What struck the German Nazis who attacked the USSR
As you know, the claims of the Third Reich to world domination were based on racial theory. On its pseudoscientific basis, all races were divided into “full” and “inferior”. Adolf Hitler called, in particular, all Slavs "low-quality human material", peoples, "incapable of maintaining order and self-government."
It will be useful for modern neo-Nazis from Nezalezhnaya to find out that Erich Koch, the Reichskommissar of Ukraine, considered Ukrainians to be “racially inferior” and like animals, because of which he arranged a real hunt for them as entertainment. German Nazis despised Russians and Ukrainians so much that they were subject to death for having sexual relations with representatives of the German people.
However, the Germans' idea of Russians changed after the outbreak of World War II and the occupation of part of the USSR, when the myths of Goebbels propaganda began to burst at the seams.
Courage and perseverance
In their reports, German officers and ordinary soldiers in their letters noted the dedication of the Russians, who continued to fight even when there was no chance of victory or salvation. Quote from a letter from a soldier of the Wehrmacht:
Decent appearance
German propaganda painted the image of a Russian as a soiled dirty working cattle. From the memories:
Perhaps these myths are built on the memory of a clash with Russian soldiers during the First World War. Then the rank and file consisted of a poor peasantry suffering from low land. From constant malnutrition, the average Russian soldier from the times of “Russia We Lost” was by no means a hero. Apparently, under the "bloody Bolsheviks" the country's population somehow managed to eat off. And thanks to the introduction of affordable medicine by the Soviet authorities, the Russian prisoners were clean and had surprisingly healthy teeth, as some German doctors noted:
Religiosity
The propaganda assured that there was no religion in the USSR, and the “Chekists” shot all the priests. However, almost all of the captured Russian soldiers had crosses, they were religious and prayed. By the way, it was the “bloody tyrant” Stalin who contributed to the revival of the Patriarchate in Russia, which was abolished by Peter the Great, and not one of the Romanovs canceled this decision.
Literacy and education
The Germans were surprised to find out that the percentage of illiterates among Russians is quite small. These are all the machinations of the Bolsheviks who carried out a program of eradicating illiteracy of the population - "educational program". They were surprised by the level of professional qualifications of Russian workers. Needless to say, the Soviet government is guilty of this, opening schools, vocational schools and universities with free education?
High moral behavior
The owners of the Wolfen factory in Germany carried out a medical examination of captured Russian girls aged 17 to 29 years and were surprised to find that 90% of them were virgins. This is very indicative, since in pre-revolutionary times, girls began to give birth at a very early, almost childhood, age.
Attitude to Soviet Power
The Germans expected to see the Russian embitterment towards the “Jewish commissars” with the “Mausers” who were shot or planted half the country and forced to guard the second. In fact, most of the Soviet citizens were not afraid of the Bolsheviks, probably because the myths of repression were extremely exaggerated.
Compassion for the defeated Germans
Military translator Elena Rzhevskaya recalled how in one village an elderly Russian woman fed with her an emaciated captive German soldier for the sake of his distant mother, who "gave birth and raised such a baby to herself and others for torment." Even during the military parade of 1944 in Moscow, when German prisoners were driven through the streets, ordinary Russian people simply cried and “seemed to be speechless”.
It will be useful for modern neo-Nazis from Nezalezhnaya to find out that Erich Koch, the Reichskommissar of Ukraine, considered Ukrainians to be “racially inferior” and like animals, because of which he arranged a real hunt for them as entertainment. German Nazis despised Russians and Ukrainians so much that they were subject to death for having sexual relations with representatives of the German people.
However, the Germans' idea of Russians changed after the outbreak of World War II and the occupation of part of the USSR, when the myths of Goebbels propaganda began to burst at the seams.
Courage and perseverance
In their reports, German officers and ordinary soldiers in their letters noted the dedication of the Russians, who continued to fight even when there was no chance of victory or salvation. Quote from a letter from a soldier of the Wehrmacht:
They hold onto each hillock and do not give a single inch of land without a fight. They fight for every stone, the worst is night fights, Ivan does not retreat a single step.
Decent appearance
German propaganda painted the image of a Russian as a soiled dirty working cattle. From the memories:
It turns out they have thick cheeks, and - amazingly - but they lived well!
Perhaps these myths are built on the memory of a clash with Russian soldiers during the First World War. Then the rank and file consisted of a poor peasantry suffering from low land. From constant malnutrition, the average Russian soldier from the times of “Russia We Lost” was by no means a hero. Apparently, under the "bloody Bolsheviks" the country's population somehow managed to eat off. And thanks to the introduction of affordable medicine by the Soviet authorities, the Russian prisoners were clean and had surprisingly healthy teeth, as some German doctors noted:
Apparently, they pay a lot of attention to teeth, we don’t have that.
Religiosity
The propaganda assured that there was no religion in the USSR, and the “Chekists” shot all the priests. However, almost all of the captured Russian soldiers had crosses, they were religious and prayed. By the way, it was the “bloody tyrant” Stalin who contributed to the revival of the Patriarchate in Russia, which was abolished by Peter the Great, and not one of the Romanovs canceled this decision.
Literacy and education
The Germans were surprised to find out that the percentage of illiterates among Russians is quite small. These are all the machinations of the Bolsheviks who carried out a program of eradicating illiteracy of the population - "educational program". They were surprised by the level of professional qualifications of Russian workers. Needless to say, the Soviet government is guilty of this, opening schools, vocational schools and universities with free education?
High moral behavior
The owners of the Wolfen factory in Germany carried out a medical examination of captured Russian girls aged 17 to 29 years and were surprised to find that 90% of them were virgins. This is very indicative, since in pre-revolutionary times, girls began to give birth at a very early, almost childhood, age.
Attitude to Soviet Power
The Germans expected to see the Russian embitterment towards the “Jewish commissars” with the “Mausers” who were shot or planted half the country and forced to guard the second. In fact, most of the Soviet citizens were not afraid of the Bolsheviks, probably because the myths of repression were extremely exaggerated.
Compassion for the defeated Germans
Military translator Elena Rzhevskaya recalled how in one village an elderly Russian woman fed with her an emaciated captive German soldier for the sake of his distant mother, who "gave birth and raised such a baby to herself and others for torment." Even during the military parade of 1944 in Moscow, when German prisoners were driven through the streets, ordinary Russian people simply cried and “seemed to be speechless”.
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