post-WW2 Soviet army.

I have always heard that after the end of WW2 the Red army was the most powerful army and so forth, that it could go even further into Europe. The Red army was victorious and glorified and it was feared by other European forces.

But what i am wondering here is how could it have remained so powerful after WW2. You read about hundreds of thousands of Red army soldiers falling into the advancing Wehrmacht and being surrounded in many sections of the front. Then of course the fierce battles where you get statistics like for every German soldier three to seven Russians fell. The USSR of course had a large population, but when you look at it, it was only about twice the size of Germany (ca 80 million vs 150-160 million), or even if it was slightly bigger, the battles (atleast between 1941.-1942/1943) were with huge Russian losses and twuce the population of the invading army would not be that sufficient to make up the losses.

Could anyone explain silly little me how it could maintain such a powerful status after WW2 as it is looked back on today.

After the war, the Russian army was chock full of experienced soldiers and officers. The military industry that defeated Hitler didn't go anywhere, it remained and grew in some respects. It was the second greatest in the world. This, in addition to the fact that every other rival, save the United States, was damn near annihilated, combined to make the Soviets the second most powerful nation in the world.

Ok, russians using numbers in WW2 is somewhat misconception, proposed by West, here, look,

Axis soldiers lost in the war: 9 millions.

Soviet soldiers lost in the war, in actual combats: 13 million, other 13 million were population, civilians, who were tortured to death in camps.

The astatistics you get are western, sometimes biased, my dad was born in 1946, he saw these armies, he said that if Soviets would go, NOTHING in hell would stop them, US and Britain together would not stop the advance, that's from a person who actually saw all these armies, my granddad fought, he also was saying same thing. And finally germans were saying that there was no army to compare to USSR Red Army. Tanks were best, artilery was best, anti aircraft guns were best, only the aircrafts maybe were not as good as western, but definitely would take by the number.

Some americans entertain the idea of possibility for US going in to war then with USSR, however, they just don't have a CLUE of what they are talking about, usual solders would be scared to go in to war with soviets

And guess what, USSR had 13 million more soldiers in active servise RIGHT AFTER THE WAR, and it was reduced to 7.

UK now actually tries to defend Soviet contribution in to war, saying that we shouldn't forget private Ivan, who defeated the germans, and it is striking how ignorant people in US are about the war.

Soviet Union had more tanks, trucks, people, artillery than Allies and tanks or artillery more than the rest of the world.



It is a big myth that USSR lost much more than germans in battles, it was relative to the time, in the end, soviets were killing more germans per one soviet army soldier.

ok, in the beginning of the war, gemramns killed more russians per german soldier, in the end, it was opposite.

Red army was worked out together, by the end of the war, they all knew what to do perfectly, the command was competent.

And dear Mosquito, west couldn't do ANYTHING to Red Army, if Stalin wanted, ther ewould be NO europe WHATSOEVER, red arly would simply destroy it. Cowardness of the west was rightfull, ther ewas something to be affraid of, US and Britain conventional forces would be WIPED OUT by Red Army in less than a month or two.


LOL, USSR was THE most powerful nation in the world, my friend, THE most powerful, production capabilities were such that one historian said:

"USSR would SINK America with tanks" US production didn't lie near Soviet.

Should US go to war with USSR, it would undoubtly lose on the continent.

You say: US had nukes, but how much? Trueman was yalling, LET"S BOMB THEM, WE HAVE NUKES, but when it was explained to him that should we bomb USSR, and we clearly do not have enough bombs to do serious damage, and do not have perfect way to deliver them (remember, it was aicraft then, which can be intercepted before it reaches target, and not intercepted just by air, but also from ground, which would be completely in soviet control), it was explained to him by Chief of Staff that it is really not the time to f*** around with USSR, and he calmed down.

You are right also saying that there was a lot of experienced soldiers, army was really professional, really worked together, and could destroy any enemy that would dare face them with overwhelming numbers and tremendous firepower.

You wanna know more, read OPERATION UNTHINKABLE. You will understand why US and UK were so afraid of USSR, do research on these tw words.
    
    

Edited by Russian - 04-Jun-2006 at 19:36

"USSR would SINK America with tanks" US production didn't lie near Soviet.

