Tag Archives: World War II

22nd of June – Day of Remembrance and Sorrow. Remembering the 42 million perished Soviet people in the genocidal Second World War

Posted on by

The memorial texts below are written by Olga on Putinger’s Cat Telegram cannel. The article sheds new light on the genocide comitted against the Soviet people – predominantly the residents of Belorussia, Ukraine and Western Russia – by the Nazi-German invaders. We remember. As a 2015 article by Georgij Zotov showed, the same was not the case in Germany, where they asked “So many? Really?” Germans do not know how many Russians were killed by their ancestors

In Russia, June 22 is the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow. On this day, in 1941, the Great Patriotic War, which became the bloodiest and most destructive in the history of the country, began.

The Great Patriotic War had affected every family. More than 27 million people perished. Owing to the heroism of our soldiers and officers, the enemy was defeated, but Victory came at a high price.

Today, we pay tribute to the memory of all those who went through incredible hardship, those who died, but never gave up for a peaceful future for their descendants. We, the descendants, are full of deepest respect and gratitude for their sacrifice.

The declassified data below were presented at the State Duma hearing on the 14th of February 2017. Archived source is here.

By the beginning of the war, in June 1941, 196.7 million people lived on the territory of the USSR. According to declassified data of the State Planning Committee of the USSR, the losses of the Soviet Union in World War II amount to 41 million 979 thousand, and not 27 million, as previously thought. The total decline in the population of the USSR in 1941-1945 was more than 52 million 812 thousand people. Of these, irretrievable losses as a result of the factors of war – more than 19 million military personnel and about 23 million civilians.

The total demographic losses of the USSR as a result of the war amounted to 27 million people. Military losses were calculated at 11.4 million, including the war with Japan. From this number, it is necessary to subtract 1.8 million who returned from captivity and 0.9 million called up on the territory liberated from the occupation and sent to the troops from among the military personnel who were previously surrounded or missing.

Continue reading →

«2 Years» re-publishing // Переиздание книги «2 года»

Posted on by

This introduction article is tri-lingual, in:
Denne introduktionsartikel er tresproget, i:
Эта вступительная статья – трёхязычная, на:

THE POLITICS
The 22nd of June 1941.
Leaflet No. 2:

The German-Russian War

In a proclamation signed by Reich Chancellor Hitler, the Germans march on Russia on a front of 2400 km., from Finland to the Black Sea.

To the north, German troops are advancing from Norway along with Finnish divisions, from the Carpathians German and Romanian forces.

Hitler declared that Bolshevism stood in mortal enmity with National Socialism. Russia had been threatening Germany for a long time and eventually there were 160 Russian divisions positioned on Germany’s eastern border. The Soviets had thus broken the Treaty of Friendship. The imminent struggle revolved around the civilized world.

Mines have been laid in the Arctic Ocean and in the Baltic Sea, among other places between Bornholm and Sweden and between Bornholm and the German Coast.

Read THE POLITICS tomorrow
– Copenhagen

80 years ago, in the summer of 1943, the underground Communist Party of Denmark illegally published the book “2 Years” with newspaper clippings from the major German-controlled Copenhagen newspapers. The book is 70 pages long and is a rare historical document of the occupation-era official press coverage of the first 2 years of the war between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, the outcome of which became decisive for the future of mankind.

To honour the Resistance fighters and strengthen the memory of the great Victory of the USSR and the Red Army over fascism, we are now launching a digital reissue of “2 Years”!

The book is photographed and can be studied page by page and read in graphically adapted versions in Russian and English, respectively, as well as in a linguistically edited version in modern Danish. An extensive historical notebook has been added as well as text-to-speech descriptions for the blind and visually impaired of the book’s many fine colour illustrations in silkscreen by artist and resistance fighter Viggo Rohde, with sharp political caricatures of the Nazi Menagerie and the course of the war.

We see our collective memory as an important weapon against the advanced means and methods of modern war propaganda to which we are daily exposed, and, that Dr. Goebbels could not even dream of.

Read, remember, and get historical perspective on your contemporary events!

