrate the 24th anniversary of the Great Revolution.
Having learnt of Stalin's speech broadcast during the parade, Hitler was infuriated with Russia's sturdy defiance. Evidently, the Führer and his hangmen did not realize that nothing on earth could daunt Russians. (M. Kuznetsov)
OPERATION BARBAROSSA:
A PART OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR
Operation Barbarossa (German: "Unternehmen Barbarossa") was the codename for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that commenced on June 22, 1941. The operation was named after the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa of the Holy Roman Empire, a leader of the Crusades in the 12th century: according to Nazi ideology the conquest of 'inferior races' was similarly righteous.
It is not to be confused with the war on the Eastern Front in its entirety. Operation Barbarossa lasted from June 1941 to December 1941, while the war on the Eastern Front – called by the Russian people The Great Patriotic War – lasted from June 1941 to May 1945 when the Germans surrendered.
The original German goal was the rapid conquest of the European part of the Soviet Union, west of a line connecting the cities of Arkhangelsk and Astrakhan, often referred to as the AA line. The failure of Operation Barbarossa arguably resulted in the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany, and was a turning point for the fortunes of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.
Operation Barbarossa opened up the Eastern Front, which ultimately became the biggest theatre of war in human history, with some of the largest and most brutal battles, deadliest atrocities, terrible loss of life and miserable conditions for Soviets and Germans alike.
The World's History has irrefutably proved it more than once – that any other potential "conqueror of the world" is always doomed to disgraceful failure after he dares to assault Russia.
This given, it remains rather a great daze for us Russians to comprehend why such losers as Napoléon and Hitler might have ever been reputed "great warlords" by some western historians, while the decisive rôle of those real great warlords who inflicted a formidable defeat upon the aggressors – Field Marshal Michael I. Kutuzov in 1812 and, accordingly, Marshal of the Soviet Union Joseph V. Stalin in 1945 – have been deliberately depreciated by the same historians.
THE SLAVIC PARTING
Such godless scum as Napoleon and Hitler moronicly fancied that they could have ever conquered Holy Russia. It was only wishful thinking on their part.
Because we Russians are invincible while the Lord God is with us!
All of the rabid murderous jackals who whenever try to invade Holy Russia become doomed to a dire derout since the very moment they dare make the first step trespassing our sacred borders.
Under the heavenly protection of our most Holy, most Pure, most Blessed and Glorious Lady, the Birth-giver of God, and Ever-Virgin Mary, my country has always been, is and will remain invincible for ever. Amen! (M. Kuznetsov)
THE LAST RESORT:
A BUNCH OF GRENADES
It was only our inborn sense of duty, self-sacrifice and dauntless courage that helped us Russians to withstand the dire German onslaught during the first several months of the war. It must be openly admitted that in the beginning of the Great Patriotic War the German Wehrmacht was actually stronger than the then Red Army.
Hitler's generals initially were more competent in the science of warfare, and German troops proved to be initially more skillful in tactics than Russian soldiers. Yet the principal difference between us and our enemies has always been the fact that
we Russians would study quickly and eventually we would exceed our "teachers". (M. Kuznetsov)
THE BRITISH HISTORIAN'S BATTLE OF KURSK
OR THE NAZISM THAT CAME FROM THE WEST
By Alexander Krylov
9 May 2007
Certain noteworthy tendencies keep surfacing in the British and US historical studies of WWII during the last several years. Until recently, the US and British scholars focused mainly on the events related to the Western Front, e.g.: the Battle of El Alamein, the Normandy Invasion, the Ardennes Offensive, etc. There was a reason behind their emphasizing the significance of the operations carried out by the Western allies – this approach created the false impression among the general public that Germany was defeated by the US and Great Britain. Amazingly enough, in some cases there were found schoolchildren in Great Britain and the US who believed even that Russia had been Germany’s ally in World War Two.  #2
This interpretation of history became canonical in the West from the very beginning of the Cold War, from the time when, adhering to a kind of “class approaching”, Winston Churchill denigrated the crucial contribution of the Red Army to the victory over fascist Germany in his memoirs.
ОГОНЬ!
FIRE!
My grandfather was an artilleryman. He beat Germans bravely in 1914 – 1918, and then he beat them again even more bravely and fiercely in 1941 – 1945.
All of my grandparents, as well as their siblings and children, defended our Motherland with the utmost self-sacrifice and valour. I am very proud of my ancestors. They were true heroes. (M. Kuznetsov)
STALIN'S ARTILLERY WAS
THE BEST IN THE WORLD
Later on, the Western historical thinking was largely influenced by the writings of former fascist officers who were employed to process the Nazi military archives, and by numerous memoirs left by the Wehrmacht generals. As a rule, the authors of this kind tended to justify themselves and the German army on the whole, presenting it as a purely professional entirety separate from Hitler or any ideology. The reminiscences of Hitler’s dogs of war also reflected a lot of their caste arrogance and hurt pride, which further distorted the picture of the recent past. On the other hand, the memoirs of the Soviet military and political leadership typically failed to serve as a scholar and ideological “counterbalance” opposing the flow of literature written by former Hitlerites. The war-time recollections published in the USSR were subject to an ideological censorship so severe that oftentimes they lost any value as sources of historical knowledge.
The first attempts to assess in a more realistic way the respective roles of the Eastern and Western Fronts were made in the West nearly 30 years after the end of World War Two. John Erickson, a British historian, was among the first to move in this direction – in his books “The Road to Stalingrad” (1975) and “The Road to Berlin” (1983), he demonstrated the magnitude of the actual contribution of the Eastern Front to the rout of fascist Germany. Next, David M. Glantz, a US military historian, wrote several books about the war on the Russian front. In 1989-2006, he published 16 works including "When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler."
HOLD ON, BROTHER!
OUR HEROICAL RUSSIAN WOMEN
WERE INDISPENSABLE BOTH IN ACTION ON THE FRONT LINE
AND ON THE HOME FRONT
My grandmother was a military medical officer. She used to treat not only Russian wounded soldiers, but also German prisoners of war.
Out of my grandmother's five brothers, three gave their lives in the sacred fighting for the independence and liberty of our Motherland, and only two of them returned home heroes. Or rather they returned to the ruins that had remained of the once thriving town where their home used to be before the war. (M. Kuznetsov)
DURING THE WAR SOVIET MEDICAL CORPS
BROUGHT BACK TO THE ACTIVE SERVICE
71% OF THE WOUNDED AND 91% OF THE SICK
Hundreds of works by British and US scholars focused on various particular aspects of the operations on the Eastern Front such as the treatment of the prisoners of war, the war-time ethnic purges, the role of NKVD - i.e. the Soviet Ministry (then Commissariat) of the Interior, the economy and the food supplies, etc. Those publications were not meant for mass audience. Therefore, for decades the perceptions of mass readers in Great Britain and the US were shaped primarily by the memoirs left by W. Churchill and other Western statesmen, who presented the Western Front as the main theatre of WWII. This traditional assessment started to erode only during the recent years. In this respect, “Europe at War 1939-1945: No Simple Victory” by Norman Davies, a British historian, had played a special role.
Norman Davies is a popular author in Great Britain and the US, and justly so. He became famous after the publication of “The Isles. A history” (1999), an extensive and captivating treatise on the British past. His “Europe. A History” (1996) and “Europe at War 1939-1945: No Simple Victory” (2006) were no less successful. In the latter book, Davies clearly, and with the emotionality untypical of a British scholar, condemns the pathological narcissism of the US. He finds especially harsh words for those US authors who continue stupidly to convince their countrymen that it was the US who stopped fascism and ultimately defeated Hitler.
WESTWARD!
My father was a bomber pilot. He had been bombing the German invaders from the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War in June 1941 through to the hard-won Great and Glorious Victory over Nazi Germany in May 1945. He proved to be a real hero. I am very proud of him.
Every member of my family – men and women, and even teenagers who could bear arms – fought the damned Nazis fiercely defending our Motherland. I am very proud of my dauntless forebears. Two thirds of them fell in action and never saw the Victory Day. (M. Kuznetsov)
THE SOVIET AVIATION
BECAME THE BEST IN THE WORLD
According to Norman Davies, fighting went on between 400 German and Soviet divisions on the Eastern Front for four years. The front itself spanned 1,600 km. In the meantime, the fighting on the Western Front involved 15-20 divisions at most. The German army suffered 88% of its casualties on the Eastern Front. It was the Soviet troops who broke the will and the capacity of the German army to carry out massive front offensives in 1943. The Battle of Kursk – that is the name historians must remember! Norman Davies writes that the key role of the Soviet army in WWII will be so obvious to future historians that they will merely credit the US and Great Britain with providing a vitally important support.
Nevertheless, discussing the crucial contribution of the Red Army to the triumph over fascism, Norman Davies fails to avoid the invariable ideological cliche concerning the “clash of the two totalitarianisms”: in his view, the most bestial regime in the history of Europe was crushed not by democracies, but by another bestial regime. In other words, a tyrant got defeated by a tyrant.
Recognizing the decisive contribution of the Soviet Union to the victory in WWII, Norman Davies ignores entirely the fact that German Nazism, which historical Russia, then in its USSR incarnation, crushed in 1941-1945, was an extremely aggressive and inhuman product of the Western civilization. At the same time, N. Davies acknowledges the personal role of Stalin in the victory of Russians. Geoffrey Roberts, another historian, concurs with this view. In his “Stalin’s Wars. From World War to Cold War, 1939-1953”, he writes that rising from the ashes after so many mistakes and leading the country to the greatest victory was an incomparable triumph, and that the world was saved for democracies by Stalin.
The truth is that the world was saved by the Russian people, led by Stalin’s genius. Stalin admitted this in 1945 – in his toast “to the Russian people” during a reception for the Red Army commanders in the Kremlin. For Russians, this war will always be Great and Patriotic, as well as holy, since for our people it was a deadly fight against the absolute evil – the Nazism that came from the West.
RUSSIA AT WAR 1941 - 1945
Victory!
Head of the Soviet State
Generalissimo Joseph V. Stalin
It was Marshal Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (Generalissimo since June 27, 1945), the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army, who led the Soviet Union through the Great Patriotic War (1941 - 1945) to the hard-won Victory.
The Great Victory in May 1945 was achieved in glorious military alliance with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and the United States of America, over the juggernaut of the so-called Axis: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Militarist Japan, and their satellites: Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Finland, and Bulgaria. The Axis states were supported by all the manpower, industry and resources of almost all Continental Europe, North Africa, and South-East Asia under their control.
But it was we who won with God's help!
OUR CAUSE IS RIGHT
THE ENEMY IS SMASHED
VICTORY IS OURS!
Victory!
God is with us!
Berlin in May 1945:
The Reichstag captured
Nazist Germany is prostrated
Holy Russia has proved invincible!
MARSHAL STALIN'S ORDER OF THE DAY
Moscow, May 1, 1945
Comrades Red Armymen and Red Navymen!
Sergeants and Non-commissioned Officers, Officers of the Army and Navy!
Generals and Admirals!
Working people of the Soviet Union!
Today our country is celebrating May First – the international holiday of the
working people. This year the peoples of our Motherland are celebrating May Day
in the conditions of the victorious termination of the Great Patriotic War.
The hard times, when the Red Army fought back the enemy troops at Moscow and
Leningrad, at Grozny and Stalingrad, are gone, never to return. Now our
victorious troops are battering the enemy's armed forces in the center of
Germany, far beyond Berlin, on the Elbe River.
Within a short time Poland, Hungary, the greater part of Czechoslovakia, a
considerable part of Austria and her capital, Vienna, have been liberated. At
the same time the Red Army has captured East Prussia – spearhead of German
imperialism, Pomerania, the greater part of Brandenburg, and the main districts
of Germany's capital, Berlin, having hoisted the banner of victory over Berlin.
As a result of these offensive battles fought by the Red Army, within three
or four months the Germans lost over 800,000 officers and men in prisoners and
about one million killed. During the same period, Red Army troops captured or
destroyed up to 6,000 enemy airplanes, up to 12,000 tanks and self-propelled
guns, over 23,000 field guns, and enormous quantities of other armaments and
equipment.
Two hundred captive German military banners and standards were chosen out of many, and prepared to be flung down at the Victors' feet during the Great Victory Parade in the sacred Red Square in Moscow on the 24th of June 1945
It should be noted that in these battles, Polish, Yugoslav, Czechoslovak,
Bulgarian and Rumanian divisions successfully advanced against the common enemy
side by side with the Red Army.
As a result of the Red Army's shattering blows, the German command was
compelled to transfer dozens of divisions to the Soviet-German front, baring
whole sectors on the other fronts. This circumstance helped the forces of our
Allies to develop a successful offensive in the West.
Thus by simultaneous blows at the German troops from East and West, the
troops of the Allies and the Red Army were able to split the German forces into
two isolated parts and to effect a junction of ours and the Allied troops in a
united front. There can be no doubt that this circumstance means the end of
Hitlerite Germany.
The days of Hitlerite Germany are numbered. More than half her territory is
occupied by the Red Army and by the troops of our Allies. Germany has lost her
most important vital districts. The industry remaining in the Hitlerites' hands
cannot supply the German army with sufficient quantities of armaments,
ammunition and fuel. The manpower reserves of the German army are depleted.
Germany is completely isolated and stands alone, if one does not count her
ally – Japan.
In search of a way out of their hopeless plight, the Hitlerite adventurers
resort to all kinds of tricks, down to flirting with the Allies in an effort to
cause dissension in the Allied camp. These fresh knavish tricks of the
Hitlerites are doomed to utter failure. They can only accelerate the
disintegration of the German troops.
The mendacious fascist propaganda intimidates the German population by absurd
tales alleging that the Armies of the United Nations wish to exterminate the
German people. The United Nations do not set themselves the task of destroying
the German people. The United Nations will destroy fascism and German
militarism, will severely punish the war criminals, and will compel the Germans
to compensate the damage they caused to other countries. But the United Nations
do not molest and will not molest Germany's peaceful population if it modestly
fulfills the demands of the Allied military authorities.
The brilliant victories won by Soviet troops in the Great Patriotic War have
demonstrated the heroic might of the Red Army and its high military skill. In
the progress of the war our Motherland has acquired a first-rate regular army,
capable of upholding the great socialist achievements of our people and of
securing the State interests of the Soviet Union. Despite the fact that the
Soviet Union for four years has been waging a war on an unparalleled scale
demanding colossal expenditures, our socialist economic system is gaining
strength and developing, while the economy of the liberated regions, plundered
and ruined by the German invaders, is successfully and swiftly reviving. This is
the result of the heroic efforts of the workers and collective farmers, of the
Soviet intellectuals, of the women and youth of our country, inspired and guided
by the great Bolshevik Party.
The World War unleashed by the German imperialists is drawing to a close. The
collapse of Hitlerite Germany is a matter of the nearest future. The Hitlerite
ringleaders who imagined themselves the rulers of the world have found
themselves ruined. The mortally wounded fascist beast is breathing his last. One
thing is now required – to deal the death blow to the fascist beast.
Soldiers of the Red Army and Navy! The last storming of the Hitlerite den is
on. Set new examples of military skill and gallantry in the concluding battles.
Smite the enemy more heavily, skillfully break up his defense, pursue and
surround the German invaders, give them no respite until they cease resistance.
When beyond the border of your native land, be especially vigilant! Uphold the
honor and dignity of the Soviet soldier as heretofore!
Working people of the Soviet Union! By persistent and indefatigable work,
increase the all-round assistance to the front. Swiftly heal the wounds
inflicted on the country by the war, raise still higher the might of our Soviet
State!
The triumph of good over evil. 200 captured Nazi banners were tilted down in dishonour in the Red Square, Moscow
Comrades Red Army men and Red Navy men, sergeants and petty officers,
officers of the Army and Navy, generals and admirals! Working people of the
Soviet Union! On behalf of the Soviet Government and of our Bolshevik Party I
greet and congratulate you on May First!
In honor of the historic victories of the Red Army at the front and of the
great achievements of the workers, collective farmers and intellectuals in the
rear, to mark the international holiday of working people, I hereby order:
Today, on May First, a salute of twenty artillery salvos shall be fired in
the capitals of the Union Republics: Moscow, Kiev, Minsk, Baku, Tbilisi, Erevan,
Ashkhabad, Tashkent, Stalinabad, Alma-Ata, Frunze, Petrozavodsk, Kishinev,
Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn, as well as in the hero cities of Leningrad,
Stalingrad, Sevastopol and Odessa.
Long live our mighty Soviet Motherland!
Long live the great Soviet people – the Victor people!
Long live the victorious Red Army and Navy!
Eternal glory to the heroes who fell in the battles for the freedom and
independence of our Motherland!
Forward to the final rout of Hitlerite Germany!
(Signed) Supreme Commander-in-Chief,
Marshal of the Soviet Union,
JOSEPH STALIN
Captive German military banners and standards are being flung down in dishonour at the Victors' feet after the Great Victory Parade in the Red Square in Moscow on the 24th of June 1945
STALIN'S ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE
Moscow, May 9, 1945
Comrades!
Fellow countrymen and countrywomen!
The great day of victory over Germany has arrived. Fascist Germany, forced to her knees by the Red Army and the troops of our Allies, has admitted defeat and has announced her unconditional surrender.
On May 7 a preliminary act of surrender was signed in Rheims. On May 8, in Berlin, representatives of the German High Command, in the presence of representatives of the Supreme Command of the Allied troops and of the Supreme Command of the Soviet troops, signed the final act of surrender, which came into effect at 24 hours on May 8.
Knowing the wolfish habits of the German rulers who regard treaties and agreements as scraps of paper, we have no grounds for accepting their word. Nevertheless, this morning, the German troops, in conformity with the act of surrender, began en masse to lay down their arms and surrender to our troops. This is not a scrap of paper. It is the actual capitulation of the armed forces of Germany. True, one group of German troops in the region of Czechoslovakia still refuses to surrender, but I hope the Red Army will succeed in bringing it to its senses.
We now have full grounds for saying that the historic day of the final defeat of Germany, the day of our people's great victory over German imperialism, has arrived.
The great sacrifices we have made for the freedom and independence of our country, the incalculable privation and suffering our people have endured during the war, our intense labours in the rear and at the front, laid at the altar of our motherland, have not been in vain; they have been crowned by complete victory over the enemy. The ago-long struggle of the Slavonic peoples for their existence and independence has ended in victory over the German aggressors and German tyranny.
Henceforth, the great banner of the freedom of the peoples and peace between the peoples will fly over Europe.
Three years ago Hitler publicly stated that his task included the dismemberment of the Soviet Union and the severance from it of the Caucasus, the Ukraine, Byelorussia, the Baltic and other regions. He definitely said: "We shall destroy Russia so that she shall never be able to rise again." This was three years ago. But Hitler's insane ideas were fated to remain unrealized – the course of the war scattered them to the winds like dust. Actually, the very opposite of what the Hitlerites dreamed of in their delirium occurred. Germany is utterly defeated. The German troops are surrendering. The Soviet Union is triumphant, although it has no intention of either dismembering or destroying Germany.
Comrades! Our Great Patriotic War has terminated in our complete victory. The period of war in Europe has closed. A period of peaceful development has been ushered in. Congratulations on our victory, my dear fellow countrymen and countrywomen!
Glory to our heroic Red Army, which upheld the independence of our country and achieved victory over the enemy!
Glory to our great people, the Victor people!
Eternal glory to the heroes who fell fighting the enemy and who gave their lives for the freedom and happiness of our people!
Marshal Georgy Zhukov
Marshal Zhukov and Marshal Rokossovsky
At the Great Victory Parade in the Red Square in Moscow
24 June 1945
STALIN'S SPEECH
AT THE RECEPTION IN THE KREMLIN
IN HONOUR OF
THE COMMANDERS OF THE RED ARMY
Moscow, May 24, 1945
Comrades, permit me to propose another toast, the last one.
I would like to propose that we drink to the health of the Soviet people, and primarily of the Russian people. (Loud and prolonged applause and cheers.)
I drink primarily to the health of the Russian people because it is the most outstanding of all the nations that constitute the Soviet Union.
I drink to the health of the Russian people, because, during this war, it has earned universal recognition as the guiding force of the Soviet Union among all the peoples of our country.
I drink to the health of the Russian people, not only because it is the leading people, but also because it is
gifted with a clear mind, a staunch character and patience.
Our government committed no few mistakes; at times our position was desperate, as in 1941-42, when our army was retreating, abandoning our native villages and towns in the Ukraine, Byelorussia, Moldavia, the Leningrad Region, the Baltic Region and the Karelo-Finnish Republic, abandoning them because there was no other alternative. Another people might have said to the government: "You have not come up to our expectations. Get out. We shall appoint another government, which will conclude peace with Germany and ensure tranquillity for us".
But the Russian people did not do that, for they were confident that the policy their government was pursuing was correct; and they made sacrifices in order to ensure the defeat of Germany. And this confidence which the Russian people displayed in the Soviet Government proved to be the decisive factor which ensured our historic victory over the enemy of mankind, over fascism.
I thank the Russian people for this confidence!
To the health of the Russian people! (Loud and prolonged applause.)
Marshal Stalin on the Mausoleum
At the Great Victory Parade in the Red Square in Moscow
24 June 1945
German Captured Banners Flung Down In Dishonour
At the Great Victory Parade in the Red Square in Moscow
24 June 1945
STALIN'S PRE-ELECTION SPEECH
WHY WE EMERGED VICTORIOUS
IN THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR
Moscow, February 9, 1946
Our victory means, first of all, that our Soviet social order has triumphed, that the Soviet social order has successfully passed the ordeal in the fire of war and has proved its unquestionable vitality. [...]
[...] The point now is that the Soviet social order has shown itself more stable and capable of enduring than a non-Soviet social order, that the Soviet social order is a form of organisation, a society superior to any non-Soviet social order. [...]
Of course, victory cannot be achieved without gallantry. But gallantry alone is not enough to vanquish an enemy who has a large army, first-class armaments, well-trained officer cadres, and a fairlygood organisation of supplies. To meet the blow of such an enemy, to repulse him and then to inflict utter defeat upon him required, in addition to the matchless gallantry of our troops, fully up-to-date armaments and adequate quantities of them as well as well-organised supplies in sufficient quantities.
But that, in turn, necessitated having – and in adequate amounts – such elementary things as metal for the manufacture of armaments, equipment and machinery for factories, fuel to keep the factories and transport going, cotton for the manufacture of uniforms, and grain for supplying the Army.
Can it be claimed that before entering the Second World War our country already commanded the necessary minimum material potentialities for satisfying all these requirements in the main? I think it can. In order to prepare for this tremendous jib we had to carry out three Five-Year Plans of national economic development. It was precisely these three Five-Year Plans that helped us to create these material potentialities. At any rate, our country's position in this respect before the Second World War, in 1940, was several times better than it was before the First World War, in 1913. [...]
Such an unprecedented increase in production cannot be regarded as the simple and usual development of a country from backwardness to progress.
It was a leap by which our Motherland was transformed from a backward into an advanced country, from an agrarian into an industrial country. [...]
By what policy did the Communist Party succeed in providing these material potentialities in the country in such a short time?
First of all, by the Soviet policy of industrializing the country.
The Soviet method of industrialising the country differs radically from the capitalist method of industrialisation. In capitalist countries industrialisation usually begins with light industry. [...]
[...] Naturally, the Communist Party could not take this course. The Party knew that a war was looming, that the country could not be defended without heavy industry, that the development of heavy industry must be undertaken as soon as possible, that to be behind with this would mean to lose out. The Party remembered Lenin's words to the effect that without heavy industry it would be impossible to uphold the country's independence, that without it the Soviet order might perish.
Accordingly, the Communist Party of our country rejected the "usual" course of industrialisation and began the work of industrialising the country by developing heavy industry. It was very difficult, but not impossible. A valuable aid in this work was the nationalisation of industry and banking, which made possible the rapid accumulation and transfer of funds to heavy industry.
COLD WAR ...
WHAT COLD WAR?
Since the end of WWII the Americans used to suffer from the "Duck & Cover" idiotic drills generated by the notorious silly "Red Scare" paranoia.
To find more about the "Duck & Cover" drills click on the right picture.
At the same time we Russians used to live a tranquil life, being busy restoring to life our beloved country after the dire war, and considering the US, Britain, and France to be our Combat Allies.
We Russians used to be concerned little, if at all, about the so-called "Cold War". We had never had anything like the ridiculous "Duck & Cover" paranoic drills, or any other moronism of the kind. We had never had either fear or hatred, because we did NOT consider the West to be our enemy.
Evidence?
Below is shown a HUGE BRONZE MONUMENT erected in the center of Moscow, the capital city of Russia, to commemorate our Russian Red Army combat fraternity with the American, British, and the Free French forces.
I don't think that a memorial like this could have been erected in honour of one's enemy. Of course, people would always make monuments to be dedicated to their friends, not foes.
WE REMEMBER OUR COMBAT FRATERNITY
WITH THE AMERICAN, BRITISH AND FRENCH WARRIORS
The Great Patriotic War Memorial Complex
on the Poklonnaya Gora Hill in Moscow
In the forefront:
a Monument to the Anti-Hitlerite Coalition Countries
The Monument to the Anti-Hitlerite Coalition Countries
erected in the center of Moscow, the Russia's capital city:
The Victorious Allies, Brothers-in-Arms
the French, the Russian, the American and the British Soldier
I wonder if there is any monument like this
anywhere in Washington, New York, London, or Paris?
THE FAMOUS MEETING ON THE ELBE RIVER
On April 25, 1945 Soviet and US forces linked up near Torgau, Germany, on the Elbe river.
The historic Elbe link-up involved advanced units of the 58-th Guards rifle division serving with the First Ukrainian front's Fifth Guards Army and the First US Army's 69-th infantry division.
The 3 rubles Russian coin
issued in 1995 to commemorate the famous meeting
of the Soviet and US forces on the 25th of April 1945
on the Elbe river, near Torgau, Germany
The Victorious Allies, Brothers-in-Arms:
Soviet and US soldiers in the street of a German town
RUSSIAN VICTORIES
IN THE WORLD'S HISTORY
Why Operation Barbarossa Was Doomed to Fail
MEET THE RUSSIANS
The Russians: Who Are We?
Part One
By Michael Kuznetsov
We all, both the Russians and the Westerners, live in a virtual world of myths and stereotypes widely circulating within our societies regarding other nations, the neighbours' history, their mindset and intentions. This fancy world of delusions has been built up mainly by the mass media, then percieved through the prism of each nation's own historically determined world-view, and finally entagled with the specific national mindset in every given moment of history.
The determination to create this webpage came into my mind rather long ago. The main reason for that was my gradual coming to the understanding of a very strange fact, which I discovered, that the Western public had had quite a vague idea not only about our Russian way of life, our habits and customs, but even of what we Russians look like.
I believe that to comprehend the Russian ethnical character and peculiarities is vitally important for the West so that to better understand Russia's foreign and domestic policy, as well as to predict Russia's steps, views, approaches and reactions.
I must emphasize here also that the Russians (as a distinct ethnos) constitute the overwhelming majority in our native country, there being about 116 million of Russians, i.e. 82 per cent out of the total 142 million strong multi-ethnic population of the Russian Federation. Plus another 25 million of the Russians living now in the "Near Abroad".
Thus, it should be noted that when I use the term "Russians" here I mean the Russians as an ethnos, to the contrary of the Western understanding of the same word as "all people living in, belonging to, or coming from, Russia."
By the way, to the trivial question which used to be so sensitive for us some fifteen years ago: If we Russians are Europeans or not, at the present time I can absolutely definitely say that we are not Europeans.
Praise be to God, we are Russians!
One may ask: Why is there a priest portrayed in the photo above, and a Russian couple during the Orthodox wedding, in the right photo?
For two reasons: First, they have absolutely typical Russian features; second, to be a Russian, in fact, means to be an Othodox Christian.
Since 989 A.D. we Russians have been keeping our One Holy Orthodox Faith inviolate and undamaged for the last millennium.
