3 ms·
Very easy, Baltic republics were in no way capable of waging war right after the independence, let alone get out with any hope of territorial gains. And histor
by baybal2 6y ago
Very easy, Baltic republics were in no way capable of waging war right after the independence, let alone get out with any hope of territorial gains.
And historically, USSR always been placing military members from ethnic minorities into weakest, and most "cannon-fodderry" military units, predominantly foot infantry, and motorised.
Even ethnic Russians from more far away places were likely never to see any advanced military hardware.
- ulzeraj 6y agoThanks. That was an honest question. No idea why I got downvoted multiple times.
- azernik 6y agoDepends on the ethnic minority - the USSR had very fine-grained distinctions between "reliable" and "unreliable" ethnic groups. For example, Armenians (because of their hostility to NATO-member Turkey) were very much allowed into combat units, which gave them their enormous advantage against Azerbaijan in the early-90s wars. Ukrainians and Belarusians were also considered part of the "core" USSR ethnic groups. Whereas the Baltic states were only conquered in 1940, and were considered extremely unreliable.
- gotts 6y agoI guess Ukrainians could be named "core" USSR ethnic group but Ukrainian Insurgent Army had an ongoing war against Soviets actively during 1942–1949 and sporadically up until 1956.
- azernik 6y agoSure. But the Red Army certainly trusted most Ukrainians enough to integrate them into elite combat units.