Stalin

  

Only the most paranoid and ruthless of leaders

survived the cutthroat Kremlin politics. Still, 

rising through the ranks required a prospective leader

to control his emotions.  Success required cold

pragmatism - a sober but cynical view of reality.

Human relations were calculating, tactical.

Anyone not under Stalin's control was judged to be

his rival.  The three friends he shares company with

above were all put to death for disloyalty to Stalin.

Stalin was an unpredictable, overpowering personality.

You never knew how you would be treated by him -

cool and controlled or in a fit of rage.

You could be the scapegoat of one of his mistakes.

Someone has to pay for this outrage.

During Stalin's Great Purge of the 1930s 

you didn't have to be guilty to be convicted.

Having any reason to be disloyal to Stalin was

itself an act of disloyalty, requiring cleansing punishment.

Your agony would set the proper example.

Stalin was surrounded by a world that wanted him dead.

For Stalin, loyalty was based on fear.

Eisenhower honored Roosevelt's promise to Stalin

and let the Red Army take Berlin.  

Twenty-seven million Russians dead.  They earned it.

On his drive to Yalta, Roosevelt viewed mile after mile

of landscape ravaged by war.  Roosevelt said of the 

invading Germans - I hope they get what they deserve.

Cold War Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was

influenced by Stalin's belief in Eisenhower.

The General was a decent man.

You could trust him to be honest... 

for a bourgeoise capitalist. 

Roosevelt felt he could persuade Stalin into making

concessions to the West.  FDR had faith in the bond

he had made with the Soviet leader.  Despite their

clashing ideologies, they could find shared values

and outlooks on the future.

Stalin found Roosevelt agreeable.  He liked the president

even more than he liked Eisenhower.  Roosevelt

understood his nation's problems.  Not like Truman.

You couldn't work with this man.

But Roosevelt had the gaunt appearance of one 

who could die at any moment.  Slump in a chair

and expire.  Just like that.

Roosevelt vanishes from the American scene.

So begins a new chapter.  

The Cold War.

 The Soviet Union dominated Europe.

The Red Army was the largest in the world.

Russia was consistently increasing its industrial capacity.

Mao led a successful revolution in Asia and brought

Communist rule to China.  Suddenly the Soviet Union

had a powerful ally in the East.

U.S. global dominance was broken.

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Barbarossa

  

History's largest invasion.

Three million German soldiers began their attack

on Russia with an artillery barrage all along the

1,200 mile front.  It was 3 am, June 22, 1941;

the first days of summer.

There was no better time than now to battle Russia.

Germany was at the height of its military power, having

just defeated the British and French in a matter of weeks.

Stalin was startled by this demonstration of blitzkrieg.

He made urgent demands on his generals and industrialists,

to grow him the most powerful and modern of armies.

Hitler believed Russia to be vulnerable and the time

he had to take advantage of this would be brief.

German troops overwhelmed Russia's defense.

Stalin was blind to the immediacy of Hitler's threat.

So long as Britain remained undefeated, the Germans

would not open up a second front by attacking Russia.

The order of the day had been 'don't antagonize Hitler'.

The Russian troops facing the Nazis weren't ready.

The military was still recovering from Stalin's purge

of the officer corps two years previous.  Most of his

top generals were executed.  Uncle Joe had 

paranoid tendencies.  It came with the job.

It was quickly made clear they were not your friends.

The Germans were your conquerors.

They behaved accordingly.  

Russian guerillas sabotaged German efforts behind the lines.

There were those among the Russian population that were

ready to welcome German troops as liberators from Stalin's

ruthless rule.  Instead they became lethal enemies of 

Hitler's forces.  The Nazis couldn't tolerate help coming

from the Slavs.

Allies.  The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

It's politics.  You succeed with what you have.

Hitler gambled that he could defeat the Soviet Union

by year's end or lose everything.  

What Germany and Hitler feared most, would 

come to pass.  This alliance of industrial behemoths

could only crush the Third Reich.

And at its leisure.

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©  Tom Taylor

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