So, these photos seem to be quite relevant here to represent typical Russian faces.
Now, let's talk a little about a usual expession of countenance that we can see on Russian faces, particularly in public places, on the transport, in the street, etc.
Since we do rarely grin in public, if ever, most of the Westerners tend to call us stolid, even sullen.
Not at all.
From the average Russian's point of view the faces in the pictures above look very friendly, quietly confident, and contemplative. There is absolutely no bad mood, nor angry on them. We Russians do not like to shout or talk too loudly in the street because we respect the people around us, and we do not want them to be disturbed. We do not grin broadly in public without any evident cause, lest the others consider us to be drunk or crazy.
Surely, there is no tinge of timidity in all that being outwardly restrained – simply put, we prefer staid behaviour and composed manners.
Perhaps, a good term for all this would be: a state of EUPATHY.
Many of my Western friends used to tell me that they would smile automatically every time when the camera would be pointed at them.
Although, not every time, as we can notice...
Look at these brave American soldiers depicted on the TIME 2003 Person of the Year cover. They are not smiling. Why? Evidently because they feel the seriousness of the moment, and that their usual broad smiling would hardly be appropriate here.
We Russians feel the same seriousness all of the time, not at a certain moment. Probably, this is because the striking difference between our countries is that America is lucky to be spared invasions. No single enemy's boot has ever trod upon the American soil, and no single enemy's bomb was ever dropped from the sky on the American children.
The Americans do not know what is a Real War.
We Russians do.
And thank God for all things.
The Russian Character:
Intrepidity, Commiseration, Perspicacity
Now I would like to dwell on some peculiarities of the Russians. Everything is cognized in comparison. Having examined a huge lot of information, such as innumerable western mass media publications on the Internet, as well as private blogs, travelogues and essays about Russia, I have learnt to discern the main differences between the West and my country.
INTREPIDITY
The first special trait of the Russian national character to be mentioned, in my opinion, is
INTREPIDITY. This means that we have never been daunted, nor we are intimidated by, nor afraid of anything or anyone, but the Lord God.
Otherwise, we would have not elementarily survived through all the invasions, bloody struggles, disasters and tribulations during our millennium-long history. Moreover, in my opinion, FEAR is not at all the proper word if applied to Russia. When we Russians are in danger, I would rather use the terms INDIGNATION, DETERMINATION and DEFIANCE, but never FEAR.
Indeed, fear is the mind-killer and leads to immediate defeat, while Russia has always emerged victorious.
Recently, when browsing on the Internet and breaking through lots of lies and insinuations about my country, I found a remarkably stupid posting, the key phrase of which expressed in full measure all of the author's imbecility. It read: "
Stalin won (in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945, M.K.) because his soldiers were way more afraid of the NKVD than the Nazis".
When I was reading that sheer codswallop – I laughed until I cried!
It is deplorable, however, that the author of the said inane article – a "War Nerd" as he calls himself – seems to be unable even to imagine such an obvious thing that we Russians do always fiercely fight against whatever enemy because we follow the dictates of our heart to defend the native country.
Not out of fear, stupid!
A REST AFTER BATTLE
Look at these dauntless Russian warriors:
only a complete idiot could suppose that the Russians
– the bravest of the brave soldiers in the world –
might have performed their heroic exploits and
have smashed the formidable German Wehrmacht
simply out of fear of the Stalin's NKVD. Ridiculous!
Don't be mistaken: The Red Army soldiers esteemed and trusted their Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Marshal Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, who resolutely led them forward to the Great Victory.
Alexander Werth, a Sunday Times war correspondent and BBC commentator wrote: "Stalin is modest and talks low, with few gestures. In public speeches he uses notes for data material only. He is not an exciting speaker, but makes each word count ... His greatest qualities are perseverance and cool judgement of men and things."
Said Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, who met Stalin at the Teheran conference in 1943: "Most of us, before we met him, thought he was a bandit leader who had pushed himself to the top of his government. That impression was wrong. We knew at once that we were dealing with a highly intelligent man. . ."
Said President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States: "Altogether, Marshal Stalin is quite impressive, I'd say."
Said Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill of Great Britain: "Stalin left upon me an impression of deep, cool wisdom and absence of illusions," added that he had "a very captivating manner when he chooses . . . "
President of the United States Harry S. Truman noted in his diary: "I can deal with Stalin," who is "honest – but smart as hell." Others agreed, among them Eisenhower, Leahy, Harriman, and Byrnes.
To say the truth, the overwhelming majority of the Soviet people were not afraid of Stalin. Many loved and esteemed him, while some were in awe of him, true. All those false scary tales about the 'bloody maniac' and those mythical 'tens of millions of his innocent victims' – the fables deliberately concocted to demonize Stalin – were generated by the Cold War western propaganda, as well as by Nikita Khruschev's smear campaign against Stalin. We are going to discuss this topic in full detail later elsewhere on this website.
Meanwhile, I would like only to quote now one American (sic!) woman in this regard:
"Stalin was not just Russia's leader (or dictator), Stalin was Russia's Father. ... He was a leader when Russia needed him most; he was not the greatest battle strategist, but Stalin was what unified the country in order to survive the Great Patriotic War. Without Stalin, Russia today might only be those lands located in Siberia.
Stalin was a harsh Father to his people, but no matter how cold the History Channel paints this one man, they can never capture the pride the Russian people had in Stalin at the time. He held before the Russian people the Grail of the times and I think there are very few wars in the history of modern times when the citizens of a country were so unified and sacrificing in battle and war times.
"Russia came too close to losing herself in that war. Dissidence could not be afforded at that time"
Original source: Myths and Legends of Soviet Russia, by Lindsay Kosarev
This is a rarely correct evaluation of the state of affairs, especially surprising because it was made by a foreigner!
A REST AFTER BATTLE
(A fragment of the picture above)
Sitting with a red tobacco pouch in the left hand
and entertaining his comrades-in-arms with jokes
here is depicted a legendary Russian warrior
Private Vasili Tyorkin.
Being the embodiment of an average Russian soldier, having proved to be valiant in battle, while always good-humored and well-disposed during the rare lulls, Private Vasili Tyorkin became the main hero of the most popular work of literature among Soviet soldiers during the Great Patriotic War, written by Aleksander Tvardovsky – the poem Vasili Tyorkin:
A Book About a Soldier.
Published by installments between 1942 and 1945, it presented a new folk hero who was everything a Soviet soldier could ever hope to be – clever, witty, inventive, thoughtful, resourceful, dependable, courageous, loveable, fun-loving, and calm under fire.
Vasili Tyorkin fought Germans hand-to-hand, was wounded several times, slogged through marshes, swam across a freezing river to rescue his comrades, shot down a German plane with his rifle, settled arguments with wisecracks and even could play the accordion.
The poet Alexander Tvardovsky had created so verisimilar character of a Russian warrior that most Soviet soldiers came to believe that Tyorkin was a real person; many even recalled (mistakenly) having encountered him within their military units.
On this picture (above right) Vasili Tyorkin is depicted rolling a cigarette and holding his favourite tobacco pouch. Flung over Tyorkin's left shoulder, as usual, is his greycoat roll.
GOD IS ALWAYS WITH RUSSIA
THE GLORIOUS VICTORY IN 1945
GERMANY PROSTRATED – BERLIN CAPTURED
THESE HEROES FIERCELY STORMED BERLIN
– THE HITLER'S HIDEOUS LAIR –
SAVING THE WORLD FROM THE NAZI PLAGUE
Determination, endurance, self-sacrifice and derring-do
This is what we can read on their true Russian faces
"I wish I could join your ranks, my glorious, intrepid heroes!
You are the best, you are the bravest of the brave!"
True, it is simple to realize that abject FEAR paralyses the will and inflicts a defeat to the faint-hearted. If we Russians had ever been afraid of Napoleon or Hitler, we would have never withstood their formidable onslaught on us.
But we have always won, win, and shall win, with God's help!
On the contrary – the spirit of righteous INDIGNATION, defiance, determination, and concentration of the will and strength redound greatly to victory. Which is why the Russians do always emerge victorious.
After having smashed up all such godless murderous scum as the notorious Napoleonic Grande Armée or the criminal Hitlerite Wehrmacht, and then having chucked their piteous remnants out of our beloved Holy Russia, with God's help, the Russian Army (or the Red Army, no difference) would triumphantly enter, as usual, the enemy's capital – Paris in 1814, and Berlin in 1945, respectively.
THE TRIUMPH OF GOOD OVER EVIL:
BERLIN, 1945
RUSSIAN VICTORS AT THE REICHSTAG
"Keep the Orthodox Christian Faith, bros,
in all things courage, and no substitute for Victory!"
There is no greater joy, there is no higher reward for us than to have won a direful war, with God's help, against the best army in Europe – or rather againt the whole of Europe under the sway of Hitler – and to have proved again that the Russian soldier – tough as death and hard as a flint – is the best warrior in the world.
Russia has always been and still is like an immensely powerful spring of steel – the stronger is the initial brunt of assault on my country, the stronger will be her deadly backlash eventually.
And what is worth special mentioning is that we Russians do never stop on the border after having scoured the invaders from within the native land. We Russians do always deal the final blow to the enemy in his own hideous lair – in the
aggressor's capital – wherever and however far away from Moscow it may be situated. Because half measures would never be enough to safeguard the State security of Holy Russia.
If, say, another one aggressor appears to be mad enough as to arrive to conquer Russia even from the Moon (or from Mars), his incursion would end up, as usual, in the following way: after the Lord granteth us victory, the act of the lunatic's unconditional surrender will be signed right in his lunar lair.
Or upon Mars, no difference.
In late 1941, when German hordes had approached Moscow, Walter Duranty wrote:
"When the Russo-German War began, there were self-styled experts on Soviet affairs who professed to doubt whether the Russians would fight at all, and at least one of my former colleagues from Moscow committed himself to the statement that
'only two blows would be struck: first, Hitler hitting Stalin, second, Stalin hitting the floor.' I treated this rubbish with scorn, because it was clear that resistance depended in the first instance upon morale – the morale of the Kremlin, the morale of the Red Army, and the morale of the Soviet people; and I had no cause to detect weakness in any of the three."
After having lived in Russia for many years, Walter Duranty knew Russian people very well, which is why his comments and reports were always absolutely correct.
Duranty won a Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for a set of stories he wrote in 1931 as The New York Times' Moscow correspondent. Although he died in 1957, it is owing to the western post-war russophobic hysteria that his good name and professional works have been – even to the present day – under the permanent pressure of a dirty campaign of diffamation in the West.
RUSSIAN HEROIC BLACK SEA MARINES
Heroes of Odessa, Sevastopol, Novorossiisk and Kerch
They were especially feared by the Germans
who used to call our Marines "The Black Death"
The three brave Marines (above) are smiling. It's just a case when their smile forecasts nothing else but dire revenge to German invaders. The Red Navy Marines' traditional battle-cry "Polundra!" – being shouted just before every attack, when our guys were still fixing the bayonets and getting ready their bowie knives [pronounce: po-LOON-drah] – sounded so horribly intimidating that frequently it made the enemies flee in disorder even before the actual bayonet charge began.
THE "BLACK DEATH" IN ACTION:
RUSSIAN MARINES RUSHING AT THE GERMANS
IN A MORTAL BAYONET ATTACK
There can hardly be imagined anything more terrifying on earth than a real thunderbolt of an attack charged by Russian Marines – called The Black Death – "Die schwarze Tod" – owing to their black naval uniform. Those men of unparalleled valour and grim courage had this motto:
"No quarter!"
They went in for bayonet charges, and would throw a dead Nazi over their shoulder like a sack of straw ... Even if encircled, they went on fighting, and would die crying: "For Motherland and Stalin! But we shall never surrender!"
The Russian Marines had never been taken prisoners – for they would fight either to win or die!
RUSSIAN AIRBORNE TROOPS
AT A REHEARSAL OF
THE VICTORY DAY PARADE 2009
To defend the Motherland is our sacred duty. These brave Russian Christian soldiers are worthy successors to their heroic forebears. Another 30 million of Russian men (not women!) have been in the trained military reserve and are ready at any moment to join again the Russian Armed Forces and to fight fiercely to the last drop of blood for the sacred liberty and independence of Holy Russia.
And no substitute to Victory!
The modern Western science of warfare suggests mainly the striking of unpunished blows, from a safe distance, preferably at an unarmed opponent, with minimal own losses. All this sounds very good and reasonable in theory.
But we Russians know that a complete and indisputable victory over whatever formidable adversary can only be achieved, eventually, by those who dare rip the enemy's guts out in the final deadly bayonet fighting.
Only Russians and Serbs can fight intrepidly in a hand-to-hand combat to death. As to the 'safe' distance, this notion has become very deceptive nowadays. And what is essential: we know how to shorten whatever long distance very quickly, always to the adversary's final great surprise.
It should be noted here, by the way, that the once-vaunted Waffen SS-men, who were also armed with cold steel, did not like the bayonet fighting. Neither the Wehrmacht soldiers were ready to fight one-to-one with us. They prefered rather to use their daggers against unarmed Russian civilians. German murderous bastards used to jab out the eyes of our women after the brutal raping.
Such was their USUAL abhorrent practice, being especially rife in the occupied Belorussian, Ukrainian and Russian lands BEFORE the Stalingrad's derout of Germany in early 1943.
There is a great deal of documentarily proved evidence of SUCH sadistic murders committed by the Germans in the USSR. I hope that none of those pigs returned home. They deserved only one fate: to become the manure for our fields.
THE PARTISANS:
RUSSIAN GUERRILLA WARRIORS
For us Russians there does not exist
such a stupid notion as the "cost" of victory
We are not westerners – we do not calculate much
FREEDOM AND VICTORY
ARE ALWAYS PRICELESS FOR US!
It Does Not Matter
How Many Times You Get Knocked Down
But How Many Times You Get Up
What Does Really Counts
Is The Final Crushing Blow That You Deliver
To Knock The Adversary Out!
" . . . Their native patriotism, the primaeval love of "Mother Russia", . . . will power, and fatalism, and that readiness to accept terrible sufferings that are essentially Russian qualities, would all be needed to the full in the first dreadful weeks of the German assault."
" . . . The Russian soldier loves the fight and scorn death. He was given the order: 'If you are wounded, pretend to be dead; wait until the Germans come up; then select one of them and kill him.
Kill him with gun, bayonet, or knife. Tear his throat with your teeth. Kill him by all means. Do not die without leaving behind you a German corpse' . . ."
From the book Barbarossa, by Alan Clark, New York, Morrow, 1965, pages 42 - 43.
In their war-time accounts, the Germans noted that the Russians terrified them by their apparent disregard for their own lives; by their ferocious attacks; by their famous habit of blowing themselves up with hand grenades when wounded, playing dead and waiting for a German to approach first.
RUSSIAN UNPARALLELED FORTITUDE
"The Bear was dead, but he would not lie down"
". . . If, as Hitler claimed to believe, the Will was all-important, the Germans had already lost the war. For what could they put against the Russians' grim determination to defend the Motherland? Greed for territory and "Sklaven", a contrived doctrine of racial "superiority", some muddled prejudices against "Bolshevism". These things were valueless against the deep patriotism of the Russians . . ."
From the book Barbarossa, by Alan Clark, New York, Morrow, 1965, page 162.
It is remarkable that NONE of the aggressors, after having been once defeated by Russia, could have ever more regained the former strength and military glory.
NONE !
For example: the once magnificent (but godless!) France has faded away FOR EVER as a great country since Napoleon's suicidal invasion of Russia. As is well known, the Corsican Ogre's 600,000 strong 'Grande Armée' did not comprise even a single priest. Since those times 'la belle France' has never resurged from the abyss of her godless apostasy.
The same thing can be said about the ill fate of the once formidable (but again godless!) Germany, after Hitler's insane Barbarossa plan to invade Russia, which scheme was a complete fiasco.
Our beloved native country Russia wins always, with God's help. Which fact should be well noted and remembered by all potential aggressors. The only way to remain safe and sound for them is NOT to touch Russia at all.
SI VIS VIVERE – NOLI RUSSIAM TANGERE
Warning:
Some of the images below are harrowing!
Commiseration and Magnanimity
MEET THE RUSSIANS
The Russians: Who Are We?
Part Two
By Michael Kuznetsov
After INTREPIDITY, described earlier, another special trait of Russian mentality, another peculiarity of our national character, in my opinion, is:
COMMISERATION
First, some facts. As is widely known, the total number of the Russians who were killed IN ACTION on the Eastern Front was ALMOST EQUAL to that of the Germans. According to the recent researches conducted by Col.-Gen. G. Krivosheyev – the Wehrmacht's losses were about 7 million troops killed in action, while the Red Army's losses were about 8.6 million troops who were also killed in action.
Thus, the combat losses ratio was 1 : 1·2 – or about so – slightly in Germans' favour.
But the TOTAL numbers of the dead people on the both combatant sides differ appallingly. The reason is also widely known – the inhuman policy of extermination which was carried out by the Nazi pigs. The numbers are approximately as follows: The Soviet CIVIL losses were about 13,000,000 people, while the German CIVIL losses (caused mainly by the Anglo-American massive bombing raids) were about 1,223,000 people. Thus, the civil losses ratio was more than 1 : 10 – or about so – in German's favour. Terrible!
Now, I ask a question:
What if that 'very bad guy' Stalin would have ordered his men to treat the German prisoners-of-war (POWs) and civilians as much cruelly as the Nazis treated OUR people, could then a 'balance of deaths' or a parity in the 'body count' be achieved?
My answer is: Yes, easily and very quickly!
HOW WE TREATED THE GERMAN POWS
JULY 1941: A RED ARMY NURSE ATTENDING TO
A WOUNDED GERMAN PRISONER-OF-WAR
"Between 1941 and 1945, a total of 3,576,300 Wehrmacht and SS soldiers were captured by the Soviets. Of this total, 551,500 were immediately released in May 1945, and the remainder were sent to be interned. A total of 220,000 Soviet citizens in Wehrmacht service and 14,100 Germans branded as war criminals were sent to special NKVD camps, and another 57,000 men died during transportation to POW camps. Out of a total of 2,733,739 Wehrmacht soldiers held in Soviet POW camps, 381,067 died, and 2,352,672 were repatriated to Germany" ("Barbarossa" by Christer Bergstrom, pg. 120).
Original source: WW II and Other Book Reviews by Kunikov
This means that 86 percent of the German prisoners-of-war returned home from Russia safe and sound in due course of time.
It should be added here that a good amount of those that died would have to include those soldiers taken at
Stalingrad, their condition prevented the Red Army and Soviet Union from being able to save a large amount of them since they were malnourished and practically dying as they went into captivity.
The overwhelming majority of the German prisoners-of-war were contained not in the Siberian camps, but they were working on the reconstruction sites in the European part of the USSR, just in the cities and towns which were badly destroyed by the Germans during the war.
Compare these figures with the cruel fate of the Soviet POWs: out of a total of 4,559,000 Russian prisoners-of-war – 3,300,000 died in German captivity.
This means that only 28 percent of the captured Red Army soldiers remained alive in German hands by the day of their liberation.
WE REMEMBER :
During the Great Patriotic War in 1941 – 1945, by the godless German invaders were completely devastated 1,700 cities and towns, as well as 70,000 villages in the temporarily occupied territories of the U.S.S.R., namely in the Ukraine, Belorussia and the western part of Russia.
RESPECT TOWARD THE ENEMY
A shot down German pilot ace is being saluted by the Red Army commander who has taken him prisoner.
To save as many lives as possible, thousands of leaflets issued by the Red Army Command (like this one shown below) were suggesting that the Germans should surrender.
A RUSSIAN LEAFLET FOR THE GERMANS
Take notice of the respectful form of the leaflet: this was the way we depicted our mortal enemies.
Those who can read German may also enjoy even the text here expressed in verse.
DEUTSCHE SOLDATEN ! LASST EUCH RATEN:
RUFT DEN RUSSEN ZU AUS DER WEITE:
"SDAJUS, TOWARISCH, NE STRELAJTE".
DAS HEISST, DAMIT ES ALLE WISSEN:
"ERGEBE MICH, KAM'RAD, NICHT SCHIESSEN!"
Compare it with the most gruesome and derogatory way the Germans used to depict us Russians (right picture). The inscription Der Untermensch means "the Subhuman".
Hitler believed that the Russian soldier was a racially inferior Slavic "Untermensch", and that one German soldier was worth ten of them.
Now everybody knows that he was gravely wrong in all of this.
Pride goes before a fall.
Period.
Hitler's Aryan "Supermen" turned out to bleed just like the Russian "Untermenschen", who turned out, greatly to Hitler's surprise, to be at least as brave and at least as bold as the Germans. The "Subhumans" recovered from the initial Blitzkrieg in less than a year, and from then on never stopped slaughtering the Germans until the victorious Red Flag was flying over the Reichstag and the Fuehrer's body was being incinerated in a shell crater.
In World War II the German forces, in the beginning, were better led, but the Russian fought better, at least, more tenaciously. That was because we Russians were defending our own land against invaders. That was because we were fighting for our hearth and home, as usual in our thousand-year-long history.
One of the most serious mistakes of German propaganda on the Eastern Front was the legend of the "Soviet Sub-Humans".
After the war winter of 1941 – 1942, it was no longer credible, at least within the Wehrmacht. But its negative effects were reflected long afterwards through brutal treatment of the Russian population by the German administration in the temporarily occupied Belorussian, Ukrainian and Russian territories.
THE HITLERITE WEHRMACHT'S
HEINOUS CRIMES IN THE EASTERN FRONT
DURING WORLD WAR TWO IN RUSSIA
THE REGULAR GERMAN ARMY ATROCITIES
IN THE SOVIET UNION
These sadistically tortured and hanged Russian men were not partisans. They were Red Army soldiers, common prisoners-of-war captured by the Wehrmacht.
Take notice that they were tortured and murdered not by the SS or Einsatzgruppen, but
by regular German troops near the front line. On the right photo above: this barbarically mutilated Russian soldier was found crucified and frozen to death near Stalingrad, after the city had been liberated.
1941: THE GERMAN WEHRMACHT SOLDIERS'
ROUTINE ENTERTAINMENT IN THE EASTERN FRONT
DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR
CHOSEN AT RANDOM FOR THE DAILY GRISLY FUN
THESE THREE CAPTURED RUSSIAN MEN
ARE FORCED TO DIG A GRAVE FOR THEMSELVES
WAITING FOR THE DEATH:
A FEW MOMENTS BEFORE BEING SHOT AND KILLED
BY THE GERMAN ARMY CRUEL BUTCHERS
JUST FOR SADISTIC AMUSEMENT AND SOUVENIR PHOTOS
AFTER THE PIT IS DUG DEEP ENOUGH FOR THREE
THE TWO RUSSIAN SOLDIERS AND ONE CIVILIAN MAN
PICKED BY THE GERMAN INVADERS
FOR THE DAILY HIDEOUS ENTERTAINMENT
ARE WAITING WITH GRIM DIGNITY FOR THE DEATH
These harrowing photographs were found in the pocket of a killed German soldier. Such "souvenir" pictures had been found by the thousands in the pockets of the killed or captured German Wehrmacht soldiers, among their belongings, as well as in their letters home in Nazist Germany.
Evidently, it was not enough for the German brutes just to kill the captured Russian people. The Hitler's Wehrmacht soldiery wanted a special bloodcurdling show to be performed so that to extend the sadistic relish of the heinous murders, and to take a lot of murky photos for a keepsake . . .
The Note from People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Vyacheslav Molotov, dated 25 November 1941, contained the following appalling details:
"Members of the Soviet Red Army, when being captured by the German Wehrmacht,
were tortured with red-hot irons, their eyes were put out, legs, arms, ears and nose were cut off, their stomach slit open, they were tied to tanks and torn to pieces . . . "
BURNING RUSSIAN CIVILIAN PEOPLE ALIVE
The mass burning alive of peaceful, non-combatant
peasant Russians: women, children, and elderly people
locked up in their wooden huts, barns, granaries, or churches
used to be a favourite "game" of the barbarian German soldiery
"... Confident in approaching victory, the Germans took a sadistic pleasure in the repression. How agreeable to combine duty and sport; to bask in the glow of the crusader while enjoying the particular physical pleasure which so many Germans derive from the infliction of pain. In the long summer evenings "man hunts" used to be organised on the slightest pretext, villages surrounded, set alight, and the inhabitants "beaten" like rising game birds and cut down in the streets.
Then it was rewarding to loot the dwellings for "souvenirs" and to send these, and photographs of the scene, to friends and the family back in Germany. Accompanied, for instance, with such an inscription as this one: '... here is a lock of hair from a Russian girl. Before the death she fought like a wild-cat and was quite subhuman (Untermensch) . . .' "
From the book Barbarossa, by Alan Clark, New York, Morrow, 1965, page 154.
ANOTHER INNOCENT VICTIM, ONE OUT OF 13 MILLION
A RUSSIAN BOY MURDERED BY GERMAN OCCUPANTS
JUST FOR FUN IN ROSTOV, 28 NOVEMBER 1941
This Russian boy with a dove in his hand, Vitya (Victor) Cherevichkin by name, was killed by German soldiers just for nothing in Rostov, 1941 . . . The Wehrmacht "warriors" used to commit their heinous crimes simply out of the feeling of impunity and for sadistic pleasure.
Before killing him, the German pigs had cruelly beaten and mutilated Vitya Cherevichkin. They were kicking the boy in the head with their heavy boots so that his face became difficult to recognize when his mother found him dead among the other victims on the next day in the city park.
Obviously, at the final moment of his life Vitya Cherevichkin decided to release his favourite dove that was hidden in his bosom . . . But it was too late – in the next second the boy and his dove were shot and killed by the smiling Wehrmacht soldiers.
Which is just another one reason why we Russians hate moronic smiles!
When on 14th February 1943 Soviet troops liberated the city of Rostov-on-Don they found that 40,000 civilian inhabitants had been killed by the Germans, while another 53,000 Russian people had been deported to the forced labour camps in the Third Reich. Totally, during the occupation, the German brutes murdered 13,000,000 peaceful Russian civilians: women, children and old people.
A monument to Vitya Cherevichkin was erected in Rostov-on-Don near the site of his martyrized death.
". . . The atrocities of the 'Death's Head' (Totenkopf) units of the SS which systematically murdered schoolchildren and poured gasolin over hospital inmates were the expression of a deliberate policy of terror, 'justified' by half-baked racial notions, but implemented with a perverse and sadistic relish . . ."
From the book Barbarossa, by Alan Clark, New York, Morrow, 1965, page 417.
THE MASS KILLING OF RUSSIAN CHILDREN
WAS A SPECIAL SADISTIC RELISH FOR THE GERMANS
RUSSIAN CHILDREN TORTURED TO DEATH
BY THE GODLESS MURDEROUS GERMAN INVADERS
GERMAN WEHRMACHT SOLDIERS
MERCILESSLY KILLED MILLIONS OF OUR BABIES
A MOTHER AND HER CHILDREN MURDERED
BY THE GODLESS GERMAN RUTHLESS BRUTES:
HER TWO-MONTH-OLD BABY, AMONG OTHERS
IS LYING DEAD ON HER BREAST
На груди
у
матери
двухмесячный убитый
младенец
Будьте
вы
прокляты,
немецкие
изверги!
Those German bastards used to call us Russians "subhuman"
We have seen them to be NOT human beings at all . . .
THE GERMAN SOLDIERS
WERE SADISTIC SAVAGES TOWARDS THE RUSSIANS
THE MOTHER IS ALREADY MURDERED
HER CHILD IS NOT YET
While the treatment of POW's by the Germans was extremely harsh, it was not as bad as the treatment of Russian civilians, who for the most part had not even fought the Germans.
Nazi propaganda had convinced the men in the Wehrmacht to view the Russians as a "conglomeration of animals." The Germans under their Nazi leaders were insanely bent upon the enslavement or butchery of all "Untermenschen" – "subhumans".
