Comments on: Thoughts on the end of the Cold War http://rafeonline.com/2009/06/thoughts-on-the-end-of-the-cold-war/ The Village of Lions Bay's Most Prominent Political Commentator Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:31:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Arthur Topham http://rafeonline.com/2009/06/thoughts-on-the-end-of-the-cold-war/comment-page-1/#comment-131 Arthur Topham Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:08:36 +0000 http://rafeonline.com/?p=157#comment-131 I'm afraid that both you Raif and the commenter above are way out of line in your figures and in the assorted motives and explanations for Soviet Russia and its policies prior to, during and after WW2. Estimates of deaths resulting from the Boshevik's practises of forced labour in the Gulag plus the forced genocide of the Ukrainians, apart from war casualties places the figure of death around the 66 million mark. Unfortunately you both appear to be relying for your information on Communist/Zionist sources. I’m afraid that both you Raif and the commenter above are way out of line in your figures and in the assorted motives and explanations for Soviet Russia and its policies prior to, during and after WW2.

Estimates of deaths resulting from the Boshevik’s practises of forced labour in the Gulag plus the forced genocide of the Ukrainians, apart from war casualties places the figure of death around the 66 million mark. Unfortunately you both appear to be relying for your information on Communist/Zionist sources.

]]> By: Igor Lavrovski http://rafeonline.com/2009/06/thoughts-on-the-end-of-the-cold-war/comment-page-1/#comment-120 Igor Lavrovski Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:20:10 +0000 http://rafeonline.com/?p=157#comment-120 Dear Mr. Mair, As historical evidence suggests, J. Stalin had precise information about time of German invasion from several Soviet intelligence sources. Two weeks is not a long time to recover from the immense shock of initial German strike. As we know, two weeks were enough to crash France. The figure of 26 million war victims was revised several times according to political situation. As of today, the war losses of the Red Army are estimated as 8,860,400 people. Civil casualties are very difficult to account for, but we know that the highest documented losses were in Leningrad under siege for more than two years - 650,000 people. About half of Jews perished during Holocaust were from the former Soviet Union. Adding these reliable figures up plus an estimate of other direct war losses at 2-3 million people we come at a number of 15-16 million people. It's a huge and tragic number, but during Khruschev and Brezhnev time it was enlarged for political reasons by inclusion of people who died during war time from other causes or did emigrated to the West after being in German captivity, first, to prove "inability" of Stalin to fight Hitler, and then, to distract attention from growing inadequacy of Soviet regime. Similar math was done by A. Solzhenitsyn, who calculated tens of millions victims of Stalin's rule. However, historical evidence shows that the total number of political prisoners during two decades of Stalin in power was about 500,000 people and about 50,000 were sentenced to death. If you need sources, I can refer you to some recent academic studies in Russia. It's a big number but it's not "millions-upon-millions'. Once, Solzhenitsyn wrote: let's not live upon lies. I only can agree. Let's keep to facts, not political propaganda. Sincerely, Igor Lavrovski Dear Mr. Mair,

As historical evidence suggests, J. Stalin had precise information about time of German invasion from several Soviet intelligence sources. Two weeks is not a long time to recover from the immense shock of initial German strike. As we know, two weeks were enough to crash France.

The figure of 26 million war victims was revised several times according to political situation. As of today, the war losses of the Red Army are estimated as 8,860,400 people. Civil casualties are very difficult to account for, but we know that the highest documented losses were in Leningrad under siege for more than two years – 650,000 people. About half of Jews perished during Holocaust were from the former Soviet Union. Adding these reliable figures up plus an estimate of other direct war losses at 2-3 million people we come at a number of 15-16 million people. It’s a huge and tragic number, but during Khruschev and Brezhnev time it was enlarged for political reasons by inclusion of people who died during war time from other causes or did emigrated to the West after being in German captivity, first, to prove “inability” of Stalin to fight Hitler, and then, to distract attention from growing inadequacy of Soviet regime.

Similar math was done by A. Solzhenitsyn, who calculated tens of millions victims of Stalin’s rule. However, historical evidence shows that the total number of political prisoners during two decades of Stalin in power was about 500,000 people and about 50,000 were sentenced to death. If you need sources, I can refer you to some recent academic studies in Russia. It’s a big number but it’s not “millions-upon-millions’.

Once, Solzhenitsyn wrote: let’s not live upon lies. I only can agree. Let’s keep to facts, not political propaganda.

Sincerely,
Igor Lavrovski

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