| This post is in response to a thread originally begun in the China discussion board. My response has been posted here as this is a more appropriate place for the discussion. The original theme was wheather or not the Soviets were the saviors of Europe in WWII. My response is concerning jimi's post.
Jimi,
I don't really see where we disagree. You admit yourself that Stalin was only the savior of Europe "until he became as bad as Hitler and occupied the countries he saved." I agree with you that Russia did more damage to the Weremacht than any other nation and caused the bulk of the German casualties throughout the war, I stated that the Russians "made an immense contribution to the Allies cause," and that "Russia bore the brunt of the ground warfare against the Germans." And actually after the British-American invasion of Italy it was largely German troops under the command of Kesselring that fought the Allies. All that I was stating was just what you said yourself, Russia bled the German army to death and did most of the ground fighting. However Stalin is not the savior of Europe because excepting Tito's Yugoslavia, all countries liberated by the Russians essentially became Russian satellites, controlled by the Soviets. Had the US and Britain not invaded France and Italy (which they would have done much sooner had they the necessary logistics) much of western Europe would have likely have come under Soviet influence. |