Continue reading →

Polish insatiable pit. How much did the USSR spend on the restoration of Poland during and after the War

Posted on by

Some time ago I published a post Reparations to Poland from Russia? And how much does Poland itself in fact owe Russia? that contained, among other points, some examples of what the USSR spent on Poland. Those examples were very superficial, so here is another article that taks a closer look at the financial aspect of the “fraternal love” of the USSR’ western neighbour.

As an asditional reading, in 2015 I translated an article by Georgij Zotov The Sorrow of a Warsaw Woman.Why Poland is not happy to be liberated from fascism?. In the introduction I layed out some thoughts as to why Russia did not reminded the «brotherly nation» of the help tvat it had got. But every good reason has a limit to it, often hastened by impunity.

Polish insatiable pit. How much did the USSR spend on the restoration of Poland after the war


Polish peasants harvest on the land liberated from the Germans. 1944 / Georgy Zelma / RIA Novosti

It is difficult to calculate the exact amount that our country poured into the restoration of Poland after World War II, especially since the USSR began to provide assistance to Poland long before the victorious May 1945. Thus, the cost of maintaining the Polish Army, formed in the USSR, amounted by January 1945 to 723 million roubles. At the same time, 60 thousand tons of bread, 100 tons of sugar and 50 tons of dried fruits were sent to the liberated Warsaw as a gift. In addition, the USSR took upon itself 50% of the costs of the Warsaw reconstruction plan.

Continue reading →

The 9th of May 2023 – Remembering the continued fight against Nazism

Posted on by

On this Victory Day, the 9th of May 2023, I want to remember not the Victory on the 9th of May 1945 in the Great Patriotic War and the World War II, I want to remember the continued struggle against Nazism, a struggle that Russia once again had to hoist up on its shoulders.

The perfect way to remember it, is another 9th of May celebration that happened a year earlier – in 1944 – when the Crimean city of Sevastopol was liberated from the German Nazis, who had been rampaging Crimea for almost 2 years, not unlike how the Ukro-Nazis had been rampaging Donbass for the long 8 years since 2014.

In a small way the liberation of Sevastopol was a Victory, but more struggle was still ahead, just like today.

6 years ago, when Artjom Grishanov made this clip, the continuation of the fight was only starting, the warnings in the documentary portion of the clip were not heeded, the “delirium” that Putin spoke of back then, has engulfed the “garden”.

And now, the article co commemorate the continued fight.

Liberation of Sevastopol from the Nazi invaders

The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Ruins of Sevastopol

On the 9th of May 1944, during the Great Patriotic War, as a result of an offensive operation that got the name of “Crimean”, the city of Sevastopol was liberated from the German Nazi troops.

Continue reading →

Nazi-gold in the Swiss Banks and Nazi-officers in NATO. Connecting the Dots.

Posted on by

InfoDefence published on their Telegram channel a list of the Nazi-officers who subsequently entered the NATO service at the highest level.

The NAZI officers in charge of NATO. You read that right…

  1. Adolf Heusinger, Hitler’s Chief of Staff, went on to become Chairman of NATO Military Committee in 1961-1964.
  2. Hans Speidel, NATO Commander of Central Europe (CCE) 1957-1963
  3. Johann Steinhof, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, 1971-1974
  4. Johann von Kleimansegg – NATO CCE, 1967-1968
  5. Ernst Ferber – NATO CCE, 1973-1975
  6. Carl Schnel – NATO CCE, 1975-1977.
  7. Franz Josef Schulze – NATO CCE, 1977-1979.
  8. Ferdinand von Senger und Etterlin – NATO CCE, 1979-1983.

Everyone also read about the troubled Credit Suisse that as good as went under.

And now the dots, vaguely connecting these two seemingly disjointed news items. Yesterday “Argumenty i Fakty” published and article that places under scrutiny the finances that came to Switzerland during WWII. This article can also serve as a auxiliary material to the bigger documentary, which I translated some time ago: The Great Unknown War. A must-see documentary about the WWII prelude. By Andrei Medvedev.

Accounts with swastikas. Switzerland still keeps the money of the Third Reich

Gold rings that the Germans removed from their victims. Gold was found by the Americans in a cave near the Buchenwald concentration camp, Germany. 05.05.1945.

Reminders of the events of 80 years ago in Europe occur with frightening regularity. This time the topic of close ties between Swiss bankers and the Third Reich came up.

