I have read widely about the Soviet participation in WW2, including from the Western press and Western history books, and I do not remember ever having come across a single criticism of the Red Army’s bravery or sacrifice. Nor have I ever read any denial of the fact that the contribution of the Red Army was crucial in breaking the back of the German military. The RT article sets up a straw man if it complains about such non-existent criticism. The definitive difference between the contributions of the Western Allies on the one hand and the Soviet Union on the other is, that Western Allies brought freedom to the German territories that they conquered while the Soviet Union bought no freedom, but merely replaced one totalitarian tyranny with another. It took the best part of another 50 years for that newly-imposed tyranny to finally crumble, and for WW2 to at last end for Eastern Europe. Stalin was no freedom fighter.

My father fought in D-Day - see (http://dustmybroom.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11799:d-day-a-thank-you-to-my-father&catid=55:history) He was taken prisoner and spent 11 months in various labor camps and concentration camps. He was freed by both Russian and American forces and today still holds respect and thanks to the Russians who freed him from the Nazi hell he had indured. I agree that any commemoration of WWII should include all who fought against the Axis.

We moved on,it takes humans centuries to get educated ,it is a slow processs,they get confused with technology as the sign of advacement.and politicans belief that thier immotal,unfortunaetly they life span is universal to us humans,The basic desire which is universal ,people want a standard of education,jobs and equality,,but we have sinister people whose agenda is to cause diversion within its own societies,thru nationaility,creed and culture.when humans learn to accept ,that all people have the same desires ,and get rid of thier ignorant indoctrination,we will then be able to rid ouselves of wars ,descrimation based on culture and nationalities.ps the conclusion, we all basically the same.it is only ignorance and uneducation which separates us.

Marzipan6. If I follow your judgement,Bush, Cheney, Clinton, Brezdnieski, Reagan, Kessinger, Nixon ect. have brought democracy and freedom to the world. My poor man, you are a joke or you are paid to be so ignorant. Tell me what kind of liberty has a human who owe each month, 2/3 of his wages to a bank. In France, as in the USA, millions of peoples are over-endebted and restricted from banking activities. I could also ask you: what kind of freedom americans have brought to Vietnam, Cambodgia, Irak, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Chili, Nicaragua and everywhere they have been militarely involved. In America one out of five citizen is an excluded case; one out of seven, in France and in most other european nations. Only countries like Norway or Danemark who mind their own business could be called: almost-democracies. Most humans are unable to appreciate the meaning of this world and you belong to that crowd which confuse democracy and volontarely accepted anarchy like my country is actually. It is a huge mess, but everybody think being able to take advantage of it. Only a few can manage to do it (always the same). The rest of us are abused and become just the slaves of money. As I have explained in other forums, the planetary financial collapse was the paroxysme of what you describe as a great leadership. Have you, recently talked about democracy to those who have lost everything ? Living in a dictatorial system is not the solution, but (like it or not) humans who are the paradoxe of extremes must live in a severely controled and managed system. In such a case, the great majority of us have nothing to fear, because we are decent humans who do not create any problem to others. This seem to be the road taken by Russia and could be the light at the end of the tunnel for Humanity. America could join in that success but first, she must apologize for 60 years of insane greedyness and take the necessary and radical measures needed to prove its sincerity and willingness to change. Talking is not enough and so far, it is all that the "Barnum-Obama-Circus has done. Just, one more month to wait ! Sorry Future Generations ! Sincerely. Jean-Claude Meslin

Marzipan6: "The definitive difference between the contributions of the Western Allies on the one hand and the Soviet Union on the other is, that Western Allies brought freedom to the German territories that they conquered while the Soviet Union bought no freedom, but merely replaced one totalitarian tyranny with another." Excuse me but freeing Germany from a totalitarian dictatorship was no one's goal while fighting against the Nazis. That was simply a result for better or for worse. If they had stayed within their own borders there would have been no war, no soldier was willing to give their life to free Germans from oppression (and rightfully so). The goal was to stop an evil regime from spreading its physical borders and influence, and to stop them from carrying out their plans to exterminate and/or enslave entire races of people while oppressing all those who lived under their rule. And in that case, yes, the Soviets do deserve most of the credit for this. Also, your equating of Eastern Germany's entire history to the Nazi regime in terms of tyranny speaks volumes of your ignorance. You might want to do some research on the Soviet policy reforms after Stalin died in 1953.

