Latest Breaking News
In reply to the discussion: Kerry privately urges Poroshenko to provide evidence of Kremlin involvement with separatists in Ukra [View all]bemildred
(90,061 posts)The presence of President Vladimir Putin on the Normandy beaches on the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings was planned long before the current conflict over Ukraine, but it is a useful reminder of the fact that Russia is not some Asiatic tyranny on Europes eastern borders. It is a European country that has played a major role in the continents affairs for centuries.
Not only were the Russians on the same side as the Western allies in the Second World War. They did most of the heavy lifting in the war against Nazi Germany, and they paid by far the highest price.
While 850,000 American, British and Canadian troops were landing on the French coast in June 1944, 6 million soldiers of the Soviet army were fighting massive battles with the German army in eastern Europe. The land war on the Eastern Front was already three years old, and by June of 1944 the Russians had won: the Germans had already begun the long retreat that ended above Hitlers bunker in Berlin eleven months later.
The price the Russians paid for their victory over Nazi Germany was huge: at least 11 million military dead (compared to fewer than 1 million dead for the Western allies). No other country in history has lost so many soldiers, but in the end it was the Red Army that destroyed Hitlers Wehrmacht: 80 percent of Germanys 6 million military dead were killed on the Eastern Front.
http://www.straight.com/news/658876/gwynne-dyer-irony-vladimir-putins-visit-normandy