Continue reading →

What the Third Reich planned to do with the Soviet population in case of a victory

Posted on by

Below is a translation of a short and concise article on the Nazi German plans regarding the occupied territories of the USSR – in the first place, those of Ukraine, Belorussia, Russia. They didn’t wait for the victory, but started implementing this plan right away as they occupied new lands, so they German actions spoke louder, than any documents – surviving or not.

It is worth mentioning here two quotes from the Danish press, which are reprints of the German publications of the time:

2nd of September 1941.

–––work is now being done to save the harvest on the conquered territory. A German army commander has issued a proclamation to the rural population, in which they are held responsible for ensuring that the crops are not destroyed.

30th of November 1941.

From the German side, as is also evident from the wording of the army report, they make no secret of the fact that the war of extermination, which they now intend to unleash against Rostov, is directly aimed at the city’s civilian population.

And then re-reading the following article: The Great Patriotic War in Ukraine. A historical retrospective by Rostislav Ischenko, in which the author tells of the Nazi German occupation of Ukraine, quoting what his grandmother told him of that time.

As further reading, there is a more detailed article (in Russian) General Plan “Ost”: What awaited the Peoples of the USSR after the Victory of the Nazis?

Now, to the grand Nazi German plan at hand, a plan that, thankfully was stopped in its tracks by the Soviet Union.

What the Third Reich planned to do with the Soviet population in case of a victory

February 3, 2021

Long before the invasion of the USSR, the leadership of the Third Reich knew what it would do with the occupied territories and their population. Hitler had a grandiose goal – to forever turn Germany into the strongest country in the world. The resources captured in the USSR were to serve this purpose: minerals, fertile lands and free labour.

Hitler and his strategists planned, as a result of the blitzkrieg, to reach the “A-A” line (“Arhangelsk – Astrahan”) in the autumn, to establish and strengthen the new border of the Reich on it (mainly along the Volga line). In subsequent years, they wanted to advance it to the Urals.

Leave 25% of the Slavic population as a labour force

Continue reading →

The Conclusion of the Battle of Stalingrad in the Soviet Journal of Combat Operations

Posted on by

The Battle of Stalingrad mini-exhibition published on the 80th anniversary tried to maintain a human angle on the monumental stand-off. Only the human Toll video makes a mention of the numbers. This article is somewhat different in this regard. Here we will take a look at a few pages from the “Journal of combat operations of the Front troops” pertaining to the Battle of Stalingrad.

Such journals were logged in accordance with the military regulations and recorded which units and troops performed which tasks on any particular day; where the units were moved; which losses they suffered; what victory trophies they gained. The journals would sometimes include copies of relevant orders and documents.

All materials from WWII were declassified by Russia several years ago and can be found on the site of People’s Memory. The journal that interests us holds the records from the 1st of January to the 5th of February 1943, over a span of 310 pages. It was logged by the Don Front, and is now archived in Fund 206, File 262, Case 189.

Even such a dry document, logged by scribes, contains glimpses into the emotions and the contemporary realisation of the historical significance of the unfolding event. Let us first take a look at the preface – the very first pages of the journal.

Each page can be enlarged by clicking on it.


Continue reading →

Commemorative Exhibition – 80 Years of The Battle of Stalingrad

Posted on by

Today is the 80th anniversary since the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, when on the 2nd of February 1943 the world saw the turning point in the course of The Great Patriotic War – the Second World War.

This blog marks the occasion with a series of historic flashbacks, found on the pages that can be accessed either through the top menu or by diving into the link below!

Battle of Stalingrad 1943-2023

Named Родина-мать зовёт! — Rodina-Mat’ zovyot! — The Motherland Calls!
The statue on Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd, Russia, commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad with Nazi Germany.
Photo: Kim Lau

A letter from grandfather “Tiger” to his grandson “Leopard”, sent to Ukraine

Posted on by

This humorous continuity, or historical parallel that there’s been so many of lately caught my eye on the TopWar site. So, without further ado, here is a translation that tries to preserve the wit of the original.

