tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2383897115500989335.post3895089164737834025..comments2024-02-20T08:31:57.362-08:00Comments on WWII and other Book Reviews: Europe At War 1941-1945 by Norman DaviesT. Kunikovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03243004853811191350noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2383897115500989335.post-22376182711457467112008-11-16T23:31:00.000-08:002008-11-16T23:31:00.000-08:00"In formulating your "opinion" (what are your cred..."In formulating your "opinion" (what are your credentials as an historian? a susbscription to Izvestia?)."<BR/><BR/>I am a Ph.D. student, what are yours? FYI, those aren't opinions I expressed but facts, something Davies isn't familiar with.<BR/><BR/>"You also need to understand (no doubt conveniently neglected ) that Poland had been occupied a s paryt of the Russian Empire. In pushing back the Russians they were only restoring their own borders to pre Imperial times. The British had to come to Russia's aid with the Curzon line."<BR/><BR/>Borders constantly change, Russian claims to which borders they want are just as valid as Polish claims.<BR/><BR/>"You appear to dislike Davies because there is too much truth that hurts."<BR/><BR/>Such as?<BR/><BR/>"Knowing about what both the Russian imperial past and Soviet successors did to other countries is clearly too hard to take. Nazi pact Soviet Russia."<BR/><BR/>Next time you comment, try to back up your assertions with some facts.T. Kunikovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03243004853811191350noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2383897115500989335.post-39579318340170550282008-11-16T23:26:00.000-08:002008-11-16T23:26:00.000-08:00In formulating your "opinion" (what are your crede...In formulating your "opinion" (what are your credentials as an historian? a susbscription to Izvestia?).<BR/><BR/>You also need to understand (no doubt conveniently neglected ) that Poland had been occupied a s paryt of the Russian Empire. In pushing back the Russians they were only restoring their own borders to pre Imperial times. The British had to come to Russia's aid with the Curzon line.<BR/><BR/>You appear to dislike Davies because there is too much truth that hurts.Knowing about what both the Russian imperial past and Soviet successors did to other countries is clearly too hard to take. Nazi pact Soviet Russia.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2383897115500989335.post-80669537799896228422008-10-07T11:35:00.000-07:002008-10-07T11:35:00.000-07:00You mean to say that when the Red Army was fightin...You mean to say that when the Red Army was fighting with White Forces and Polish troops, with Ukrainian help, advanced on Kiev this was not a Polish offensive?<BR/>1919 witnessed both sides advancing and taking territory, a large portion of Eastern Europe was a vacuum.T. Kunikovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03243004853811191350noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2383897115500989335.post-68248491305182256752008-10-07T11:29:00.000-07:002008-10-07T11:29:00.000-07:00Mr. Kunikov I would like to see the sources you ar...Mr. Kunikov I would like to see the sources you are using when you are stating that "Poland attacted Russia". Poland was a new and weak country just gaining its independence on 11.11.1918, they did not have resources and they coulnd not afford attacting any other country. They spilled enough blood during the Russian/German/Austrian occupation of their territory which lasted almost 150 years.Soviets tried to use Poles weakness by attacing Poland in 1919 (starting the Polish-Soviet War) but Poland resisted and in 1920 they won a Battle of Warsaw (known also as a Miracle at the Vistula) and was pushing the Soviets back to their terriory. <BR/>Regards.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2383897115500989335.post-41274956098961877592007-10-10T04:37:00.000-07:002007-10-10T04:37:00.000-07:00I have read about the mutual clashes that took pla...I have read about the mutual clashes that took place between Russian and Polish forces before the Polish invasion. But it was the Poles that invaded up to Kiev with the help of Petlyura, I am still awaiting sources and quotes that prove otherwise. As for a 'build up of forces' I somehow doubt that seeing as Red Army forces were busy in the south with white forces.T. Kunikovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03243004853811191350noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2383897115500989335.post-75008133852312915982007-10-10T01:13:00.000-07:002007-10-10T01:13:00.000-07:00mr. Kunikov, you are wrong on Russo-Polish war. Ru...mr. Kunikov, you are wrong on Russo-Polish war. Russia attacked Poland in 1919, and this is simple fact which tends to be ignored by Russians. You, as many other Russians, seem to think that war started in 1920, when Poland started another offensive in a war, which already lasted a year. Davies is right on this account<BR/><BR/>No to mention that Pilsudski specifically refused to help whites in Civil War and made decision