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2008-10-25 Europe

Stalin's army of rapists: The brutal war crime that Russia and Germany tried to ignore

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Posted by anonymous5089 2008-10-25 07:23|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 It could be said that rape has be a companion of Russian armies since immemorial times (cf the Friedland campaign where German civilians ended welcoming Napoleonic troops). It could be argued about revenge against German atrocities in Russia (but was rape common place? and were Russians so keen in avenging Russian Jews?). It could be argued about the "uncivilized" nature of most of the non-Russian elements of the Soviet Army.

However this doesn't give the whole picture. The fact is that Ilya Ehrenburg, that is Stalin's favourite poet was encouraging troops to "break German woman's racial pride" (cf Solsyenitsin's "Gulag Archipelago') and that this was being published in Soviet Union's press and broadcast in its radios.

It was he regime who encouraged rape. And those rapes were not limited to Germany. It happened in Germany's minor allies, it happenned in the Baltic States, it happened in theorycally allied countries like Czechoslovakia. In every future satellite.

But it was not merely to break their spirit. Every successful revolution requires some heinous crime at its first stages so the bystanders will have to fear the return of the "pro-order side". An example of this was the beheading of the officers in the Bastille(despite the fact they had opened its doors). My guess is that Stalin wanted Russias oldiers having something to fear in case of a war with the Anglo-Saxons.

Posted by JFM">JFM 2008-10-25 11:05|| 2008-10-25 11:05|| Front Page Top

#2 Thanks, JFM.
On a related note, today, the main french wingnut blog published an entry about the Holodomor, and the reaction from the putin-bootlickers was as expected : the official recognition of the Ukrainian genocide is a conspiracy to slander russia, russia cannot be held responsible for what the USSR did, it's a move by the USA and the EU to get traction to induce Ukraine into NATO,... one commenter even forwards a PCT about the "5 millions disenfranchised workers" supposedly "starved to death in US concentration camps" during the Great Depression... etc, etc. This would be funny, except that in the fantasies of that definite majority of comemnters (not all, but many, and from there, I'd say of french rightwingers, this is a pretty representative website), the salvation will/would come from russia militarily invading Western Europe, to rid us from the USA-induced decadence ("if we go to war against russia, I'll desert and go to the other side", that kind of stuff). Perhaps they should hide their wimmen before calling in the Mighty Russian Warriors (as opposed to the cowardly Us soldiers who can't fight)...

So, yeah, pretty funny, in a sad way, to see people who are supposedly RIGHTwing and "nationalist" to find a crutch in having russia and putin-the-blond-eyed-man-who-chased-the-jewish-oligarchs as the saviors of Europe... But, then again, this make them bedfellows with G(r)om, you've got to love the irony.

Posted by anonymous5089 2008-10-25 12:26|| 2008-10-25 12:26|| Front Page Top

#3 What was really reviolting was forn the 60 anniversary of D-Day the French TV interviewing (old) people who told we, the French, should not forget about Red Army's role.

I rememember. The backstabbing of Poland in 1939 who enabled Germany to attack France with a battlehardened but not bloodied army (without the backstabbbing Poland could have helmd until autumn's rains would have made a nightmare of mud of Poland). I remember teh Soviet Union providing nazi war machine with everything it needed. I remember French communists sabotaging France's tanks and planes in addition of course to encouraging desertion (if you remember all that, it puts in a diiferent light De Gaulle's policy respective to communist resistance movements).

And I remember what it meant to be "liberated" by the Red Army.

Posted by JFM">JFM 2008-10-25 13:59|| 2008-10-25 13:59|| Front Page Top

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