Russian Myth

From the MT:

“Kremlin Says D-Day Wasn't Decisive in Ending World War II”

Russia told the West on Wednesday the Normandy landings on D-Day in 1944 did not play a decisive role in ending World War II and that the Allied war effort should not be exaggerated. Moscow's comments might irk war veterans in Britain where the 75th anniversary on Wednesday of the largest seaborne invasion in history was marked at a ceremony in Portsmouth attended by Queen Elizabeth and world leaders including Donald Trump and Angela Merkel. Speaking at a weekly news conference in Moscow, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova offered a tribute to those who died on the western front of World War II and said Moscow appreciated the Allied war effort. "It should of course not be exaggerated. And especially not at the same time as diminishing the Soviet Union's titanic efforts, without which this victory simply would not have happened," she said. The Soviet Union lost over 25 million lives in what it calls the Great Patriotic War, and Moscow under President Vladimir Putin has taken to marking victory in the war with a massive annual military parade on Red Square. "As historians note, the Normandy landing did not have a decisive impact on the outcome of World War II and the Great Patriotic War. It had already been pre-determined as a result of the Red Army's victories, mainly at Stalingrad (in late 1942) and Kursk (in mid-1943)," Zakharova told reporters. More than 150,000 allied troops launched an air, sea and land attack on Normandy on June 6, 1944 that ultimately led to the liberation of western Europe from Nazi Germany. Moscow, which had been fighting German forces in the east for almost three years by the time of D-Day, and gradually pushing them back from early 1943, had been urging Britain's Winston Churchill to open a second front as far back as August 1942. "There was a wish to wait for the maximum weakening of Germany's military power from its enormous losses in the east, while reducing losses in the west," she said.

^ Russians say that they could have won World War 2 by themselves – without the help of the UK, the US or any of the other Allies - despite the fact that they only fought this “World War” in Eastern Europe and not for the whole length of the war.  They even have a distinction between World War 2 (1939-1945) and when Russia (part of the USSR at the time) was fighting in the war: The Great Patriotic War (1941-1945.) 

The Soviet Union was officially an ally with Nazi Germany from September 1939 until June 1941. During that time the Soviets invaded and occupied eastern Poland and invaded and annexed: Moldova, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. The Soviets also sent natural resource shipments to the Germans with the last shipment being delivered the day before the Nazis invaded. Stalin saw Hitler as a close friend. Stalin was so shocked that his “friend” Hitler had personally betrayed him that he was unable to make an official appearance or speech to his country from June 22, 1941 (the day the Germans invaded the Soviet Union) until July 3, 1941 . It was Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov who had to address the Soviet people and tell them the Germans had invaded their country. 

With the Soviet Union now officially in World War 2 they focused solely on the Eastern Front. While the other Allies fought the World War around the world on multiple fronts. The Free French, Free Poles, Free Dutch, Free Belgians and Free Czechoslovaks fought in Western Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The Australians and New Zealanders fought in Western Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia. The South Africans fought in Western Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The Canadians fought in North America (ie. Japanese-occupied Alaska), Western Europe and Asia. The British fought in Western Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South America and Asia. The Americans fought in North America (ie. Japanese-occupied Alaska), South America, the Caribbean, Western Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia.

The USSR did not declare war on Japan until August 6, 1945 after the US dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima (technically Russian and Japan are still at war since they never signed a peace treaty due to the Kuril Islands which the Soviets took from the Japanese and Russia still has.) Even when the Soviets entered the Pacific Front they did so only for the few days it took for Japan to surrender (after the US dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 and they only took control of surrendering Japanese in northern Korea and Manchuria. 

There is no doubt that the Soviet Union would have won the Eastern Front of World War 2 by themselves (or that they lost the most civilian and military dead at 25 million) but there is no way they could have won all of World War 2 (fought in: North America, South America, the Caribbean, Western Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Australia and Asia) when they weren’t even there – except for the 4 days they were in Asia. 

In Russia (just as in the Soviet Union) there is the historical truth based on facts and then there is the Russian version based on the political aims of whomever is the leader at the time. Most of the time the historical fact is hidden away and the Russian political version is all the ordinary Russian citizen knows. I studied the Russian version of both Russian History and World History (in Russian) when I was in Yaroslavl, Russia and saw the huge differences myself.  The majority of Russians (especially those over 30 and who lived in Soviet and Modern times) have learned to “read between the lines” of the official government line and the truth.  ^

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/06/05/kremlin-says-d-day-wasnt-decisive-in-ending-world-war-ii-a65899