World War II Was Stalin’s War

June 19, 2021 | Categories: Articles & Columns | Tags: |  Print This Article

World War II Was Stalin’s War

Paul Craig Roberts

In my articles ( https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/?s=World+War+II ) based on David Irving’s and Viktor Suvorov’s WWII histories and Ron Unz’s article, “Understanding World War II” ( https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-understanding-world-war-ii/ ), I pointed out that historians have falsified the history of WWII. Others have taken up the theme, not always honestly acknowledging their indebtedness to Irving and Suvorov. In his review of Sean McMeekin’s new book, Stalin’s War: A New history of World War II, Laurent Guyenot notes that McMeekin manages to impugn Suvorov while taking the same position. https://www.unz.com/article/barbarossa-suvorovs-revisionism-goes-mainstream/

Guyenot explains why McMeekin fears to praise the historian he vindicates:
“Suvorov has committed an unforgivable sin. It is an untouchable cornerstone of both Western and Russian historiography that Hitler is the embodiment of absolute Evil, and that no good whatsoever could ever have come from him. And so academic historians of the Eastern Front are expected to display their good manners by shunning Suvorov, and by not asking: What if Hitler had not attacked first? They must not suggest that Hitler ever told the truth, or that his military commanders were wrongfully hanged.”

Suvorov, a former KGB official, had access to Soviet war archives. Using them he proved that Stalin had assembled an enormous army—far larger than the German Wehrmacht—on Germany’s border and was preparing to invade in July or August of 1941. Hitler became aware of this and preempted the Soviet attack in June.

The German declaration of war given to the Soviet ambassador reads:
“Now that the Russian general mobilization is complete, no less than 160 divisions are deployed against Germany. The results of reconnaissance carried out in recent days have shown that the deployment of Russian troops, and especially of motorized and armored units, has been carried out in such a way that the Russian High Command is ready at any moment to take aggressive action at various points against the German frontier.”

Hitler explained that although he became aware of Soviet intentions, he had no idea of the size and scale of the Soviet military forces that were assembling on Germany’s border:

“We had no idea how gigantic the preparations of this enemy were against Germany and Europe and how immeasurably great was the danger; how we just barely escaped annihilation, not only of Germany but also of Europe. … Lord have mercy on our Volk and on the entire European world if this barbaric enemy had been able to get his tens of thousands of tanks to move before we could. All of Europe would have been lost.”

“Today, we have truly crushing and authentic material to prove that Russia intended to attack. … [H]ad this wave of more than twenty thousand [Soviet] tanks, hundreds of divisions, tens of thousands of guns, accompanied by more than ten thousand planes, unexpectedly started to move across the Reich, then Europe would have been lost.”

As Suvorov and now Sean McMeekin make clear, if Germany had not attacked first before the Soviets completed their preparations, all of Europe would have been lost to Soviet communism.

The truth hurts: Hitler saved Europe from Soviet conquest. No allied invasion would have been possible to liberate Europe from the Red Army.