Aby The Liberal

Captain Sasha May 14th, 2011

If I got a dollar everytime an American told me how they saved my ass from the Nazis, I’d have made enough to buy off McDonalds and convert it to a chain of bliny outlets. I wonder what Americans are going to come up with next, perhaps they invented vodka and designed the Eiffel Tower as well? Before I hear this silly chant again from a YAAI (Yet Another American Idiot), I might clear this up once and for all.

Soviet victory flag on the Reichstag building. Do you see any stars and stripes around?

Contrary to what a lot of Americans seem to believe, the Allied victory in European theater didn’t begin with the Normandy landings (or D-Day, as the Americans call it). If Americans could overlook their grandoise self-serving claims for a while and look at the cold hard facts, the D-Day had a rather minor significance or impact to the outcome of the World War 2. By June 1944, the World War 2 in Europe was wrapping up. 93% of the Nazi forces have already been wiped out or labouring away in Soviet prison camps. The ‘Uruk Hai’ of the Nazi war machine - the SS Waffen and SS Wehrmarcht were no longer around. What Americans experienced in D-Day and afters was a breeze compared to the storm that transpired just a few months back. [BBC News: Who Won World War 2?]

The biggest and most decisive battles in World War 2 were the Battle of Kursk and Stalingrad. It was in these two battle zones that Hitler met his most overwhelming defeats and the utter failure of his most ambitious plan, the Operation Barbarossa. This defeat saw not only the largest military surrender in human history but also a mass attrition of Wehrmarcht troops, along with their tanks and planes. Before Hitler realised what hit him, Germans were in a crisis situation, trying to stop the advance of  the Soviet troops into Nazi territory. [Historynet.com: Battle of Kursk]. Eventually, it was the Red Army who stormed the Reichstag, after winning what was known as the most fierce urban battle in human history - the Battle of Berlin. In this decisive battle, the Germans surrendered the city to General Vasily Chuikov of the Red Army - not to some Smith, Hank or Brenda.

But of course, given that the average American gets all his/her ‘education’ from TV shows and films like Saving Private Ryan, he doesn’t know anything about that. He thinks it was troops led by John Bon Jovi and Tom Hanks that saved the world. For Americans, this is more convenient and inspires more self-important pride than the (gasp!) idea that those dastardly Russkies could have anything to do with winning the World War 2. I actually had a bewildered (patriotic) American ask me, “So what DID Russians DO in World War 2?”. The guy later proclaimed that it was Russians who got defeated by Americans in World War 2. Which is not surprising, considering that the average American thinks Communism and Nazism are interchangeable terms.

All in all, no country can lay stake to the claim that they won the World War 2 singlehanded, since it was a joint effort by all of us - Russians, British, Greeks, Chinese and yes, Americans. I have utmost respect for all those who fought against fascism in the World War 2 and all those who supported them through those hard times. If you have any respect for those people, please get a decent book (or DVD) on World War 2 history and don’t insult everyone by being so loud and boastful with your ignorance.

And please, no calling the French ’surrender monkeys’ either. If you faced half of what they did in the World Wars, you’d be peeing your pants and run screaming to the nearest McDonalds outlet for cover. Playing soldier in Call of Duty doesn’t make you a brave military hero.

• America , Europe , Humour , Internationalism , Military , Russia , Satire , World Politics
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Dmitri October 8th, 2007

The collapse of the Soviet Union led many western pro-democracy political analysts to believe that Russia would be on a prosperity path to be a global economic might. But their analyses went horribly wrong and post-Soviet Russian economy went downhill, along with its political and military influence. It was very much like Berlin in latter days of Weimar Republic, living in past glory with a bleak present and a dark future. The failure of western economic model on Russia gave rise to skepticism on whether one could count Russia any more as a superpower once its large nuclear force was ignored. However Russians got their act together and started making a comeback, after alarm bells started ringing - with the NATO-led bombings of Serbia in 1990s and more recently, a determined NATO expansion towards Eastern Europe.

A BBC News video on recent Russian bomber patrols over British airspace - a symbolism of Cold War power projection

Things really started looking up in Russia after Vladimir Putin came to power in 1999. With strategic experience of an ex-KGB agent and diplomatic experience of an internationalist, Putin pulled Russian economy back from its post-Cold War downfall. Doomsday sayers who predicted a ‘Latin America’ situation for Russia were dissappointed after the energy and infrastructure boom put Russian on track with other global economic powers. Vladimir Putin became a hero of the Russian people by restoring their national pride (which was as weak as its economy after several political failures). Putin also scored political and diplomatic brownie points for Russia by strengthening ties with West Asia and improving relationships with non Anglo-Saxon Western Europe.

Despite the political and economic restructuring of Russia in the early 21st century, European political analysts were slow and reluctant to acknowledge the reality of Russia’s resurgence. However the stupour dissappeared once Russia made a few critical political and military moves to assert its power projection in Europe. These moves included a tougher stance on Kosovo issue, opposition to US missile shield in Poland, revival of strategic nuclear missile development, political manipulation of Europe by controlling gas supplies, revival of nuclear bomber missions, taking a pro-Iran political stance, Arctic missions with territorial claims, revived patrols of nuclear submarines in the Pacific and finally the testing of the largest conventional bomb FOAB on September 11, 2007.

The economic resurgence and revival of power games has already caused a bit of flutter around the world, with speculations that the Cold War is not yet over. While the rest of the world looks at Russia as a counterforce against US to create a multipolar world, Europe sees Russia as a threat to its political stability. A strong and more powerful Russia will have a power projection in Europe which will be more effective than the weakening United States’ influence among European Union nations. What Europe is going to face in the light of Russia ’s growing political and military assertiveness is a few changes in EU foreign policy to accomodate Russian interests, in addition to their own.

• Internationalism , Russia , World Politics
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