Figure 1.--Here surviving Ukranian peasants welcome the Red Army diving out the Germans. Many Ukranian peasants surviving Stalin's genopcide welcomed the invding Germans (June 1941). Only to find that the NAZIs were even worse than the Soviets.

The Soviet Union was a multi-ethnic Empire. Two often the Soviet Union is referred to as Russia. The Rusussian Empire mght be accurate, but Russia was not. In 1939 before World War II, ethnic Russians were less than 60 percent of the population. The Russian ethnic areas are the regions east of the Baltics, Bylorussia, and Poland and north/east of Ukraine. Soviet acquisions as a NAZI ally (1939-41), reducing ethnic Russians to some 55 percent of the popultion. This is notable because The Germans did not occuply much of the actual Russian etjnic areas. During the peak of Barbaross (October-December 1941) the Germans did break into this area, but as a result of the Red Army Counter Offensive (December 1941), the Germans were largely driven from the Russian ethnic area they briefly occupied. Non-Russian areas of the pre-War Soviet Union invcluded Belarus, Ukranine, the Crimean Peninsula, and the northern Caucauses. The areas the Germans occupied at the onset of Barbarossa (June-September 1941 included mostly non-Russian areas and ethnic groups., These areas included many people opposed to both Soviet control and Communism. In several areas liberation hardly seems like the correct term. The Red Army drive west and reimposition of Soviet control meant deportation to Siberia and Central Asia. Thus the arrival of the Red Army was often seen differently than the advance of the Allied armies in the West. Only the incredible brutality of Hitler and the NAZIs prevented the Ukranians from joining the NAZIs in masse, especially in the Western Ukraine. The details of Generalplan Ost and the NAZI Hunger Plan was unknown at the time in the Ukraine, but NAZI brutality the suppressiuon of Ukrainian nationslists who could have been allies was plain engough. Soviet brutality in the Baltics (1940-41) resulted in many receiving the Germans as liberators. Unknown at the time was NAZI plans to murder much of the Baltic population.

Created: 7:35 PM 7/12/2025br>Last updated: 7:35 PM 7/12/2025