This policy was implemented in the criminal orders which provided the German army with a blank cheque for the mass killing of civilians. And this they did.
A resident of Leningrad at the time noted that the Germans "killed without regarding age or sex." No safety was guaranteed to refugees. By late July 1941, the German army went as far as to start shooting all refugees. Russian civilians were also shot for such reasons as breaking curfew or being caught outside without a pass. In an effort to hamper partisan activity, houses in which the Germans thought partisans were hiding were burned with the occupants inside.
RUSSIAN CIVILIAN REFUGEES
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS
OF RUSSIAN PEACEFUL REFUGEES
WOMEN, CHILDREN AND ELDER PEOPLE
FLED TO THE EAST TRYING TO ESCAPE DEATH
THE SLAUGHTER – NO ESCAPE
НАШИ
МИРНЫЕ
БЕЖЕНЦЫ
РАССТРЕЛЯНЫ
НЕМЦАМИ
ИЗ
ПУЛЕМЕТА
THESE RUSSIAN PEACEFUL CIVILIAN REFUGEES WERE
CHASED, SHOT AND KILLED WITH MACHINE-GUN FIRE
BY THE GERMAN WEHRMACHT SOLDIERS
" . . . [ During the occupation ] if a German thought, as he passed you in the street, that you had given him
a dirty look, that was enough. To kill a human being – it was as easy as stepping on a worm and squashing it! . . . "
From the book Russia At War, 1941-1945, by Alexander Werth, London, Pan Books Ltd., 1964, page 794.
DISTRAUGHT WITH GRIEF
A RUSSIAN MOTHER WITH HER DEAR LITTLE DAUGHTER
KILLED BY THE DAMNED GERMAN BUTCHERS
GERMAN SOLDIERS KILLED MILLIONS OF RUSSIAN BABIES
"The instruction for a German soldier in Russia" which was in use by Wehrmacht's personnel, read:
'You should not either to take things to heart or to worry.
Forget your sympathy and compassion.
Kill any Russian or Soviet citizen.
Do never stop at anything, whether you see an old man, or a woman, or a boy, or a girl in front of you.
Kill!
It will save you from death.
It will provide your family with a future.
It will bring eternal glory to you.'
Source:
http://www.khatyn.by/en/genocide/belarus/treb/
See also: Conduct of Troops in Eastern Territories
http://www.h-net.org/~german/gtext/nazi/reichenau-english.html
A German Field Marshal Instructs the Wehrmacht on Its Role in the Soviet Union.
WE REMEMBER :
Apart from 8.6 million Russian soldiers slain in battle, the German invaders slaughtered also 13 million Russian peaceful civilians.
To kill such a huge amount of people "BY HAND" (not by the mass destruction weapon – MDW) was such a formidable task that neither the SS, nor the special detachments (Einsatzgruppen) alone could have ever fulfilled it.
It was only with the "assistance" of the regular German Army – Die Wehrmacht, on a daily basis, that the damned murderous German occupants managed to have killed thirteen million Russian civilians: 13,000,000 innocent WOMEN, CHILDREN and OLD PEOPLE.
NO MOMMY, NO DADDY
NO SWEET HOME ANY LONGER
RUSSIAN CHILDREN SUFFERED IMMENSELY
FROM THE GERMAN WEHRMACHT ATROCITIES
MILLIONS OF RUSSIAN BABIES BECAME ORPHANS
When winter came, the Ukrainian, Belorussian and Russian peasants were really at the mercy of the unmerciful German soldiers. Many peasants were marched into woods or fields when the temperature was as low as 40 degrees Fahrenheit, stripped of their clothes, and left to freeze to death.
DEAR MOMMY IS DEAD, ALL IS RUINED
THE GERMAN ARMY – DIE WEHRMACHT
MERCILESSLY KILLED MILLIONS OF RUSSIAN MOTHERS
Collective measures were also used against civilians. For instance on January 30, 1942, after a German sled had driven on some mines in the vicinity of the village of Novye Ladomiry, the whole male population of the village was shot and the houses burned down as a 'collective measure'. With the Germans treating the peaceful civilian population like this it is no wonder they quickly deserved profound hatred.
ROUTINE PUBLIC EXECUTIONS BY THE WEHRMACHT
IN RUSSIA, BELORUSSIA AND THE UKRAINE
ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE GERMAN OCCUPATION
THE STREETS OF EACH CAPTURED RUSSIAN TOWN
AND OF EACH CAPTURED RUSSIAN VILLAGE
USED TO LOOK THIS HARROWING WAY
Immediately after another one Belorussian, Ukrainian or Russian town being captured, the first action invariably taken by the Wehrmacht (I emphasize: by the Wehrmacht!) was mass public executions – usually the summary hanging from the main street balconies, and everywhere around the town, of several dozens of local inhabitants, caught at random in the streets and branded as 'communists', just to intimidate the rest of the population and to show them clearly who was to be from now on a 'New Master' here.
As a rule, all the hanged innocent victims' corpses were to remain dangling from the ropes along the streets for a week's time, or so. In order to enforce and prolong the intimidation effect the Germans would not allow to remove and bury the hanged people until their bodies would begin to decompose.
ROUTINE PUBLIC EXECUTIONS BY THE WEHRMACHT
IN ORDER TO TERRIFY THE LOCAL POPULATION
BELORUSSIA, MINSK UNDER GERMAN OCCUPATION
CIVILIAN PEOPLE HANGED IN THE STREET
FOR THE PURPOSE OF INTIMIDATION
Now, a bit of terrible arithmetic.
If we accept the minimum number of the people hanged by the German invaders in each newly captured Russian TOWN as 12 persons only, and the minimum number of those hanged in each newly captured Russian VILLAGE as 6 persons, then we shall come to the following figures:
1,700 captured Russian towns multiplied by 12 = 20,400 hanged persons.
70,000 captured Russian villages mulitplied by 6 = 42,000 hanged persons.
The total sum is 62,400 peaceful Russian civilian people hanged in each Russian town and village on the FIRST DAY OF THE GERMAN OCCUPATION just only for the purpose of intimidation.
Remember: this total of 62,400 hanged innocent people is ONLY the number of "the first day victims", without counting all the other innumerable deliberately merciless, sadistic and systematic murders of Russian civilians during the whole period of the German occupation in 1941 – 1944, which eventually resulted in a total of 13 million Russian civilian
non-combatant innocent martyrs.
Terrible!
A "NEW ORDER" HAS COME
TO THE U.S.S.R. FROM NAZI GERMANY
PEOPLE HANGED BY THE WEHRMACHT SOLDIERS
IN THE STREETS OF THE CITY OF KHARKOV
JUST TO FRIGHTEN THE INHABITANTS
" . . . The public executions of 'communists' and other 'suspects' – usually branded 'partisans' – were
common practice in the towns and villages occupied by the Germans. Since these executions frequently took place
'on the first day' of the occupation, they were apparently the work not of any special detachments under Himler, but of
members of the Army itself . . . The fact that executions were carried out by the Army is persistently denied by German generals, but, according to the Russian eyewitnesses I saw in 1942, it was 'ordinary soldiers' who did the hanging . . . "
From the book Russia At War, 1941-1945, by Alexander Werth, London, Pan Books Ltd., 1964, page 348.
A SOUVENIR PHOTO FROM A WEHRMACHT SOLDIER
SENT TO HIS MOTHER IN GERMANY:
WITH A RUSSIAN BIRCH AND A HANGED NURSE
THE GERMAN GHOULISH SMILE
RUSSIAN CIVILIANS HANGED BY THE GERMANS
JUST TO MAKE A GHOULISH "SOUVENIR PHOTO"
TO SEND TO THE FAMILY AT HOME IN GERMANY
Such kind of hangings as this – performed outside settlements – used to be made not for the intimidation purpose, but just for special pleasure of the Wehrmacht sadists. Thousands of photos like this one were found in the pockets of the German Army soldiers, NCOs and officers, both killed or taken prisoners, as well as inside their letters to the families in Germany.
As I have already said, it was not enough for the German brutes just to kill the captured Russian people. The Hitler's Wehrmacht soldiery wanted a special bloodcurdling show to be performed so that to extend the sadistic relish of the heinous murders, and to take a lot of murky photos for a keepsake . . .
I repeat:
Thousands of such harrowing photos were found in the letters by German soldiers from the Eastern Front to their mothers, wives and children in the Third Reich!
Verily, German women and children must have been special creatures so that to be fond of such horrific "souvenirs" from their husbands and fathers from the Eastern Front!
At the same time, I cannot imagine a Russian mother who would have ever received such an appalling "souvenir" from her son who is being in the Red Army fighting the German invaders.
It is absolutely unthinkable!
We Russians are unable to comprehend all the Germans' brutal barbarism, vandalism, and especially their strong sadistic inclination to enjoy the particular physical pleasure derived from the infliction of pain, sufferings and death on the helpless Russian prisoners-of-war and peaceful civilians.
COMPARE WITH THIS:
WHEN IN THE DEFEATED NAZI GERMANY
WE RUSSIANS LOVED TO MAKE SOUVENIR PHOTOS, TOO
A YOUNG RUSSIAN SOLDIER POSES
FOR A SOUVENIR PHOTO FROM BERLIN 1945
TO SEND TO THE FAMILY AT HOME IN RUSSIA
Technically, of course, there was not a big problem to find a good piece of proper rope in the defeated Berlin and to quickly hang this captured German officer on the nearest tree or a lamppost, just to provide an "impressive" background for the photo, as the Wehrmacht sadists used to do so with the Russian prisoners-of-war on an every-day basis.
But such a bestial idea
could not even have come
into the Russian soldier's mind
Russians are not Germans!
For the last twenty years of my research, I have NOT found even a single photo that would have featured Russian soldiers hanging Germans.
Not one!
Simply put, such photos do not exist at all, because we Russians are not Europeans, which fact means that we are not "civilized" enough as to enjoy the infliction of pain, sufferings and death even on the murderous invaders.
When we kill enemies – we do so out of necessity
Not for sadistic pleasure
As a New-York-based historian, T. Kunikov, correctly writes:
"The worst atrocities, committed on both sides on the Eastern Front, were official policy on the German side, and spontaneous acts of disobedience on the Soviet side."
"This is very important to understand when viewing the differences of both army's and governments. It was the POLICY of the Wehrmacht and the Third Reich/Nazi Party/Hitler to let their armed forces/soldiers commit atrocities on the Eastern front, the same simply cannot be said for the Red Army."
Source: Kunikov Blog
OUR HEARTS
ARE FRAUGHT WITH
INCONSOLABLE SORROW:
WE REMEMBER ALL !
Although it is almost inconceivable a task
but please attempt to visualize this hellish picture:
13 MILLION BRUTALLY MURDERED RUSSIAN CIVILIANS
13 million deadly maimed breathless corpses
of innocent children and of old people,
of pregnant women and of disabled persons . . .
THE DEAD MUTILATED BODIES
OF ALL THOSE WHO FAILED TO FLEE IN TIME
THE BLOODY SURGE OF THE GERMAN INVASION
13 MILLION
RUSSIAN CIVILIAN PEOPLE
WERE MERCILESSLY KILLED
BY THE GERMAN INVADERS
IN 1941-1944!
WE WILL NEVER FORGET!
WE WILL NEVER FORGIVE!
May God damn you, German ruthless brutes!
МЫ
НИКОГДА
НЕ
ЗАБУДЕМ!
МЫ
НИКОГДА
НЕ
ПРОСТИМ!
Будьте
вы
прокляты,
немецкие
изверги!
Nowadays Nazism is revived and virulent
The present-day Nazis hate Marshal Stalin for our Victory
ALAS, THE GREAT LEADER IS NO MORE WITH US
There is no more a kind-hearted great man like him
who would treat the vanquished invaders so mercifully as
to save them from the only condign punishment : DEATH
So, next time don't count on Stalin's excessive clemency
NO QUARTER TO ANY AGGRESSOR EVER MORE!
Be sure, next time there will be no more of
our Russian inborn commiseration and mercy
on the damned godless murderers of Russian children!
EXPECT NO MORE QUARTER!
ПОЩАДЫ
БОЛЬШЕ
НЕ
ЖДИТЕ!
СТАЛИНГРАД
РОДИНА-МАТЬ
ЗОВЕТ
THE BATTLE OF
STALINGRAD
IT WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST
RUSSIAN VICTORIES
The Battle of Stalingrad began on 17th July 1942 and ended on 2nd February 1943.
German losses at Stalingrad were staggering. The Sixth Army, under the command of Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, began its campaign with 600,000 German Wehrmacht soldiers. There were also a great many of their allied troops: Italians, Romanians, Hungarians, Slovaks and Croats. Thus the total was about 800,000 invaders fighting at Stalingrad against us.
On 31st January 1943 German Field Marshal Paulus surrendered. On 2nd February the last of his remaining 91,000 troops turned themselves over to the Soviets. Of them only about 5 or 6 thousand returned home after the war.
Why so few?
In this regard, the mentioned above New-York-based historian, T. Kunikov, writes the following:
"I would like to add that a good amount of those [German soldiers in Russian captivity] that died would have to include those soldiers taken at Stalingrad, their condition prevented the Red Army and Soviet Union from being able to save a large amount of them since they were malnourished and practically dying as they went into captivity."
Source: Kunikov Blog
I emphasize: When the Red Army captured those 91,000 of German soldiers under Paulus command, they had been already
MALNOURISHED and practically DYING owing to the Hitler's order not to surrender.
After the battle, the Soviets recovered 250,000 German, Romanian, and other corpses in and around Stalingrad. The TOTAL Axis losses (Germans, Romanians, Italians, Hungarians, Slovaks and Croats together) during the Stalingrad Battle were estimated to be more than 800,000 dead.
БОЙНЯ
ЗАСЛУЖЕННОЕ
НАКАЗАНИЕ
ЗАХВАТЧИКАМ
THE CARNAGE
A CONDIGN PUNISHMENT FOR THE INVADERS
AFTER THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD
Hundreds of thousands of German invaders' dead bodies
strewed the endless fields around the city of Stalingrad
after the fierce many-day-long fightings had ended there
THE BLOODCURDLING SIGHTS WERE
EVERYWHERE FOR FIVESCORE MILES AROUND
WITHOUT END UP TO THE DISTANT HORIZON
They came to kill us, to enslave our children and wives
These damned godless murderous invaders well deserved
their ghastly fate to remain here as the manure for our fields
AFTER THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD
OUR BOUNDLESS FIELDS WERE LITTERED WITH
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF THE KILLED
GERMANS, ITALIANS, ROMANIANS, HUNGARIANS . . .
This stone-like dead hand stiffened up by the frost
will never more be able either to hang peaceful civilians
or to torture and murder our Russian women and children
THOSE MURDEROUS INVADERS
WELL DESERVED THEIR GHASTLY FATE
THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD LEFT
MOUNTAINOUS HEAPS OF THE MANGLED CORPSES
OF THE GERMAN, ITALIAN, ROMANIAN, HUNGARIAN
AND OTHER HEINOUS CRIMINAL INVADERS
REALLY CARRION DEATH!
THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD LEFT ALSO
THOUSANDS OF HOOVES AND HORSESHOES
Starving German soldiery devoured all the horses
that the Huns had taken by force from their allies:
the Romanians, having marooned the latter to die first
AFTER THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD
This is all what remained of the Romanian cavalry:
thousands of saddles, hooves and horseshoes
and almost nothing more . . .
AFTER THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD
Thousands of the Wehrmacht steel helmets
with no more German dumbheads to put them on
When planning his suicidal Operation Barbarossa
the Nazi Germany's Führer Hitler had learned no lesson
from the ghastly fate of another great loser – Napoleon
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
Congratulations to Marshal Stalin on the Russian Victory at Stalingrad
February 4, 1943
"As COMMANDER IN CHIEF of the Armed Forces of the United States of America, I congratulate you on the brilliant victory at Stalingrad
of the armies under your supreme command. The 162 days of epic battle for the city which has forever honored your name and the decisive result which all Americans are celebrating today will remain one of the proudest chapters in this war of the peoples united against Nazism and its emulators."
"The commanders and fighters of your armies at the front and the men and women who have supported them in factory and field have combined not only to cover with glory their country's arms, but to inspire by their example fresh determination among all the United Nations to bend every energy to bring about the final defeat and unconditional surrender of the common enemy."
Source HERE
GOD IS WITH US!
THERE WERE NO ATHEISTS ON THE FRONT LINE
ON THE RUSSIAN-SOVIET SIDE
By Marshal Stalin's order the ancient Holy Miracle-working Kazan Icon of the Mother of God was taken to Stalingrad, where people constantly were praying before it for victory and remembering the fallen.
The Theotokos of Kazan Holy Icon had been brought always to the most dangerous sections of the front line, where the situation was critical, and where our offensive was being planned. It stood among our Russian forces on the right bank of the Volga, sometimes at a distance of only two hundred yards from the enemy's positions, and the German murderous godless invaders could not cross the Volga River, no matter how hard they tried.
The famous Battle of Stalingrad began with the prayerful Orthodox service before the Holy Miracle-working Icon of the Kazan Mother of God, and it was only after these prayers had completed that a signal was given to our Russian forces to launch the final all-out attack. The Russian soldiers were blessed with holy water, and they felt like being immortal and invincible before the bloody mortal fight!
THE TAMED BRUTES
AFTER THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD
German prisoners drag themselves along:
the rest of the ever vaunted "invincible" Wehrmacht
91,000 Germans survived Stalingrad and were captured
Now they looked like those poor Russian "babushkas"
whom the Westerners treat with so much of scorn:
the Aryan "master race" presented a sorry spectacle
STALINGRAD, FEBRUARY 1943
A RUSSIAN WARRIOR GIVING TOBACCO AND A LIGHT
TO THE CAPTIVE GERMAN WEHRMACHT SOLDIERS
THE STALIN'S EXCESSIVE CLEMENCY:
GERMAN PRISONERS OF WAR RECEIVING BREAD ...
INSTEAD OF A NOOSE
Instead of a bullet in the forehead, or a noose on the neck, or a bayonet in the stomach, which all of them had well deserved, these German war criminals, when captured after the Stalingrad defeat, used to receive from us hot food, bread, medical aid, warm shelter, and even tobacco!
When for the first time I had a look at this photo of the German prisoners-of-war dividing the bread given by us Russians out of sheer commiseration after their defeat in Stalingrad, it was just for a short while that I felt a fit of anger towards Stalin for his excessive clemency. But in the next moment I calmed down, having come to understanding that we Russians must never become such bestial barbarians as Hitler's German Army soldiers.
Otherwise the Lord God wouldst have cast us out of His sight.
HAPPY SURVIVORS OF STALINGRAD
These two young German prisoners-of-war, among others, feel happy to have survived through the Stalingrad ordeal, where Hitler's Sixth Army was marooned and annihilated.
Evidently, the Red Army soldiers appeared to be different from what Dr Joseph Goebbels – the Third Reich's champion at telling lies – used to harp upon...
NICHT SCHISSEN, KAMERAD, HITLER KAPUTT!
DON'T SHOOT, COMRADE,
WE SURRENDER!
Nothing on earth could have saved the German invaders from the condign retribution, but the usual Russian commiseration. Marshal Stalin in particular, and the Red Army troops in general, showed innumerable examples of excessive clemency toward the defeated enemy.
I repeat and emphasize this: EXCESSIVE CLEMENCY.
Apart from our white skin, praise God, we have nothing else in common with the Germans. We are not Europeans at all. Glory to God – we are Russians!
We Russians cannot feel angered for a long time, we cannot nurse rancour against our enemies too long, after the hostilities are over.
Which is why the photo above that features a Russian soldier giving tobacco and a light to the just captured Germans – is absolutely a common pattern of normal Russian behaviour.
If a Russian has not managed to kill the enemy in the heat of the battle or immediately after, he would cool down quickly and in a short while he can easily shift even to the making friends with his just defeated foe.
This national trait of ours, I am convinced, whether you deem it good or evil, is the reason why there exists not a single photo in which Russian soldiers would have been hanging captured German soldiers.
Not one!
While the opposite scenes are abundant in the thousands (sic!) of extant German wartime photos – in which the Wehrmacht soldiery are smiling while being busy hanging Russian prisoners.
Being myself a genuine 100 percent Russian, I can easily imagine and visualize how I could personally shoot a captured bastard on the spot, if angered.
Or even stab him in the stomach with my bayonet – here and now – if being infuriated very much.
But to hang a prisoner . . . Oh, NO!
Simply put, while a Russian soldier would search for a rope, then for an appropriate tree, then would be making a good noose and then preparing of the unfortunate captive for the proper hanging – all of those long preparations would take too much of the time for a normal Russian to keep enough of anger.
We Russians cannot kill people and simultaneously smile for the camera as the German Wehrmacht pigs used to do when hanging our people in the Eastern Front.
As to the Russian civilians' attitude towards the German POWs, I have known a lot of examples (both oral and written) how Russian "babushkas" used to feed the poor German "sons", sharing with the prisoners their miserable war-time portion of bread – simply out of sheer Russian commiseration.
THE TAMED HUNS
THE CAPTIVE GERMAN BARBARIANS
DRIVEN THROUGH MOSCOW STREETS
IN A MARCH OF DISHONOUR
THE VANQUISHED:
GERMAN PRISONERS OF WAR IN THE MOSCOW STREETS
Immensely huge columns of German POWs, without end to the horizon, were driven through the Moscow streets in 1943 and 1944. Hundreds of thousands of losers . . .
Or lucky ones to remain alive?
THE VANQUISHED:
GERMAN PRISONERS OF WAR IN THE MOSCOW STREETS
Each German prisoner-of-war in Russia received his daily food ration equal to that of a Soviet industrial worker, that is even bigger one than some other categories of the Soviet Union population (sic!) used to receive during the war, e.g. pensioners, children and dependants. Which is why, eventually, many of the German POWs changed their erstwhile scornful attitude towards Russians, whom the Nazis considered as 'subhumans'. Our treatment of captured enemies was very humane – excessively humane, I would add – despite all the appalling crimes committed by the Germans in the occupied Soviet territories.
THE VANQUISHED:
GERMAN PRISONERS OF WAR IN THE MOSCOW STREETS
German prisoners of war never-ending columns were passing by the famous Belorussky Railway Station in Moscow. Thousands, thousands, and thousands...
Now, at last, they could have a look at Moscow, the heart of our Mother Russia ... Although not just in the way Hitler had expected them to. Noticeably enough, it was exactly from the Belorussky Railway Station that the Red Army troops used to leave the capital for the front line.
THE VANQUISHED:
GERMAN PRISONERS OF WAR IN THE MOSCOW STREETS
In stony silence Muscovites stared at the passing by columns of the captured Germans. No hatred, no rancour was expressed overtly by our people toward the mortal enemies. Typically Russian restraint.
Arrogant and ruthless initially, presumptuous and assured of their own 'superiority' over Russian 'barbarians', those formerly invincible German invaders were to find themselves – to their own great surprise – unexpectedly routed, captured and prevented from committing their heinous crimes any longer in the lands of Holy Russia.
THE DEFEATED GERMANS
DRIVEN THROUGH THE RUSSIAN STREETS
It was only due to our Russian national inborn sense of
commiseration, magnanimity, and Stalin's excessive clemency
that 2 million 904 thousand German prisoners-of-war
remained alive and returned home after the war
WASHING THE MOSCOW STREETS
AFTER GERMANS POWS HAD BEEN DRIVEN THROUGH
Hundreds of thousands of German POWs were driven through Moscow, as well as through some other Russian cities and towns, in 1943 and 1944.
These soldiers of the once-vaunted Wehrmacht happened to remain alive and then to return home in due course of time, unlike those millions of their ill-fated brothers-in-arms, who became the dung for Russian boundless fields.
A German military cemetery, one out of a great many those discovered in the vicinity of Moscow after the Soviet counteroffensive in December 1941.
THE END
These invaders have met their deserved end near Leningrad
Such is the doom of whatever aggressor who dare assault Russia. It would happen always in one and the same way, indiscriminately either a thousand years ago, or two hundred years ago, or during the last century. The invaders' end has always been, is and will be one and the same:
Either death or captivity. Tertium non datur.
". . . And, after visiting East Prussia (in early 1945, M.K.), Ilya Ehrenburg (a famous Russian writer of Jewish stock, M.K.) wrote:
' The Niezschean supermen are whining. They are a cross between a jackal and a sheep. They had no dignity . . .
A Scottish army chaplain, a liberated prisoner-of-war, said to me:
"I know how the Germans treated their Russian prisoners in 1941 and 1942. I can only bow to your GENEROSITY now." ' . . . "
From the book Russia At War, 1941-1945, by Alexander Werth, London, Pan Books Ltd., 1964, page 864.
Here is another interesting excerpt from the book Russia, by Donald Mackenzie Wallace (although regarding the Crimean War 1854-1856):
"Prince Gortchakof's saying, 'La Russie ne boude pas, elle se recueille', was more than a diplomatic repartee – it was a true and graphic statement of the case. Though the Russians are very inflammable, and can be very violent when their patriotic feelings are aroused, they are, individually and as a nation, singularly FREE FROM RANCOUR and the spirit of revenge. After the termination of hostilities they really bore little malice towards the Western Powers ... "
A RUSSIAN LIEUTENANT SHARING HIS CIGARETTES
WITH GERMAN PRISONERS OF WAR. GULAG 1944
Despite the grim fact that his near relatives
have suffered immensely from the German invaders
the Lieutenant shows usual mercy to the vanquished
because his innate Russian commiseration prevails
over the natural willing to take vengeance on the enemy
Unlike the German soldiery who would enjoy the infliction of pain, sufferings and death, our Russian warriors would rather gladly show mercy to their captive enemies, after the battle is over and the foe is defeated.
We Russians feel good when we do good to somebody. Verily.
Such a striking difference between our national characters could not but prompt me to repeat it over and over again that although we are Whites like other Nordic peoples, but mentally
we Russians are not Europeans.
We are the White Russian Orthodox Christians – the WROC.
Germany, May 1945
A Red Army guard leads a column of German POWs
Who said the Russians do never smile?
We Russians are no angels, of course. But, being a genuine Russian myself, and having deeply understood the Russian soul peculiarities, I feel always very much indignant at all those false and scurrilous accusations of "Russian atrocities" which were committed, allegedly, towards "poor German bunnies", when we had expelled the Nazi invaders from within the sacred borders of Russia.
Then, as usually in our thousand-year-long history, we kept chasing the sworn foes farther and farther west, until we had driven them right into their own hideous lair – Berlin – where the final blow was dealt to Nazism.
Thank God for all things!
RUSSIAN INGENUOUS KINDNESS
THE RED ARMY IN BERLIN, MAY 1945:
RUSSIAN TANKMEN AND A GERMAN BOY
On May 31, 1945, Decree No. 080 was issued by the first Russian Commandant of Berlin, Col. - Gen. Berzarin, to the effect that Berlin's German children be provided with a daily milk ration.
THE VICTORS' COMMISERATION AND MAGNANIMITY
RUSSIAN SOLDIERS AND THE CONQUERED GERMANS
MAY 1945, BERLIN
We Russians do always respect our enemies and consider them seriously. Hence we can study quickly how to defeat ANY formidable foe.
For example, one of Marshal Stalin's most emotive and revealing outbursts about Germany and the Germans was contained in a statement to a visiting Czechoslovak delegation in March 1945:
"Now we are beating the Germans and many think the Germans will never be able to threaten us again. This is not so. I hate the Germans. But that must not cloud one's judgement of the Germans. The Germans are a great people. Very good technicians and organisers. Good, naturally brave soldiers. It is impossible to get rid of the Germans, they will remain. We are fighting the Germans and will do so until the end. . . . [But we] must be prepared for the Germans to rise again against us".
Thus spoke Stalin.
The Soviet Leader, Marshal Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, used to say repeatedly that "Hitlers come and go, but the German people go on forever". The Red Army Supreme Commander-in-Chief issued a number of strict orders for the Soviet troops to treat the Wehrmacht POWs and civilians of the fallen Germany with the maximum clemency. There exist a lot of official documents in this regard that have been already published both in Russia and abroad.
