Over the last week, we’ve been talking about the inexorible Soviet war machine that, once awakened, slowly ground the Nazis into the dirt. It did this through shear inexaustible weight of men, materiel, and machines. For this week’s blog post, I want to focus on the “war machine” part of that war machine, in particularContinue reading “Let’s Talk About Tanks Baby: T-34 and Soviet Armor in the Second World War”
Category: Fourth Research Digest
Tracks of Steel: T-34/76 and Kursk
by •
In the article Seventeen Moments in Soviet History,it tells the legendary story of the largest tank battle in WWII which is pretty crazy as they not only combined for a total of 6,300 tanks between the Germans and Soviets. The manpower was also pretty big as the Soviets had 1.3 million troops while the GermansContinue reading “Tracks of Steel: T-34/76 and Kursk”
Stalin and The Borders of Poland
by •
When it became clear that the Germans would lose World war II in 1943 discussions began on what the world would look like after the fall of the Nazis. In particular the Polish border was of some concern. Being the … Continue reading →
Battle of Kursk, 1943
by •
When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 they were severely outnumbered but were better trained and equipped. Hitler and the German High Command predicted it would take four months to defeat the Red Army. The initial phase of the invasion was very successful. The Blitzkrieg worked as designed and drove deep into Soviet …
Stalin: A Deadly Leader
by •
World War II was a turbulent time in history for Soviet Russia. Coming fresh out of the 1930s, the Soviet people were recovering from mass purges of the Communist Party, and it proved to affect Russia’s entrance into the war. As Fuller notes in his chapter of Russia: A History, the military purges that began in […]
Wait For Me…
by •
Seventeen Moments in Soviet History notes that “the full-scale mobilization of men to the front [during World War II] placed women in leading roles in kolkhozes and factories, in families and communities.” Gregory L. Freeze, in his book, Russia: A History, adds that by the end of the summer of 1941 “women comprised 70 per …
High Stalinism
by •
James von Goldern “cult of leadership” gives us a little look into Stalin’s mindset. Stalin was in every sense of the way a strong man leader who took control from the country from his political enemies. He had to keep the country his however. We know the Soviet Union is a multinational state that isContinue reading “High Stalinism”
The Battle of Kursk: Fields of Destruction
by •
On July 5, 1943, the German Army launched Operation Citadel. It was an attempt to encircle and crush a bulge of Soviet troops concentrated in and around the city of Kursk. This bulge stretched for 150 miles from north to south, and jutted 100 miles west into German lines(https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Kursk). The Germans attempted to drive behindContinue reading “The Battle of Kursk: Fields of Destruction”
A Tribute to the Soviet People
by •
Привет! To all who celebrate, Happy Easter, and I hope that everyone is staying safe and well! This week I want to talk about how the Soviets managed to prevail during World War II, specifically focusing on the willpower and patriotism of the Soviet people. The Soviet people were game changers during World …
The Beginning of the End: The Battle of Stalingrad
by •
By early summer 1942, the Nazi war machine was firing on all cylinders. Most of mainland Eastern Europe was under the rule of Adolph Hitler. To the Germans, the undoing of the Treaty of Versailles was bittersweet, but the true Nazi interest was in the East. Hitler and the Nazis had two reasons for eastward …
Continue reading “The Beginning of the End: The Battle of Stalingrad”
