Originally posted by Holden McGroin
Genozaur, the Russians suffered so badly in WW2 because Stalin purged the military of anyone who Josef figured was a personal threat. There was no leadership in the army, because they were all dead or in Siberian work camps.
The economy of the Soviet Union was a mess, because Stalin and the central committee followed the stupid policy of central control of the economy. So the economic engine that wins wars was not in existance in the USSR.
As some of my ancestry is Pima Indian, I can easily say genocidal foreign invaders took over my country.
My previous observation seems to be gaining strength.
Holden, I am really sorry for counting you as an unexperienced American civilian.
As it appeares, from the southern Siberia my ancestors went westward whereas yours went eastward. This is our biggest difference ,I guess.
Besides some minor political disgreements.
The purges among the Soviet military did not affect the exact number of military airplanes stationed on each of the Soviet military airfields. It was the "peaceful"German recon planes kindly "escorted from the Soviet airspace" before the war that did the bulk of the teamwork with the German dive bombers that bombed the Soviet Air Force into oblivion during the first hours of operation "Barbarossa" (the Nazi Germany invasion of the USSR).
The Soviet Air Force plaines were destroyed on their own airfields by the pointed air strikes of the German dive bombers. For two years after that the Luftwaffe pilots were hunting down the Soviet ground troops and enjoying the total air superiority. "The Hoering Eagles" were not only chasing separate trucks carrying the troops but they even practised by chasing and killing the lone Soviet soldiers and civilians.
My late father, a six year old boy at the time, was forced to play 'cat-and-mouse' around a huge stack of straw, hiding from the attacking Luftwaffe plane which made several passes with the purpose of hitting "a moving ground target."
And where did you learn that the Soviet industry "was a mess" before the WWII ?
This is a really rediculous statement. And it is totally wrong. You better think for yourself than read the BS from Cold War times' propaganda.
Let me quote the fresh opinion on Soviet industry. The following is from the pp.112-113 of 'Atlas of World War II' by David Jordan and Andrew Wiest, published in 2004 in New York by Barnes & Noble
:
SOVIET INDUSTRY. The sheer scale of Soviet war industry is difficult to imagine. ... Within six months [after the start of the war in June 1941] 1532 [one thousand five hundred thirty two] factories had been dismantled and shipped east to their new locations [including 226 to Caucasus, 667 to Urals, 308 to Central Asia, 322 to Siberia]. By mid-1942, only about 300 [three hundred] of these plants had not restarted production.
... Soviet industry produced 238,000,000 [two
hundred thirty eight million] tons of munitions in 1942, in comparison with 63,000,000 [sixty three million] tons in 1940 - and this despite the disruption created when the factories were moved. Between 1943 and 1945, the Soviet Union produced more than 80,000 [eighty thousand] aircraft, 73,000 [seventy three thousand] armoured vehicles {this means tanks and self-propelled armoured artillery - G.S.} and 324,000 [three hundred twenty four thousand] artillery pieces. Factories such as that at Cheliabinsk {in southern Urals - G.S.} were colossal - the plant had no fewer than 64 [sixty four] assembly lines.
There were some deficiencies in this mammoth effort - over two thirds of motor transport in Soviet service in 1945 came from the Western Allies. Britain and America also supplied a considerable number of aircraft and other items. However, even this contribution was dwarfed by indigenous production : 14,795 [fourteen thousand seven hundred ninety five] aircraft reached the Soviet Union from the United States during the war, a figure representing about four months' Soviet aircraft production." [END OF QUOTE FROM PAGE 113]
[QUOTE FROM PAGES 112-113] :
THE DISPERSAL OF SOVIET INDUSTRY.
One of Stalin's major achievements [sic!-G.S.] as Soviet leader was to drive forward the mass industrialization of his country, although this success [it's a quote from the American book, not the Soviet propaganda - G.S.] was forever tarnished by the vast human cost that was paid to achieve this.
Communist leaders were well aware that one of the primary causes of Russia's failure in World War I had been a lack of industry to provide the war material necessary to fight a modern conflict. [The latter not fully correct because the stockpiles of munitions produced by the Russian industry during the World War I
were enough to supply the Red and White armies for three years of the devastating Civil War of 1917-1920 and even in 1941 during the defence of Sevastopol - G.S.] ...
The programme of industrialization was immense and carefully thought out. Huge industrial complexes were established deep in the Soviet interior. The much-heralded city of Magnitogorsk ... chosen for a new industrial city ... had a mere 25 [twenty five !] inhabitants ... in 1928; four years later ... 250,000 people ....
Much of the Soviet Union's basic heavy industry was set up far to the east of the Urals [that's besides 1532 factories moved to the east when the war started ! - G.S.], in Siberia or Central Asia, which had the advantage of placing it well beyond the range of German air attack once the war started."
Light industry was a different matter, however, and a great deal of this sector was well within reach of an invading army." [END OF QUOTE]
