Rescue Private Ivan
Today, when all over the world we only hear how bad we are, no-no and yes, the voices of those who can look at things intelligently, assess the true aspirations of Russia and the West. Traditionally, we have a positive opinion regarding such people: “Not everyone in the West has grown stupid in propaganda anti-Russian intoxication. There are still thinking people,” and so on.
All this, of course, is correct. Regret is the only fact that the "amount of interaction" of such people remains constant, close to zero.
In particular, I would like to touch on the theme of the Second World War. Many times we have all heard that in American schools children are told how victory in World War II was forged in the Pacific Ocean, that the greatest tragedy of humanity is Pearl Harbor, and the Soviet Union was only an “insignificant assistant” in America’s victory. His attitude to such a perversion stories I will not express the Great War, since nothing but hatred is aroused by such historians.
Despite the fact that in the West, not only now, when the “successes” of American geopolitics become apparent, but before there were people who understood the pernicious perversion of history, their voice was not heard, and the same print media gave out such polar opinions that they simply take aback.
All of the above was a small introduction to an article published in the English Guardian. How much dirt this newspaper poured on Russia and its history - do not scoop up. And by chance, I come across an article by Michael Davis, a lecturer on American history at the University of California, who is the editor of the New Left Review, published in The Guardian on June 16 of June 2004. For our reader, of course, there is nothing new in the article, but how in one newspaper frank lies and Russophobia can get along with an honest look at Russia - for me remains a mystery.
I think if Michael Davies tells the same thing to his students, then most likely he has very big problems in his professional life.
And the last. A rhetorical question: if there, in the West, everyone can not only write the truth about Russia, although somewhat in a peculiar way, if teachers calmly tell such things to students, then where do people in America come from, confident that America won in World War II and never heard about Gagarin?
But, actually, the article itself.
Despite the controversial points in the reflection of our history, the article, in my opinion, carries a positive attitude towards Russia. And it is completely incomprehensible in this regard, why in the West nothing changes in the public consciousness, and if it does, it is only towards the Cold War, McCarthyism? After all, they know the truth. Well, it turns out that the masses are not interested in all this? Or they just do not care who and where won? 10 years have passed since the writing of the article, and the consciousness of the western (American in the first place) man in the street has only become muddied? It is a pity if so ...
Source of information: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/jun/11/russia.secondworldwar
Translation: http://inosmi.ru/inrussia/20040612/210340.html
All this, of course, is correct. Regret is the only fact that the "amount of interaction" of such people remains constant, close to zero.
In particular, I would like to touch on the theme of the Second World War. Many times we have all heard that in American schools children are told how victory in World War II was forged in the Pacific Ocean, that the greatest tragedy of humanity is Pearl Harbor, and the Soviet Union was only an “insignificant assistant” in America’s victory. His attitude to such a perversion stories I will not express the Great War, since nothing but hatred is aroused by such historians.
Despite the fact that in the West, not only now, when the “successes” of American geopolitics become apparent, but before there were people who understood the pernicious perversion of history, their voice was not heard, and the same print media gave out such polar opinions that they simply take aback.
All of the above was a small introduction to an article published in the English Guardian. How much dirt this newspaper poured on Russia and its history - do not scoop up. And by chance, I come across an article by Michael Davis, a lecturer on American history at the University of California, who is the editor of the New Left Review, published in The Guardian on June 16 of June 2004. For our reader, of course, there is nothing new in the article, but how in one newspaper frank lies and Russophobia can get along with an honest look at Russia - for me remains a mystery.
I think if Michael Davies tells the same thing to his students, then most likely he has very big problems in his professional life.
And the last. A rhetorical question: if there, in the West, everyone can not only write the truth about Russia, although somewhat in a peculiar way, if teachers calmly tell such things to students, then where do people in America come from, confident that America won in World War II and never heard about Gagarin?
But, actually, the article itself.
The decisive battle for the liberation of Europe began 60 years ago in the month of June, when Soviet partisan forces emerged from Belarusian forests and swamps and delivered a bold and sudden blow to the rear of the powerful Wehrmacht.
The partisan detachments, which included many Jewish fighters and people fleeing from concentration camps, installed 40 000 mines, practically paralyzing the railway connection with Poland and East Prussia vital for the Army Group Center.
Three days later, on June 22, 1944, on the day of the third anniversary of Hitler’s attack on the Soviet Union, Marshal Zhukov ordered an offensive along the entire German front line. Twenty-six thousand heavy artillery pieces crushed advanced German positions. Following the powerful Katyush volleys, 4 motors started talking. tanks and in 40 languages, the militant cheers of 1,6 million Soviet soldiers were heard. Thus began Operation Bagration, which was an offensive on a more than 700-kilometer sector of the front.
