75 years after the Second World War, a text was published with Vladimir Putin’s name underneath it and it predictably portrays the Soviet Union as completely honourable in its foreign policy. The war was a conspiracy of the Anglo-Americans and Russia almost single-handedly defeated the Nazis and therefore deserves the claim to leadership over the world.
It is vital to convey to future generations the memory that the Nazis were defeated first and foremost by the Soviet people and that representatives of all the republics of the Soviet Union fought side by side in this heroic battle, both at the front and in the rear.
Decree No 270 of 16 August 1941 was issued by Joseph Stalin. The order required the superiors to shoot deserters on the spot. The family members of deserters were arrested. Order No. 227 of 28 July 1942 stipulated that each army had to form “Sperrtrupps” (barrier troops), which would shoot “cowards” and panicked troops fleeing to the rear. What Putin leaves out is that the subjects of Soviet communism had no other choice at all and were treated like enemies by the government when they did not fight as desired. If the Third Reich had not been led by psychopaths and agents from abroad, Soviet subjects would have defected to the Germans in droves. In the Ukraine, German occupiers were first celebrated. After a year under Erich Koch’s rule, the inhabitants thought the Germans were even worse than the Russians.
Let me remind you once again of the obvious fact. The causes of the Second World War lie mainly in the decisions taken after the First World War. The Treaty of Versailles became a symbol of grave injustice for Germany. It basically meant that the country was to be robbed, as it was forced to make enormous reparations payments to its Western allies, which bled its economy dry.
There is no question that the Treaty of Versailles was dreadful. But the Soviets shamelessly took advantage of Germany’s precarious situation and at the same time allowed themselves to be supplied with modern technology from the USA. From engine technology, to electricity technology, aircraft, everything was for sale. In the thirties, it was American companies that built the largest Soviet industrial complexes of the first five-year plans. In June 1944, W. Averell Harriman summarized part of a conversation with Stalin in a report to the State Department: “Stalin praised U.S. assistance to Soviet industry before and during the war. He said that about two-thirds of all major industries in the USSR were built with the help or technical assistance of the United States.” Stalin could have added that the remaining third of the large industrial and armaments plants in the Soviet Union were built with German, French, British, Swedish, Italian, Danish, Finnish, Czechoslovakian, and Japanese aid.
The Rapallo Treaty of 1922 between the Germans and the Soviets had the effect of agreeing to the supply of industrial plants to Soviet Russia, which could operate the Baku oil fields. There were also military exchanges: for example, the opening of an aircraft factory in Fili near Moscow by the Junkers factories, a flight school and air force test base in Lipetsk, a test and development site for poison gas in Tomka, and a training base for tank officers and a tank training area in Kazan. Soviet Russia and later the Soviet Union received in part modern weapons technology. Military cooperation was an important basis for the development of German air forces, which was strictly forbidden under the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. A secret flying school and testing ground for the Reichswehr was established near the Russian city of Lipetsk from 1925 and operated until September 1933
The Western states, in particular the United Kingdom and the United States, have contributed directly or indirectly to this. Their financial and industrial companies actively invested in German factories and plants for the production of military products. In addition, many people in the aristocracy and the political establishment supported radical, extreme right-wing and nationalist movements that were gaining ground both in Germany and in Europe.
Putin is right here, but he is hiding the fact that the Anglo-Americans kept the Soviet Union technologically alive and that the Anglo-American secret services had infiltrated the socialist movement from the very beginning. In the Russian Tsarist Empire, the Tsars (closest relatives of the British Royal Family) controlled the left-wing groups through their secret services. The communist revolution was a rigged game at the top. The DNA evidence for the murder of the last Tsar is no good.
Moreover, in the case of the Munich betrayal, which involved not only Hitler and Mussolini but also British and French leaders, Czechoslovakia was divided with the full approval of the League of Nations. I would like to point out in this connection that, unlike many other European leaders of the time, Stalin did not disgrace himself by meeting Hitler, who was known among the Western nations as a fairly respected politician and was a welcome guest in European capitals.
So the hyper-aggressive expansion of the Soviet Union under Stalin is perfectly legitimate for Putin. But when the Nazis took the small country Czechoslovakia, for which the British and French citizens did not want to wage another mega-war against Germany, this is considered by Putin to be THE ORIGINAL SIN. Stalin not only helped Hitler’s rearmament, but he also whistled back the leftists in Germany so as not to stop the NSDAP.