A letter from grandfather “Tiger” to his grandson “Leopard”, sent to Ukraine

24.01.2023

Grandfather and grandson

Guten morgen, mein lieber grandson! I am infinitely glad that you decided to continue “Drang nah Osten”. The Russians have a lot of good fertile land. But for some reason they cling to, and do not want to give it to us, the Aryans. After all, only we are able to administrate this wild land and the barbarians that inhabit it.

Continue reading →

Reparations to Poland from Russia? And how much does Poland itself in fact owe Russia?

Posted on by

A few weeks ago Poland made an official demand of Germany for the reparations for damages incurred during WWII. That, despite the fact that all reparations had already been settled after the War.
At the same time Poland had the audaciousness to say that they are considering a similar claim for reparations from Russia. That, despite Poland being one of the main benefactors from the USSR in the Soviet block.

In her highly-current report URGENT INTEL & SHOCKING RUMORS! Something Major is About to Change in Russia & Ukraine!! (BIG REPORT 6) Lada Ray wrote something that I thought resonated with this topic:

So I do hope Russians won’t try to whitewash the truth, when and if it comes out! Russians in the past whitewashed the crimes of others to keep peace in the family, so to speak, including the Poles, as well as Latvian, Finnish and German Nazis, and Bandera ukro-nazis after WWII. This led to the current situation! Better painful truth right away than a major problem years from now.

And indeed, Poland enjoyed Russian leniency and whitewashing of the “brotherly nation” after the war to a great extent. Just how great, and who should pay reparations to whom is explored in the article that I want to translate today. It was published on the 29th of September in “Argumenty i Fakty”:

The Hamburg Bill for Pan Duda. How much does Poland owe Russia?

The word “reparations” in Poland is gradually acquiring the character of a national sacrament. This time, President Andrzej Duda decided to talk about the reparations from the rostrum of the UN General Assembly. The object of the claim this time was Russia.

Continue reading →

The Legacy of Gorbachev. Germany is denying Russia what it got from Russia 30 years ago.

Posted on by

After Gorbachev’s passing, a lot can be said about his deeds and legacy. Little of it will be positive.
At best, he’s remembered as a bumbling fool, who started reforms that he was in no position to bring to a positive fruition.
At worst he – along with Yeltsin – is remembered as a malicious traitor to the Russian world, responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people as the result of the demolition of the USSR, which started several years before the fateful events of 1991.
As a middle-ground, I would recommend Scott Ritter’s article in Consortium News SCOTT RITTER: Mikhail Gorbachev, a Vector of Change

My today’s translation takes a look at Gorbachev’s legacy from a different angle – from the perspective of the reunification of Germany. It was in 2014 that first read a short comment about the German counter-historical stance on the reunification of Crimea in light of the prior reunification of Germany. Back then it was just that – a comment in some other discussion. Yesterday I came across an article at the Federal News Agency site that makes a much deeper , and more passionate dive into the matter. And article, a translation of which I am presenting below.

Germany refuses the Russians what Russians gave her thirty years ago

03.09.2022


Pravda Komsomolskaya/Russian Look

In Germany, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is very much loved. Much more than in Russia and many former Soviet republics. Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was even called “the best German” because he did a huge historical thing for the German people. He united a divided Germany.

But he demolished his own country.

Continue reading →

The denazification of Ukraine should take into account the mistakes and shortcomings in the denazification of Germany in 1940-1960

Posted on by

The demilitarisation of Ukraine (and the Greater Ukraine – that is NATO) is going to switch into another gear in a few days, and it will hopefully be concluded to a satisfactory degree some time in the next year.

This brings to the fore the other objective – denazification of the former Ukraine. Here, one must draw on the experience of the denazification of Germany done after the conclusion of WWII – in fact on the outcomes of two different approaches to the denazification. I am presenting below a translation of a historical work, that was published on Lenta.ru, with a back-up re-publicationon Cont. The article gives an excellent retrospective of the process. One thing that it should have mentioned is the process of denazification on the Banderite-festered territories of the Western Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and in the Blatic states. Sadly, after Hrushev came to power, he undid much of the effort to prosecute the Bandera Nazi collaborators, pardoning all of them. The majority settled in the city of Kharkov, which is one of the explanations why Kharkov of all cities had such an unexpectedly large concentration of the neo-Nazi Bandera followers – the descendents of those insufficiently denazified banderites.