This “great military earthquake,” as historian John Erickson called it, only stopped at the approaches to Warsaw when Hitler urgently transferred his elite reserves from western Europe to the east to stop the Red Wave. As a result of this redeployment, the American and British forces that fought in Normandy did not have to face the well-armed panther tank divisions.
But what did an ordinary American hear about Operation Bagration? June 1944-th means for him landing on the beaches of Normandy, and not crossing the river Dvina. However, the Soviet offensive in the summer of 1944 was several times larger than Operation Overlord (the landing of troops in Normandy), both in terms of the forces and assets involved, and in the damage inflicted on Germany.
By the end of the summer, the Red Army reached the gates of Warsaw and the mountain passes of the Carpathians, which opened the way to central Europe. Soviet tanks captured Army Group Center in steel mites and destroyed it. The Germans only in Belarus lost more than 300 000 people. Another powerful German grouping was constrained, and later defeated on the Baltic coast. The road to Berlin was open.
All thanks to Ivan. This in no way detracts from the merits of the heroes who died in the deserts of Africa and in the cold forests of northern France. But it should be remembered that 70 percent of Wehrmacht soldiers laid down their heads not in the French fields, but in the Russian steppes. In the fight against fascism, for every deceased private Ryan, there are about 40 Russians Ivanov. Scientists now believe that the 27 of millions of Soviet soldiers and civilians died and died during World War II.
However, at this holiday in honor of the legendary great generation, a Soviet soldier, a tractor driver from Samara, an artist from Orel, a miner from Donetsk or a graduate from Leningrad, is completely invisible.
Everything looks as if the conquests of great America can fade, if we recognize the leading role of the Soviet Union in achieving the epochal victory of the last century against fascism. Indeed, most Americans are remarkably poorly informed about the ratio of contributions to victory and loss in World War II. Even those who know something about the enormous sacrifices of the Soviet people represent everything in the form of the prevailing stereotype of the Red Army: hordes of barbarians, driven by a cruel thirst for revenge and primitive Russian nationalism. Only ordinary Joe and Tom in their eyes can fight for the civilized ideas of freedom and democracy.
Consequently, it is all the more important to remember that despite Stalin, the NKVD and the destruction of a whole generation of Bolshevik leaders, the Red Army retained the spirit of revolutionary fraternity. In her own eyes, and in the eyes of those whom this army rescued from Hitler’s slavery, she was the greatest liberator army in history. Moreover, the Red Army of the 1944 of the year was also the Soviet Army.
Among the generals who led the breakthrough of the troops on Dvina, there was a Jew Chernyakhovsky, an Armenian Bagramyan, a Pole Rokossovsky. Unlike the class-divided and racially segregated American and British armies, in the Red Army, the path to commanding heights was open, albeit thorny. Anyone who doubts the revolutionary impulse and deep humanity of the Red Army, should turn to the memorable memoirs of Primo Levi (The Reawakening / Awakening) and Carol (Between Two Worlds / Between Two Worlds).
Both hated Stalinism and loved the ordinary Soviet soldier, seeing in him the seeds of socialist renewal. So after a recent attempt by George W. Bush to downplay the meaning of D-Day (the beginning of the landing), in order to get more support for my war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, I decided to hold my own commemorative ceremony.
First, I have to remember my uncle Bill, a seller from the town of Columbus, although it is difficult to imagine this soft man as a GI rushing to the beaches of Normandy. Then, and I'm sure Uncle Bill would have approved it, I have to remember his comrade Ivan.
Ivan, who broke through in his tank to the gates of Auschwitz and to Hitler's bunker. Ivana, whose courage and perseverance defeated the Wehrmacht, despite the terrible military mistakes and crimes of Stalin. Two privates, two heroes: Bill and Ivan. It is indecent to honor one and not to remember another.
The partisan detachments, which included many Jewish fighters and people fleeing from concentration camps, installed 40 000 mines, practically paralyzing the railway connection with Poland and East Prussia vital for the Army Group Center.
Three days later, on June 22, 1944, on the day of the third anniversary of Hitler’s attack on the Soviet Union, Marshal Zhukov ordered an offensive along the entire German front line. Twenty-six thousand heavy artillery pieces crushed advanced German positions. Following the powerful Katyush volleys, 4 motors started talking. tanks and in 40 languages, the militant cheers of 1,6 million Soviet soldiers were heard. Thus began Operation Bagration, which was an offensive on a more than 700-kilometer sector of the front.
