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Agreed about Enemy of the Gates! Such an awful and misleading movie. As for your last point, I think the tradeoffs the Soviets were forced to make were entirel
by the_af 2y ago
Agreed about Enemy of the Gates! Such an awful and misleading movie.
As for your last point, I think the tradeoffs the Soviets were forced to make were entirely different to the Western Allies, especially say the US. If the US lost the war, their soldiers got to go back home. If the USSR lost the war, about 80% of the Slavic population of Eastern Europe would have been wiped out, as per stated Nazi plans. A terrible situation surely demanded terrible resolve to overcome.
- ffgjgf1 2y agoNot in 1944/45. The Germans had lost and had no way of winning. Even if that was not obvious on the ground to some allied leadership clearly understood that. Regardless the Soviets had almost no concerns about throwing away manpower unnecessarily due to political and other reasons. e.g. the whole “Race to Berlin” and the ensuing battle, had Stalin and his generals had any concern about the lives of their soldiers (compared to most western generals/leaders) hundreds of thousands of Soviet lives could have been saved at a very small cost.
- thriftwy 2y agoRace to Berlin made sense because it led to better post-war outcomes for USSR, which also had price in human lives. However, helping Polish uprising would do the opposite, as the Poles proudly tell themselves. It wasn't impossible though. Yugoslavia pulled that trick and that allowed it to remain neutral.