[lbo-talk] The effect of drones

[Mark DeLucas]

I don't know very well the history of the lead-up to the Hitler-Stalin pact
(if that's what you're referring to), but as to the significance of the
USSR's involvement in defeating Nazi -- uncontroversially, it was decisive.
Western material aid to the USSR was important, but the latter's success in
transporting the bulk of its industry east of the Urals, and therefore
beyond the reach of the German army, was more or less sufficient to meeting
the long-term armament needs of the Red Army -- the sheer size of which the
German's had little long-term chance of overcoming. Indeed, the true
turning point of the war, I've always thought, was the failure of the
Wehrmacht's final push on Moscow in late 1941; having failed in what has to
be considered their only good chance of effecting the collapse of the
Soviet regime, the Germans were thereafter (from '42 to '45) fated to be
ground down by the overwhelming manpower and material might of the USSR
(and, of course, tipping the scales further, the United States).

Mark

On Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 2:25 PM, // ravi <ravi at platosbeard.org> wrote:


> On Sep 28, 2012, at 2:13 PM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote:
> > The U.S. didn't defeat the Nazis. The Soviets did.
> >
>
> I was just going to ask about this. At least the version of history I was
> taught put the Battle of Stalingrad at the centre of the turnaround/victory
> and attributed the bulk of the credit to the Soviets (of course we in India
> had our special relationship with the SU and reasons not to buy too much
> into the Churchill worship). Which version is truer? It seems beyond
> question that the Soviets took the brunt of the battle with ~ 20 million
> dead (9 million or so of that being military).
>
> The other Western meme that I learnt after I left the old country was the
> story that Stalin struck a deal with Hitler, going against the West — newer
> investigation seems to show that if at all he did so, that was after his
> overtures to the West had been rejected. What’s the modern consensus on
> that?
>
> Apologies for the thread fork,
>
>         —ravi
>
>
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>