jpinard
20059
They’ve done it before (WW2).
jpinard
20060
Would like to point out Putin has claimed to a recent conscription number of at least 300,000 men. Who knows how real that is. I think that number is higher than other reports I’ve seen here and abroad.
Russia has officially sent a reinforcement of 50,000 mobilized men to Ukraine in recent weeks with at least another 250,000 soldiers still in training, Putin said Monday during a government meeting.
abrandt
20061
I think this is certainly one of the big self-inflicted reasons dictators frequently end up in a paranoia spiral.
Enidigm
20062
The history of Russia is basically the history of Ivan the Terrible.
Come to power, promise the world, turn a minor personal tragedy into a disaster for the world, kill all the old people in power and put your own people in, blame your own people for implementing the policies you directed them to do (and then kill them), invade a neighboring country, get bogged down, go mad, kill your son (and heir), feel really regretful and ask/pay/compel the Orthodox Church to agree your son was a great guy, get secretly poisoned, kick off 30 years of civil wars.
abrandt
20063
Lots of reasons it worked during WW2 that don’t apply here.
I will keep banging the drum that WW1 is the better comparison and just throwing more soldiers at it didn’t work for Russia there. I know it didn’t work for anyone in WW1 but the eastern front was a much more fluid/mobile war so pretty different.
Putin claimed they were raising 300k and so of course he says 300k. Most analysts seem to think they fell well short of that but certainly 6 figures.
Yes, they did. They also failed miserably in WWI, and didn’t do all that great during Napoleon’s time.
If we are looking for a parallel WWI seems the aptest. Even after reading a few books, and watching most of the popular WWI movie, the exact reason most of the combatants were fighting WWI are pretty obscure. I’m sure they were equally obscure to the illiterate conscript that made up the bulk of Russian WWI. The Russian Army’s offensive capability was never good, and by around 2016 they were almost useless for an offensive. By 2017, large portions of the Russian army mutiny. The siezed the arms, and many cases killed the officers. It even happen to a Russian unit sent to France in exchange for ammo and arms.
In contrast, the reason to fight hard in WWII were very clear. First, it was their country, second the Nazis were bastards, and finally, the Commissar of NKVD had a policy of shooting deserters.
For the Russian army, the Ukrainian war seems a hell of a lot like WWI. What the hell are we fighting for? I’d say it is far more likely that we’ll start seeing more deseration, and even some outright mutiny fragging of officers this winter, than any courageous Leningrad like stands.
jpinard
20067
I’d love to see a repeat of the result of WWI as well. Overthrow the government and execute the leader. However installing an even worse form of government seems to always happen in these circumstances.
vyshka
20068
After the Ukraine kind of asked for it post, I just did the mute/ignore thing.
Janster
20069
There is always two sides to any story, to ignore the other is to have only half the picture of whats going on. I try to find out what’s on the other side, as I’m of the more curious type. I guess some people like the post above is okay with lalalal on anything that doesn’t fit his narrative.
People critique my sources, which is fine, but dismissing other sources just because it doesn’t fit…well.
Also, I would not compare Russia today with Napoleon or WW1 Russia, they ain’t the same at all. They have roads now, and infrastructure they never had back in those days.
Also, unlike those days, each family has 2 kids now, not 8…this will affect how people feel about losing their sons. Luckily they got vodka to drown their sorrows, and boy do they.
Most attacks we see now, are probing attacks, but there are already so many men on the front, even smaller attacks will cause tons of casualties, so I’m curious to see if they can keep taking 1000 men lost a day.
The other side of that coin is, that Ukraine is probably suffering a lot too, how much, no clue, can’t find out anywhere.
Menzo
20070
Hey @Janster, if you want us to engage with you, you’re going to have to cool it with the whole “I guess I’m just smarter than all of you because I do my own research” nonsense.
Those kinds of insults suggest you aren’t here in good faith.
sharaleo
20071
1000 dead Russians a day doesn’t really strike me as a your everyday, run-of-the-mill probing attacks…
We don’t critique your sources because they don’t fit. We critique them because they are bad.
On the one hand you dismiss Ukraine propaganda, which we recognise, but you seem to be integrating Russian propaganda just fine.
Same thought. I hope they brought a lot of binoculars.
Canuck
20075
I don’t get it. What’s the connection?
Thrag
20076
That’s one of the Russian battleships that was lost in the Battle of Tsushima.
Most definitely worth a watch
Because this is qt3, I’m going to nitpick the WWI history (assuming you meant 1916 here): the “almost” in that sentence is doing a lot of lifting given that the Brusilov Offensive (Russia’s most successful bit of the whole war) was in 1916.
