Talk to a lot of westerners, and especially Americans, and ask them about D-Day, and the western war more generally, and many of them will say that they "saved" Europe. Some will even suggest that, if it were not for Americans, all Europeans would be "speaking German" right now.
But here's the thing: that simply is not true. The Nazis were well on their way to losing that war long before the invasion of Normandy on D-Day. Any even reasonably objective historian or authority on the subject will admit to that.
Remember Operation Barbarrosa, where Hitler and the Germans decided to break the non-aggression pact that existed between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, and invade? Of course, the Nazis turned it around, and made it seem (or at least convinced themselves) that this was a pre-emptive attack, more of a defensive maneuver out of necessity, than an act of unjustifiable aggression and arrogance. Hitler had stated outright his plans for Germany to expand eastward, at the expense of the Slavic people, and particularly the Russians, who were viewed as essentially subhuman.
Initially, the Germans advanced quickly through the Soviet Union (US General Norman Schwartzkopf once said on "Hitler and Stalin: A Legacy of Hate" , and it looked like just more affirmation of Germany's military might. German soldiers were buying Russian language books, under the assumption that this would be their new colony, the latest and greatest expansion of Hitler's "Thousand Year Reich".
Of course, we know that it was not to be. The real Soviet defenses were in the interior, and the Soviets, as they had done during the Napoleonic invasion, had followed a scorched earth policy. The Germans went deep into the Soviet Union, but were stopped dead in their tracks, just short of Moscow in the north, and just short of Stalingrad in the south.
They were, of course, eventually worn down, and defeated. And thus began the retreat.
The eastern war was not an easy victory for the Soviets, but it was a victory. It cost them twenty million lives to beat back the Germans back to Germany proper, and then to the end game, as the final curtain of the war descended in the capital of the Nazi Empire, which lay in rubble and ruins, fittingly enough. It did not happen quickly, much less easily, but by 1944, the Soviets were very clearly driving back the Germans out of Soviet territory and back to the Reich.
And it was as that fateful curtain call for Nazi Germany was already fast approaching that the theater of the western front opened up with the Normandy invasions on D-Day.
In a fascinating article by Mark Trevelyan of Reuters (see link below) that illustrates the Soviet viewpoint that, for all intents and purposes, the Soviets were well on their way to winning the war, many of the opinions coming from Russia are decidedly clear on the subject about D-Day, and what it meant to the Soviets:
"It helped us a little. But only a little." said 77-year-old physicist Galina Makarenko.
"That is absolutely clear, there's no doubt about that. It would have won because the people were desperate, they had gathered their strength and learned to wage war. The war would definitely have been won by the Soviet people," said pensioner Nikolai Kosyak, 64.
Kosyak also echoed the opinion of many other Russians, that the delay for opening up a second, western front against he Nazis was on purpose. President Truman had wanted the Soviets and Germans to inflict as much damage against one another as possible, which would seem to suggest that he viewed the Soviets as hardly an ally, and barely, if at all, friendlier than Nazi Germany. Here, back to the Trevelyan article:
"But many Russians are convinced to this day that the delay was a deliberate ploy. While D-Day "helped us a great deal", Kosyak said, Churchill "wanted the Russians and Germans to destroy each other in this war, and to enter it at the right moment when both were weakened".
"Communications worker Igor Tolkarev, 48, said: "I think he just waited for us and decided to do it only when our troops started an offensive. Only then he joined the side of those who were stronger."
Many Russians feel that the delay was based on ideological differences. According to retired engineer Lyudmila Krylova, 67:
"Because the West had a very bad attitude towards the Communist Soviet Union at that time and was interested in preventing Communism from spreading across Europe - that's why probably political leaders in the West were not interested in such a triumphal victory of the Red Army and a swift end of the war."
"And then they were sparing their people, their army, their casualties."
And that is, obviously, a sore point for Russians, as 20 million Soviets lost their lives during the war effort. So you can excuse Russians for being less than completely grateful and impressed when the western powers continually harp about the significance of the events on D-Day. Again, Trevelyan's article underscores this point:
"In a schoolchildren's encyclopedia on sale in central Moscow, the opening of the western front is dealt with in just half a sentence, in a four-page entry on the Great Patriotic War: "In the meantime the allies had opened a second front in Europe, but Soviet forces had captured the initiative in the offensive on Germany."
Nor is this simply a dead issue, or one for historians to discuss and determine, because this has particular relevance still today, as tensions and mistrust between western powers and Russia continue right up to the present day. Here again, to conclude this blog entry, is a bit more from Trevelyan's article:
"But among those interviewed she is not alone in seeing parallels between Western mistrust of Russia then and now.
"Everyone wanted to strangle the Soviet Union - and they want to now," she said. "The whole of the West is jealous of Russia ... Russia is a unique country."
Here is that wonderful and illuminating article that I think more westerners should read, to understand better the Russian sacrifices during the war, and why they view the western contribution, and especially the western claims of victory, with some measure of understandable skepticism:
Who won the war? Russians take a different view on D-Day Reuters by Mark Trevelyan June 5, 2014:
http://news.yahoo.com/won-war-russians-different-view-d-day-145811506.html
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