Tanks cant swim


Edited by mamikon - 04-Jun-2006 at 19:38

who fell, and who is still standing? :)

Bit off topic, but still an interesting read

No, I am not; I sometimes visit the http://www.soviet-empire.com It is where I found the link

Originally posted by Kalevipoeg In one sense the West always had the advantage over the USSR, just after WW2 and all the way up to 1991. - The conquered nations were never faithful to the reds and were never going to be. You can't imagine the hate people felt after the reds had invaded in 1944. and 1945. Atleast in the Baltics - and i don't think other conquered nations felt any different - people were so anti-Russian mentally. Estonians have probably never hated another nation more than they did the Russians after WW2 all the way up to Kruschev i'd propose. Here the war lasted on after 1945. up to 1953 atleast, in Lithuania the war lasted even in the 60's IIRC. After the war, when the guerilla movement was intense, the Soviets had no control over some certain areas and lost entire villages and parishes to the guerillas for periods of time. Had the West come somewhere between 1945-1949 let's say, there would have been atleast a hundred thousand man guerilla force (not united of course) in the Baltics alone armed and ready to rise and avenge. So what i mean is as the reds found no social support in conquered Europe, it would not have been that impossible to kick them out. It is another matter when reaching pre-war Russian soil, but in Eastern-Europe Russia had no support from anyone other than Russians themselves basically. When you can't even trust your rear, you can't guard your front.

I might agree on Baltics, but other countries were more thankful actually, they werereally thankfull that russians freed them from Nazis.

They would need any support, htey could just kill anyone, and completely devastate the whole cities and kill the population.

Why people in Baltics were so angry, maybe they wqanted to stay under Hitler's rule? Well, I guess USSR did a mistake, a mistake Russia regrets now, mistake of 1944, when SU invaded Germany, I can promise you that had Stalin know how people would say now about SS in Tallin, that SS officers were almost heroes, Stalin would either killed all populations of these countries, or never would invade Germany, he would rather show Germany that they shouldn't invade USSR anymore, and then maybe even help it a bit to wreck havoc on land otehr than USSR, maybe then some countries now would be more thankful about soldiers who died setting them free from german opression.
    

"I might agree on Baltics, but other countries were more thankful actually, they werereally thankfull that russians freed them from Nazis."

I would presume practically all European countries would have resisted Soviet power if the West had attacked. Nobody loved the Reds, atleast if you were a nationalist on some basic level.

"Why people in Baltics were so angry, maybe they wqanted to stay under Hitler's rule?"

This is the basic thing nobody ever knows and ever has in this forum. And Russians understand the least what it means to be a small nation with no allies. We had no loyalty to the Germans nor the Soviets, only the West.

"I can promise you that had Stalin know how people would say now about SS in Tallin, that SS officers were almost heroes, Stalin would either killed all populations of these countries"

SS was a very varied organization, and the Estonians who were on the front under Waffen-SS were no criminals. There were of course the nazi collaborators who worked with the Einzatsgruppe and guarded camps at, but those people never have and never will be honored by the Estonian people. Kill all of the population...? well, whatever man.

"maybe then some countries now would be more thankful about soldiers who died setting them free from german opression."

What liberation? Estonia had declared independence on sept. 20 1944, you invaded a democratic Estonian Republic. Maybe we would have thanked you if you had liberated our lands from the Germans and then went back home, but after you washed us in blood, you were no better than the nazis.

And, since you're from one of the former USSR ... assets... you should know better. The "red army" was probably the  world's largest/greatest  force at the end of WWII. After that, well, it's becoming a whole new matter.."

I thought it was equivalent, or quite equivalent, but if not, my bad, i don't have a good long term memory.

Yes, the biggest and the greatest, but as Russian said, they lost 13 million soldiers, thats massive, and Russia got the most damage in WW2 so i was really wondering how it got to its superior power so quick after such a catastrophy.

I'm a new member of the forum but bored to read some repeated posts about some countries,some armies,rocket systems,tanks,warplanes.
I invite you to be objectivity,pls put off your blinkers.Stop your propaganda or what else...Share your knowledge to us,pls...
I've read,watched and searched about WWII.Every war has one or several points what effect final.Also this war has a lot.
Some of these what i remember at the moment:
Mussolini attacked Greece and had perished,Germans saved them and lost their very important time to operation Barbarossa.Later ,German army couldn't reach to Moscow because General winter,believe or not.
Hitler waited for Japanese attack to Russia but they decided to invade Pacific area for logistic reasons.Russian spies reported to Stalin,Japanese never think to attack Russia.Stalin moved most of armies from east front to Moscow by Transsiberian railway and this forces were the most important balance breaker of big russian assault from Moscow front.
German Enigma code broke by UK and they transferred important german
telecomunications to Russia.Russia has the knowledge what time German army attack to save Stalingrad siege and how they try it.Also in Kursk war again Russian have what they need...
USA ,broke Japanese navy and army codes.therefore they won easily in
Midway,killed admiral Yamamoto etc.
Hitler's wrong strategies also be effective in Russian front,he had obsesions about to take big named cities as Stalingrad,Leningrad...
And you can add more like these...
I wrote about mostly German side because some people wrote for one side.I'm no german,neo nazi or similar.
Pls stop to explain tales,myths about your armies,share the knowledges only.To match two tanks musn't be that this tank has antitank rockets,this is the best one!This rocket system has a range 70 km,therefore this is the best one?





Edited by Giordano - 07-Jun-2006 at 07:33