Mighty Russia with a numerical advantage, better weapons and greater economic power could not not only win, but even gain at least something in the 7 weeks of the invasion of Ukraine.

But in the 1940s, in just 5 weeks, Germany was able to occupy most of Western Europe, defeat France, and force the heavily armed British army to flee.. It seemed that the German army was the strongest in Europe. At the same time, a new way to fight appeared - the so-called " It was believed that Germany had a technological and numerical advantage. But it was a myth.

The German army improvised desperately because of a justified sense of inferiority: the military was aware that Britain and France would win a long-term war. The Germans resorted to methods familiar to them since 1918. But why then did they win, and the Russian army fails? Robert Tombs, professor of history at the University of Cambridge, writes about this on the pages of The Telegraph..

During World War II, every country in Europe was divided. Everywhere there were political factions opposed to the war.. They were driven by fear and sometimes passive admiration for fascism as a more acceptable alternative to communism.. With the advent of Germany, anti-war groups, sometimes uniting left and right, dreamed of seizing power and becoming " Today, like a disturbing echo of the 1930s, very similar voices of right and left radicals blame the West for starting the war and even mention the British Empire to allegedly prove that the Western world is no better than Vladimir Putin.. Now, as then, their goal is to demoralize and split public opinion for their own selfish motives.. So far, such voices have not been successful.. And compared to the disastrous 1930s, modern democracies are consolidated and determined.

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But perception is very important. The Nazi regime, through propaganda, NSDAP congresses, brutal intervention in the Spanish Civil War, as well as through the infamous Olympics in Berlin, was able to create an image of an irresistible dynamic and modern force.. And this style was superior to real German ability. He was both scary and impressive, even attractive to many.. Progressive politicians opposed rearmament and accused the West of fascist aggression. Many of them denounced liberal democracy as fallen and weak.. Some spoke of the high virtue of dictators. Once an influential representative of the Labor Party called Adolf Hitler a " Realists were willing to submit to what they considered inevitable. This means that they promoted the policy of “appeasing”, throwing Czechoslovakia under the train, the role of which Ukraine plays today. And then in 1939 nothing was done to help Poland. Many politicians in the West had white flags in their hands long before the battles began..

The big difference between the Second World War and the events now, according to the historian, is the patriotic determination of the people of Ukraine. Tombs admits: like many other observers, he expected Ukrainians to falter in the face of Russian power. And, finally, a certain government of collaborators will appear, which will carry out the will of Putin's dictatorship. But in reality, even cynical Russians could not create a puppet regime.

“Where do Ukrainians get such courage? Will we be able to compare with her today? How much still depends on a few individuals, which was the case in the 1940s? If Volodymyr Zelensky had not discovered the spirit of Churchill in himself, or if he had been killed, the resistance would have been just as effective.? Britain in 1940 could have easily surrendered. Appeasers tried to eliminate Churchill and asked Mussolini to help make a deal with Hitler,” the historian writes..

French soldiers fought until Marshal Philippe Petain announced a truce on the radio. If the Ukrainian government had even hinted at surrender, the Ukrainians would have continued to resist? Leadership Matters. Putin's Russia is not scary and not attractive, like Hitler's Germany. Few consider her the power of the future. Although the West is alarmed by its imperfection, it is not at all so divided or intimidated.. Unlike Neville Chamberlain in Munich, where British threats forced the Czechs to give up self-defence, Boris Johnson did the right thing when he listened to his defense secretary Ben Wallace and began to transfer weapons to Ukraine. This weapon helped destroy Russian armored vehicles and protect Gostomel. This started the failure of Putin's " If this had not happened, the Russians would have been able to capture Kyiv, like the Nazis once Paris?

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The Russian army did not regain the initiative. She's stuck in the First World War. Should this surprise anyone Russian power has been exaggerated for more than 100 years, especially after the success of its army in the battle with the Wehrmacht.. In general, this is Moscow's only military victory in modern times.. But it still influences the way the world views Russia, providing her with the laurels on which her nationalism and militarism are based.. Communists in the West spoke with rapture about the exploits of the Red Army. The belief that the Russians defeated Hitler has become generally accepted. But recent research suggests that the Eastern Front played a minor role in the German war effort.. He was not given significant resources. The Air Force did not cover the ground offensive, as in the battles against Britain and America after the landings in Normandy. The Red Army defeated a mortally weakened enemy using a large number of intimidated soldiers as cannon fodder..

Their victory was dishonored by the mass rape of German women, violence against civilians and looting. Somehow they were able to justify this with malice and retribution for all the crimes of the Nazis in Eastern Europe. But what about modern Ukraine, where Russian soldiers commit the same crimes Moreover, all this was done by the Russian tsarist army in 1914 in Western Europe.. Russia's military has a deeply ingrained culture of extreme brutality in which officers either encourage war crimes or don't care.. Hitler's tanks could have been stopped with more consolidated and skillful defense in 1940.

The Nazi leader himself feared this, temporarily dismissing General Heinz Guderian for advancing too quickly.. Hitler would not have survived defeat in a very unpopular war. But no one stopped the tanks. So Hitler was able to destroy Europe with impunity for almost five years..

“It seems that thanks to the Ukrainians, the world will not suffer from Putin’s rampant. And if we are lucky, other potential aggressors will remember this, ”the historian writes..