CO042 Aaron Bandler on Russia & WWII

Aaron Bandler is a staff writer with The Wire. We talked about his article about the Russian foreign ministry tweet taking credit for defeating the nazis. https://twitter.com/mfa_russia/status/900398021623656450 Aaron (and others) commented that this tweet was sent on the anniversary of the of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the 1939 deal between Hitler and Stalin which promised peace …

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Aaron Bandler is a staff writer with The Wire. We talked about his article about the Russian foreign ministry tweet taking credit for defeating the nazis.

https://twitter.com/mfa_russia/status/900398021623656450

Aaron (and others) commented that this tweet was sent on the anniversary of the of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the 1939 deal between Hitler and Stalin which promised peace between the two, and carved up Eastern Europe between the two powers.

Hilariously, the Russian Foreign Ministry has managed to Tweet this on the 78th anniversary of the Nazi-Soviet Pact. https://t.co/ndAq8a70SF

— Daniel Hannan (@DanielJHannan) August 23, 2017

Historians are divided as to the degree to which the Soviets believed in the pact, or used it as cynical move to delay the war, giving them time to prepare, particularly moving industry beyond the Urals into Siberia; however there is absolutely no doubt that the bulk of nazi forces were ranged against – and defeated by – the Soviet Union.

Of all nazi forces, 80 per cent were on the Eastern Front, and 95 per cent of all Allied casualties were suffered by the Soviet Union. The Battle of Stalingrad began almost two years before D-Day, on August 23, 1942, and lasted until February 1943. There is no doubt that this was the fulcrum of the war; it was the beginning of the Soviets’ advance towards Berlin.