To John: freeing Germany from totalitarian dictatorship was indeed no one’s goal when fighting against the Nazis; defeating Germany was. Nevertheless the fact remains that territory that the Western Allies conquered regained freedom, while territory that the Red Army conquered merely had one totalitarian tyranny replaced by another. And that’s the definitive difference between the contributions of the Western Allies on the one hand and the Soviet Union on the other. You also wrote that my “equating of Eastern Germany's entire history to the Nazi regime in terms of tyranny speaks volumes of your ignorance. You might want to do some research on the Soviet policy reforms after Stalin.” First, when I mentioned “German territories” in my earlier post, I did not mean only Germany, but all the territory that the Third Reich was occupying. I admit I could have worded that more clearly. But since you focus on East Germany and on my “voluminous ignorance” regarding it, I happened to have visited East Germany in 1967 which, I think you will agree, was a year or two after the good Stalin was already dead and embalmed. The evidence of overwhelming state security was everywhere to be seen, as was the depressing poverty of the place, especially in contrast to West Germany. The countryside, as much as I saw of it, was primitive and the cities were dour. East Berlin, for example, abounded in apartment buildings that were jagged bombed-out ruins on their one side, and had curtains on windows and a little pot of flowers by the windowsill on the other. I never saw anything like that in West Germany. But then, it was free. But the most significant difference of all was that in West Germany and in West Berlin, you could walk right up to the border and spit on it if you wanted to. In the East, there were several tiers of fortified and electrified fences, minefields and machine-gun nests, that did not let the easterners get anywhere near the border. The purpose of this was not to keep the wicked westerners out, but to keep captive East Germans in. In West Berlin there were frequent crosses and flower arrangements just west of the Wall, marking the spot where East Germans had been shot in the back as they tried to escape from what you call post-Stalin “freedom”. Many Russians and their apologists seem to take the attitude that a slightly lesser degree of terror equals freedom, and they view the post-Stalin Soviet bloc through this distorted lens. May I suggest that this is the attitude of a slave – “I can’t travel, I can’t speak my mind, I can’t work or live where I choose, I can’t read what I choose, I must not fraternise with foreigners, my mail is censored, there is no rule of law in my land, there is no independent judiciary or free elections or free press, you are spying on me constantly and you are still killing and torturing our people and grossly distorting and lying about everything we hold dear – but now you are not killing quite so many of us as before. Good master!” May I assure you, John, that no Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Pole, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak or East German ever thought that way. They despised everything that their Soviet captivity stood for, both before and after Stalin’s death.

Meslin, you are comparing unlike things. The matter at issue is the contrast from 1945 till 1991 between Eastern Europe where Soviet tyranny prevailed, and Western Europe where it did not. You are instead comparing the Western world, and the best of all possible worlds. I will be the first to admit that the Western world has many problems. For example, the current world financial crisis is a direct result of Western corporate greed and government ineptitude. And one can find many instances of cynical abuse of power by the West. But nowhere in the Western world (Nazi Germany aside) is there any counterpart to Stalin’s psychotic reign of terror, or to anything approaching the Soviet Gulag, or to the cutting off of entire nations from the rest of the world behind an Iron Curtain. However imperfectly these operate (and they do operate imperfectly), the West still has freedom of speech, free elections, press freedom, an independent judiciary and accountable government. Together these ensure that the worst kind of abuses of power, the kind that ground Soviet peoples and their captives into the ground, do not happen. You will also notice, Meslin, or should, that despite its imperfections, countries of the West regularly prosecute those of its own agents who have committed crimes. Not all of them, but many. The world would not even know about many American military abuses, for example, were it not for America itself publicising and prosecuting the guilty. There is nothing comparable to this in Russia. Up to 20 million people were killed, overwhelmingly by Russians in the service of the Soviet state, and many, many more millions were unjustly enslaved in the Gulag, their lives ruined. Yet post-Soviet Russia has seen fit not to bring even one solitary Russian who committed crimes against humanity in the service of the Soviet state to justice.