This “great military earthquake,” as historian John Erickson called it, only stopped at the approaches to Warsaw when Hitler urgently transferred his elite reserves from western Europe to the east to stop the Red Wave. As a result of this redeployment, the American and British forces that fought in Normandy did not have to face the well-armed panther tank divisions.
But what did an ordinary American hear about Operation Bagration? June 1944-th means for him landing on the beaches of Normandy, and not crossing the river Dvina. However, the Soviet offensive in the summer of 1944 was several times larger than Operation Overlord (the landing of troops in Normandy), both in terms of the forces and assets involved, and in the damage inflicted on Germany.
By the end of the summer, the Red Army reached the gates of Warsaw and the mountain passes of the Carpathians, which opened the way to central Europe. Soviet tanks captured Army Group Center in steel mites and destroyed it. The Germans only in Belarus lost more than 300 000 people. Another powerful German grouping was constrained, and later defeated on the Baltic coast. The road to Berlin was open.
All thanks to Ivan. This in no way detracts from the merits of the heroes who died in the deserts of Africa and in the cold forests of northern France. But it should be remembered that 70 percent of Wehrmacht soldiers laid down their heads not in the French fields, but in the Russian steppes. In the fight against fascism, for every deceased private Ryan, there are about 40 Russians Ivanov. Scientists now believe that the 27 of millions of Soviet soldiers and civilians died and died during World War II.
However, at this holiday in honor of the legendary great generation, a Soviet soldier, a tractor driver from Samara, an artist from Orel, a miner from Donetsk or a graduate from Leningrad, is completely invisible.
Everything looks as if the conquests of great America can fade, if we recognize the leading role of the Soviet Union in achieving the epochal victory of the last century against fascism. Indeed, most Americans are remarkably poorly informed about the ratio of contributions to victory and loss in World War II. Even those who know something about the enormous sacrifices of the Soviet people represent everything in the form of the prevailing stereotype of the Red Army: hordes of barbarians, driven by a cruel thirst for revenge and primitive Russian nationalism. Only ordinary Joe and Tom in their eyes can fight for the civilized ideas of freedom and democracy.
Consequently, it is all the more important to remember that despite Stalin, the NKVD and the destruction of a whole generation of Bolshevik leaders, the Red Army retained the spirit of revolutionary fraternity. In her own eyes, and in the eyes of those whom this army rescued from Hitler’s slavery, she was the greatest liberator army in history. Moreover, the Red Army of the 1944 of the year was also the Soviet Army.
Among the generals who led the breakthrough of the troops on Dvina, there was a Jew Chernyakhovsky, an Armenian Bagramyan, a Pole Rokossovsky. Unlike the class-divided and racially segregated American and British armies, in the Red Army, the path to commanding heights was open, albeit thorny. Anyone who doubts the revolutionary impulse and deep humanity of the Red Army, should turn to the memorable memoirs of Primo Levi (The Reawakening / Awakening) and Carol (Between Two Worlds / Between Two Worlds).
Both hated Stalinism and loved the ordinary Soviet soldier, seeing in him the seeds of socialist renewal. So after a recent attempt by George W. Bush to downplay the meaning of D-Day (the beginning of the landing), in order to get more support for my war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, I decided to hold my own commemorative ceremony.
First, I have to remember my uncle Bill, a seller from the town of Columbus, although it is difficult to imagine this soft man as a GI rushing to the beaches of Normandy. Then, and I'm sure Uncle Bill would have approved it, I have to remember his comrade Ivan.
Ivan, who broke through in his tank to the gates of Auschwitz and to Hitler's bunker. Ivana, whose courage and perseverance defeated the Wehrmacht, despite the terrible military mistakes and crimes of Stalin. Two privates, two heroes: Bill and Ivan. It is indecent to honor one and not to remember another.
Despite the controversial points in the reflection of our history, the article, in my opinion, carries a positive attitude towards Russia. And it is completely incomprehensible in this regard, why in the West nothing changes in the public consciousness, and if it does, it is only towards the Cold War, McCarthyism? After all, they know the truth. Well, it turns out that the masses are not interested in all this? Or they just do not care who and where won? 10 years have passed since the writing of the article, and the consciousness of the western (American in the first place) man in the street has only become muddied? It is a pity if so ...
Source of information: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/jun/11/russia.secondworldwar
Translation: http://inosmi.ru/inrussia/20040612/210340.html
Information