08-01-2002, 12:18 PM
Chris,
I think I'll have to vote for Zhukov, as I believe he was the saviour of the former USSR. I don't really know anything about the other guys, which makes me sound really dumb, I know, but I'm afraid I know very little of Russian history, as I'm still in the early stages of learning about it.
I'd have to put Stalin at the bottom on the list, as, strategically, I think he's got to have been fairly dumb. He executed may of his senior officers in the time prior to WW2, and didn't even have sufficient troops near the border to hold an attack, should it come.
I think the war turned at Stalingrad mainly by luck and bad planning by the Germans. Hitler was supposed to have studied the great leaders of history, yet made exactly the same mistake as Napoleon, a prolonged campaign into the Russian winter. He compounded this mistake by opening another front, when he had not yet invaded England. Had he not attacked Russia, he probably would have taken all of Europe and Africa, and America would probably never have entered the war.
However, Stalin did redeem himself by his scorched earth policy, which was strategically good, but very devastating to his own people. Moving everything east, rebuilding, and then bringing technically better weaponry back to push the Germans back out of Russia was quite good thinking. How much of this was his idea and how much his generals, I have no idea. So maybe I wouldn't rate him quite bottom of the list after all.
Kind Regards,
Shane Cook.
I think I'll have to vote for Zhukov, as I believe he was the saviour of the former USSR. I don't really know anything about the other guys, which makes me sound really dumb, I know, but I'm afraid I know very little of Russian history, as I'm still in the early stages of learning about it.
I'd have to put Stalin at the bottom on the list, as, strategically, I think he's got to have been fairly dumb. He executed may of his senior officers in the time prior to WW2, and didn't even have sufficient troops near the border to hold an attack, should it come.
I think the war turned at Stalingrad mainly by luck and bad planning by the Germans. Hitler was supposed to have studied the great leaders of history, yet made exactly the same mistake as Napoleon, a prolonged campaign into the Russian winter. He compounded this mistake by opening another front, when he had not yet invaded England. Had he not attacked Russia, he probably would have taken all of Europe and Africa, and America would probably never have entered the war.
However, Stalin did redeem himself by his scorched earth policy, which was strategically good, but very devastating to his own people. Moving everything east, rebuilding, and then bringing technically better weaponry back to push the Germans back out of Russia was quite good thinking. How much of this was his idea and how much his generals, I have no idea. So maybe I wouldn't rate him quite bottom of the list after all.
Kind Regards,
Shane Cook.
