We are not so fond as to believe that they perform these miracles for us. They do them for Holy Mother Russia.
Comment of Stalin to a British diplomat as they observed a parade of two Soviet divisions on their way to the Front.
The defeat of Nazi Germany was a group effort, with Lend Lease being very important to feed the Soviet Army and to make it mobile with American trucks.  The 75% of the Wehrmacht they killed made certain that far fewer American boys had to leave their bones in Europe. Soviet troops used to refer to eating American spam and riding in American trucks as “going Hollywood!”. Soviet leaders like Khrushchev acknowledged the importance of American aid in keeping the Soviets in the fight. Additionally American and British bombers ensured that the Soviets had air superiority over crucial battlefields as the Germans stripped the East Front of fighters to serve as interceptors over Germany against the bombers. Only fools mistook the evil nature of the Soviet system, but also only fools denied the role the Soviets played in toppling Nazi Germany.
All that is true but the Russian winter took its toll of the Nazis.
Brad Metzler in his books “The Nazi Conspiracy” details how Stalin was so anxious for Churchill and Roosevelt to launch the Normady invasion because he was losing thousands of soldiers on the Eastern Front. The Battle of Leningrad was especially costly to Russia,
One of those balance things. True, you’ll hear some act as if the USSR beat the Nazis singlehandedly, both arms behind their backs and blindfolded. The Allies doing nothing but providing ice cream machines and a couple jeeps for the cause. On the other hand, I’m at pains to think of anyone who hasn’t at least acknowledged the important role that the USSR played in defeating the Nazis. But even that is more complicated than ‘half them, half us for the effort.’ And I often see Russians and Soviets used interchangeably from that time. So I have no clue what the individual Sheremeta is fussing about. Except Trump could have said Russia helped, or played an important part. But this is Trump.
Stalin, reportedly, often mentioned the number of the USSR’s war dead as a reason why eastern Europe should be handed over to the Soviet sphere of influence. However–he failed to mention–the USSR was responsible for a sizeable fraction of their total war dead. A nauseating detail of the war as documented in the book Blood Lands.
Communists are always at war with their own people, regardless of who else they’re Fighting at the moment
I think it was Solzhenitsyn who spoke of Russian POWs being sent to the gulag on their return – because they surrendered and were therefore traitors.
Lovely ideology. Definitely progress. 🙄
This is taken out of context. Trump always talks in exaggerated language. I wish he wouldn’t but that’s his style to get a point across. To be honest he is effective at cutting to the chase.
Nevertheless, he is correct that the Soviet effort was significant in defeating the Nazis in WW2. However he knows that the Soviets were determined to defeat the Nazis because they posed a threat to their own world domination. Not because they shared the same goal as the Allies of Peace and Democracy.
All this ties back to how he would handle Russia today. The thing I like about Trump is his business-like negotiation skills where he will look at his counterpart in the eye and shake his hand sternly and squeeze it tightly. I would like to see Trump do that to Putin. It appears Putin respects Trump and the fact he means business. I suspect when he becomes POTUS the war in Ukraine will end under his term.