The ineffectiveness of the Russian system of mobilization is the reason there were such disproportionate losses to the Germans in both World Wars. The Ivan was always considered cannon fodder by their commanders. Stalin regarded his poorly trained men as "bullets" and expended them accordingly. In the end, mass wastage of Russian men helped defeat the German on the Eastern Front, but not without massive Western aid, and four "second fronts" that siphoned off German divisions and the bulk of the German Luftwaffe. Without air superiority, which was what allowed the German tactical air forces to work so closely and well with the German ground forces, the German ground forces were hamstrung and the Russian air force such as it was, was allowed to resurrect itself. The more we learn about the failure of Russian arms, it becomes pretty clear that for the last 100 years the West had been a victim of Russian propaganda and not only has the Russian bear been toothless, but crippled as well. Russian appears to have always been a third world country functioning as a Ponzi scheme to fool would be enemies. The communist party mortgaged the future to pay for the past. After WWII the country was living on borrowed time and the mortgage came due and the country went bankrupt in 1991. Now we see that the Russia that emerged from that bankruptcy was and still is no better. They are a third world country with nukes pretending to be a first world country.