The denazification project. How did the USSR and the West arrange the denazification of Germany after World War II?


8th of April 2022
by Alevtina Zapolskaya


The trial of Nazi war criminals at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg. Photo: AP

Denazification is named among the main goals of the Russian special operation in Ukraine. But unlike demilitarization, which methods and goals are quite clear, few people are able to say what exactly lies behind the concept of “denazification” today. According to Moscow’s official position, its meaning is to abolish all laws and institutions that discriminate against citizens on the basis of language and nationality. And it’s time to turn to history in order to determine how this work should be carried out in practice. After the Second World War, Germany underwent a complex and multi-stage process of denazification. This gave her the opportunity to build relations with her neighbours from scratch and eventually become part of the world community. However, Moscow’s experience in this regard differed from the approach adopted in the zones controlled by the allied forces of the United States, Great Britain and France. What was the difference between the two approaches to denazification, why did USSR achieve the best results and how applicable this experience is today, — was analysed by Lenta.ru.

Goals and objectives

Battles were still raging on the fronts of the Second World War, while the allied countries were already thinking about what peaceful life would be like after the defeat of the Third Reich. Everyone understood perfectly well that the post-war settlement should also be political. It was necessary not only to destroy the German war machine, but also the regime itself, which unleashed the largest war in world history.

Continue reading →

“As a result of the joint war against Russia, the European Union has rallied as never before” (Adolf Hitler. June 30, 1941)

Posted on by

Commemorating June the 22nd 1941, when Germany with its European allies – official and otherwise – invaded the USSR. Yesterday I reposted Lada Ray’s Open letter: Lada Ray Repost: IMAGINE… AND WAKE UP! An Open Letter by LADA RAY to all English-speaking people. That open letter, while powerful in itself, serves also as a foundation to understanding of the article that I am about to translate now, an article pointing out some very uncomfortable truths for Europe, so of which the USSR prefererd not to remind Europe about, letting it to start from clean slate. Whatch also the documentary, which I translated several years ago: The Great Unknown War. A must-see documentary about the WWII prelude. By Andrei Medvedev.

The article was written by Sergey Vasiliev and published on Cont yesterday.

“As a result of the joint war against Russia, the European Union has rallied as never before” (Adolf Hitler. June 30, 1941)

Sergey Vasiliev
22.06.2022 10:08

The Finnish poster “Road to Freedom” from the 22nd of June 1941, depicting the whole future EU baring its teeth on the USSR.

The title of the article is a quote. These are Hitler’s words, spoken on June 30, 1941. Recorded by Franz Halder. An amazing hit, isn’t it?

Looking at the contented, well-fed, and most importantly – never repenting faces of the captured Nazis of Azov, shuddering at the sight of the Russian cities of Donbass being shot from NATO guns, turning away from the monitor screen when viewing the mockery of the “them-Europeans” (translator note: the reference to Ukrainians after the slogan “Ukraina ce Evropa” – “Ukraine is Europe”) over prisoners and civilians, you suddenly realize that you have already seen it all before.

We, the generation born in the 60s, read in textbooks and books, watched in newsreels and Soviet feature films. We knew all this so well, as if the War ended just yesterday, in the early 80s, when we graduated from schools and universities. “No one is forgotten and nothing is forgotten!” – we repeated it at school lessons of courage, at the meetings with living veterans and at the monuments to the fallen. “This must not happen again!” – sounded from TV screens and tribunes, starting from the most modest rural recreation center and to the presidium of the Party Congresses.

Continue reading →

Lada Ray Repost: IMAGINE… AND WAKE UP! An Open Letter by LADA RAY to all English-speaking people

Posted on by

Commemorating the 22nd of June 1941, I am reposting Lada Ray’s powerful open letter and a call to remembrance. Indeed, the game of assigning blame is ever so much on in the West, as I wrote only a few days ago: A case study of projection and blame-shifting. But as long as the Truth is remembered, the world has a chance of surviving…

I fully agree with Lada that at times the urge to give up and throw the towel just creeps in. At these times it is actually the words of a British writer that come to mind. The writer who departed from this world all too early and who shone the torch of truth through satire. I am thinking of Terry Pratchett, and the quote here comes from a novel for young readers “The Wee Free Men”:

Them as can do has to do for them as can’t. And someone has to speak up for them as has no voices.