james Perhaps we could inject some comments from the Nazis and others into the debate. On hearing of Hitler's attack on the USSR, Mussolini said 'That means we have lost the War.' I think that when Hitler invaded the USSR, he visited the East with von Ribbentrop and said something about 'if he had known of this giant Red Army assemblage, he would have thought twice before invading.' Then in the Winter General Guderian wrote to his wife that 'we have underestimated the Russians.' In that same winter, Hitler declared war on the USA. Admiral King was at the Pentagon and Roosevelt was worried about this; King apparently said that Japan was the USA's main problem. He then said 'The Russians will do nine-tenths of the job with Hitler.'(see * later). One of Hitler's Ministers said that the Battle of Kursk (43) was 'the beginning of the end for Germany.' In the last winter of the War, Goebbels went around Berlin and ordered wall-painting saying 'VICTORY OR SIBERIA!' In His Testament, Hitler was in no doubt when he wrote 'The future belong to the stronger Eastern nation.' As far as death-tolls go US Colonel D Glantz recently produced figures to show (*) that the Red Army destroyed some 80%+ of Hitler's men. Yes, the East was taken over and run from Moscow after the War but if we focus on the bad, we forget that the Red Army faced and won the most terrifying ordeal against the Nazis. My father, 3 of his brothers and a sister all fought in the British Forces in WW2 and were proud; but they all said that the Russians won the War...but of course, it is true to say that it was only a fight for freedom from the Nazis, not freedom for all.

All the Allies did a fantastic job to defeat the Nazis, that is something we must all remember, they defeated the Nazis together as a team. Yes we should realise that we took the greatest hit in terms of fine souls lost, but on the other hand who else could do it, no one could have held the Nazis on the ground other than Russia, not because they didn't want to. It was simply they didn't have the numeric capability to do it, or room for manoever The US couldn't get millions across the pond, the British didn't have the millions to send. Without Russia it would have been game over and Nazi rule everywhere. However, what is sometimes forgotten in these games of political controversey, is that the rest of the allies did their part during this struggle, they did what they could, and I can ask no more. The US kept commodoties running, the British tied up the Nazis in africa and the mediteranian, they also provided sea and aerial trouble for the Nazis, keeping their industrial base surpressed, in addition they ran the Arctic conveys to bring in much needed items to us. Yes there was an eventual rush and competition for control of Europe, which ended the mutual benefit of a team approach, However, this is another topic, The core thing to remember is that all the allies, did what they could to defeat the axis powers, they came together and put their bodies on the line. They won through on the day, and we should never forget their sacrifice from whatever nation they came. There is a simple truth, and that is that Nazis would dominate and control Europe if it wasn't for all the allied efforts. The D-Day landings were an integral part of that effort, it was an essential cog in the wheel, to free Europe. I salute all the allies who made a Europe free of Nazis, I leave it to the pointless, political nobodies to argue over the numbers and individual contribution. I just say a big thankyou, to those who stood up to the challenge, met it with courage and sacrifice, and delivered us form the Nazi grip. Thanks, we will always remember you!

Marzipan6 Could you give me one name of a US or french citizen who has been brought to justice for a crime agaisnt Humanity. In case you ignore it: no US citizen can be sent to theTPI of The Hague. In their own countries tell me what sentence received those who tortured, rapped and killed civilians in Algeria, Vietnam and Irak ? So don't give me lessons about democracies; just try to understand human nature. All that beckering about one nation or an other or a system or an other is just a waste of time and energy.I spent 20 years in America, working for its aerospace industry without having a single problem. I visited Russia 11 times (peraphs12 next month) and never had any problem there either... Peoples still able to analyse, think and be objective will be better off trying to make sure than mankind staddily progress but not regress. Decent human-beings who are the great majority can live in any actual decent political systems (including Russia).We must also admit than many humans have great difficulties to make the difference between a good and a bad normal behavior. If that is compounded at a national level, you end-up living in a consent anarchy (like the actual France). Consequently a rather tought system is necessary (mostly for the bad guys)... Often I visit friends who work at the CERN near Geneva. There, to solve a problem, scientist use video-conferences, Internet and all modern communication tools aviable to communicate all over the World. Why can the other decisions'makers (mostly politicians) do the same instead of wasting time and huge amount of money on planetary diplomatic furberies. We can already appreciate what a correct use of Internet can bring for a better worldwide undrestanding. Sorry Future Generations ! Sincerely. Jean-Claude Meslin

my opinion Rooosevelt and Churchill decided the D- day. because they were afraid to Russia. Russia could have larger part of Europe(include all Germany and France too).