Rooski! Why your brain the size of cabbage seed? If Uncle Adolph no get late start no Rooski! He starve you more good Uncle Joe! Leningrad Leningone! That his plan Rooski. Why you have cabbage seed brain, Rooski?
It is almost inconceivable but nevertheless true that the men in the Kremlin...despite all the evidence and all the warnings [including from the US State Department and Churchill personally] that stared them in the face, did not realize right up to the last moment that they were to be hit, and with a force which would almost destroy their nation.
At 9:30 on the pleasant summer evening of June 21, 1941, nine hours before the German attack was scheduled to begin, Molotov received the German ambassador at his office...:
"There were a number of indications that the German Government was dissatisfied with the Soviet Government." [Molotov according to Schulenburg's cable to Berlin after meeting.]
"Rumors were even current that a war was impending. The Soviet Government was unable to understand the reasons for Germany's dissatisfaction...He would appreciate it if I could tell him..."
...
The Red Army, despite all the warnings and the warning signs, was, as General Halder noted in his diary the first day, "tactically surprised along the entire [1,500 mile!] front."*
...
*There is a curious notation in Halder's diary that first day...at noon the Russian radio stations...had come back on the air...: "They have asked Japan to mediate the political and economic differences between Russia and Germany..." Did Stalin believe--nine hours after the attack--that he somehow might get it called off?
#...As dawn broke German signal stations picked up the Red Army radio networks. "We are being fired on. What shall we do?"...Back came the answer from headquarters: "You must be insane. And why is your signal not in code?"
-The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William Shirer, pp 846-7, 852.
It is almost inconceivable but nevertheless true that the men in the Kremlin...despite all the evidence and all the warnings [including from the US State Department and Churchill personally] that stared them in the face, did not realize right up to the last moment that they were to be hit, and with a force which would almost destroy their nation.
At 9:30 on the pleasant summer evening of June 21, 1941, nine hours before the German attack was scheduled to begin, Molotov received the German ambassador at his office...:
"There were a number of indications that the German Government was dissatisfied with the Soviet Government." [Molotov according to Schulenburg's cable to Berlin after meeting.]"Rumors were even current that a war was impending. The Soviet Government was unable to understand the reasons for Germany's dissatisfaction...He would appreciate it if I could tell him..."
...
The Red Army, despite all the warnings and the warning signs, was, as General Halder noted in his diary the first day, "tactically surprised along the entire [1,500 mile!] front."*
...
#...As dawn broke German signal stations picked up the Red Army radio networks. "We are being fired on. What shall we do?"...Back came the answer from headquarters: "You must be insane. And why is your signal not in code?"
-The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William Shirer, pp 846-7, 852.