Berlin, May 1945
the Red Army's field kitchen hot food distribution
to German populace by order of Marshal Joseph Stalin
"... In May 1945 the Russians had saved Berlin from starvation. Every person received 3/4 lb. of potatoes a day, but the other rations among five categories varied greatly: bread from 20 oz. to 10 oz., meat from 3 oz. to 2/3 oz., sugar from 1 oz. to 1/2 oz. Some food even had to be brought from Russia..."
From the book Russia At War, 1941-1945, by Alexander Werth, London, Pan Books Ltd., 1964, page 886.
Berlin, May 1945
the Red Army's field bakery bread distribution
to German populace by order of Marshal Joseph Stalin
On the 11th of May 1945, the first Soviet Military Commandant of Berlin, Hero of the Soviet Union, Col.- Gen. Nikolai Berzarin issued Decree No. 063 to the effect that Berlin's German populace to be supplied with nourishment by the Red Army logistics. On May 12, 1945, Decree No. 064 was issued to the effect of the restoration of public utilities in Berlin. On May 31, 1945, Decree No. 080 was issued in order to provide Berlin's German children with a daily milk ration.
Colonel General Nikolai Berzarin
the first Soviet Commandant of Berlin – Germany, May 1945
In May 1945, as first aid to the starving inhabitants of the captured German capital, the Soviet Government urgently dispatched from the Soviet Union to Berlin the following products: 96,000 tons of grain, 60,000 tons of potatoes, up to 50,000 head of cattle, as well as tens of thousands tons of sugar, animal fat, vegetable oil, and other necessary goods.
Such are historical facts.
Berlin, May 1945
the Red Army's field kitchen hot food distribution
to German populace by order of Marshal Joseph Stalin
Just think of it: Trains loaded with food – by order of Marshal Stalin – running from the starving devastated Russia to the defeated Germany just to feed up our recent mortal enemies!
– Oh, that "horrible tyrant" Stalin!
– Oh, those "beastly barbaric" Russians!
Berlin, May 1945
the Red Army's field kitchen hot food distribution
to German populace by order of Marshal Joseph Stalin
The victorious Red Army in Austria, May 1945
Food for starving Vienna arrived from remote Russia
by order of Marshal Joseph Stalin
Could we even try to compare the generous behaviour of Russian victors with that of German occupational authorities who used to "provide" Russian population either with a bullet or with a gallows' halter only?
As a former student of an Orthodox Christian Seminary in his youth, Marshal Joseph Stalin knew the Holy Bible very well, especially The New Testament almost by heart.
Frequently, when discussing with his subordinates the fate of the German prisoners-of-war, Stalin used to recall these words from the Holy Scripture:
"If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head." Romans 12:20
HITLER APPEARED TO BE THE GREATEST LOSER
OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
WHILE STALIN BECAME THE GREATEST VICTOR
Out of all Adolf Hitler's promises, prophecies and pledges only three were fulfilled ever. Although, those three were fulfilled in quite a bizarre manner.
First, in 1935 Adolf Hitler solemnly declared: "In 10 years from now you will not recognize the city of Berlin!"
Yes, indeed, just in ten years, by May 1945, Berlin had become utterly unrecognizable. Now the once great and beautiful city was completely in ruins.
Second, in the autumn of 1941 Hitler told his soldiers that soon they would be marching along the streets of Moscow.
Yes, indeed, after a short while, a huge number of infinite columns of German prisoners-of-war were driven – or "marching" under convoy of the Red Army guards – along the ancient majestic Moscow streets, boulevards and avenues.
Third, during the great Stalingrad Battle Hitler announced this: "From where once the German soldier plants his foot, he never withdraws!"
Yes, indeed, millions of killed German invaders left forever to lie dead in the boundless Russian lands whither they dared once put their foot.
None of all the other Adolf Hitler's numerous prophecies, promises and pledges were fulfilled ever. Not one more.
At the same time, out of all what Marshal Joseph Stalin had ever pledged and promised – everything was entirely fulfilled in the long run.
The most inspirational Marshal Stalin's pledge was this:
OUR CAUSE IS JUST
THE ENEMY WILL BE SMASHED
VICTORY WILL BE OURS!
НАШЕ ДЕЛО ПРАВОЕ
ВРАГ БУДЕТ РАЗБИТ
ПОБЕДА БУДЕТ ЗА НАМИ!
And we emerged victorious!
WE WON BECAUSE
A GREAT NATION WAS LED BY A GREAT STATESMAN
No! We are definitely not Europeans.
Thank God, we are Russian Orthodox Christians!
GERMANY HARPS ON COMMUNIST CRIMES
TO HUSH UP NAZI ATROCITIES, SAYS WAR VETERAN
Nazi war against the Soviet Union was a criminal warfare since the day it broke out, Professor Gerhard Dängler, 87, World War II veteran, said to RIA Novosti, Berlin, Germany, 21 June 2001.
He was taking part in the Battle of Stalingrad as an artillery captain (Hauptman) of the German Wehrmacht.
As Professor Dängler sees it, today's German rulers refer more willingly to the Berlin Wall and other crimes of East Germany than to SS and Wehrmacht atrocities in occupied Russian, Belorussian and Ukrainian areas.
"I remember all too well an order read in front of the ranks in June 1941. It doomed every Soviet military officer and political propagandist POW to be shot on the spot."
Not Hitler nor Himmler had signed the order but Wehrmacht commanders, who did not acknowledge ever after that army units were involved on a par with the SS in incredible atrocities in the occupied part of the then Soviet Union.
"I parted ways with Hitler in the blood-stained snow of Stalingrad," says Herr Dängler. He had been previously engaged in fighting in France, Poland and the Battle of Moscow, in which "we beat a retreat to abandon our cannon stuck in the sleet." Captain Dängler was wounded several times before the Battle of Stalingrad.
He was with the 6th Army, under Colonel General von Paulus' command, when it was encircled in winter between Kalatch on the Don and Stalingrad on the Volga. He saw his soldiers go mad with hunger, cold and despair.
Many soldiers did not flinch from cannibalism to roast liver and kidneys they slashed out of their dead comrades' bodies after they ate all cats and dogs in the area.
"We shall not surrender for high strategic reasons, but the initiative has now passed into junior officers' hands," Captain Dängler heard General von Paulus say a mere three days before the Führer promoted him to Field Marshal.
The captain got the message, and led his unit to surrender to Russian soldiers.
He will never forget Dr. Vassilevskaya, an army surgeon, who treated him in the Russian POW camp – a Jewish woman whose family perished by the German firing squad in Kiev before her eyes. After they died, a soldier pierced her arm with a bayonet, and the limb had to be amputated.
All of his surviving comrades-in-arms remember him, and write him letters opening with an address, "Geehrter Herr Professor Hauptman Dängler."
Original source: http://www.cdi.org/russia/159.html##3
IN RUSSIAN CAPTIVITY
Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus in Russian captivity, 1945
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
Letters to the Editor
Re: Lies and Insinuations
Date: 25 January 2002
SIR – As a citizen and Ambassador of Russia to Britain, I refuse to believe that the article headlined "Red Army troops even raped Russian women as they freed them from camps" (report, Jan. 24) could be authorised by any of your responsible colleagues with a minimal knowledge of the history of the Second World War.
I have absolutely no intention of taking part in any debate on these obvious lies and insinuations. It is a disgrace to have anything to do with this clear case of slander against the people who saved the world from Nazism.
The article appeared on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, which transforms its publication into an act of blasphemy, not only against Russia and my people, but also against all countries and the millions of people who suffered from Nazism.
I think that millions of those who were saved by the Russian army and the heroism of Russian soldiers will undoubtedly agree with me.
Grigory Karasin
Ambassador of the Russian Federation
London W8, UK
The Daily Telegraph, 25 January 2002, From Grigory Karasin, Ambassador of the Russian Federation, London W8
Original
SOURCE
Frequently, I have been asked:
"If the topic of your website is being the examination of Russian ethnic peculiarities, then why do you dedicate so much of space to the Great Patriotic War?"
My answer is:
This is because all of the main fundamental features of any nation's character, both strong and weak, would manifest themselves most evidently just during the hectic times of overcoming a deadly danger and inconceivable sufferings.
Simply put, the WAR is always the Moment of Truth for any nation – a real, yet horrible chance to prove its own worthiness in the world.
– Michael Kuznetsov –
SINCE TIMES IMMEMORIAL
THROUGH OUR THOUSAND-YEAR-LONG HISTORY
MY GREAT NATION –– THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE
HAVE PROVED TO BE SUPERIOR IN BATTLE
OVER WHATEVER FOE IN THE WORLD
IN THE LONG RUN.
PERIOD
RUSSIAN VICTORIES
IN THE WORLD'S HISTORY
Understanding Russia
The Theotokos and the Saviour
Russian Orthodox Diptych Icon
Since 988 A.D.
Our Orthodox Faith has been the Pillar and Ground of the Truth
to Save and Preserve Russia during the Last Thousand Years
СВЯТАЯ РУСЬ
НАША ЛЮБИМАЯ ЗЕМЛЯ
САМАЯ ЛУЧШАЯ СТРАНА В МИРЕ
HOLY RUSSIA
OUR BELOVED LAND
THE BEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD
Sir Winston Churchill once said: "Russia is a riddle wrapped in mystery inside an enigma". His words offer a remarkable example of the so-called Cognitive Dissonance.
Indeed: It is "common knowledge" in the West that the Russians have always been and remain to be dark barbarians, coarse and more than a little mad. The Russians' backwardness and submissiveness, weakness and aggressiveness are well "known" to all the civilized world.
Yet, if we indulge in the examination of some historical facts we shall soon come to discover that all the above said are absolutely false cognitions and wrong perceptions. For instance: How could those "barbaric and submissive" Russians defeat overwhelmingly the best armies in the world, that of Napoleon in 1812, and respectively that of Hitler in 1941-1945?
Terribly enigmatic, to say the least!
Moreover, how could those "backward and drunk" Russians, whose country was still lying in ruins in most parts after the terrible war, how could they manage to launch in Space the first in the world sputnik (an artificial satellite) on
October 4, 1957? And soon after that eventuated even more breathtaking triumph in Cosmos – Cosmonaut Number One, Yuri Gagarin – who became the first man in history to orbit round the planet Earth on April 12, 1961!
Even more enigmatic and unbelievable.
It is especially so, if one would keep sneering at the Russians as at somewhat docile and intimidated dullards. But we Russians are not such pity creatures, believe me.
In this regard I recall my conversation once with an American friend of mine, a professor of Russian history from Alabama. He told me that they in America had been greatly astonished with the Russian sputnik and then with the first manned orbital flight of the Russian spaceship Vostok: How could those funny Russian "babushkas" and the drunkards produce such wonderful things?!
Sadly enough, there exists the extreme reluctance of the Western public to hear anything but ill of Russia. As a result – ignorance leads to fear, fear leads to fury, and fury results in another one invasion.
And if such is the case, the Russians would again recall the words uttered once by our great ancestor, St Prince Alexander Nevsky, in the 13th century, who said: "Whosoever shall come to us with the sword shall perish by it. Upon this stood and stands the land of Russia".
His words have proved to be absolutely true for all times; now and always, and unto ages and ages. Amen!
This website is meant to denounce and dispel most of the myths, stereotypes, prejudices and misunderstandings that are rife about Russia in the West. My aim is also to explain why Russia has always been and remains invincible, yet peace-loving. A nation like Russia, that has experienced so many disasters and invasions during its 1000-year-long history, needs and seeks peace before all other values.
But FREEDOM has ever been and remains to be of paramount importance for us Russians. Nothing can be higher than our country's liberty and independence.
So, help us God!
A View on Russia from Overseas
Here you can see a screenshot taken in March 2006 from a dynamic swf advertisement by the British TV channel More4, which was posted on the website www.telegraph.co.uk.
This is the plight of Russia as visualised, evidently, from the shores of the Misty Albion. The dynamic swf image had been posted on the said website only for a short period of time, just before March 20, 2006, but we were lucky enough as to manage to preserve it here as a screenshot.
The image of the trapped and dying Russian Bear looks rather impressive. Of course, no offence intended and none taken. Simply put, we are going to show eventually that the rumour of Russia's premature death is greatly exaggerated.
Instead, we would like to offer here another allegorical picture, which we consider to be more appropriate for the present state of affairs, anyway.
By the way, what do you think is the stuff there in the barrel on the Bear's back?
It's honey, of course!
The Russian Bear is not an aggressive beast, for he likes honey rather than flesh.
But we Russians do always hate those uninvited "guests" who would frequently come with weapons upon our beloved land – Holy Russia. Such enemies like Napoleon's Grande Armée, Hitler's Wehrmacht together with the SS, Einsatzgruppen, and a great lot of other godless scum.
As is widely known, we do always convert the great bulk of the invaders eventually into the manure for our boundless fields.
Any kind of them and always.
At least during the last 600 years' period of time.
That is why, evidently, Russia has been erroneously reputed as an aggressive country. Hardly can anything else be further from the truth. Because in fact we wish only one thing:
Let us alone!
P.S. I have just found a witty remark on the
Globe and Mail website. In his comment a reader, James P. from Spruce Grove, Canada, writes: "I'd say leave Russia alone. They are a smart bunch. Plus the more we let them be, the less they want to nuke us."
Absolutely so!
ALL OF US RUSSIANS ARE
NORDIC WHITE CHRISTIAN PEOPLE
WE ARE ONE GREAT FAMILY
The Youth of Russia
In the Moscow Streets, November 2007
President Vladimir Putin and Russian children
ALL OF US RUSSIANS ARE KITH AND KIN
PEERLESS RUSSIAN BEAUTIES
We do not consider women to be equal to men.
Nor did we ever think that way.
They are not like us men. They are much better.
We Russian men do positively adore our incomparable Russian women!
And what is most essential is that our Russian women expect us Russian men to love, to cherish, to cosset, to defend and to protect them, our dear tender ones.
Unlike the Western men who have been badly intimidated by the embarrassing and stupid political correctness, as well as by the aggressive feminism, we Russian men do not fear to gently love and to gallantly court our beautiful Russian women. We are fond of kissing their tender hands, we prefer to open doors before them, and we are happy to present our ladies with flowers.
Thus, as a rule, Russian men would act as valiant knights, while Russian women would act as charming dames. Those dull, bizarre ideas of the notorious feminism can cause nothing else but laughter among Russian women. They do not want to become equal to men. They are happy to remain Ladies, upper case.
"A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband."
Proverbs 12:4.
"Let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband."
Ephesians 5:33.
RUSSIAN BRIDE WITH A BOUQUET
RUSSIAN BEAUTIES
ARE THE BEST IN THE WORLD
A RUSSIAN BEAUTY IN BLUE
THE BLESSED DAYS OF SUMMERTIME
A RUSSIAN PEASANT GIRL
THE WONDERFUL WINTER-TIDE
A RUSSIAN PEASANT GIRL
CALMLY WAITING FOR SOME MILK
A RUSSIAN PEASANT CAT
Regarding Russian women, we offer here below an excerpt from one interesting story narrated by Jonathan, an American man who has been married to a Russian woman for several years already:
THE CHARM OF CHRISTIAN CHASTITY
IS THE TRUE EPITOME OF
THE RUSSIAN SOUL
Russian women tend to be much more family-oriented than their American counterparts. While many successful American women seem to put their jobs first, Russian women consider their jobs only as a means to support the family. Their husbands and children come first.
Russian women do not think it is wrong to believe that women and men are different. Not that one is better or worse than another, but equal in different ways. They are not slaves, but equals. Russian women believe that men and women have different roles in life, and these roles seem to reflect the roles which existed during the 1950's here in the US. They want to keep the house, cook the meals, etc.
Russian women are less materialistic than many Americans. As long as they have a roof over their heads, and, surprisingly enough, a car (not necessarily a good one, but anything), that is enough.
Russian women do not care about a man's appearance and are more willing to accept large age differences. Russian women want "nice" guys. The same physical characteristics which might make American women shun many men do not matter in the least to a Russian. It is the heart which matters. They also are wary of men too young as they fear a young man might still want to sow his oats. They prefer men more mature.
Russian women are really quite adaptable. Yet they never lose their basic characteristics which attracted the men in the first place.
Russian women are, as a rule, well-educated and capable women. They do need to rely solely on the husband but are able to contribute to the family.
Russian women are feminine, loving, sweet, and traditionally minded. They can be your best friend, your lover, your partner. They can be the answer to your prayers.
But they are not for everyone. They are not slaves or servants. They will not accept you only for your wallet. And they are not for men who are hidebound in their ways.
The full story can be read HERE
MARIA SHARAPOVA – TENNIS PRINCESS
МАРИЯ ШАРАПОВА
ALEXANDRA KOSTENIUK – QUEEN OF CHESS
АЛЕКСАНДРА КОСТЕНЮК
Beauty and brains is a blessed combination, and Russian chess grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk has had them both.
Alexandra Kosteniuk became a chess grandmaster at the age of 14. Now, in 2008, she is 23-years-old and is already the 'Queen Of Chess' after having won the Women's Chess Championship in Russia.
ALEXANDRA KOSTENIUK
THE RUSSIAN QUEEN OF CHESS
KSENIA SUKHINOVA –
КСЕНИЯ СУХИНОВА
In December 2008, in Johannesburg, South Africa
Ksenia Sukhinova won the title of Miss World 2008
THE KREMLIN'S MOST BEAUTIFUL WEAPON
A Russian Beauty at the Mirror
Russian Beauty Victoria
By the way:
In the USSR, models also appeared – by Stalin's decree, when he approved the opening of the First Fashion House in 1944. In spite of the Iron Curtain, the world was aware of Russian models.
Paris Match magazine said they were the Kremlin's most beautiful weapon.
Source: HERE
THE MYSTERIOUS CHARM
OF RUSSIAN BEAUTY
A RUSSIAN BEAUTY
WITH A FARAWAY LOOK
A CHARACTERISTIC RUSSIAN
EXPRESSION OF COUNTENANCE
THE RUSSIANS ARE KNOWN WORLDWIDE TO BE
ONE OF THE STRONGEST, SMARTEST, INGENIOUS
KIND-HEARTED AND RESILIENT NATION ON EARTH
RUSSIA THE MILITANT
WE ARE AT EVERY MOMENT READY
TO MAKE MINCEMEAT OF ANY AGGRESSOR
THIS RUSSIAN GIRL IS NOT A SOLDIER
BUT, AS MILLIONS OF US, SHE IS ALWAYS READY
TO DEFEND THE MOTHERLAND FIERCELY, IF NECESSARY
You will never see Russian women to be ranking shoulder to shoulder with men, marching past during our military parades, terrifying the faint-hearted foreign onlookers with the thundering measured tread, when, out of the infinite alignment of troops in square formations, each next unstoppably moving past monolyth of an ideally squared battalion makes the cobblestone pavement tremble and resound as during an earthquake.
Words can hardly describe all the feelings of delight and ecstacy that seize us Russians at a military parade. Not at the insipid, indolent "goose-stepping" western one, but at the REAL Russian military parade.
This unparagoned manifestation of military mightiness and national unity does always leave a highly inspirational and indelible impression on its participants, as well as on the spectators, surpassing all imagination!
THE GOOSE-STEP IS NOT A GERMANE WORD
TO DESCRIBE THE MIGHTINESS OF RUSSIAN PARADES
THE THUNDER-STEP IS JUST THE RIGHT TERM
It would be a shame for us Russian men to allow our beloved wives and sisters to serve in the Army and to die in action. For the last thousand years of Russian history we have had a tradition that it is a men's job, privilege and duty to rip the enemy's guts out in the final fierce bayonet fighting.
Surely, it would be also a great insult for Russian women to be treated like men. They are our national treasure, our beloved ladies, whom we Russian men love, cherish and protect, first and foremost!
But, IF NECESSARY, every Russian girl and every Russian woman will take weapons in her hands and will stand up for the defence of Holy Russia.
IN THE PAST THERE EXISTED
TWO GREAT NATIONS OF INBORN WARRIORS:
THE GERMANS AND THE RUSSIANS
One of our greatest thinkers, IVAN ILYIN, once calculated that since 1368 to 1893 Russia had experienced 525 years of war, and only 329 years of peace, the ratio being almost 2:1. Since 1893 the years that have followed until the present day appeared to be no less turbulent and bloody.
When considering the Russian Bear's alleged "aggressiveness", it is very important to remember the fact that 90 per cent of all those wars were waged on OUR own territory. This is an irrefutable proof of the fact that we have always been DEFENDING our country.
Verily, there does not exist a more peace-loving, yet indomitable nation in the world than we the Russian people.
AFTER HITLER'S SUICIDAL INVASION OF RUSSIA
GERMANY IS DONE, AND WE REMAIN SECOND TO NONE
The Russian Bear used to make his military sorties beyond his natural borders rather rarely, mainly 'by invitation'.
By the way, do you remember why and how did the Red Army appear in Berlin in 1945? – The right answer is: by personal invitation of Uncle Adi (aka Adolf Hitler).
RUSSIAN SOLDIERS
ARE THE BEST IN THE WORLD
NOT ONLY A TEAM BUT A TRUE BROTHERHOOD
"ONE FOR ALL – ALL FOR ONE!"
Чужой земли мы не хотим ни пяди,
Но и своей вершка не отдадим!
We do not want a single foot of any foreign land,
Yet we will never give away a single inch of our own!
Russian Officer Corps at Parade
ALL OF US RUSSIANS ARE
ONE GREAT MANY MILLION STRONG FAMILY
OF THE NORDIC WHITE CHRISTIAN PEOPLE
RUSSIAN AIRBORNE TROOPS ARE THE MOST
ROBUST, INTREPID AND POWERFUL IN THE WORLD:
THE PRODDING OF THE RUSSIAN BEAR
IS LETHALLY DANGEROUS
TROOPING THE GLORIOUS COLOURS
SANCTIFIED BY THE SPILT BLOOD OF HEROES
AND THE TIME-HONOURED RUSSIAN VICTORIES
THE RUSSIAN SOLDIER IS
TOUGH AS DEATH AND HARD AS A FLINT
RUSSIAN KALASHNIKOV
IS THE BEST IN THE WORLD!
A UNIQUE ARMY OF THE REAL MEN:
RUSSIAN SOLDIERS TRAINING
GOD IS ALWAYS WITH US:
RUSSIAN SOLDIERS MOVING TO WAR
REMEMBER THE GHASTLY FATE OF
NAPOLEON, HITLER AND OTHER GODLESS SCUM:
NEVER GET INVOLVED IN AN ARMED CONFLICT
WITH HOLY RUSSIA
RUSSIAN NAVY CADETS:
THE FUTURE COMMANDERS OF
THE FORMIDABLE NUCLEAR SUBMARINES
The very words 'military service' engender different notions among Russians and Americans.
We Russians used to be defending our own land against invaders, we used to be fighting for our hearth and home.
While the Americans, who have been lucky enough to spare any invasions, and who have had no single year of a real war on their own territory, used to conceptualize their own military service as tours of duty somewhere very far overseas, their homes and families remaining intact and prosperous.
Evidently enough, you and we, the Americans and Russians have got absolutely different historical experience, and hence we have got absolutely different mindset.
GOD, MOTHERLAND, FAMILY
TO BE A RUSSIAN
IS TO BE AN ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN
The Russian Orthodox temple is
the Home of God on earth
There is no pewage there, for we Russians daren't sit
in the invisible presence of our Lord and Creator
The sacrament of baptism:
A new Russian Orthodox Christian is born
"All those baptised into Christ, have put on Christ. Alliluia!"
After the sacrament of Orthodox baptism
is completed, our prayer continues as always:
O Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God
by the prayers of Thy most pure Mother
and all the Saints, have mercy on us
Amen!
The Russian boys' prayer:
O Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God
have mercy on us!
The Russian girl's prayer:
O Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God
have mercy on us!
The Russian maiden's prayer:
O Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God
have mercy on us!
The Russian warrior's prayer:
O Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God
have mercy on us!
It is most important for us Russians
that the President and the Prime Minister
are both Russian Orthodox Christians:
Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin at the Paschal liturgy
in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral, Moscow, 19 April 2009
Russian Orthodox Wedding:
Waiting for the Archpriest to enter
"WE" IS THE MAIN WORD IN RUSSIA
The most important thing one should know and remember in order to understand many questions related to Russia is that we Russians see and comprehend ourselves – and the rest of the world – differently from what the Westerners see and comprehend.
The key point is this:
Russia is not simply a territory, but OUR COMMON HOME.
Naturally enough, my own private home (or my flat or apartment) is being confined within its walls, but as soon as I step out over the threshold and go outdoors I find myself immediately in another but much bigger HOME – my beloved town, and beyond its limits, farther on – in my sacred beloved Great Home – our Holy Russia.
A genuine Russian man would never say "this country", but always: "our country."
The Russians are NOT a huge mass of various individuals happened to have arrived from somewhere to inhabit this certain territory, but one great integral Family having been living here for the last thousand years.
Unlike the Westerners, who comprise a society of ATOMIZED individuals, aliens to each other, being foreigners and strangers of different places, races and religious denominations, as they are in their interrelations, we Russians do always feel like being one great family of one and the same stock and of
one Holy Faith.
DISUNITY in the West, and INTEGRITY in Russia, the atomistic approach to the civil society in the West, and the holistic approach to the ethnic society as a great family in Russia. This is the only true clue to a clear understanding of the Russian phenomenon.
ALL OF US RUSSIANS ARE KITH AND KIN.
A Russian boy in the street may normally call an unknown Russian man "Uncle", or a woman "Auntie".
A young man in the street can normally ask me: "I say, Father, how can I get to the nearest library, please?"
An old woman in the street may normally be addressed as "Grandmother" – "Babushka" in Russian. And so on. And so forth.
We all Russians feel like being BROTHERS AND SISTERS within ONE GREAT FAMILY.
Hence, we regard each current head of state (disregarding his formal name of the office – either Tsar, or Emperor, or General Secretary, or President – no matter) as OUR GREAT COMMON FATHER.
If the FATHER of the Russian Nation is good enough, we see no reason to elect another Father of the State. It would be a silly action.
If he is bad, the PEOPLE-FAMILY will not obey his orders, and soon the bad ruler will disappear from the throne (in this or that manner), because IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO RULE RUSSIA WITHOUT PEOPLE'S SUPPORT.
Another important point one should always bear in mind is that we Russians comprehend ourselves inseparably together with all of our thousand-year-long HISTORY as a whole INDIVISIBLE INTEGRITY.
I'll tell you a little story in this regard.
Once upon a time, as I remember, many many years ago, when I was a schoolboy, during a history lesson our teacher (not of Russian stock, by the way) asked a pupil: "Who won the great battle at the Kulikov Field in 1380?"
For any occasion I remind the readers that it was a great decisive battle between the Tartars and the Russians, which led eventually to the liberation of Russia from the Tartar yoke.
The pupil sincerely responded: "WE did".
And all the other pupils nodded affirmatively and joyfully.
"What?!!!" – exclaimed the teacher – "Who WE?! Why on earth WE!?" – she shouted – "You should not say WE! The battle was won – some 600 years ago! – by the medieval united Russian host, not by YOU, children!"
Although she was a real good professional, nevertheless, our history teacher failed to comprehend the feelings of Russian boys and girls.
Being a non-Russian, she could not feel what all of us Russians used to feel then, and what we feel always, namely:
The Russian warriors who defeated the Tartars in 1380 and the present-day Russians have always been and remain to be for ever one and the same Great Organism, inseparable and indivisible.
Indeed:
It was WE who routed the Teutonic Knights on the ice of Lake Chudskoye in 1242!
It was WE who won the great battle on the Kulikovo Field in 1380!
It was WE who expelled the Polish schismatic invaders from Moscow in 1612!
It was WE who derouted King Karl XII's Swedish army at Poltava in 1709!
It was WE who defeated the godless Napoleon's "Grande Armée" in 1812!