Left-wing terror helped the NSDAP in the 1920s and 1930s, because the Hitler Party urgently needed misery and instability in order to distinguish itself as a force for order. Stalin speculated that someone like Hitler in power would wage war against European neighbours and for this reason Stalin supported the rise of the NSDAP. The most effective actions of the left were cancelled or postponed to an unknown time in the future. The Soviet Central Committee ordered the West European left to allow the NSDAP to continue because it would not last long. Hitler and other nationalists in the Weimar period had taken the reins of power away from the German Communists who came to power everywhere.
Moscow sabotaged and fought to the best of its ability against all those leftists who were not in line with Moscow’s line. Many left-wing fighters against fascism in NAzi Germany or in the Spanish Civil War or in Italy were betrayed by Moscow in cold blood.
Poland pursued its interests and did everything it could to hinder the construction of a collective security system in Europe. Both Great Britain and France, which at the time was the most important ally of the Czechs and Slovaks, withdrew their guarantees and left the Eastern European country to its fate. In so doing, they tried to divert the Nazis’ attention eastwards, so that Germany and the Soviet Union would inevitably clash and bleed each other dry.
During the Polish-Soviet War from 1919 to 1921, Poland tried to build up an Eastern European confederation and drive back the Soviets. The Bolsheviks’ Russia, which was in civil war, sought to shift its sphere of influence to the West and spark a proletarian revolution in Germany. Russian espionage raged in Germany after the First World War and infiltrated the whole of society, so that in 1923 a red revolution was within reach. The Hamburg Uprising of 1923 was a revolt started by parts of the KPD in Hamburg on October 23, 1923. The aim was the armed overthrow in Germany, following the example of the Russian October Revolution of 1917. According to the ideas of German October, the uprising was to be the signal for a revolution throughout Central Europe and initiate the Communist world revolution. Should the uprising lead to a mass uprising, the KPD would give the signal for an armed uprising. Should the uprising fail to take place, the KPD would emerge from the situation without major damage. In the night from October 22 to 23, the military leaders of the KPD section “Wasserkante” received orders for action from the regional leadership. At 5 o’clock in the morning, the storming of police stations began in order to remedy the insurgents’ blatant lack of weapons. The Soviets aggressively expanded westwards. Full stop.
For example, the secret services reported detailed information to the Soviet leadership about behind-the-scenes contacts between Britain and Germany in the summer of 1939, and it was under these circumstances that the Soviet Union signed the Nonaggression Pact with Germany. It was virtually the last of the European countries to do so. It was also in the face of a real threat of war on two fronts – with Germany in the west and with Japan in the east, where intense fighting was already under way on the Chalkhin Gol River. In particular, the material on the German-English secret talks has still not been released.
In short, the British pretended to be willing to cooperate with the Germans, but they did not act. Stalin did the same in principle by signing the non-aggression pact. Russian espionage knew that Nazi Germany was not coordinating with Japan to any significant extent.
General Alfred Jodl, former chief of the operational staff of the Wehrmacht High Command, admitted: “…we did not suffer defeat as early as 1939 simply because some 110 French and British divisions stationed in the West remained completely inactive against 23 German divisions during our war with Poland”.
That is correct.
The Soviet Union and the Red Army, no matter what one tries to prove today, made the most important and decisive contribution to the defeat of National Socialism. The Commission concluded that “the number of soldier days spent by Germany on the Soviet front is at least ten times higher than on any other Allied front”. On the Soviet front, four fifths of German tanks and about two thirds of German aircraft also had to be deployed”. Overall, the USSR accounted for around 75 percent of all military efforts of the anti-Hitler coalition. We will also always be grateful for the Allies’ help in supplying the Red Army with ammunition, raw materials, food and equipment. And this help was considerable – about 7 percent of the total military production of the Soviet Union.
The Americans’ lending-lease program was crucial to the Soviets. Even before the war, the Americans were supplying Russia with masses of armor plating and every conceivable technology. In addition, the network of agents around Martin Bormann constantly supplied Russia with up-to-date information about the war plans of the German generals.