about offensive when he got intelligence reports about massive buildup of soviet forces near Polish front (and when SOviets send him a note that their earlier proposals are no longer valid)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2383897115500989335.post-52761250398280637562007-10-09T08:04:00.000-07:002007-10-09T08:04:00.000-07:00I read Werth's book years ago when I was just gett...I read Werth's book years ago when I was just getting into the Eastern Front of WWII. You are correct in that Davies and his version of events when it comes to the Warsaw uprising is blatantly wrong and biased. Beevor is a sloppy historians first and foremost, in my opinion. Applebaum makes a few mistakes here and there and she tends to lean toward one side more than the other but her book is an interesting read, although she misquotes from time to time, why, I cannot tell you. Montefiore I have yet to read although I have both his books on Stalin.T. Kunikovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03243004853811191350noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2383897115500989335.post-72607840043382553992007-10-09T07:57:00.000-07:002007-10-09T07:57:00.000-07:00Hello!Norman Davies is one of the brigade of anti-...Hello!<BR/><BR/>Norman Davies is one of the brigade of anti-Soviet propagandists who masquerade as historians (e.g. Beevor, Applebaum, Sebag Montefiore). Equating the USSR with Nazi Germany has become a main component in bourgeois propaganda.<BR/><BR/> In 2004 Davies published a book on the 1944 “Warsaw uprising” and visited the city during the summer. An article in the International Herald Tribune described the book in glowing terms and included an interview with him, as well as a picture of him in a city park on a height looking eastward over the Vistula: ”Poles recall revolt doomed to fail”, IHT 31 July/1 August 2004. <BR/><BR/>The text below is a letter I sent to the IHT, which they naturally didn’t publish:<BR/><BR/>British historian Norman Davies says that Soviet and German soldiers facing each other across the Vistula River at Warsaw in August 1944 “didn’t fire at each other…But if any Soviet soldier tried to cross the river to help the Poles, both sides fired at him.” The article describes Russian soldiers who according to Davies were “literally sunbathing on one side of the Vistula while the Germans literally obliterated Warsaw…”<BR/><BR/>These statements do not match the account of military operations around Warsaw in the summer of 1944 given by David M. Glantz and Jonathan House in “When Titans Clashed”, Univ. Press of Kansas, 1955. Glantz, Colonel US Army (Ret), was a co-founder of the US Army’s Combat Studies Institute as well as founder and editor of The Journal of Slavic Military Studies. He is one of the world’s leading authorities on the Soviet army and its operations.<BR/><BR/>Glantz and House state that the only Soviet forces near Warsaw when the uprising started on 1 August were units of the 47th Army, i.e. the 3rd Tank Corps, 15 km to the northeast, which had been “overextended and weakened” and then “severely mauled” by German armor at the end of July, the 8th Guards Tank Corps, 20 km to the east of the city, which was “sorely pressed” by German counterattacks, and three rifle corps, which “were stretched out on a front of over 80 km from south of Warsaw to Siedlce and were unable to renew the drive on Warsaw…” <BR/><BR/>Glantz and House also state that the Polish insurgents “failed to secure the four bridges over the Vistula”. <BR/><BR/>Does Davies or reporter Richard Bernstein have any information as to the designation of the Soviet units that Davies says were on the east bank of the Vistula across from the city and that Glantz/House have for some reason overlooked? Since the Germans held the bridges, how did soldiers from these phantom forces try to cross the river? Did they swim? Did they walk on the water?<BR/><BR/>Glantz and House: “German resistance in the region was probably sufficient to halt any Soviet attack, at least until mid-September. Thereafter, a Soviet advance on Warsaw would have involved a major reorientation of military efforts…in order to muster sufficient force to break into Warsaw. Even if they had reached Warsaw, the city would have been a costly place to clear of Germans and an unsuitable location from which to launch a new offensive”. <BR/><BR/>Further: “On 13 September, lead elements of the 47th Army entered Praga, in Warsaw’s eastern suburbs”, where Norman Davies claims Soviet troops were supposed to have been at the end of July. “Three days later, elements of two Polish divisions (part of the Red Army) launched an assault across the Vistula but made little progress and were evacuated back across the Vistula on 23 September”.<BR/><BR/>It was not until year-end 1944 that “the Soviets accumulated enough force to break out of their Vistula bridgehead”.<BR/><BR/>Your site is very interesting. Have you read “Russia at War” by Alexander Werth? <BR/><BR/>Peter Cohen<BR/>pcohen22@gmail.comUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11581512803025757983noreply@blogger.com