New answers tagged soviet-union
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It's a complicated question which does not admit a yes/no answer. Even saying "there was a spectrum in attitudes" would be a simplifications. The right answer, I think, is a two-dimensional mosaic. I will not attempt to give a comprehensive answer, just make a number of observations:
The analogy between NKVD and SS is not a very good one. A better (still, ...
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The USSR was destroyed by the war (WW2). They didn't have the energy to fight anymore.
Yugoslavia was next to Italy (which was a NATO member). Stalin was to attack Tito, he would be in serious trouble by NATO.
Tito freed Yugoslavia single highhandedly from the Axis
The West was backing Yugoslavia during the war and after.
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Yes,The NKVD was hated and feared by the regular Army because it had arrested Marshal Tukhachevsky (and others), who were tortured and killed by orders of Stalin in the late 1930s, while other Marshals, such as Rokossovsky, were imprisoned until they were needed after the Winter War with Finland in 1939-40, and the German invasion in 1941.During World War II,...
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Probably even more so
Average member of Wehrmacht (from common soldiers to lower officer ranks) didn't have much contact with SS. First of all, Wehrmacht always had single chain of command and there was never equivalent of political commissar, although political indoctrination increased towards the end of the war. Wehrmacht also had their own system of ...
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The NKVD was regarded as being "in the way" by the regular military, as related by e.g. Vasili Chuikov in The Battle For Stalingrad. Chuikov conceded that the NKVD had some usefulness in motivating the troops (he encouraged his men to join the Communist Party). But their military usefulness was limited; or at least the Communist Party was coming to this ...
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If the question is about NKVD troops, then the answer is "no". The NKVD troops were not hated or otherwise frowned upon.
At the time of WWII NKVD (domestic commissariat) was a very wide ministry, not just the "secret police" as you can sometimes read on modern Internet. NKVD included all the police, the firefighters, the border guards and so on. When ...
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There were 3 power centers in the USSR: Party, Secret Police (VChK, GPU, NKVD, NKGB, MGB, KGB), and Army. All were very different.
Party: no "muscle" (except for the KPK), but officially infallible and supreme in media
Secret Police: best informed (both internal and foreign affairs), can eliminate any individual, but relegated to secondary status by ...
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Destruction of the Red Army and a feint towards Moscow
While it is absolutely true that oil was the primary strategic goal of Fall Blau and indeed of whole the German offensive effort in 1942, way to achieve that goal was more complex. The Germans did enjoy a slight numerical superiority at the beginning of Barbarossa, due to the Soviet losses and piecemeal ...
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The Sea of Azov is counted as the world's most shallow "sea", with an average depth of only 7 meters (and a max of 14). Russia's battleships at that time had a draft of about 9m, and its cruisers a bit over 6. That made it impractical for all but the most careful of capital-ship naval operation. Submarine warfare without the ability to dive to escape trouble ...
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Laying a land cable would be prohibitively expensive. The main reason is not the
large distance but the fact that most of this territory is completely undeveloped: it has no roads. If you look at the Google map carefully you see that there is still no roads there. This is a thinly populated wilderness.
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It was single most important operational factor
There are many causes and factors that would explain catastrophe befalling Soviet Union in summer of 1941, and subsequent defeats in 1942/early 1943. We could talk all day about purges in officer corps after Tukhachevsky affair, technological lag (especially considering radio), lower education level of Soviet ...
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I would not say so.
The German advantage was in a superior doctrine and training at all levels, as well as better communications (availability of radios).
Their officers and soldiers (infantry, tankers, pilots) spent more time in training before arriving at the front and they were taught a better tactics.
Of course, using Stukas as flying artillery gave ...
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Actually, Wikipedia contains a reasonably good answer to this (clearly ill-posed) question.
The background:
Urban workers formed the core of Bolshevik support, so the exodus posed a serious problem. Factory production severely slowed or halted. Factories lacked 30,000 workers in 1919. To survive, city dwellers sold personal valuables, made artisan ...
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