prinCZess
Warrior, Writer, Performer, Perv
Yeah, the rote adherence to 'the Soviet Union won the war for the Allies!' meme by people, predominantly communists or sympathizers, is a myth. There was, perhaps, an element of needed pushback against an analysis of the war that ignored or deemphasized the importance/scale of the Eastern Front because of Cold War tensions and American/NATO desire to morally grandstand, but it has long since gone beyond any needed correction and into sheer ridiculousness.
Of course, the meme is a good springboard for noting the massive scale of logistical aid the Soviet Union received which was the only reason the Soviet military could put into practice the large-scale, 'deep battle' doctrine that gets crowed-up by military historians. Also a good springboard for noting that, prior to doing such, the Soviets were hand-in-hand with the Nazis conquering Poland, exchanging military and industrial technology, and chumming it up so hard that Stalin went into a funk and did a days-long surprise-Pikachu face sulk when he found out his buddy Hitler had gotten the better of betraying him first before he'd had the chance to betray Hitler in the name of glorious communist expansion.
Alongside that first one is also the slavish (pun not intended but has me giggling) praise put upon Zhukov as some military genius. A praise that...isn't entirely deserved and, if even a little deserved, is grossly misaimed and misattributed since the man was putting into practice a doctrine that numerous predecessors had theorized about and even been successful with. But they had been shot or 'rehabilitated' by Stalin and in many cases weren't Great Russians so Stalin's weird inferiority-complex and the Soviet propaganda machine manufactured Zhukov into the conquering hero and sidelined much more deserving leaders (who were more suspect of not being entirely on-board with Stalin's peen...to put it crudely) who made their names on at least smaller piles of their own men's bodies. But...well, Stalin not known for his great concern over having to step over bodies for 'achievement', anyways.
Then we could get into the mythology of the Soviets overseeing 'free' elections in the territories they conquered but...honestly, I don't think I've ever even seen anyone put that up as even an attempted rewriting of history. Even die-hard tankies seem to be willing to admit that the puppet-governments in Romania, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia post-coup, and the Baltics were exactly that. Just...y'know...arguing they were totally justified and good 'because communism' or 'brotherhood of workers' or 'nonexistent NATO was threatening them' and such.
Of course, the meme is a good springboard for noting the massive scale of logistical aid the Soviet Union received which was the only reason the Soviet military could put into practice the large-scale, 'deep battle' doctrine that gets crowed-up by military historians. Also a good springboard for noting that, prior to doing such, the Soviets were hand-in-hand with the Nazis conquering Poland, exchanging military and industrial technology, and chumming it up so hard that Stalin went into a funk and did a days-long surprise-Pikachu face sulk when he found out his buddy Hitler had gotten the better of betraying him first before he'd had the chance to betray Hitler in the name of glorious communist expansion.
Alongside that first one is also the slavish (pun not intended but has me giggling) praise put upon Zhukov as some military genius. A praise that...isn't entirely deserved and, if even a little deserved, is grossly misaimed and misattributed since the man was putting into practice a doctrine that numerous predecessors had theorized about and even been successful with. But they had been shot or 'rehabilitated' by Stalin and in many cases weren't Great Russians so Stalin's weird inferiority-complex and the Soviet propaganda machine manufactured Zhukov into the conquering hero and sidelined much more deserving leaders (who were more suspect of not being entirely on-board with Stalin's peen...to put it crudely) who made their names on at least smaller piles of their own men's bodies. But...well, Stalin not known for his great concern over having to step over bodies for 'achievement', anyways.
Then we could get into the mythology of the Soviets overseeing 'free' elections in the territories they conquered but...honestly, I don't think I've ever even seen anyone put that up as even an attempted rewriting of history. Even die-hard tankies seem to be willing to admit that the puppet-governments in Romania, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia post-coup, and the Baltics were exactly that. Just...y'know...arguing they were totally justified and good 'because communism' or 'brotherhood of workers' or 'nonexistent NATO was threatening them' and such.