- Joined
- Sep 22, 2019
I find Stalin's place in the Great Patriotic War to be very paradoxical. It is true, his immense lapse of judgement in the leadup to 1941 practically led the USSR to a catastrophe and on the verge of collapse. Yet, his sheer force of personality cannot be denied, and like our clown Zelensky here, he stayed put in Moscow even as the Germans are closing in, rather than fleeing, which in turn, emboldened the defending Russians (along with fresh Siberian divisions, which probably were the more important factor). And wisely enough, even the Georgian manlet recognised that his meddling in the Red Army's affair was harmful post-1941, and allowed them to breathe just enough to beat the Germans in the end. Zhukov and his General Staff was mostly in charge of strategy afterwards, and while they still stumbled, they were competent enough.In recent years Russia has actually warmed up to Stalin, mainly by crediting him with beating the Nazis, despite the fact the Soviets won despite Stalin, who was warned of Operation Barbarossa for months, given accurate time frames of when it would occur, and promptly ignored every single warning. Plus one of the major reasons 1941 was so disastrous was Stalin's interference and because the Red Army had not too long ago been through massive purge, so most officers were utterly incompetent.
Too bad about the purges after that, though. Stalin's paranoia was just legendary.