Question? Sociological research. The Soviet-German Front, the Soviet Union and the Red Army in foreign culture

[Komissar Isaev]

Good afternoon, comrades. I'm a historical institute student, and I'm doing research for an article. I am interested in what attitude foreigners have about the decisive role of the USSR in the victory over Nazi Germany, from what sources of mass media (books/films/programs) they draw their knowledge about the topic, which pushes some of them to study the topic in more depth.

Thank you in advance. Please forgive me for my language - I am not a native English speaker and therefore I can make a lot of mistakes!

 

[BCNTM]

Worst decision Jerman's ever made was to attack Russia - until it had dealt with the UK

Once it had rolled up the UK it would have been in a better position to attack Russia

Why wait till end of June - should have started end of February/March - and been in Moscow before winter kicked in

Jerman's were brutal to Russia and you lost a lot of people and resources to halt their advance

What seems to be written out of history though is the amount of material help you received from the US and UK - until recently I had not realized just how much the US had supported you

Some people in the west are very aware of your contribution to the war, and thank you for that

Problem is now you have Putin and whilst you have him and his flunkies in power I won't be going to Russia again

 

[Chris O`Crooh]

The question is IF the USSR played the decisive role in victory over the Nazis. Of course, the Soviets suffered tremendous losses and I am the last person in the world that would say the Soviet soldiers were not brave but... the war was a common struggle of all Allies. For example, Lend-Lease stuff was crucial for Red Army - American trucks, for example. Those trucks were shipped to Murmansk and Archangelsk. Should the navies and air forces of Allies not broke the U-Boot and Kriegsmarine battleships and criusers` backbones, the trucks and the other stuff would not reach Soviet harbours, vide PQ-17.

Crews of bombers, decimated by Flak and Jagdflieger, took many fighters from the Eastern Front and made victory easier, if possible - those German fighters, defending the Reich, did not appear over Kursk.

So, as I understand the need of a pleasure convition of the unique and special place of USSR in the VE, I`d say it was necessary, but all the Allies should stay on the 1st place of podium.

 

[Jake84]

Agreed with both users before, but there was no way Stalin didn’t have any plan to somehow want to expand USSR territories further West regardless of the Ribbentrop/Molotov accord.

Yes, we all get that Operation Barbarossa was a mistake but it was then either the Soviets or Nazis attacking each other regardless of the aforementioned accord.

Also, the Russians, Soviets, soldiers or civilians suffered heavy heavy losses and their victory until putting the Soviet Union flag on the Reichtag WAS decisive, no doubt about it.

Main concern IMO is that if it wasn’t for the sacrifice of the « other allies » (hence D-Day), Americans, Canadians, British along with the French and many colonial troops, I don’t think Stalin and the Red Army would have stopped around Berlin but would have gone further West.

 

[yutingchen1998@ou]

I am from the People's Republic of China.

My maternal grandfather graduated from A. A. Grechko Naval Academy. My paternal grandparents were combat veterans of the Korean War. My grandparents and my father all speak Russian.
I grew up with books like "the story of Zoya and Shura" and Алекса́ндр Матве́евич Матро́сов.
There was a Chinese "Матро́сов" in the Koreran War. He watched the film of Алекса́ндр Матве́евич Матро́сов and did the exact same thing later.
He is still well remebered by the Chinese.
If you are interested in this, you can email me: yutingch@uchicago.edu