• nevemsenki@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    You say there are records, but even right now Russia is intentionally keeping a lot of its dead soldiers go unrecorded (ie MIA instead of KIA) just so they can keep payouts lower and more easily downplay losses. Doesn’t mean the same happened in WW2, but how do we know it didn’t either?

    • masquenox@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s really simple… it’s difficult to keep things secret when an entire country is suddenly involved in a war that’s literally on it’s doorstep. It’s the same reason so many people in the US still don’t have the foggiest clue what the US actually did in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia - it’s much easier to keep secrets when the war is happening somewhere else. So yes… despite what western historians will have you believe, the Soviet Union of 1942 did have typewriters - lots and lots of them, as well as people to operate them. The massive losses the USSR suffered couldn’t be kept a secret - by 1942, the Soviet Union was literally filled with millions of first-hand witnesses. Stalin also didn’t have to lie to keep people in the Soviet Union fighting - the true nature of the genocidal Nazi colonialist program (Operation Barbarossa was no mere military operation) was pretty damn self-evident by that stage, too. If you read actual accounts of people who witnessed it all you get a far better understanding of it than the hot garbage alt-history Enemy At The Gates is based on - I recommend The Unwomanly Face of War.

      • Gnothi@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        it’s difficult to keep things secret when an entire country is suddenly involved in a war that’s literally on it’s doorstep

        This description applies to the war with Ukraine as well. Weird that you think this is a point in your favor.

        • masquenox@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          This description applies to the war with Ukraine as well.

          No, it doesn’t. It’s a war somewhere else. You think the German populace knew what was really going on in Poland? You think South Africans really knew what was going on in Angola and Mozambique? How many USians do you know that is very clued up on how the (so-called) “War On Drugs” is playing out in Mexico?

          Please think before you post.

          • Gnothi@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            If you don’t think Ukraine is on Russia’s doorstep I suggest you brush up on your geography.

            • masquenox@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Do you require a geography lesson on southern Africa? Eastern Europe, maybe? Howzabout Mexico?

              I guess this…

              Please think before you post.

              …is really hard for you?

              • Gnothi@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Alright, it’s pretty clear to me you don’t actually care about the truth of the matter here, so I don’t really see a point in engaging further.
                Feel free to have the last word. Best of luck to you.

                • masquenox@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  Lol! Why? Did you actually learn what a world map is and now you need to run away from this argument? Is that it?