You are correct. The point is that they fought so bravely and inflicted on the Soviets so much damage, that *psychologically* they have won. Which, in real terms, they haven’t.
I’ve read some of the books written by an author named Victor Suvorov - a pen name of a former KGB person who defected to the West. He makes a very strong case that Stalin encouraged the war between Hitler and the West (the USSR helped Germany bypass the post WWI restrictions and allowed them to use their territory to build and train their army and the Air Force).
Stalin was hoping that once Germany and the West exhausted each other fighting, the USSR would enter the war and “liberate” all of Europe.
Apparently, the German intelligence was able to figure this out - and Germany attacked first.
Since the Soviet military doctrine was to immediately transfer the war to enemies territory, they had all their tanks and artillery and Air Force - and the personnel - lined up within a few kilometers from the border, ready to pounce (recall that Germany and the USSR conquered and divided everything that separated them, and the two were sitting along a huge border which was one thin line).
Their tanks, btw, were for the most part light and amphibious, perfect for crossing rivers and lakes of Europe. Their troops were disproportionally airborne, meant to attack. So, all this was eliminated in the first hours of the war. As I recall, in the first few days Germany captured about a million POW’s.
Stalin was so shocked at being outplayed that he became depressed and was literally unable to function in the first days of the war.
The more I know about all this, the more I despise Big Idea revolutionaries and Big Picture social engineers - including Brzezinski. |