It was WE who defended our beloved country from the German invasion in 1941 – 1945!
It was WE who launched the first satellite – the famous Sputnik in 1957!
It was WE who launched the first in the world's history manned spaceship with Russian Major Yuri Gagarin aboard in 1961!
THIS MAJESTIC MONUMENT
TO THE DEFENDERS OF THE RUSSIAN LAND
ILLUSTRATES THE CONTINUITY OF OUR HISTORY
"ЗАЩИТНИКАМ ЗЕМЛИ РОССИЙСКОЙ"
The monument represents defenders of the Russian land of different epochs: to the left, the dauntless medieval Russian warrior with a sword and targe; in the center, the glorious Russian Imperial soldier with a rifle and bayonet who defeated Napoleon in 1812; and finally to the right, the victorious Soviet soldier with a submachine gun who derouted Hitler's Nazi Germany in 1941-1945.
The uniforms, banners, weapons and equipment would change significantly through the ages, but the Russian unbending spirit would remain one and the same forever.
We Russians do never change!
So, I repeat: "WE" is the main word in Russia.
Now, you will understand that the medieval Russian host was OURS, the Imperial Russian Army was OURS, the Red Army was OURS, the Soviet Army was OURS, and the present-day Russian Army is OURS, too, of course.
We feel and consider our Holy Russia to be NOT simply a territory, not simply a land where we live in, but OUR BELOVED SWEET HOME during the last thousand years.
We feel and consider all the past and present generations of Russian people – both the dead and the living – as OUR ONE GREAT FAMILY during the last thousand years.
Accurately put, we have been "WE" uninterruptedly during the last 1021 years – since 988 A.D.
That is since the Great Year when Ancient Rus was baptized.
A RUSSIAN GIRL PRAYING
FOR ALL OF OUR ANCESTORS
GOD IS WITH US
This most beautiful and impressive church Pokrova-na-Nerli was built by us Russians in 1165, that is 844 years ago.
Since those ancient times through until the present days, we have been praying the Lord God, when at the divine liturgy in this church, as well as in all the other innumerable churches across Holy Russia, using the same solemn Old Slavonic language in accordance with exactly one and the same Canon, as our forebears used to do during the past millennium.
Thank God – our Holy Orthodox Christian Faith has been unshakeable for the last 1021 years.
APPEARANCE OF THE HOLY TRINITY IN RUSSIA
A unique miraculous appearance of the Holy Trinity to St Alexander of Svir occurred in Northern Russia in 1508. Saint Alexander Svirsky the Wonder-worker was the only man on earth, apart from the forefather Abraham, who became privileged to see the Holy Trinity with his own eyes.
HOW OLD IS THE ORTHODOX FAITH?
If you are a Lutheran, your religion was founded by Martin Luther, an ex-monk of the Catholic Church, in the year 1517.
If you belong to the Church of England, your religion was founded by King Henry VIII in the year 1534 because the Pope would not grant him a divorce with the right to re-marry.
If you are a Presbyterian, your religion was founded by John Knox in Scotland in the year 1560.
If you are a Congregationalist, your religion was originated by Robert Brown in Holland in 1582.
If you are Protestant Episcopalian, your religion was an offshoot of the Church of England, founded by Samuel Senbury in the American colonies in the 17th century.
If you are a Baptist, you owe the tenets of your religion to John Smyth, who launched it in Amsterdam in 1606.
If you are of the Dutch Reformed Church, you recognize Michelis Jones as founder because he originated your religion in New York in 1628.
If you are a Methodist, your religion was founded by John and Charles Wesley in England in 1774.
If you are a Mormon (Latter Day Saints), Joseph Smith started your religion in Palmyra, New York, in 1829.
If you worship with the Salvation Army, your sect began with William Booth in London in 1865.
If you are Christian Scientist, you look to 1879 as the year in which your religion was born and to Mary Baker Eddy as its founder.
If you belong to one of the religious organizations known as "Church of the Nazarene, Pentecostal Gospel," "Holiness Church," or
"Jehovah's Witnesses," your religion is one of the hundreds of new sects founded by men within the past hundred years.
If you are Roman Catholic, your church shared the same rich apostolic and doctrinal heritage as the Orthodox Church for the first thousand years of its history, since during the first millennium they were one and the same Church. Lamentably, in 1054, the Pope of Rome broke away from the other four Apostolic Patriarchates (which include Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem), by tampering with the Original Creed of the Church, and considering himself to be infallible. Thus your church is 1,000 years old.
If you are ORTHODOX Christian, your religion was founded in the year 33 by Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It has not changed since that time. Our church is now almost 2,000 years old. And it is for this reason, that Orthodoxy, the Church of the Apostles and the Fathers is considered the true "one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church." This is the greatest legacy that we can pass on to the young people of the new millennium. Amen.
We Russians have been keeping our One Holy Orthodox Faith inviolate and undamaged for the last millennium, since the Great Year 988 when the Ancient Rus' was baptized.
Frank Schaeffer of Huffington Post rightly asserts:
"It takes a special breed of a-historical American president who is steeped in the Protestant idea of denominationalism; wherein Methodists, Presbyterians, Southern Baptists etc., all do their thing and somehow get along, to so thoroughly misunderstand the fact that Russia is reemerging first and foremost as a country reconnecting with its Orthodox historical imperial roots. We (Americans) just have no concept of blood ties, soil and holy tradition in America. Since we don't take tradition seriously we can't believe that anyone else does.
We Americans have forgotten that ties of faith and history have not been overwhelmed by modernity elsewhere, as they have been in America. The world is not a melting pot. Nor is every culture as frivolous and forgetful as ours.
We shop for church experiences as we shop for everything else folding religion into our consumer culture. The average American (who is religious) changes churches six or seven times during a lifetime, even changes religions."
Frank Schaeffer continues:
"For us Americans the bottom line is always expediency and 'what works'. But in other parts of the world national pride is tied to a continuity of historic tradition . . ."
Source: Huffingtonpost.com
THROUGH TERRIBLE ORDEALS
DESPITE DISASTERS AND TRIBULATIONS
WE HAVE PRESERVED OUR HOLY ORTHODOX FAITH
HOLY RUSSIA
ENCOUNTERING CHRIST
The Russian Orthodox Creed
THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CREED
(English translation)
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages. Light of Light; true God of true God; begotten, not made, of one essence with the Father, by Whom all things were made; Who for us men, and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man. And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried. And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; Whose kingdom shall have no end.
And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life, Who proceedeth from the Father; Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; Who spake by the Prophets.
And in one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD
TRAMPLING DOWN DEATH BY DEATH
AND UPON THOSE IN THE TOMBS
BESTOWING LIFE!
Having beheld the Resurrection of Christ, let us worship the holy Lord Jesus, the only Sinless One.
We venerate Thy Cross, O Christ, and we praise and glorify Thy holy Resurrection; for Thou art our God, and we know no other than Thee; we call on Thy name.
Come all you faithful, let us venerate Christ's holy Resurrection. For, behold, through the Cross joy has come into all the world.
Let us ever bless the Lord, praising His Resurrection, for by enduring the Cross for us, He hath destroyed death by death.
Amen
You would better understand us Russians if you are aware of the following chapters and verses of the Holy Bible, which are especially guiding for us:
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake.
Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad: for great is your reward in heaven.
St. Matthew 5:3-12
Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
St. Matthew 7:12
He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for My sake shall find it.
St. Matthew 10:39
Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.
St. Matthew 12:25
Every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
St. Luke 18:14
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
St. John 15:13
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.
Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.
Colossians 3:18-21
God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
I St. Peter 5:5
Go to now, ye rich men, sweep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garnments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
St. James 5:1-3
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore, and repent.
Revelation 3:19
IF GOD BE WITH US
WHO CAN BE AGAINST US?
Romans 8:31
THE CHRIST IS OUR TRUE GOD
THE RUSSIAN WARRIOR IS
ALWAYS VICTORIOUS WITH GOD'S AID
As our thousand-year-long glorious History explicitly shows, the Holy Russia's sacred PREDESTINATION in the world during the last millennium has been and is to serve as an adamant Rock of Fate onto which the Lord God smasheth the stupid heads of the Proud who have become obsessed by ridiculous delusions of self grandeur, and who have become afflicted with a foolish sense of self superiority.
Torrents of Asiatic nomadical hordes from the East, as well as the Teutonic knights' "Drang nach Osten" from the West in Medieval Ages; Polish schismatic invaders in the early 17th century; King Karl XII of Sweden's invasion of Russia in the early 18th century; the godless French Napoleonic Grande Armée's invasion of Russia in 1812; the formidable Hitler's German Army – "die Wehrmacht" – together with the bloody war criminals of the SS – "die Schutz-Staffel" – in 1941-1945 . . .
. . . to name but a few of all the abominable enemies of God – a huge lot of the heinous godless scum that had incensed the Omnipotent Creator.
All of the invaders proved to be the scum of the earth and the filthy damned murderous bastards who had incurred the God's wrath, and who were severely punished by the Lord with the Russian victorious arms, eventually.
Each time, after having trespassed on the sacred bounds of Holy Russia, all of the invaders would be inexorably derouted and then, subsequently, they would cease to exist as mighty nations ever after.
While, on the contrary, Russia would always become even stronger and stronger, mightier and mightier after the beating off each new bitter enemy's invasion.
The true conclusion is the following: Those whom He wisheth to punish and destroy, God first depriveth of their mind and then He sendth the Proud Morons into Holy Russia to perish here horribly and infamously.
In other words, Holy Russia has been permanently serving as the final formidable stopper to all those idiots who would strive conceitedly for the global domination.
At the same time, it must be specially emphasized that we Russians have never yearned to rule the world.
Never.
FEAR YE GOD, AND KEEP OFF RUSSIA!
THE MILLENNIUM OF THE RUSSIAN STATE MONUMENT
Erected in 1862 in Novgorod Veliky by Emperor Alexander II
it features 129 human figures of the Russian prominent
monarchs, statesmen, warriors, scientists, poets, artists
THE MILLENNIUM OF THE RUSSIAN STATE MONUMENT
Height 52 feet, gross weight 300 tons, bronze casts 65.5 tons
The monument was disassembled by the German invaders
in December 1943 during their occupation of Veliky Novgorod
Reconstructed in 1944 by Marshal Stalin's order
THE MILLENNIUM OF THE RUSSIAN STATE MONUMENT
At the Apex: An Angel with a cross blessing Russia
Unveiled on September 8, 1862, the Monument to the first Millennium of Russian History was the work of a team of sculptors, headed by Mikhail Mikeshin. This grandiose and complex bronze sculpture on a granite pedestal displays 129 human figures, whose selection was personally approved by Emperor Alexander II.
The historical figures are placed in three tiers symboling the three basic Russia's principles:
ПРАВОСЛАВИЕ,
САМОДЕРЖАВИЕ,
НАРОДНОСТЬ
Most frequently these three words have been translated into English this way:
ORTHODOXY, AUTOCRACY, NATIONALITY
Yet, the translation seems to be rather misleading.
The true meaning of the word ПРАВОСЛАВИЕ is the RIGHT WORSHIP, or even more precisely: the RIGHT GLORIFICATION OF GOD. Although, the term Orthodoxy may also be acceptable here.
The true meaning of the word САМОДЕРЖАВИЕ is SOVEREIGNTY, not a kind of "arbitrary rule, dictatorship, despotism, or tyranny" as many in the West tend to comprehend the term "Autocracy."
The true meaning of the word НАРОДНОСТЬ is FOLKWAYS, that is a UNIQUE IDENTITY, ORIGINALITY, INTEGRITY and SOLIDARITY of the Russian people. Not a kind of "nationalism" or "chauvinism" as it is erroneously understood in the West.
Thus, the Russian National Idea, the famous Russia's idealogical TRIAD:
ПРАВОСЛАВИЕ,
САМОДЕРЖАВИЕ,
НАРОДНОСТЬ
should be correctly translated into English as follows:
ORTHODOXY, SOVEREIGNTY, FOLKWAYS
The most important message of the Monument to the first Millennium of Russian History – Orthodoxy – is embodied at its apex, where upon an imperial orb an angel blesses a kneeling woman who symbolizes Russia. The outline of the whole Monument suggests a church bell.
Around the imperial orb are depicted six scenes central to Russian history (Sovereignty): the founding of the state with the coming of the first prince Riurik in 862 (the date is on his shield), the adoption of Christianity by Prince Saint Vladimir in 988, the victory over the Tatars by Moscow Prince Dmitry Donskoy in 1380, the unification of the Russian lands under Grand Prince Ivan III at the end of the 15th century, the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty with Michael Romanov being defended by Minin and Pozharsky in 1613, and Peter the Great's westernizing transformation of Russia at the beginning of the 18th century. The victors trample on those they defeat – Vladimir stands on pagan idols, Dmitry Donskoy on a defeated Tatar, and Peter lords over a defeated Swede. Empress Catherine the Great is surrounded by her brilliant ministers.
The base of the monument has a frieze (Folkways) depicting famous individuals connected somehow with Russian history and culture and grouped thematically: enlighteners, writers and artists, military heroes, etc. The earliest are the apostles to the Slavs, SS. Cyril and Methodius, the chronicler Nestor (11th century) is in the company of St. Sergius of Radonezh (14th century), Maksim the Greek (16th century) joins Patriarch Nikon (17th) and Feofan Prokopovych (early 18th). The prominent names in Russian culture in the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century are there: Lomonosov, Karamzin, Krylov, and finally Pushkin, Gogol' and Glinka.
During the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany in 1941 - 1945, during the German occupation of Veliky Novgorod, it was in winter 1943 - 1944, that the Monument was crudely disassembled by the Nazist vandals, and hastily prepared for the transportation to the Third Reich as a piece of their loot.
But the barbaric German invaders had never managed to complete their heinous scheme. On the 20th of January 1944 the town of Veliky Novgorod was liberated by the advancing Red Army troops, who stormed into the town just to find that all of the churches and monasteries all around, as well as 2509 houses out of a total of 2532 buildings within the town of Veliky Novgorod (that is 99.1 percent!) were reduced to ashes by the murderous godless German Wehrmacht bastards.
By the way, it is relevant here to remind the historical fact that when in 1862 we Russians celebrated the Millennium of our Russian History, at the same time Germany as a united country had not yet existed at all. The German Empire first appeared only in 1871.
The Monument to the first Millennium of Russian History soon was reconstructed from the ruins according to Marshal Stalin's special order by the end of 1944.
Emperor Alexander the Second's medal, struck in 1862
to commemorate the Millennium of the Russian State
The 5 rubles Soviet coin
issued in 1988 in the USSR to commemorate
the Millennium of the Russian State Monument
We Russians feel and see the History of our country Russia as an Integral Continuity of historical
time, terrene space, and of all the past, present and future generations of our Russian people, who have ever lived, been living, and will live here in Holy Russia through centuries.
We Russians feel ourselves as being permanently involved into the infinite string of historical events. We feel like being ourselves an integral part of our common Russian history.
This means that instinctively we feel, say, the Battle of Borodino (1812) to occur very recently, almost as if it were yesterday. If you would ask any individual Russian in the street: "Who won the Battle of Poltava in 1709?" – a quick spontaneous answer would be most likely this: "We did!"
Note the "WE". Not Tsar Peter the Great's army, but WE did! It's because we feel right this way. We feel constantly our own mental presence at, and spiritual participation in, every past event of our long great history.
This Integral Continuity of Russia's history has never been perceived by us Russians as interrupted by whatever political upheavals. Neither by the 1917 Socialist Revolution, nor by the bourgeois counter-revolution in 1991, for instance.
Our beloved Holy Russia remains always one and the same Motherland of ours, disregarding whatever official name she might have borne during the centuries: either Kievan Rus, or Muscovite Principality, or Russian Tsardom, or Russian Empire, or the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, or finally the present-day Russian Federation. No difference.
RUSSIA IS ALWAYS RUSSIA
OUR DEAR BELOVED MOTHERLAND
THE BEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD
AMEN!
THE RUSSIAN NATIONAL IDEA
The famous Russia's idealogical TRIAD:
ПРАВОСЛАВИЕ,
САМОДЕРЖАВИЕ,
НАРОДНОСТЬ
if being correctly understood as
FAITH, INDEPENDENCE, FRATERNITY
has ever been, is, and will always remain to be valid
for all the times and epochs in our Holy Russia
because it represents the very core of the Russian Soul
In other words, as opposed to
the amorphous, secular and deceptive
Liberal Democracy
that has been prevailing in the West nowadays
the Russian fundamental idea can be defined as
PATRIARCHAL CHRISTIAN COLLECTIVISM
which proved to be the only ground and pillar
for the Russian State to exist
the absolutely indispensable condition for our survival
and the sole prerequisite for us Russians
to overcome and to be always emerging victorious
through all the disasters, ordeals, sufferings and tribulations
which we were honoured and privileged to be tested with
by the Lord Our God during the past centuries
And glory be to the Almighty for all things!
The First 1000 Years of Russia Monument
Novgorod Veliky: Present Days
Russian Winter
DO NOT TOUCH US, DO NOT TEACH US
WE RUSSIANS HAVE BEEN GOING
OUR OWN WAY
Some cerebrally challenged survivors of political correctness may call this Russian man (above) a melanin impoverished monocultural individual forcing his way through a thicket of botanical companions.
But we Russians retain a clear mind and a free will. We feel sick of such socially misaligned politically correct rubbish and prefer to call a spade a spade.
WE RUSSIANS ARE
A FREE WHITE CHRISTIAN NATION
WE FEAR NO ONE ON EARTH, BUT ONLY
THE LORD GOD ALONE IN HEAVEN
We cannot accept the modern Western political correctness (PC), for it seems to be frequently a sheer distortion of the truth and a mockery of the common sense, and sometimes even a brazen denial of the Holy Scriptures.
First of all, we do by no means suffer from the Western White Man's Guilt Complex, because we are Russian Orthodox Christians and therethrough we have NEVER committed either such disgraceful and horrible crimes as notorious Slave Trade, or the lynching of Negroes, or the slaughtering of the North American Indians.
We used to live in brotherly concord with all of our non-Russian neighbours within the Russian Empire, as well as within the Soviet Union. We used to live well together even with those rather restive and rebellious tribes of the Imperial Borderlands who had initially been forced by us to learn to coexist peacefully.
After all, although some of them proved to be rather dangerous troublemakers, nevertheless, all of those numerous borderland tribes
have remained extant to the present day, with their populace being significantly increased. Also, it must be specially emphasized here that none of the said minorities have ever been eliminated in Russia, unlike the sad case, for example, with most of the North American Indian tribes who were ruthlessly annihilated.
Which is why Russia is being frequently called a "multiethnic" country. However, this is an erroneous assumption, because a state with the homogeneous population exceeding 80 per cent (in fact, 82 – 85 per cent in Russia's case) should be unequivocally ascribed to
monoethnic countries, according to generally recognized norms of international law.
We Russians are One Great Family. I myself feel absolutely comfortably at home in any place of Russia among 141 million of my Russian brothers and sisters. Wherever I would travel across my native country, even at a distance of thousands of miles far away from Moscow in any direction, everywhere I would find the same kind-hearted Russian people, the same Russian mother tongue spoken, the same One Holy Orthodox Christian Church revered, the same brotherly white faces being all around, together with the usual Russian sincere hospitality, benevolence and commiseration.
We have not had here in Russia a western-style colossal host of lawyers, because we do not have a nasty habit to sue our brethren around for every trifling or funny pretext merely for the sake of cavil.
Nor have we got a huge army of psychotherapists, if at all, in contrast to the case in the West, simply because the overwhelming majority of us are very sane people, since we have been living quietly amidst our Russian brothers and sisters –
the people of the same race, of the same one unshakeable Holy Orthodox Christian Faith, of the same mindset, and of the same thousand-year-old Russian tradition of how to discern good and evil.
It is absolutely a stunning thing for us the Russian people to find and to observe how amazingly gullible, docile, wieldy, and even volatile can the Westerners be.
The notorious Political Correctness encourages offence to be taken where none is intended, encourages the re-writing and re-thinking of history along with the abandonment of pride in country, is a serious threat to free speech and, despite being portrayed to be in the name of tolerance, is completely intolerant of anyone who does not act in a politically correct fashion.
Basically it's a form of censorship and tries to bully people into conforming with a certain point of view which usually defies common sense.
We the Russian people despise the hypocritical and sickening Political Correctness of the West because we are a true free-thinking nation.
We Russians worship only the All-Holy Trinity in heaven. For our only hope is the Father, our only refuge is the Son, our only shelter is the Holy Spirit : O Holy Trinity our God, glory to Thee!
The Lord Jesus Christ is our true God and Saviour. We do revere and observe only His Divine Laws, not the dirty western politically correct rubbish.
Our beloved country Holy Russia has always been and remains to be under the protection of the All-Holy Theotokos, our most Holy, most Pure, most Blessed and Glorious Lady, the Birth-giver of God, and Ever-Virgin Mary.
Hence our Russian special reverence for women.
Above all the possible things on Earth we do always value and cherish our Sacred God-given Freedom of Thought.
So help us God!
The WASP and the WROC
Russia is a superpower, whether you like it or not. Which is why I believe that to comprehend the Russian ethnical character and peculiarities is vitally important for the West so that to better understand Russia's foreign and domestic policy, as well as to predict Russia's steps, views, approaches and reactions.
I must emphasize here also that the Russians (as a distinct White Nordic ethnos) constitute the
overwhelming majority in our native country, there being more than 116 million of Russians, that is about 82 per cent out of the total 142 million strong multi-ethnic population of the Russian Federation. Plus another 25 million of genuine Russians living now in the "Near Abroad."
Thus, it should be noted that when I use the term "Russians" here I mean the Russians as
a distinct White Nordic ethnos, to the contrary of the Western understanding of the same word as "all people living in, belonging to, or coming from, Russia." The latter notion, namely: any citizen of the Russian Federation, disregarding his or her ethnicity – should be correctly rendered as "Rossiyanin."
By the way, to the trivial question which used to be so sensitive for us some fifteen years ago: If we Russians are Europeans or not, at the present time I can absolutely definitely say that we are not Europeans. Praise be to God, we are Russians!
Further to the above given reasons why the West should gain the true knowledge of us Russians, I believe the following idea to be quite relevant here.
First, a quotation from one book:
". . . as a cultural designation, WASP – White Anglo-Saxon Protestant – refers to all Americans who have adopted "the way of the WASP," the basic outlines of which were established in early America. "The WASP character is the American character," Brookhiser writes. "It is the mold, the template, the archetype, the set of axes along which the crystal has grown. Without the WASP America would be another country altogether. Without the continuing influence of his values, it is sure to lose its way."
End of quotation from the book:
The Way of the WASP: How It Made America, and How It Can Save It, So to Speak
by Richard Brookhiser (The Free Press, 164 pp.,). Source HERE
I do believe that absolutely the same cultural designation can be applied to the WROC – the White Russian Orthodox Christian – when we examine the Russian History.
Indeed, using the Brookhiser's impressive chain of definitions, we can safely argue that the WROC character is the Holy Russia's character. It is the mold, the template, the archetype, the set of axes along which the crystal has grown. Without the WROC Russia would be another country altogether.
Absolutely so!
Waiting for the guests:
Russian bride with her niece
Frequently, people would ask me:
"Why do you write about the Russians only? Why don't you mention other ethnoses that live in Russia, for instance: the Tatars, the Jews, the Kalmucks, and many others?"
"Are you a racist?"
My response is very simple and clear:
I write about what I have known for sure. I am a Russian myself and thus I know the Russian Soul, the Russian mindset very well from inside. I write about what I feel in the deep of my own heart and my stories go about what I have learnt from my own long lifetime experience of living among the Russians in Russia.
Together with all the other Russians, I do highly respect the feats accomplished, and the sacrifices made, by those numerous truly glorious heroes who were not ethnically Russian, for example:
Mussa Jalil (1906 - 1944) who was a great Soviet Tatar poet and resistance fighter; executed by the Nazis in captivity; Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously). A great man, in my opinion.
Major Caesar Kunikov (1909 - 1943) who was born to a Jewish family. He was Commander of the legendary Red Army Marine Detachment that made the daring landing attack on the famous Malaya Zemlya (the Lesser Land) near the port of Novorossiisk in February 1943; fell in action; Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously). A great man, too.
There are also many other heroes of non-Russian stock whom we Russians do remember and glorify. Because the Soviet Union was really a great Family of Nations.
But, as I have said above, here on this website I write only about what I know. I am not a Tatar, and I do not know much about the Tatars traditions, about what the Tatars think and feel. Which is why I do not write about the Tatar Soul. Similarly, I think that I have no right to describe the Jewish Soul, the Jewish mindset because I am not a Jew. In my opinion, it would be absolutely incorrect on my side to write about what I do not know for sure.
So, I believe the reason why I portray here mainly the Russians can be clearly understood.
Thus, dear Readers, there is not the slightest tinge of racism on this website of mine.
GOD IS WITH US
REMEMBER:
TO BE A RUSSIAN MEANS
TO BE AN ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN
WE RUSSIANS ARE ONE GREAT FAMILY
OF THE WHITE CHRISTIAN PEOPLE
ALL OF US ARE KITH AND KIN
WE HAVE PRESERVED OUR ORTHODOX FAITH
AND BEEN LIVING FOR THE LAST MILLENNIUM IN
HOLY RUSSIA
OUR SACRED HOME ON EARTH
THE BEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD
ONE FOLK, ONE FAITH, ONE COUNTRY!
OUR GREAT ANCESTOR
THE PATRON SAINT OF THE RUSSIAN MILITARY
THE GRAND PRINCE
SAINT ALEXANDER NEVSKY
(1220 - 1263)
The Flag of the Russian Federation:
the Emperor Peter the Great's Tricolour
The Flag of the Russian Armed Forces:
the Russian Tricolour presented as St Andrew's Saltire
The Flag of the Russian Navy:
the Old Glorious St Andrew's Saltire
The Flag of the Russian Air Forces
A few lines from the Russian National Anthem:
Russia is our Holy Power!
Russia is our beloved country!
Be glorious, our free Fatherland,
We are immensely proud of Thee!
Thou art unique in the world,
Our Native Land protected by God!
OUR SACRED UNITY
OF THE ARMY, THE PEOPLE, AND THE CHURCH
IS THE PLEDGE OF RUSSIA'S VICTORIES
WITH GOD'S HELP NOW AND EVER
AND UNTO AGES OF AGES
THE REGIMENTAL PATRON SAINT ICON
AT THE CHRISTIAN ORTHODOX SACRAMENT
OF THE BLESSING THE TROOPS
BLESSING THE TROOPS
WITH THE PATRON SAINT ICON
THE REGIMENTAL ORTHODOX PRIEST
BESPRINKLING RUSSIAN WARRIORS
WITH THE BLESSED WATER
OUR PATRON SAINT PRINCE ALEXANDER NEVSKY'S
GREAT ICON AND HIS SACRED RELIQUARY
DISPLAYED BEFORE THE TROOPS
RUSSIAN WARRIORS AT THE RELIQUARY
VENERATING THE SACRED RELICS OF
THE GRAND PRINCE ST ALEXANDER NEVSKY
A RUSSIAN ORTHODOX PRIEST ON A TANK:
HIS FATHERLY SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE
IS AT PEACE AND AT WAR WITH HIS SOLDIERS
RUSSIAN WISDOM
Reverend Elder Monk Anatol the Junior of the Optina Pustyn' (Opta's Reclusive Friary), in the very first days of the Revolution, in February 1917, made a prophecy on the future of Russia:
"There will be a storm. And the Russian ship will be smashed to pieces. But people can be saved even on splinters and fragments. And not everyone will perish. One must pray, everyone must repent and pray fervently. And what happens after a storm? ... There will be a calm."
At this everyone said: 'But there is no more Russian ship, it is shattered to pieces; it has perished, everything has perished.'