IMAGINE… AND WAKE UP!
An Open Letter by LADA RAY to all English-speaking people

THIS IS SUCH AN UNPOPULAR SUBJECT IN THE WEST,

WHERE THE MAJORITY DRANK THE COOLAID OF NEO-LIBERALISM,

WHERE IT WAS EASY TO DESIGNATE RUSSIA AS THE PERPETUAL ‘BAD GUY,’

WHERE THE OLD GAME OF ASSIGNING BLAME TO WHITEWASH THEIR OWN SINS

HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY PLAYED FOR CENTURIES.

Still, I decided to write it, because there are a few who do hear and pay attention! Who do care about the truth and who calibrate high enough to see the world for what it is!

***

I was first inspired to write this essay as a follow-up to Stanislav’s How They Broke Through Prohibitions of Everything in Germany! and mine VICTORY DAY 2022 mega-EVENT! Those Who Never Learn from History… and How Banned Becomes LARGER THAN LIFE!

Continue reading →

Alina Lipp – the new “White Rose” of Germany. Independent journalist may face 3 years behind bars for speaking the truth

Posted on by

The ideal “democracy” of the West… The freedom of speech… It all is starting to crumble, like it did not so long before, in the 1930s in Germany. The independent German journalist Alina Lipp of whom I wrote on a few occasions before (The trickle of truth from Donbass thanks to more international independent journalists, The Independent Journalists and Resources in Donbass (with future updates)) may face 3 years behind bars for giving the voice of the people of Donbass, for going to that part of the word and doing what any real journalist does – talk to the locals, watch the events and relay that to the world at large.

In the title I mentioned “The White Rose” which was a heroic anti-fascist underground youth movement in the Nazi Germany. More about them, their fate, and the unexpected “Russian connection” in a translation coming after the materials from Alina Lipp – you will see why there is such a pronounced historic parallel.

⚡️The German government is fighting against freedom of speech. I am a free journalist who covers the special operation in Ukraine. They are going to sentence me now to 3 YEARS IN PRISON for telling the truth⚡️

According to current German law, it is only allowed to publish one-sided information that benefits the authorities. Anything that goes against this unwritten law is punished by the biased judicial machine.

But: The independent blogging community is ready to resist censorship in the West.

👉 I continue to work in Donetsk. If you are interested in the special project I mentioned, email me at: wombator2022@mail.ru

My channel: @neuesausrussland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G5v2Xx7JOk

The German authorities have frozen the journalist’s and her father’s bank accounts.

“When the Nazis came to take away the Communists,
I kept silent since I was not a communist,

When they imprisoned the Social Democrats,
I kept silent since I was not a social democrat,

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not protest since I was not a trade unionist,

When they came to take the Jews away,
I did not protest since I was not a Jew,

When they came for me
there was no one else who could protest.”

Incidentally, there may be a positive side-effect from the trial and the publicity surrounding it. I recall an episode of the murder of Simon Petljura in Paris in 1926, a ruthless bandit leader from Western Ukraine and an ideological “teacher” of Stepan Bandera and the present-day ukro-Nazis, responsible for many mass murders (incidentally, Ukraine glorified Petljura in 2005 and in 2008 one of the streets in Kiev was renamed after him, which tells you all you need to know about Ukraine after the USSR collapse, when it switch to the USA’s payroll). The murderer of Petljura was found not guilty after the numerous accounts of the atrocities against the Jews were presented in the court. And even though it later turned out that NKVD was behind the organisation of the murder, the fact remains – those testimonials that freed the executioner of Petljura were very much real and substantiated by facts.

Below is a translation of a major historical article from Cont.

The White Rose against Hitler. The Life and Execution of the Saint Anti-Fascist
May 7 2022, 19:33


Photo from urmindace. com

Dozens of German schools and streets bear their names. They are national heroes and idols of several post-war generations in Germany. Hans and Sophie Scholl, Alexander Schmorel, Christoph Probst — leaders of the student anti—fascist organization “White Rose” – became one of the main symbols of the resistance movement in the Third Reich.

Continue reading →