The Soviet Role in World War II - Antony Beevor

"The British supplied time, the Americans supplied treasure, the Russians supplied blood". A fair summing up of what was after all, a collective effort.

As a Russian, I'am thankful for all the help USA provided in crushing fascism. I'd like to also point out that my great grandpa who fought in the war did so not for Communism or for Stalin, but for his people. Most soldiers did not care about any of that. Ideologies don't matter when you are in a trench!

if they come to take your life, your family, your belongings, you fight, no matter the Politics. Nation or religion.

Russian officers who interviewed captured German officers were surprised at how many of them had copies of "With Napoleon in Russia: The Memoirs of General De Caulaincourt, Duke of Vicenza." A Russian asked a German officer "Why do so many of you have this book?" The German answered "We want to know how this is going to end."

I think Churchill summed it up best, "The Russian (Soviet) Bear clawed the guts out of the Nazi War machine."

I can only imagine the chaos if the commenters to this video were in attendance at this talk and participated in live Q&A.

Hitler wrote about Lebensraum already in Mein Kampf. The russians fought against enslavement and/or extermination. The clichés about fighting by patriotism or for communism were mere secondary reasonings, but are now very popular outside the USSR.

24 million is total casualties, among which 8 million military, and about 13 million civilians 7 million were killed for the fact they were russians 2 million in germany on slave labor 4 million - famine, ilnesses, lack of medical support There may be some debates about proportions and total number but during the blockade of Leningrad - 0.6million people died and it just 4 minutes in the video, trilled to know more

The numbers are too big to grasp.

I saw an interview with Sir Antony in which he explained that after his work on the battle of Berlin, and the subsequent outrage coming out of the former USSR, he can no longer do research there but must instead rely on former Soviet citizens to research the archives

I learn so much every time I read one of his books and/or watch him speak or be interviewed. No one can do this consistently unless they really know the subject.

I’m always impressed by the depth of knowledge of people like Beevor : for example how he disproves people who keep saying the bombing of Germany was useless, by citing the numbers of 88mm guns and fighter aircrafts withdrawn from the eastern front to defend German city’s.

On Mars south of Stalingrad; did not the Axis forces also have a depletion in artillery or thought so; as this weapon, artillery was concentrated in Stalingrad sector?

Reinhard gehlen, chief of intel for foreign army eastern front has a lot of valuable info on logistics during the campaign.

I love his books. Specially Stalingrad. Can recommend it.

"Please join me in welcoming Sir Anton Beevor." One would have thought she could get the name right.

With all due respect, it does seem plausible that Stalin was planning an invasion of Germany himself. For all the criticism of the Icebreaker theory, no-one has explained, why did the soviets have more detailed maps of German cities than, say, the Smolensk area, and German phrase books with things like "where is the local administration building"? And why production of tanks before 1941 was focussed on light assault BT tanks suitable for German/European roads not for marshy territories of Belarus and Ukraine. Why so many troops, machinery and ammo where at the border, and became an easy target for the Germans?

This is why i prefer history of antiquity - the emotions are already well cooled.

Col Douglas Macgregor Retired briefly mentioned that high ranking officials and military officers privately thought that Britain was fighting the wrong enemy (in their private diaries)

impossible to watch beevor without thinking of peep show