"It is not so," said Batyushka (Reverend Sire), "A great miracle of God will be manifested. And all the splinters and fragments, by the will of God and His power, will come together and be united, and the Russian ship will be rebuilt in its beauty and will go on its own way as foreordained by God. And this will be a miracle evident to everyone."
We are living in the time of this miracle! This is obvious even to us in the U.S., here outside of Washington, DC and there in New York!
– Ioann, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
From The Readers' Comments to an article on the Russian Orthodox Church, published in The New York Times, 24th April 2008.
Thus, it is quite obvious that we the Russian people are not, have never been, nor ever shall be, a part of the West.
Thank God – we are Russians!
We can well coexist with the West peacefully and profitably. We can even make friends with you, but please do neither lecture us, nor interfere with our affairs. Amen.
WHAT WAS THE LIFE IN THE USSR LIKE
Part One
by Michael Kuznetsov
THE PEOPLE'S DREAMS HAVE COME TRUE!
First of all, I deem it wise to emphasize the following three points.
First, all what I write on this website is my personal feelings and views, although I am convinced that the similar feelings and views have been shared by millions of my compatriots.
Second, it is important to remember that I personally have never been a member of the Communist Party.
Third, I am not going either to promote whichever political ideals, or to defend, praise or detract whatever political system.
I DO ONLY PROVIDE YOU WITH AN INSIGHT.
Some 20 years ago, when the Iron Curtain was still hindering personal contacts and the free exchange of information was hampered, we common people in the Soviet Union had constructed – of course! – our own set of stereotypes about the West.
Since one of the conspicuous traits of our ethnic Russian character has been a tendency to romanticize the foreigners – especially the Europeans – so our stereotypes about the West were very "rosy".
Excessively rosy, I would say.
During the so-called Cold War period, we Russians (or Soviets if you will) used to consider Western Europe to be almost a paradise, while the United States of America to be a complete paradise on the Earth.
At the same time, our "Red Propaganda Commissars" used to teach us about the following:
1. That, allegedly, there was unemployment in the West – We common Soviet citizens would laugh at that silly idea: What unemployment could ever exist in a paradise (the West)? So, we did not believe in that, especially because since 1932 in our country we had had no unemployment at all.
2. That, allegedly, there were homeless and poor people in the West – We did not believe in that, either, because by the mid-1950s we had already re-built almost all of the 1,700 (one thousand and seven hundred) cities and towns, as well as 70,000 (seventy thousand) villages entirely devastated by the German invaders during the Great Patriotic War. Just only think of it: if we Russians had no homeless people here, how could those wretched persons exist in the rich and affluent West? Unthinkable!
3. That, allegedly, there were a lot of people in the West who cannot afford the proper medical care – We laughed especially loudly at this commies' assertion, because all of us Russians had always free medical care, including complicated surgical operations. Free of charge, I repeat!
4. That, allegedly, the Higher Education in the West was very expensive – Since we in the Soviet Union had FREE Higher Education, so we did not believe that anything in the rich western 'paradise' might be anyhow worse than that with us here.
And so on, and so forth.
Since the Iron Curtain has fallen and we have got free access to the immediate information from abroad, we have changed dramatically our stereotypes about the West.
Now we can clearly see that there is no paradise at all there . . .
It is a great disappointment . . .
Now, a few words about the word "Communism". Strictly speaking, that Communism which was proclaimed by Karl Marx, has never existed on the Earth. What we had in the Soviet Union was Socialism.
Walter Duranty – a British-born American correspondent who had lived and worked in the USSR in the 1930s – wrote in his book I Write As I Please (ed. N.Y., 1936, page 339):
"... Socialist system is the abolition of the power of money and the profit motive and of the possibility for any individual or group of individuals to gain surplus value from the work of others. This and this alone is the true foundation of Socialism".
In fact, what we had in the Soviet Union I would rather call a 'State Capitalism with elements of Socialism' than 'pure Socialism'. The notion of social equity has always been very close and dear to the Russian people's Orthodox Christian mentality. Which is why most of our people accepted Socialism in their heart.
Well, let's compare some figures.
Today, in the USA the top managers of great companies have been getting an income which is 600 times bigger than that of an average worker. Imagine!
While in the USSR there existed the following scale of incomes (approximately):
Let's take the lower-paid worker's income for 100 percent. Then, an ordinary engineer received 200 percent, a very skilled worker received 300 percent, a manager (boss) of a factory received 400 percent, a very big 'industrial boss' received 500 percent, and finally a State Minister received 600 percent.
So, the ratio between the lowest and the highest salary was 1 : 6, not 1 : 600 as in America.
Feel the difference.
In the USSR the most acute was THE HOUSING PROBLEM
No wonder!
When the Great Patriotic War ended in 1945, there were in the Soviet Union 25 million absolutely homeless people who had to take shelter in dug-outs.
Literally in dug-outs, because 1,700 cities and towns, as well as 70,000 villages were burnt to the ground by the two-legged animals – the German invaders!
The whole of Belorussia, the Ukraine, and the western part of Russia were reduced to ashes . . .
ON THE RUINS OF THE FORMER SWEET HOME
The orphan and the cat:
All the family is killed, the settlement is destroyed
by the damned German invaders
MILLIONS OF SOVIET CHILDREN
BECAME DESPERATE HOMELESS ORPHANS
DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR 1941 -1945
During the Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany
25 million Soviet people became homeless
In August 1945, General Eisenhower flew from Berlin to Moscow and "did not see a single house standing intact from the Russian-Polish border to Moscow. Not one."
The Soviet Union, with Stalin's leadership, made an extraordinary recovery from unparalleled devastation.
When looking at this sad picture (above) of the poor women with children sitting in great sorrow amidst the ruins of their home, you should remember that it was those same Russian people who in the next 10 years' period of time had managed to restore our devastated country to life without any help from abroad (no "Marshall Plan"), and to launch the first Sputnik in Space (on 4 October 1957) and soon afterwards the first in history Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (on 12 April 1961), having left behind the wealthiest country in the world – the U.S.A.
What a miraculous Nation!
How could those moronic bastards, Napoleon, Hitler, and other godless murderous scum, plan to conquer us Russians?
Never!
There is no force on earth that could defeat us – while the Lord God is with us!
DADDY'S COME BACK HOME FROM THE WAR!
ALIVE ! ALIVE !! ALIVE !!!
Recently, I was really stunned to find in a reputable Western edition this shocking phrase :
". . . The victory over Nazi Germany was achieved through the lives of millions of Soviets, who for reasons that defy logic made the ultimate sacrifice . . ."
I struggled to understand if that was a bad joke, or what – "for reasons that defy logic." Verily, I am afraid that we shall hardly ever positively comprehend the West . . .
Look at the photo above:
According to Russian logic every father has always been determined without hesitation to give his own life for the life of his children. And every mother, too, if necessary.
Our logic is to defend our beloved Motherland – which we consider to be our Great Family – by all means to the last drop of blood. This is what we call Russian patriotism.
Isn't this enough logical for the Westerners?
For us it is a great honour to die for Holy Russia. But, of course, it is even much better to smash the enemy, to save the Homeland, and to come back home alive!
IN 1945 AFTER THE WAR 25 MILLION SOVIET PEOPLE
HAD TO LIVE IN DUG-OUTS LIKE THIS
WE THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE ARE A UNIQUE NATION
OF INFLEXIBLE WILL AND OF UNBENDING SPIRIT
What can we see in the photo above?
The location is the recently liberated Stalingrad. The time is most likely the early Summer of 1943. Like other survivors all around, a Russian family live in a dug-out. The mother and her daughter are waist-high visible standing on the earthen steps leading down to their underground dwelling. The daughter is cooking some food on a kerosene stove. The mother is producing something wrapped in a white handkerchief, maybe a few slices of bread. Waiting for the meal, the father is having a rest sitting on a stool, evidently, the only piece of furniture the family possess. He is remarkably enjoying the sunshine.
Do they feel sorrow? Of course, they do.
But, at the same time, the members of the family look absolutely quiet, confident, and in the deep of their heart they are happy.
They are really happy and full of joy because of the fact that the Red Army has just won the greatest battle at Stalingrad, and that from now on OUR ultimate Glorious Victory is a forgone conclusion.
From the very first day of the Great Patriotic War in June 1941 through to its last salvo in glorious May 1945, during all of the long 1418 days of the terrible war, it was NOT for a single second that any one of us Russians would have ever got the slightest doubt in the final Glorious Victory over the godless murderous scum – the German invaders.
Not for a second!
I cannot but repeat it over and over again that the Stalingrad family shown above, as well as their neighbours and all the others, are the very same Russian people who, in the next 10 years' period of time, would restore our devastated country to life without any help from abroad (no "Marshall Plan", etc), and who would launch the first Sputnik in Space, and the first Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, having left behind the mightiest country in the world – the United States of America.
This is what we call the unbending Russian Spirit and the inflexible Russian Will.
So, help us God.
Another grave issue connected to the housing problem, apart from the ubiquitous devastations caused by the murderous German invaders, was of course the harsh Russian climate. While, say, in England you can build a house with its walls of only one-brick-layer width, at the very same time in Russia the walls MUST be made of, at least, three brick layers.
Plus the intense heating, which has been absolutely necessary during six of each twelve months a year.
Plus doubled window framing, doubled doors, etc.
Simply put, this means that a common average house in Russia has always been about three times more expensive than a common average house in England.
It is self-evident that in the USSR the common people's income could not be big enough as to buy a house, the more so that no mortgage existed.
But the Soviet Authorities used to allocate cosy and warm DWELLINGS, flats or apartments with all affordable amenities, to the Soviet citizens FREE OF CHARGE, the monthly rent for a state-owned flat not exceeding 5 or 7 percent of the average worker's monthly salary.
People were really happy to move from dug-outs
into blocks of flats like these, erected in place of ruins
NO HOMELESS PEOPLE EXISTED IN THE U.S.S.R.
NO UNEMPLOYMENT (since 1932)
NO STARVING PEOPLE
NO BEGGARS IN THE STREETS
A 28-DAY FULLY PAID HOLIDAY (VACATION) A YEAR
NO MORTGAGE EXISTED – HENCE NO FINANCIAL BONDAGE
FREE EDUCATION, INCLUDING THE HIGHER
FREE MEDICAL CARE, INCLUDING COMPLICATED MAJOR SURGICAL OPERATIONS
FREE SANATORIUM VOUCHERS, BED & FOOD INCLUDED, UP TO 14 DAYS A YEAR
NO DRUG ADDICTION (NARCOMANIA)
SPORADIC, MINIMAL STREET CRIME
A typical Russian urban block of flats:
Not being lapped in luxury but quite comfortable,
cosy, warm, and with all modern amenities inside.
Millions of us have been living happily this way
Neat but not gaudy:
The interior of a typical Russian flat in the early 1970s
A view of a typical Russian street
Russian cities and towns are very green
A typical Russian urban residential district landscape
Russian cities and towns are very beautiful and safe
A typical Russian sanatorium for the working class
By Stalin's order in the U.S.S.R.
each worker enjoyed the right to have a two-weeks' rest
and medical treatment free of charge every year
The Moscow Metro (Subway) remains to be the best in the world
Its construction began in the 1930s by Stalin's order
St. Petersburg, the Winter Palace Front Staircase
The magnificent Imperial Winter Palace – the Hermitage
was restored and preserved by Stalin's order
VODKA
Yes, it is true, we Russians can drink much more of vodka than the Westerners, who prefer to sip alcohol beverages deluted with something. Perhaps, it is because we have a stronger stomach, a better health, and a more severe climate.
Anyway, the story of 'Russian alcoholism' is greatly exaggerated. The 'drunkards' could have never managed to launch the first Cosmonaut in Space, it is absolutely evident.
Russian Vodka is the best in the world
We Russians do neither drink vodka without eating some exquisite spicy "zakuska" which you can see on this table, nor do we ever mix strong beverage with some ice, soda-water, or whatever of the kind.
Indeed, it is a wild idea to drink vodka with ice after having returned home from the frosty iced street, isn't it? The same reason is behind our habit to drink very hot and strong tea with much of sugar.
When visiting Russia, you are sometimes expected to drink vodka (cognac, whisky, brandy, rum, etc) straight, draining each time at least a full two-ounce glass at one gulp, immediately after each one of the numerous toasts is proposed, which events occure rather in a close succession during the initial phase of the party. After each bout you are to help yourself lavishly with some extremely delicious "zakuska" which is usually prepared in abundance on the festal table.
Yet, if you are not seasoned enough so that to follow the Russian way of drinking vodka – there is no problem. Your own ethnic customs and habits, the state of health, disposition, as well as your individual physical abilities are to be met, as a rule, with the hosts' full understanding.
We Russians prefer better to have our foreign guests sitting erect and talking vigorously, than to observe them lying prostrate and unconscious under the festal table richly laden with food and drinks, especially when all the merry revels are only still going to begin in good earnest.
Here is a remarkable excerpt from a book in proof of my observations:
"On November 7, 1943, the Soviet Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, threw a sumptuous party. It was later reported to be the most opulent of the war. Soviet officials were dressed in a newly designed pearl-grey uniform, hung with gold braid."
"The atmosphere was lush, the drink plentiful, so mush so that the British ambassador fell face-first onto the table, cutting himself. Other foreign diplomats were carried out unconscious. Endless toasts were drunk to the success of Allied armies, and to international goodwill. The mood was reported to be exuberant, even bohemian."
From the book: Russia's War by Richard Overy, Penguin, 1997, pages 219-220.
The following two pictures may help to visualize the Kremlin's Party mentioned above by Mr. Richard Overy.
Main Courses Russian Festal Table
Dessert Courses Russian Festal Table
The best "zakuska" is caviar
Remember this rule!
A typical Russian party: the hosts and their guests
are sitting brotherly close, shoulder to shoulder
at the big festal table richly laden as usual
with delicious food and exquisite drinks
A typical Russian family together:
Christian love and concord
of several generations
Each one of us Russians is not an individual human being separated from the others, but a tiny "cell" of one common colossal Organism of the Russian Nation.
Our brotherly cohesion, Christian love and spiritual integrity constitute Holy Russia's supreme values and chief assets, as well as the true source of our invincible power for centuries.
The Western society has long since become utterly atheistic, with the notorious "political correctness" and the rigorously individualist "human rights" being above all.
At the same time, we Russians consider our Holy Orthodox Christian Faith and the common good to excel all things mundane and individual.
Which is why we Russians do not consider ourselves to be Europeans any longer, despite the obvious fact that racially, of course, we stem from the same stock as the Germans, Britons, and other Nordic White peoples.
RUSSIAN BEAUTY WITH A ROSE
So, to conclude the first part of my recollections, I would like to say that the life of the ordinary people in Soviet Russia was quite normal and stable, frequently rather pleasant.
In reality, it had nothing to do with that scary lunatic way of life which has been absolutely wrongly imputed to us Russians by the insane imagination of some Hollywood producers.
What is most essential: We Russians used to live a tranquil life during the peacetime, without any fears or nervousness.
In other words: We are a great family-like white Christian nation with a strong confidence in the Lord God's Providence about our Holy Russia. We have been living quietly in a charming calmness of our beautiful boundless lands. Amen.
Be safely assured of this!
WE RUSSIANS ARE MADE OF SPECIAL STUFF
ЭТО ЗДОРОВО!
WHAT A SWELL PLUNGE!
Russian men are fond of diving
in the cold waters of the ice-bound river
Conditioning to the cold in an ice hole:
A Russian mother with her one-year-old child
dipping into the winter waters of the ice-bound river
Never compete with the Russians in the fighting, drinking, or swimming in a riverine ice hole, lest you perish for nothing.
Never try to drink 96 percent pure alcohol straight, which we Russians can effectively do in some special situations, lest you immediately collapse and die.
To survive through the centuries in the extremely harsh conditions we Russians are made of special stuff, different from that of the Westerners, to say nothing of the Asiatics or Africans.
Please note: I do not say "better" or "worse", but "different." Verily: "What is good for a Russian, is often lethal to a German."
RUSSIAN FIGHTER FEDOR EMELIANENKO
IS THE BEST IN THE WORLD
The Undisputed Mixed Martial Arts
World Heavyweight Champion
Russian Fighter Fedor Emelianenko
"Thanks Russian Orthodox for Their Prayers!"
On Saturday, November 7, 2009 during the Strikeforce-M1 fight at the Chicago's Sears Centre Arena, Fedor Emelianenko knocked out the undefeated Brett Rogers. When asked about the reasons of his victory, Fedor answered: "Millions of Russian Orthodox Christians prayed for me. It is their victory, not mine."
The fable-like Russian fighter is a loving father, strong Russian Orthodox Christian believer, and the most dangerous heavyweight fighter in world history.
Full story HERE
I repeat: we Russians are made of special iron-hard stuff. Which is why we would always laugh out loud at all those ridiculous attempts to portray us so disparagingly in various movies produced in the West.
For example, according to the opinion of those Russians who have watched a recent (2001) movie Enemy at the Gates, in which Jude Law, an English actor, plays our famous sniper Vassili Zaitsev, in fact, the actors resemble real Russian warriors as much as hamsters resemble sabretoothed tigers.
Not a distant resemblance!
If we Russians had been such silly, intimidated automatons – as the Red Army soldiers have been usually portrayed in various dull Hollywood movies – we should have never smashed the strongest Army in Europe: the formidable German Wehrmacht, together with their numerous allies rallied from all over Europe.
But we won!
Although, for justice' sake, it must be noted that there was no comparison between the Germans as really strong soldiers, and their weak allies: all those Italians, Romanians, Finns, Hungarians, Slovaks, Croats, Belgians, Spaniards, Frenchmen, Dutchmen, Norwegians, and all those who also participated in the Second World War on the Nazi Germany's side against us Russians.
Poor stupid losers! They durst invade Holy Russia! We made sheer bloody mincemeat of them all, and of their German masters, too. As usually we do so with any aggressors. Always.
In fact, the German soldiers were the sole really strong and dangerous foes who could fight on par with us Russians.
During the Great Patriotic War, Marshal Stalin used to say about our sworn German enemy the following:
"The Germans are a great people. Very good technicians and organisers. Good, naturally brave soldiers."
No doubt, the Germans were the best soldiers in Europe at the time. But we Russians appeared to be even much stronger: able to trounce whatever enemy. In other words, the Soviet Red Army warriors proved to be the best in the world.
Because finally, with God's help
we Russians derouted the Germans undisputably!
THE NAZI GERMAN ARMY – THE WEHRMACHT
WAS THE STRONGEST ARMY IN EUROPE AT THE TIME
REMEMBER:
On June 22, 1941, German armed forces consisting of 153 divisions, including 21 armoured (Panzer divisions) and 14 motorised ones, invaded Holy Russia. Their overall strength was 5,500,000 troops. Plus 39 divisions with more than 900,000 soldiers representing the Western allies of Nazi Germany – Italians, Spaniards, Frenchmen, Dutchmen, Finns, Romanians, Hungarians, Slovaks, and others. Their aggression was supported by 4,300 tanks and self-propelled mountings, 4,980 airplanes, 47,200 guns and mortars.
The Russian armed forces consisting of five Western Frontier Military Districts and three Fleets, opposing the aggressor, had half of the personnel as compared with the enemy – only about 3,000,000 troops. The first echelon of our Russian armies had only 56 rifle and cavalry divisions, which made difficult for them to vie with armoured divisions of Germans. Also, the aggressor had a big advantage in artillery, tanks and airplanes of the latest design.
The German onslaught on Russia in 1941 seemed unstoppable:
the Juggernaut of the Wehrmacht and the SS once reached
even the outskirts of Moscow – the heart of Holy Russia
What a daunting task it really was
to stop and to destroy the hordes of mortal foes
but with God's help and under the wise Stalin's guidance
WE RUSSIANS WITHSTOOD AND WON THE WAR!
Anyway, it does not matter
how many times you get knocked down
but how many times you get up!
What does really counts is the final crushing blow
that you deliver to knock the adversary out!
This is what the Red Army made of the Germans and their allies:
THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE
AS HABITUALLY, WE RUSSIANS MADE BLOODY MINCEMEAT
OF ALL THOSE BASTARDS WHO DURST INVADE HOLY RUSSIA
IN 1941-1945 AT THE EASTERN FRONT IN RUSSIA
SEVEN MILLION GERMAN SOLDIERS WERE KILLED
AND TENS OF MILLIONS WERE MAIMED AND INJURED
DURING THE SAME PERIOD THE RED ARMY LOST
EIGHT MILLION SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND SOLDIERS SLAIN
AND TENS OF MILLIONS WERE INJURED AND MAIMED, TOO
After the long 1418 days of mortal fightings, in the Spring of 1945
the victorious Red Army smashed the enemy undisputably
captured Berlin and won the Great Patriotic War
HOISTING THE VICTORIOUS RED BANNER
IN THE CAPTIVE BERLIN, GERMANY, MAY 1945
The German Eagle is vanquished and disgraced
The glorious Stalin's Red Army has emerged victorious!
Everyone who dares to insult us Russians
is always to pay a very dear price
Fear ye God, and keep off Russia!
RUSSIA'S MILITARY MIGHT
Russia The Puissant
Topol-M (SS-25 Sickle)
Road Mobile Launcher
As of January 1, 2007, Russia possesses 927 nuclear delivery vehicles and 4,279 nuclear warheads for strategic offensive weapons, while the United States owns 1,255 and 5,966, respectively, according to the Russian Defense Ministry's department for contract compliance control.
On the 19th of January 2008, Russia's military chief of staff says Moscow would use nuclear weapons in pre-emptive strike if it felt threatened. General Yuri Baluyevsky said there were no plans "to attack anyone" but reasserted Russia's right to defend itself.
"To defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia and its allies, military forces will be used, including
preventively, including with the use of nuclear weapons," four-star General Baluyevsky said.
U.S. and Russia Still Unrivaled
In Global Power Projection
by Martin Sief, UPI
Dec. 1, 2008
No other nation in the world can come close to rivaling either the United States or Russia in its capability to deploy strategic nuclear, air force, naval or powerful, heavily armored and fast-moving ground forces across such a widespread proportion of the Earth's surface.
In terms of global conventional and space-based power, Russia still falls behind the United States. But it remains far ahead of everyone else.
Neither rising China nor economically super-prosperous Japan can dream of projecting surface sea power around the world the way the United States – and, to a lesser degree, Russia – can. The United States operates 11 super-carrier task forces. Britain, Spain and Italy each deploy only two carriers, and none of them is a super-carrier.
No other nation in the world, not even the United States, has a supersonic bomber that can remotely rival the Russian Tu-160 Blackjack.
For the full text click:
HERE
The Russian Supersonic Strategic Bomber
Tupolev TU-160 White Swan
NATO designation Blackjack
is the best in the World
The Russian Strategic Bomber
Tupolev TU-95
NATO designation Bear
Topol the Formidable
In the Red Square in Moscow
On the Victory Day Parade 9 May 2008
Topol-M mobile ICBMs – NATO designation SS-27 Stalin
The Admiral Kuznetsov
Russian Aircraft Carrier
Russian Naval Aircraft SU-33
Landing on the Aircraft Carrier's Deck
Take notice of St. Andrew Russian Navy Flag
depicted at the cockpit
Typhoon Project 941 Russian Submarine
Granit Project 949 Russian Submarine
Delta Project 667 Russian Submarine
The Moskva
Russian Heavy Missile Cruiser
MIG 29 Fulcrum
Russian Air Forces Multi-Role Fighter
SU 35 Flanker-E Russian Aircraft
the Best Multi-Role Fighter in the World
Russian Navy Task Force Exercises in the Atlantic
Video, Narration in English, 4 min
Military Parade in the Red Square
Moscow, 9th May 2008
Video, Part One
Military Parade in the Red Square
Moscow, 9th May 2008
Video, Part Two
RUSSIA IS A SUPERPOWER
WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT
MARSHAL STALIN
AND THE REVIVAL OF
THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
By Michael Kuznetsov
From personal experience I know that it was a very hard, an almost impossible task for a common person to obtain a copy of the Holy Bible in my country during the years before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. But evidently, not all readers are aware of the fact that it was NOT Stalin, but Nikita Khruschev, who introduced such an evil order, that it was Khruschev who attempted to suppress religion in Russia.
On the contrary, it was Stalin who, after having finished with his enemies – the so-called Fifth Column – in the second half of the 1930s, slowly began to revive the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). Then in 1943 Marshal Stalin initiated the re-establishment of the Moscow Patriarchate of the ROC and permitted the re-opening of a great number of seminaries, monasteries and cathedrals all over the USSR. And what is especially remarkable, it was personally Stalin who advised to begin publication of The Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, a monthly clerical magazine, which has been published since 1943 until the present day.
One recalls also that as a youth Stalin studied in the Tiflis Orthodox Christian seminary. His first words in a famous RADIO ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE on 3rd July 1941 were: Comrades, Citizens, BROTHERS AND SISTERS! . . .
The full version of Stalin's appeal see here:
http://www.great-victory1945.ru/appeal.htm
In the terrible autumn of 1942, by order of Marshal Stalin the ancient miracle-working Kazan Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God was taken to Stalingrad, where people were constantly praying before it for victory over the murderous German invaders, and where they were remembering the heroes fallen in the bloody fightings for Stalingrad.
And we won!
The Theotokos of Kazan Holy Icon had been brought always to the most dangerous sections of the front line, where the situation was critical, and where our offensive was being planned. It stood among our Russian forces on the right bank of the Volga, sometimes at a distance of only two hundred yards from the enemy's positions, and the German murderous godless invaders could not cross the Volga River, no matter how hard they tried.
The famous Battle of Stalingrad began with the prayerful Orthodox service before the Holy Miracle-working Icon of the Kazan Mother of God, and it was only after these prayers had completed that a signal was given to our Russian forces to launch the final all-out attack. The Russian soldiers were blessed with holy water, and they felt like being immortal and invincible before the bloody mortal fight!
For this and other cases that proved Stalin's inner Christianity (under the guise of communism) see here:
http://www.vor.ru/English/Victory/vict_09.html
As to my own copy of the Holy Bible, the most cherished thing in my family, it once belonged to my great-great-grandmother. My forebears lost EVERYTHING during the Great Patriotic War, literally, yet the only precious heirloom that was saved from the flames was the Holy Bible, which is now in my possession.
THE BOLSHEVIKS:
A MISLEADING TERMINOLOGY
Under One Common Label "The Bolsheviks"
Were Disguised Two Mortally Antagonistic Groups:
Destructivists and Constructivists
The Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War is too vast a topic to be discussed here in full detail. Perhaps, we shall dwell on this very important theme elsewhere at some later time.
Meanwhile, I would like to offer here a few brief considerations.
1. All the anti-Russian revolutionary activities, initially suppressed by Alexander III after the assassination of his august father, Emperor Alexander II, resumed in 1895, just after the untimely death of Emperor Alexander III the Peacemaker.
2. If the strong and wise reign of Emperor Alexander III had continued, or if his son and successor, Emperor Nicholas II, had been as resolute and firm as his father – there would hardly have been a revolution.
3. The main blunder Emperor Nicholas II made – in my opinion – was permitting the establishment of a Duma (Russian Parliament).
4. Instead of having all the revolutionaries hanged, Emperor Nicholas II naïvely allowed them to undermine and spoil Russian Power on a permanent legal basis.
5. It should be clearly understood and remembered that many, if not all, of the White Generals were those traitors who forced Emperor Nicholas II to abdicate in February 1917.
6. It should also be kept in mind that almost all of the so-called "White Guards" during the Civil War were not struggling for the restoration of the Monarchy.
7. The Red Guards (Communists) enjoyed vast support by the poor – who constituted the overwhelming majority of the nation – because of the Reds' slogans of social equality.
8. The yearning for the Brotherly Equality and Justice has always been and remains to be the core of Russian Christian mentality, at least for the last thousand years.
The Russian Civil War was one of the most important and complex events of the twentieth century. The collapse of the Tsarist regime and the failure of the Kerensky Provisional Government nearly led to the complete (though temporal) disintegration of the Russian state. What followed was a painful and costly reconstruction of Russian power under the Bolshevik regime within its shrunken borders.
The Russian Civil War shaped the mentality of the Communists more than any other event in its history. The infant Soviet regime faced large 'White' armies of anti-Communist Russians, Anarchist mutineers, break-away nationalist minorities and invading armies of most of the major powers of the First World War. The murderous Civil War with huge casualties left the Soviets with a lasting mistrust of the outside world, which remained in force until the end of the regime 65 years later.
SAINT ROYAL MARTYRS ICON
THE RUSSIAN IMPERIAL FAMILY
MURDERED IN 1918
BY THE BOLSHEVIK DESTRUCTIVISTS
Troparion to the Royal Martyrs:
Meekly didst thou endure the loss of thine earthly kingdom, the bonds and divers sufferings inflicted upon thee by those opposed to God, and didst bear witness for Christ even unto death, O great passion-bearer, divinely crowned Tsar Nicholas; wherefore, Christ God hath crowned thee in the heavens with a martyr's crown, together with thy queen, thy children and thy servants. Him do thou beseech, that He have mercy upon the Russian land and save our souls. Amen.
From the mid 1920s through the 1930s, Joseph Stalin and his group of the "Constructivists"
(Patriots) struggled fiercely within the Communist Party against the "Destructivists"
(Aliens) who operated under the guidance of Leon Trotsky, a notorious enemy of everything Russian and Christian. The overwhelming majority of the Russian people within and without the Party supported Stalin's constructive-positivist drive with his very progressive slogan "Socialism in One Country!" in opposition to the destructive-nihilist Trotskyite gang's drive under the aggressive slogan "Permanent Revolution All Over the World!"
The Russians did not want to conquer the world and to die for Trotsky and his alien godless clique's yearning for the world domination. We Russians had a lot to do within the borders of our Homeland, including Collectivization and Industrialization, which were absolutely necessary in order to secure the revival and development of our country, and the preparations for the military defense of the USSR.
The ruins of the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow, blown up by the Bolshevik Destructivists in 1931.
Before Stalin concenrated the state power in his hands in the late 1930s, the enemies of the Russian people – the so-called "Lenin's Guard" or the "Old Bolsheviks" – had managed to inflict a great damage to the country's economy, and caused the Christian people much of grief. Thousands of Russian Orthodox churches and monasteries were demolished, a great number of Russian Orthodox Christian believers, church hierarchs, priests, and monks were either exiled, or imprisoned, or shot and killed by the godless Trotskyites.
Eventually, step by step, Stalin visited retribution on all the torturers of the Russian people and on all the bestial killers of the Russian Imperial Family. The sworn enemies of everything Russian – the so-called "Old Bolsheviks": Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin, Rykov, and a number of others – were duly tried in a series of open legal proceedings and executed. And justly so.
Stalin also managed to discover and liquidate the most dangerous military plot by a narrow margin just on the eve of their
coup-d'état that was scheduled by the chief traitor Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky in the early Summer of 1937. Those heinous military Trotskyite conspirators were tried and executed, too.
The so-called "Stalin's Purges" were in fact a bitter struggle between the Constructivists and Destructivists, during whose violent struggle, unfortunately, a lot of innocent people also perished. Although, the number of the victims (both guilty and innocent) did never exceed 700,000 persons in total.
NOT MILLIONS!
Strictly put, since 1921 till 1954 (that is for the whole period of 33 years) in the Soviet Union – according to the official archives of the NKVD, Ministry of the Interior, and of all other state prosecuting organs – there was found and documentarily confirmed the following total number of repressed persons.
Namely:
Executed: – 642,980 persons
Imprisoned: – 2,369,220 persons
Compare with this
Study: 7.3 million in US prison system in 2007
Exiled: – 765,180 persons
Thus, the Fifth Column of the traitors in the U.S.S.R. was liquitated shortly before the War. Soon afterwards, in 1943, Stalin disbanded also the notorious Comintern (the Communist International also known as the Third International), an aggressive revolutionary organisation that was established in 1919 to foment revolution in other countries all over the world.
The great Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin and his true friend and loyal comrade Marshal Kliment Voroshilov in the Kremlin, Moscow, 1938. How to secure the defence of the Motherland, that was their principal concern all of the time.
Not only did Stalin restore the former mightiness of the Russian Empire, but he also managed to have developed the U.S.S.R. into a highly industrialized country, so that we succeeded in withstanding of the German onslaught, and eventually we emerged victorious in the Great Patriotic War in 1941 - 1945. Thanks to Stalin, during the War we had the best tanks, the best planes, and the best artillery in the world.
The Red Army morale and the fighting spirit were extremely high under the guidance of Marshal Stalin when we were fighting the murderous German invaders. The Leader of the Soviet State restored our glorious millennial history in all of its splendour, remembering all of Russia's saints and heroes from the past centuries. Under Stalin's rule our beloved country Russia became a superpower!
Marshal Stalin re-introduced the old Russian military ranks, as well as the imperial uniform with golden braids and epaulettes, and even several imperial institutions, such as the Cadet Corps, the Order of St Alexander Nevsky (right picture), and most impressive military parades.
It goes without question that Stalin's majestic architectural style (called sometimes the "Russian Empire style") and the Moscow Metro (Subway) proved to be the best in the world.
But of course, the most important of all exploits he performed was that Stalin revived the Russian Orthodox Church – the true Soul of the Russian Nation.
Small wonder that Holy Russia's enemies and ill-wishers continue to hate the Great Stalin even to the present day.
THE STALIN SPORTS PARADES:
A Healthy Mind In A Healthy Body
"Citius, Altius, Fortius!"
CHILDREN ARE THE FAMILY'S FORTUNE
CHILDREN ARE THE NATION'S FUTURE
BE HAPPY, DARLING!
Russia Has Always Been
A Traditionally Oriented Society:
MOTHERLAND, FAMILY, CHILDREN
ABORTION, SODOMY
AND OTHER ABOMINATIONS
WERE STRICTLY FORBIDDEN IN THE USSR
UNDER STALIN`S RULE
In her exceptionally interesting article The New Soviet Union: America and the West, the author Linda Kimball wrote:
"Behind radical feminism, same-sex marriage, the androgyny theme, gay pride, and the overall pattern of degeneration at all levels of society throughout America and the West lies a revamped international Communist revolution. Being anti-Stalinist it shuns the Communist label and instead disguises itself as Multiculturalism and Political Correctness."
"Separation of church and state, pornography, easy divorce, open borders, extreme sex education, abortion, gay pride, same-sex marriage, androgyny, political correctness, speech codes, the wreckage of the traditional family, and hate crime laws – all were imported to the Christian West from the
pre-Stalinist Soviet Union. We did not recognize it as Communism because we believed Stalin's modified version to be the original communism".
[ . . . ]
"Like falling dominoes, the collapsing family led to the fall of social order, culture, and then the economy, unleashing a tidal wave of crime, corruption, sexual debauchery, and chaos.
When Stalin came to power, he took immediate steps to restore order.
The family and ethics were restored, abortion and divorce made difficult to obtain, and sodomy, gender-bendering, etc. were re-criminalized.
In taking these steps, Stalin destroyed the Bolshevik's 'revolution,' for which they hate him to this day".
Source:
http://www.newsbull.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=40193
For the first time in the Russian history legal abortion was allowed by the Destructive Bolsheviks in Russia in 1920.
After Joseph Stalin succeeded in suppression and liquidation of most of that godless scum – the notorious "Lenin's Old Guard" – by the mid-1930s, Stalin made abortion in the USSR strictly forbidden (punishable by 2-years' term of imprisonment) by the Soviet Government Decree, dated 27 June 1936.
Soon after the Stalin's death, his "successor," Nikita Khruschev (a disguised Trotskyite) again allowed legal abortion on 23 November 1955.
Stalin re-introduced Christmas Tree in 1936, which had been strictly forbidden by the Bolsheviks immediately after the Revolution in 1917, and the Russian children would again receive Christmas presents from Grandfather Frost (the Russian for Santa Claus).
As is known, it was Stalin who began to revive the Russian Orthodox Church in the mid-1930s, despite the rabid opposition of the "Old Bolsheviks." Stalin's efforts resulted in 1943 in the establishment of the Moscow Patriarchate. During the Great Patriotic War Stalin concluded his daily Stavka (Staff Headquarter) meetings and briefings with his marshals and generals with these words: "So help us God!" and "Go and be victorious with God!"
After Stalin's death, the notorious traitor Nikita Khruschev initiated severe persecutions of the Russian Orthodox Church again, impudently promising that by 1980 there would remain no single Orthodox priest in the USSR.
THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR 1941-1945
OF THE U.S.S.R. AGAINST NAZI GERMANY
WE RUSSIANS WON A BITTER WAR
WITH GOD'S AID UNDER STALIN'S GUIDANCE
On June 22, 1941, German armed forces consisting of 153 divisions, including 21 armoured (Panzer divisions) and 14 motorised ones, invaded Holy Russia. Their overall strength was 5,500,000 troops. Plus 39 divisions with more than 900,000 soldiers representing the Western allies of Nazi Germany – Italians, Spaniards, Frenchmen, Dutchmen, Finns, Romanians, Hungarians, Slovaks, and others. Their aggression was supported by 4,300 tanks and self-propelled mountings, 4,980 airplanes, 47,200 guns and mortars.
The Russian armed forces consisting of five Western Frontier Military Districts and three Fleets, opposing the aggressor, had half of the personnel as compared with the enemy – only about 3,000,000 troops. The first echelon of our Russian armies had only 56 rifle and cavalry divisions, which made difficult for them to vie with armoured divisions of Germans. Also, the aggressor had a big advantage in artillery, tanks and airplanes of the latest design.
When Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union on June 22nd 1941, Metropolitan Sergius (pictured below right), acting as the Locum Tenens of the Russian Patriarch, wrote a Message to the pastors and congregations of the Russian Orthodox Church, which read:
"Our Beloved in Christ Brothers and Sisters!
The fascist brigands have attacked our Motherland. They trampled underfoot all treaties and pledges, and treacherously fell on us, and now Russian soil is being soaked with the blood of peaceful civilians. The times of Batu Khan, German knights, the Swedish King Charles XII and Napoleon seem to have returned. The wretched descendants of the enemies of Orthodox Christianity are again set on using untruth and brutal violence to bring our people to their knees and make them sacrifice the good and territorial integrity of the Motherland, our ancestors' behests to love our country. But it's not for the first time that the Russian people have had to live through the time of trial.
This time, too, our Lord will help us to defeat the enemy force, the Nazis. Our forefathers had to face much worse situations, but they never lost courage because they prayed not for their own lives, but for their sacred duty to their Motherland and their faith, and they emerged victorious. Can we, the Orthodox people, allow their names to be put to shame, we, who are related to them in flesh and faith? The Church of Christ gives its blessing to all the Orthodox believers on defending the sacred borders of our Motherland.
God will grant us victory!"
In the face of the great danger the Russian Orthodox Church did not blame Stalin's government for the destruction of numerous churches and persecution of thousands of believers committed by the godless Trotskists. Those heinous enemies of the people – the godless aliens, Destructivists – had been mainly destroyed already by Stalin during the purges in the second half of the 1930s. The Russian Orthodox Church called for national accord, for a pooling of efforts to fight the Nazi invaders. It blessed the nation's Patriotic War, and the blessing was approved by Heaven.
In the Great Patriotic War against Hitler's German invaders in 1941-1945 our most Holy, most Pure, most Blessed and Glorious Lady, the Birth-giver of God, and Ever-Virgin Mary helped us through Her wonder-working icon of the Mother of God of Kazan.
Icon of the Mother of God of Kazan
This is what our contemporary, the highly esteemed clergymen Archpriest Vasily Shvetz wrote in his memoirs:
"When the Great Patriotic War began, Patriarch Alexander III of Antioch addressed all Christians of the world with a plea for material and spiritual help for Russia. At the time our country could boast of precious few true friends.
There were also great zealots of devout prayer like St Seraphim of Vyritsa, (right photo) who stood on a rock for a thousand days and nights praying for the salvation of the country and our people.
And what is more, it was God's will that one of our country's few friends, Metropolitan Elias Karam of the Lebanon Hills, from the Patriarchate of Antioch, was chosen to deliver the Lord's intent regarding the destinies of Russia.
The Metropolitan realised what Russia meant for the world, and prayed for our country's salvation and the spiritual enlightenment of our people. Metropolitan Elias Karam went underground, where no sounds could penetrate the stone walls, a bare place with the exception of the icon of the Mother of God, and wilfully shut himself up there. He accepted neither food nor drink, did not sleep, and remained kneeling praying to the icon of the Mother of God, lit by a lamp.
Every morning the Metropolitan received news from the front regarding the number of casualties and how far the Nazis had advanced. After three days and nights of vigil, the Holy Virgin Herself appeared before the Metropolitan in a pillar of fire, and announced to him that he had been chosen to make known the Lord's instructions for our country and its people. If everything contained in the instructions were carried out to the letter, the country would not perish.
The Mother of God announced that monasteries, churches, seminaries, and theological academies should be opened throughout the country. Clergymen should be summoned back from the front and the prisons, and church services begun.
'Right now there are plans in action regarding the surrender of Leningrad', said the Holy Virgin. 'It must not be surrendered! Let them take my Kazan icon and carry it in a solemn cross-bearing procession around the city, then, the enemy shall never set foot on its holy ground. This city is a chosen one. A church service before the Kazan icon should be conducted in Moscow, too. Then, it should be in Stalingrad, which should not be surrendered at any cost. The Kazan icon should accompany the troops right to the country's borders.'
Metropolitan Elias Karam made contact with representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate and the secular Soviet Government, and passed on to them the Lord's decree. The archives still contain the various telegrams and letters that Metropolitan Elias Karam sent to Moscow. The Soviet Leader, Marshal Joseph Stalin, summoned Metropolitan Sergius Stragorodsky, the head of the Moscow Patriarchate, and Metropolitan Aleksey Simansky of Leningrad and promised them that everything Metropolitan Elias Karam of the Lebanon Hills had conveyed would be fulfilled. Stalin could see no other way of saving the situation. Everything happened just as it was predicted. The icon of the Mother of God of Kazan was carried in a cross-bearing procession around the city of Leningrad, and the enemy did not seize it, despite a harsh, long, and pitiless siege.
Moscow was saved in a similar way. This was a miracle, for the Germans were within 30 kilometres of the Kremlin. The defeat of Hitler's army on the outskirts of Moscow became the end of the Nazi victories. Afterwards, the Kazan icon of the Mother of God was taken to Stalingrad, where people constantly prayed before it, remembering the fallen. The icon stood among our forces on the right bank of the Volga, and the fascists could not cross the river, no matter how hard they tried.
The famous Battle of Stalingrad began with prayers before the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, and only after these prayers was the signal given to our forces to launch an offensive. The icon was brought to the most difficult sections of the frontline, where the situation was critical, and where an offensive was being planned. The soldiers were blessed with holy water, and they responded with sincere joy!"
In his memoirs, Archpriest Vasily Shvetz narrates a story he heard from one officer-veteran of the Great Patriotic war, who fought on the approaches to Koenigsberg. The following events amazed him.
"This story happened during the storming of Koenigsberg in 1944. Our troops were exhausted, while the Germans, on the other hand, were still a force to be reckoned with. We were suffering huge losses and a terrible defeat seemed imminent. Suddenly, we saw the Commander of the front arrive, accompanied by clergymen carrying an icon.
That was the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan. The clergymen said prayers and with the icon headed straight for the frontline. We watched them bewildered. There they were, walking tall, fearless of being shot! In the meantime, a barrage of fire was coming from the German side. Yet, the clergymen calmly walked towards the fire. Suddenly, the firing from the German side ceased, as if cut short. Then our command gave the signal to begin the storming of Koenigsberg from land and from sea. The Germans surrendered by the thousands. Afterwards, the prisoners said that right before our assault 'the Madonna appeared in the sky', that is how they referred to the Mother of God. It was visible to the entire German Army, and everyone's weapons failed, they could not fire a single shot".
In 1947, Stalin made good on his promise and invited Metropolitan Elias Karam of the Lebanon Hills to Russia. He was accorded a gracious welcome.
Profoundly moved, Metropolitan Elias Karam said, "It gives me great pleasure to witness the revival of the Orthodox Faith on the territory of Holy Rus, and see that the Lord and the Mother of God have not forsaken your country, but rather have displayed particular benevolence towards it". The right photo shows Patriarch Alexy I and Mitropolitan Elias Karam (right) in Moscow, 1947.
The Metropolitan was sent off with precious gifts, a copy of the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan, a cross and a small pectoral icon of the Mother of God encased in precious stones from all regions of our country. Thus, the entire country contributed to a gift made by the most skilled of jewelers. One can continue narrating the various miracles that have occurred and are still occurring from prayers said before the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan.
For more information see this site:
http://www.vor.ru/English/Christian_Message/program.phtml?act=46
Being an Orthodox Christian by education in his youth, and having lived among the Russians for many years, Stalin knew that Orthodoxy was the Russian people's main spiritual basis. It was not by chance that he called the Soviet citizens "Brothers and Sisters" in his famous radio broadcast appeal on July 3, 1941.
In spring 1942 Stalin insisted that the Soviet Government allow nation-wide Paschal (Easter) celebrations, with all the bells chiming across the country for the first time in many years!
On the 4th of September 1943 Stalin invited the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church – Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) of Moscow, Metropolitan Alexy (Simansky) of Leningrad, and Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich) of Kiev – to the Kremlin to discuss the need for reviving religious life in the USSR and the speedy election of a Patriarch.
It was decided to convene an All-Russia Council of the Orthodox Church on the 8th of September 1943 that elected Sergius Patriach of Moscow and All Russia. Thus, in 1943 Sergius became the first elected Patriarch since the times of Emperor Peter I who abolished the Moscow Patriarchate in 1700.
20,000 Orthodox churches were opened during the war years. Marshal Stalin permitted the re-opening of a number of seminaries, monasteries and cathedrals all over the USSR.
It was Stalin personally who advised to begin publication of The Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, a monthly clerical magazine, still published today.
And what was especially remarkable – the Highest Hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church were personally invited by Marshal Stalin to attend the Victory Parade as honorary guests in the Red Square, Moscow, on the 24th of June 1945.
This is a still from a documentary film that shows a new Patriarch Alexy I (since Patriarch Sergius died in 1944) together with the other Russian Orthodox Church Dignitaries proceeding to their seats on the honorary guests tribune in the Red Square before the beginning of the Victory Parade in Moscow on the 24th of June 1945. Note the Soviet military medals "For the Victory over Germany" proudly displayed on the "cordial side" of the breast of each Clerical Hierarch.
WE STAND FOR PEACE
AND ADVOCATE THE CAUSE OF
PEACE IN THE WORLD!
THE MUDSLINGING CAMPAIGN
AGAINST STALIN
The plot and the purpose of the "millions of Stalin's victims" hoax is very simple. Let's examine point by point the scheme of the dirty campaign against Stalin.
First. Stalin was allegedly a very "bad man", a "crazy monster" who "killed" millions of Russians. In reality, only 642,980 criminals and real enemies of the state were executed during the space of time of 33 (sic!) years, but who cares.
See: http://www.great-victory1945.ru/faq.htm
Second. Amazingly enough, the Russians loved and revered Stalin, such a "bloody dictator" as he was. Why?
Third. The Russians loved "despotic murderous" Stalin because they have always been and remain to be "obtuse morons" and "inborn slaves".
Now the final and the MAIN POINT of the whole hoax:
Fourth. Since the Russians are "slavish morons" so the Western civilized soldiers will be able
to easily defeat the barbaric Russian Bear.
Thus, this is the way how the common people in the West have been duped so that the NATO leaders could make of them blind cannon fodder.
As simple as that. The demonization is a usual practice before every assault on Russia. Recall, for instance, what Napoleon and Adolf Hitler used to say about us Russians.
I am a genuine 100 percent Russian, I was born in Russia and I have lived for many years in Russia. I have got dozens, even hundreds of friends, and thousands of acquaintances in Russia.
But I have never encountered anyone of those people whose relatives were "repressed" by the "murderous tyrant" Stalin.
During my lifetime I have not encountered one single person in Russia who did not have at least one member of the family killed by the German invaders.
In other words, in Russia there is not a single family left intact by the Great Patriotic War in 1941-1945.
For instance, as I have said elsewhere, 8 out of 12 members of my own family were killed by the German invaders during the Great Patriotic War.
At the same time – I emphasize this over and over again – none of my family members or any of my acquaintances' families were "killed" by Stalin.
This is my own lifetime experience.
– Michael Kuznetsov
Stalin's Grave
in the Red Square at the Kremlin Wall
has been daily laid with fresh flowers
Eulogy of Patriarch Alexy I
in the Patriarchal Cathedral on the Stalin's funeral
"The Great Leader of our people, Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin, is no more. A great force has disappeared, both a moral and civic one; a force by which he was guided in his constructive efforts and measures. There is not an area into which the Great Leader did not penetrate. People of science were amazed at his scientific knowledge in the most varied disciplines, his generalizations were of genius; military people – by his military genius; people of all different types of labor unfailingly received from him great assistance and valuable advice.
As a man of genius, he discovered in each matter that which was invisible and unreachable for the common mind. About his concerns, struggles and exploits during the Great Patriotic War, about his direction of military actions, which led us to victory over a powerful enemy and against fascism in general; about his multi-faceted unbounded everyday labors in administration, in the directing of governmental affairs, it has been widely and convincingly written in the press, and expressed during today's final departure at his funeral, by his closest associates.
His name, as a fighter for peace in the whole world and his glorious deeds will live into the ages. We, also, who have gathered here for prayer for him, cannot pass under silence his benevolent, participatory attitude about our ecclesiastical needs. There was not one question that we directed to him that was refused by him; he satisfied all our requests. And the government did much that is good and beneficial for the Church, thanks to his high authority."
"In these days that are so sad for us, from all parts of our Fatherland, from hierarchs, clergy and the faithful, as well as from abroad from the Heads and representatives of Churches, both Orthodox and heterodox, I continue to receive a large number of telegrams, in which are reported prayers for him and expressions of condolences on the occasion of this loss, so sorrowful for us. We prayed for him when we received word of his grave illness. And now that he is no more, we pray for the peace of his immortal soul. Yesterday, a special delegation, consisting of the Most Reverend Metropolitan Nikolai; the representative of the hierarchy, clergy and faithful of Siberia, Archbishop Palladiy; the representative of the hierarchy, clergy and faithful of the Ukraine, Archbishop Nikon, and Protopresbyter Fr. Nicholas, placed a wreath at his coffin and bowed down before his remains in the name of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Prayer filled with Christian love rises up to God. We believe that our prayers too about him will be heard by the Lord. And to our beloved and unforgettable Iosif Vissarionovich we prayerfully, with deep, fervent love intone 'Memory Eternal'."
(Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, 1953, No. 3)
VICTORY DAY SPECIAL
THE POISONOUS MYTHS OF THE EASTERN FRONT
By Anatoly Karlin, 9 May 2009
За нас, за вас, и за десант, и за спецназ!
The Red Army was the single greatest contributor to the defeat of Nazi Germany sixty-four years ago, a truly evil empire based on slavery and oppression, and responsible for the genocide of millions of Slav civilians, Jews, Soviet POW's and Roma by gas, bullets and starvation.
Yet ever since the first days of the Cold War, there has been a concerted campaign to whitewash the Wehrmacht of participation in war crimes and to rehabilitate the generals who participated in it as enthusiastically as Hitler and the upper echelons of the Nazi Party. This resulted in the promulgation of many poisonous myths about the Eastern Front that are only now being laid to rest. I already wrote about several of these myths in my
Top 10 Russophobe Myths.
MYTH I: Heroic Americans with their British sidekicks won World War Two, while the Russian campaign was a sideshow.
REALITY: Although Western Lend-Lease and strategic bombing was highly useful, the reality is that the vast majority of German soldiers and airmen fought and died on the Eastern Front throughout the war.
Rüdiger Overmans in Deutsche militärische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg estimates that from the Polish campaign to the end of 1944, 75-80% of all German armed forces personnel died or went missing in action on the Eastern Front up to the end of 1944. According to Krivosheev's research, throughout the war, the vast majority of German divisions were concentrated against the Soviet Union – in 1942, for instance, there were 240 fighting in the East and 15 in North Africa, in 1943 there were 257 in the East and up to 26 in Italy and even in 1944 there were more than 200 in the East compared to just 50 understrength and sub-par divisions in the West. From June 1941 to June 1944, 507 German (and 607 German and Allied) divisions and 77,000 fighters were destroyed in the East, compared to 176 divisions and 23,000 fighters in the West. The two pivotal battles, Stalingrad and El Alamein, differed in scale by a factor of about ten.
This is not to disparage the Western Allied soldiers who fought and died to free the world from Nazism. In particular, the seamen who enabled Lend-Lease, at high risk of lethal submarine attack, to transport indispensables like canned food, trucks and aviation fuel to Russia, possibly played a crucial role in preventing its collapse in 1941-42. And the bomber crews massively disrupted Germany's war potential at the cost of horrid fatality ratios, significantly shortening the war (albeit it is currently fashionable to castigate them for killing 600,000 people who by and large had no problem with waging a war of extermination responsible for tens of millions of deaths on the Eastern Front).
MYTH II: The Russians just threw billions of soldiers without rifles in front of German machine guns.
REALITY: The vast majority of German soldiers were killed, taken POW or otherwise incapacitated on the Eastern front. The Soviet to Axis loss ratio was 1.3:1 and the USSR outproduced Germany in every weapons system throughout the war.
According to meticulous post-Soviet archival work (G. I. Krivosheev in Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses), the total number of men (and in the Soviet case, about 1mn women) who passed through the armed forces of the USSR was 34,476,700 and through Germany's was 21,107,000. Of these, the "irrevocable losses" (the number of soldiers who were killed in military action, went MIA, became POWs and died of non-combat causes) was 11,285,057 for the USSR, 6,231,700 for Germany, 6,923,700 for Germany and its occupied territories, and 8,649,500 for all the Axis forces on the Eastern Front. Thus, the total ratio of Soviet to Nazi military losses was 1.3:1. Hardly the stuff of "Asiatic hordes" of Nazi and Russophobic imagination (that said, also contrary to popular opinion, Mongol armies were almost always a lot smaller than those of their enemies and they achieved victory through superior mobility and coordination, not numbers).
The problem is that during the Cold War, the historiography in the West was dominated by the memoirs of Tippelskirch, who wrote in the 1950's citing constant Soviet/German forces ratios of 7:1 and losses ratio of 10:1. This has been carried over into the 1990's (as with popular "historians" like Anthony Beevor), although it should be noted that more professional folks like Richard Overy are aware of the new research. Note also that cumulatively 28% and 57% of all Soviet losses were incurred in 1941 and 1942 (Krivosheev) respectively – the period when the Soviet army was still relatively disorganized and immobile, whereas for the Germans the balance was roughly the opposite with losses concentrated in 1944-45.
The idea that there were two soldiers for every rifle in the Red Army, as portrayed in the ahistorical propaganda film Enemy at the Gates, is a complete figment of the Russophobic Western imagination. From 1939 to 1945, the USSR outproduced Germany in aircraft (by a factor of 1.3), tanks (1.7), machine guns (2.2), artillery (3.2) and mortars (5.5), so in fact if anything the Red Army was better equipped than the Wehrmacht (sources – Richard Overy, Why the Allies Won; Chris Chant, Small Arms).
MYTH III: Though the Wehrmacht fought with honor and dignity on the Eastern Front, the Russians killed all the German POW's and raped and looted East Germany when they conquered it.
REALITY: The Great Patriotic War was an absolute war that was more brutal than anything seen in the West by orders of magnitude throughout its entire length. The hundreds of thousands German civilian and POW deaths at Soviet hands, though tragic, pale besides the up to 15-20mn Soviet civilian dead and the 60% mortality ratio of Soviet POW's in German camps. Set against these numbers, the Red Army rapes in east Germany seem almost irrelevant.
One of the greatest crimes in Western Europe was the massacre of Oradour-sur-Glane, in which 642 civilians were murdered by a Waffen-SS battalion. But just one region in the East, Belarus, with 20% of France's population, experienced the equivalent of more than 3,000 Oradours – some 2,230,000 people were killed in Belarus during the three years of German occupation, or a quarter of its population. At least 5,295 Belorussian settlements were destroyed by the Nazis and more than 600 villages like Khatyn were annihilated with their entire population under the cover of anti-partisan operations.
A poignant memorial to Nazi genocide in Khatyn – the one flame among three birch trees symbolizes the quarter of the Belarussian population who died in 1941-44.
Furthermore,
The Russian Academy of Science in 1995 reported civilian victims in the USSR at German hands, including Jews, totaled 13.7mn dead, 20% of the 68mn persons in the occupied USSR. This included 7.4mn victims of Nazi genocide and reprisals; 2.2mn deaths of persons deported to Germany for forced labor; and 4.1mn famine and disease deaths in occupied territory. There were an additional estimated 3.0 million famine deaths in the USSR not under German occupation.
This was all part of a Nazi scheme, Generalplan Ost, which called for the extermination of the Slavic intelligentsia and most of their urban populations, as well as the helotization or exile to Siberia of their peasants. Confirmed by internal documents and numerous quotes from high Nazi officials:
The war between Germany and Russia is not a war between two states or two armies, but between two ideologies-namely, the National Socialist and the Bolshevist ideology. The Red Army must be looked upon not as a soldier in the sense of the word applying to our western opponents, but as an ideological enemy. He must be regarded as the archenemy of National Socialism and must be treated accordingly. – General Hermann Reinecke.
We must break away from the principle of soldierly comradeship. The communist has been and will be no comrade. We are dealing with a struggle of annihilation. – Adolf Hitler.
Some 3.3mn Soviet POWs died in the Nazi custody out of 5.7mn (USHMM), the vast majority of them from July 1941 to January 1942 (i.e. when the Germans still thought they'd win quickly so no consequences for their own POW's). This death rate of around 60% can be contrasted with the 8,300 out of 231,000 British and American prisoners who died (3.6%) in Nazi hands, or even the 580,548 out of 4,126,964 Axis servicemen who died as Soviet POW's (Krivosheev), that is around 15%. (The question of how many German POW's died in Western camps is hotly disputed. Though they ostensibly followed the Geneva conventions and cited numbers are typically low, of the roughly 1,000 U.S. combat veterans that historian Stephen Ambrose interviewed, roughly 1/3 told him they had seen U.S. troops kill German prisoners. The controversial historian James Bacque claims that Allied Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower deliberately caused the death of 790,000 German captives in internment camps through disease, starvation and cold from 1944 to 1949, and that 250,000 perished in French camps in similar conditions).
The Red Army gets bad press for its behavior during the final invasion of Prussia, in which they are frequently described as drunk looters and rapists. The consensus seems that although formal orders were against such activities, in practice most turned a blind eye to it. Yet while tragic, it is completely understandable and does not deserve the centrality placed on it by too many anti-Communist (or frequently plain Russophobic) pseudo-historians.
Consider what the typical Red Army soldier experienced before getting to Berlin: years of brutal fighting with a very high risk of death and almost certain to be wounded one time or another; hearing the stories of murdered Soviet POW's; the sight of thousands of burned villages and massacred women, children and old men in Western Russia, Belarus, the Ukraine and Poland; the death camps of Auschwitz and Treblinka; and finally, the (seemingly) decadent luxury of the conditions in which German citizens themselves lived (who, let us not forget, democratically elected Hitler and who with just a few honorable exceptions like the White Rose passively or even enthusiastically accepted Nazism).
This was, in the words of German leaders themselves, a war of extermination. Set against German atrocities in the East, or even the frequently brutal postwar ethnic cleansing of millions of Germans from countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia, it is at best wrong-headed and at worse racialist in the Nazi style to give such centrality to the rape of Berlin.
One more myth. Many accounts allege that the Soviets sent all their returned POW's to the Gulag, if they didn't shoot them for treason. Actually, according to Krivosheev, 233,400 were found guilty of collaborating with the enemy and sent to Gulag camps out of 1,836,562 Soviet soldiers that returned from captivity.
MYTH IV: The mainstream Western narrative on the Eastern Front during the Second World War was formed by academic historians and is fundamentally fair and objective.
REALITY: The exigencies of the Cold War, coupled with traditional US anti-Communism, meant that many Americans sympathized with the German narrative of the war. In particular, the Wehrmacht officers talked, networked and wrote about how the German military was not complicit in Nazi war crimes so as to cement West Germany (not to mention their own careers) into the Western alliance on equal terms. The complexities and compromises of military involvement in genocide in the East was whitewashed into a kitschy image of the German soldier as a patriot braving the odds to defend family and Heimat from the Bolshevik hordes. The US military and politicians were just fine with this, because they faced an ideological struggle and possible land war with the Soviet Union. Though there is serious and reasonably objective Western academic work on the Eastern Front, popular culture is still dominated by German memoirs and a-historical romanticizers.
I've long been skeptical about the way Russians were portrayed in accounts of WW2. Although some (generally recent) work is sympathetic and appreciative of the combat capabilities of the Red Army (e.g. Chris Bellamy), most stress the German side of the conflict. The latter typically distinguish themselves by traits like: admiration for the supposed brilliant of German generals like von Manstein and Guderian, who'd have won if not for Hitler's interference; constant reference to the supposed vast numerical superiority and callous disregard for casualties of the Soviets; emphasize "Russian" war crimes (offensives, etc, are however "Soviet"), while attributing all German crimes to "Nazis", usually focusing on groups like the Einsatzgruppen and SS and avoiding discussing Wehrmacht complicity, etc.
Thankfully, two authors, Ronald Smelser and Edward J. Davies, recently wrote a book, The Myth of the Eastern Front: The Nazi-Soviet War in Popular Culture, which finally collates and authoritatively confirms these strong suspicions about the objectiveness of Western popular historiography on the subject into an accessible, well-argued narrative. Most of what follows is drawn directly from the book, in chronological order.
1) Deep Ambivalence. Before WW2, many Americans had deeply ambivalent attitudes towards the Soviet Union. Though bloggers generally consider the Russophile-Russophobe dichotomy in contemporary terms, this division was as stark and relevant in the 1930's – John Scott in Behind the Urals (BTW, though considered by some a Soviet apologist, it is in fact fairly objective and certainly not a pro-Soviet propaganda tract by any stretch of the imagination) writes, "In talking with people in France and America I was impressed by the interest in the Soviet Union and the widespread misinformation about Russia and all things Russian. Everyone I met was opinionated [aren't we all lol!]. The Communists and their sympathizers held Russia up as a panacea . . .
Other people were steeped in Eugene Lyons' stories and would not concede the possibility that Russia had produced anything during recent years except chaos, suffering and disorder. They dismissed the industrial and material successes of the Russians with an angry wave of the hand. Any economist or businessman should have been able to see that the tripling of pig-iron production within a decade was a serious achievement, and would necessarily have far-reaching effects on the balance of economic and therefore military power in Europe". So basically there was (much like today?) a hardcore Communist / Russophile fringe, a sizable anti-Communist bloc and a majority that were mostly apathetic but overall disapproving.
2) War and Friendship. The exigencies of war against a common enemy, Nazi Germany, necessitated a rehabilitation of the Soviet Union in American eyes. In contrast to the "dirty, ignorant, brutalized peasants of Nazi mythology" and traditional stereotypes of Russians as "mechanically inept and stupid", Americans began to emphasize the scale of industrial modernization in the Soviet Union, their growing religiosity (helped by Stalin's rehabilitation of the Church) and their focus on family – according to Life Magazine, Russians now "look like Americans, dress like Americans and think like Americans". The Red Army was lauded for its growing technical and operational competence, with its soldiers portrayed as decent, ordinary folks defending their families and Motherland from Nazi depredations, who did not want to die but were not afraid to do so if called upon. Americans built "bridges" to ordinary Soviet workers such as writing letters to people in similar occupations and organizing humanitarian relief efforts to supply food and consumer durables to needy Russians.
As the war drew to a close, even the American population, which suffered relatively few war casualties and whose homeland remained untouched, thirsted for vengeance. Tentative plans (Morgenthau Plan) were drawn up for the coercive deindustrialization of Germany and its fragmentation into several demilitarized states – according to the aforementioned James Bacque, parts of this plan were actually carried out after 1945 though gradually eased in the late 1940's as the US realized it needed a strong German ally during the Cold War.
3) Inversion of History during the Cold War. Aided by traditional American ambivalence towards Bolshevism and Slavs in general, memories of Russian friendship froze over under the emerging Cold War, to be "replaced by a pro-German version, one that stressed Russian atrocities, German heroism, and even a superhuman sacrifice to defend Western culture from the Eastern hordes". From the 1950's Americans became very receptive to the German view of the conflict (as constructed by the German officers who wanted to rehabilitate the Wehrmacht from complicity in war crimes so as to set the new Bundeswehr and the Western alliance in general on firmer footing), viewing the German soldier as a simple patriot in a Romantic "lost cause" defense of family, Church and Fatherland from red tyranny. Though the prospect of a land war with Russia is long gone, this romantization continues unabated, little affected by academic research from the 1970's which questioned the myth of the "clean Wehrmacht" and the opening up of Russian archives and personal accounts in the 1990's.
However, as covered above much of this narrative was simply false. As early as November 1942 the USSR assembled the Extraordinary State Commission to examine German war crimes, with early trials held in Kharkov and Krasnodar. The complicity of the German generals in atrocities emerged in the postwar Nuremberg Trials, in which military men Keitel and Jodl were hanged for planning aggressive war and participating in crimes against humanity, incriminated by their signatures on things like the Commissar Order (immediate execution of all captured Communist military commissars), the Jurisdictional Order (suspending traditional military laws on proper conduct of troops in the Eastern Front), the Hostage Order (allowing for the killing of 50-100 hostages for every German soldier killed by Soviet partisans), the Night and Fog Order (allowing for disappearance of undesirable elements in the occupied territories) and the Commando Order (immediate execution of captured commandos behind German lines).
According to Rode, major-general of the Waffen-SS, "the military commanders…were thoroughly cognizant of the missions and operational methods of these units. They approved of these missions and operational methods because, apparently, they never opposed them", and admitted that it was clear to him that "anti-partisan warfare gradually became an excuse for the systematic annihilation of Jewry and Slavism". To the US prosecutor Rapp, who was conducting trials of German military personnel, a key concern was the "prevention of legends" about the non-complicity of the German military in war crimes, lest they again retain their reputation, as after WW1, as "gracious, old, highly educated fine gentlemen". Ironically, this is exactly what happened in the 1950's.
Many Americans found it hard to rationalize German atrocities. The original US GI's who liberated Western Europe were replaced by new soldiers who hadn't fought Germans, loved the German hospitality, generally held them blameless and even accused their superiors of anti-German propaganda. This fed into deep-seated American attitudes, which were common to much of the West, of anti-semitism, antislavism, and cultural prejudices against the East in general. Germans with their Church, families and similar material culture looked more wholesome than the Russians, who were perceived to be arrogant and crude unlike the newly subservient Germans. The Germans reinforced these perceptions with stories of Russians as cruel, bestial sexual predators. Policies on interacting with German civilians were gradually loosened in the US, whereas in the Soviet occupied zone they were tightened from 1947 when Red Army soldiers in East Germany were confined to their barracks.
With the Cold War heating up, first with the Berlin airlift and then with the Korean War, the Americans realized they needed the Germans as friends instead of as prostrate slaves or even clients. Similarly, the former Wehrmacht officers wanted to rescue their careers, continue the good struggle against Bolshevism to preserve Western civilization, and to salvage the reputation of the German officers corp.
Under American auspices they started re-writing history with three main goals –
1) establish a "lost cause" myth of the German military as honorable, apolitical and supremely competent, serving Fatherland not Führer,
2) advise the Western Alliance on how to win a land war with the USSR
and
3) dehumanize Russians in the interests of Cold War solidarity.
This process can be illustrated in the life story of Franz Halder, a German general who became chief of the Operational History (German) Section, a project that collated some 2,500 lengthy manuscripts from 700 former Wehrmacht officers that were tightly edited to fit the three goals above. In his 1949 work Hitler als Feldherr, Halder made the following points:
a) he didn't support war against the USSR
b) didn't lay plans for an attack on the USSR before Hitler ordered him to
c) was concerned about a pre-emptive Soviet strike, d) was unaware of the racial nature of the war as envisaged by Hitler
e) didn't participate in POW or civilian genocide
and
f) was skeptical about Hitler's assumptions of easy, early victory.
Yet his personal war diaries tell a somewhat different tale.
a) The German military had been thinking of expansion and continental hegemony since at least the middle of the First World War. See the "Great Plan" of 1924-25 which called for Teutonic hegemony in Europe, albeit it had not yet been based on explicitly racialist terms. It was resurrected after the Sudetenland crisis of 1938.
b) After the defeat of France in May 1940, Hitler was considering large-scale demobilization, but Halder wanted a war with the USSR and had his staff draft "Operation Otto", a precursor to Barbarossa, on his own initiative in June 1940.
c) In February 1941, Halder felt a Soviet attack was "completely improbable".
d) Under a heading in his diary tellingly entitled "Colonial tasks", he wrote, "We must forget the concept of comradeship between soldiers. A Comrade is no friend before or after the battle. This is a war of extermination. If we do not grasp this, we shall still beat the enemy, but 30 years later we shall against have to fight the Communist foe…This war will be very different from the war in the West. In the east, harshness today means lenience in the future. Commanders must make the sacrifice of overcoming their moral scruples." In the margin, he added, "embody in the ObdH (Army High Command) order".
e) The reality of the war in the East became clear after the invasion of Poland, when the SS and Security Police started annihilating the Polish intelligentsia. Though many German officers expressed reservations, non were forthcoming from Halder or von Brauschitsch. Later, he actually negotiated responsibilities for maintaining order in the front and rear with Einsatzgruppen commanders, and knew of and was completely indifferent to Soviet POW deaths. His own staff drafted the aforementioned Commissar Order and Jurisdictional Order – in effect, the German military high command translated the views of leading Nazis into policy. Though some officers like Hassell objected, the vast majority went along with the generals.
f) Halder more than shared Hitler's optimism, considering the Germans would need just 80-100 divisions against an estimated 50-75 Soviet. (Ultimately, 152 German divisions were unleashed in Barbarossa against what were actually more than 300 Soviet divisions). Since progress was initially smooth, he constantly revised the timescale of victory down – "not even Hitler was as confident as his generals".
You can tell you're damning yourself when you give off such a strong impression of mendacious duplicity that you almost portray Hitler in a good light. And funnily enough the F?hrer presumably shared this impression – he bribed his generals by secretly doubling their salaries, conditional on their loyalty and obedience. Though a mitigating factor is that Halder was arrested for suspected involvement in the July 1944 bomb plot against Hitler, it should be noted his accommodations and provisions were quite OK (certainly far from death camp rations) and it was only in January 1945 that he was formally dismissed from the military. One gets the idea that the opportunist was simply hedging his bets, for by that time the war was already obviously lost. According to Smelser / Davies, "Franz Halder embodies better than any other high German officer the dramatic difference between myth and reality as it emerged after World War Two, particularly with regard to the war in the east".
Though under suspicion of being a war criminal, he was officially released from Western Allied custody in 1947. He ingratiated himself with the US Army and was made chief of Operational History (German) Section in summer 1948 - the aforementioned project to rewrite history by rehabilitating the Wehrmacht and cementing Germany into the Western alliance (not to mention rescuing the careers of former Wehrmacht officers). In October 1948 he was tried by a German denazification court and was cleared. The prosecution then got hold of his incriminating war diaries and demanded a retrial, but by then the Americans had taken him under their wings, claiming him as indispensable. The court was forced to throw out all further charges in 1950.
As director of this project, he solicited and vetted some 2,500 manuscripts from 700 former Wehrmacht officers, by now a mix of serving Bunderwehr officers, celebrity veterans and suspected war criminals. Many of them transliterated Nazi mythology on Russians for an American audience – Halder himself wrote, "frequent insensate cruelty is found coupled with attachment, fidelity and good nature under proper [presumably Germanic?] handling"; many were worse, citing the supposed bestial, cruel, morose, instinctual and primitive nature of the Red Army soldier (though they lauded him for bravery). The more important part of the project however was teaching how to win, or at least not lose, a land war to the Soviet Union. German officers criticized American plans to mount a line defense on the Rhine, instead stressing the "mobile defense" concept developed by von Manstein in 1943-44. They also pointed to the importance of military education, training and officer independence to their military successes.
Given such valuable information and propaganda material, the Americans gave the former Wehrmacht officers leeway to further their careers and whitewash their war records. Einsenhower flip-flopped from writing things such as "the German is a beast" to his wife in 1944, to apologizing to Wehrmacht officers for defamation, claiming by the early 1950's that "I do not believe the German soldier as such has lost his honor". General Matthew Ridgeway urged pardons for war crimes committed on the Eastern Front (only!), with the curious justification that he had issued the same orders in Korea for which the German generals were rotting in jail for. And although the Red Scare was passing away by the mid-1950's, by this time the myth of the "lost cause" – patriot Germans fighting for family and Heimat against the Bolshevik hordes - was fast becoming entrenched.
German officers networked with Americans. German generals, gracious, old, highly educated fine gentlemen like Guderian and von Manstein (both of whom knew of Hitler's plans for the Soviet peoples), published self-serving memoirs. From the 1970's, they would be further supplemented by popular accounts of the Eastern Front from ordinary German soldiers, showing their human side. Reenactments became popular, in which enthusiasts combined a painstaking attention to historical detail like uniforms and ranks with a plain painful minimal attention to placing their heros in the larger historical context of Wehrmacht complicity in Nazi crimes.
Though academic historians from the 1970's increasingly challenged this narrative, the popular culture was unaffected, having long since been taken hostage by images of Stuka dive-bombers and Tiger tanks and the writings of the German generals. It took until the last ten years or so, with the popularization of this more academic work, as well as the opening of the Soviet archives and accounts from the Russian side, to add greater perspective. Yet as the myths above prove, there is still lots of work to do – not least, fully exposing the distorted historiography of the Great Patriotic War to the general public.
To close this with an idea – there are many, many Russian accounts and memoirs of the war, but too many of them remain untranslated into English. This is unacceptable and we should look into ways to change this state of affairs. Suggestions?
Sources:
R. Overmans. Deutsche militärische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg.
G. I. Krivosheev. Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses.
R. Smelser & E.J. Davies. The Myth of the Eastern Front: The Nazi-Soviet War in American Popular Culture.
The source of this article is here: SUBLIME OBLIVION
LEST WE FORGET
THE IMMORTAL FEATS OF OUR FOREBEARS
GENOCIDE IN SOUTH OSSETIA
IS STOPPED!
Russian armored column is rushing
to stop the genocide in South Ossetia
SAVED!
A South Ossetian military man holds a child as he looks at
an armored Russian column arrived to save them from Georgian assault
A PATH TO PEACE IN THE CAUCASUS
By Mikhail Gorbachev, 12 August 2008
The Washington Post
MOSCOW - The past week's events in South Ossetia are bound to shock and pain anyone. Already, thousands of people have died, tens of thousands have been turned into refugees, and towns and villages lie in ruins. Nothing can justify this loss of life and destruction. It is a warning to all.
The roots of this tragedy lie in the decision of Georgia's separatist leaders in 1991 to abolish South Ossetian autonomy. This turned out to be a time bomb for Georgia's territorial integrity. Each time successive Georgian leaders tried to impose their will by force – both in South Ossetia and in Abkhazia, where the issues of autonomy are similar – it only made the situation worse. New wounds aggravated old injuries.
Nevertheless, it was still possible to find a political solution. For some time, relative calm was maintained in South Ossetia. The peacekeeping force composed of Russians, Georgians and Ossetians fulfilled its mission, and ordinary Ossetians and Georgians, who live close to each other, found at least some common ground.
Through all these years, Russia has continued to recognize Georgia's territorial integrity. Clearly, the only way to solve the South Ossetian problem on that basis is through peaceful means. Indeed, in a civilized world, there is no other way.
The Georgian leadership flouted this key principle.
What happened on the night of 7th August 2008 is beyond comprehension. The Georgian military attacked the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinval with multiple rocket launchers designed to devastate large areas. Russia had to respond. To accuse it of aggression against "small, defenseless Georgia" is not just hypocritical but shows a lack of humanity.
Mounting a military assault against innocents was a reckless decision whose tragic consequences, for thousands of people of different nationalities, are now clear. The Georgian leadership could do this only with the perceived support and encouragement of a much more powerful force. Georgian armed forces were trained by hundreds of U.S. instructors, and its sophisticated military equipment was bought in a number of countries. This, coupled with the promise of NATO membership, emboldened Georgian leaders into thinking that they could get away with a "blitzkrieg" in South Ossetia.
In other words, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was expecting unconditional support from the West, and the West had given him reason to think he would have it. Now that the Georgian military assault has been routed, both the Georgian government and its supporters should rethink their position.
Hostilities must cease as soon as possible, and urgent steps must be taken to help the victims – the humanitarian catastrophe, regretfully, received very little coverage in Western media this weekend - and to rebuild the devastated towns and villages. It is equally important to start thinking about ways to solve the underlying problem, which is among the most painful and challenging issues in the Caucasus – a region that should be approached with the greatest care.
When the problems of South Ossetia and Abkhazia first flared up, I proposed that they be settled through a federation that would grant broad autonomy to the two republics. This idea was dismissed, particularly by the Georgians. Attitudes gradually shifted, but after last week, it will be much more difficult to strike a deal even on such a basis.
Old grievances are a heavy burden. Healing is a long process that requires patience and dialogue, with non-use of force an indispensable precondition. It took decades to bring to an end similar conflicts in Europe and elsewhere, and other long-standing issues are still smoldering. In addition to patience, this situation requires wisdom.
Small nations of the Caucasus do have a history of living together. It has been demonstrated that a lasting peace is possible, that tolerance and cooperation can create conditions for normal life and development. Nothing is more important than that.
The region's political leaders need to realize this. Instead of flexing military muscle, they should devote their efforts to building the groundwork for durable peace.
Over the past few days, some Western nations have taken positions, particularly in the U.N. Security Council, that have been far from balanced. As a result, the Security Council was not able to act effectively from the very start of this conflict. By declaring the Caucasus, a region that is thousands of miles from the American continent, a sphere of its "national interest," the United States made a serious blunder. Of course, peace in the Caucasus is in everyone's interest. But it is simply common sense to recognize that Russia is rooted there by common geography and centuries of history. Russia is not seeking territorial expansion, but it has legitimate interests in this region.
The international community's long-term aim could be to create a sub-regional system of security and cooperation that would make any provocation, and the very possibility of crises such as this one, impossible. Building this type of system would be challenging and could only be accomplished with the cooperation of the region's countries themselves. Nations outside the region could perhaps help, too – but only if they take a fair and objective stance. A lesson from recent events is that geopolitical games are dangerous anywhere, not just in the Caucasus.
The writer was the last president of the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 and is president of the Gorbachev Foundation, a Moscow think tank.
Source: The Washington Post online
PENTAGON PREPARING FOR WAR WITH RUSSIA
By Rick Rozoff, 14 May 2009
To read the article click on the picture
Some say we are five minutes to a new Cold War
This is a false assertion
In fact the World is
One minute to a Thermonuclear War
ARE YOU READY FOR NUCLEAR WAR?
The Mindlessness is Total
By Paul Craig Roberts, August 19 2008
Nothing real issues from the American press, which is about demonizing Russia and Iran, about the vice presidential choices as if it matters, about whether Obama being on vacation let McCain score too many points.
The mindlessness of the news reflects the mindlessness of the government, for which it is a spokesperson.
The American media do not serve American democracy or American interests. They serve the few people who exercise power.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, the US and Israel made a run at controlling Russia and the former constituent parts of its empire. For awhile the US and Israel succeeded, but Putin put a stop to it.
Recognizing that the US had no intention of keeping any of the agreements it had made with Gorbachev, Putin directed the Russian military budget to upgrading the Russian nuclear deterrent. Consequently, the Russian army and air force lack the smart weapons and electronics of the US military.
When the Russian army went into Georgia to rescue the Russians in South Ossetia from the destruction being inflicted upon them by the American puppet Saakashvili, the Russians made it clear that if they were opposed by American troops with smart weapons, they would deal with the threat with tactical nuclear weapons.
The Americans were the first to announce preemptive nuclear attack as their permissible war doctrine. Now the Russians have announced the tactical use of nuclear weapons as their response to American smart weapons.
It is obvious that American foreign policy, with its goal of ringing Russia with US military bases, is leading directly to nuclear war. Every American needs to realize this fact. The US government's insane hegemonic foreign policy is a direct threat to life on the planet.
Russia has made no threats against America. The post-Soviet Russian government has sought to cooperate with the US and Europe. Russia has made it clear over and over that it is prepared to obey international law and treaties. It is the Americans who have thrown international law and treaties into the trash can, not the Russians.
In order to keep the billions of dollars in profits flowing to its contributors in the US military-security complex, the Bush Regime has rekindled the cold war. As American living standards decline and the prospects for university graduates deteriorate, "our" leaders in Washington commit us to a hundred years of war.
If you desire to be poor, oppressed, and eventually vaporized in a nuclear war, vote Republican.
This is the final part of an article by P. C. Roberts.
The full version can be read here:
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts08192008.html
RUSSIAN BEAR WILL GROWL
THEN BITE DEADLY – IF PROVOKED
Well, what else did the West expect?
Any self-respecting bear will growl first as a sign to ward off attackers, then pounce and maul them deadly, if provoked sufficiently.
Remember the ghastly fate of Napoleon, Hitler, and all the other bloody murderous scum who dared to insult Holy Russia.
The Russian Bear is confident and proud and looking more for respect in international affairs rather than a fight. But we Russians are always ready to make mincemeat of any aggressor.
With 4,237 strategic Russian warheads, approximately 2,000-3,000 operational tactical warheads, and approximately 8,000-10,000 stockpiled strategic and tactical warheads Holy Russia is being remarkably well equipped to defend herself and her allies.
A unique country in the world, which possesses all of the necessary reliable means
in order to impregnably defend itself, a unique country which can even make a new channel, or rather a whole new sea, for example, between Mexico and Canada in a 20 minutes' space of time after the start of serious hostilities (God save us from such an apocalyptic event), we believe a country like that –
Russia – is worth being heard and understood.
RUSSIA IS A SUPERPOWER
WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!
RUSSIA
As Seen By A Great American Thinker
The Russians Are Back
by Gaither Stewart
25 July 2008
This article is a real MUST READ
for anybody who seek for the truth
about the Russian Soul
Prof. Grover Furr
About Marshal Stalin and his denigrators
The Sixty-One Untruths of Nikita Khrushchev
by Prof. Grover Furr
English Department, Montclair State University
Upper Montclair, NJ 07043, U.S.A.
Homepage:
http://chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/homepage.html
WHO ON EARTH STOPPED HITLER?
By Albert Axell, American military writer,
historian and the author of the book
Marshall Zhukov: The Man Who Beat Hitler
Excerpt:
"Today, many argue that Stalin was worse than Hitler. This obviously has little to do with reality. Whether you like Stalin or not, you should have the decency to acknowledge the facts as they are. Stalin faced perhaps the most daunting task in history of dragging the country he led from the backyard of the world almost overnight, and catching up with leading nations to reach a level which enabled Russia to win the Second World War."
"If Soviet Russia had failed to rise from its knees, it would have been eliminated. Many innocent people suffered during Stalin´s rule. One thing is, however, clear: under his leadership, Russia, which previously tilled its land with wooden ploughs, became a nuclear superpower. That speaks for itself."
For the full text and comments click on the picture above.
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