We have to give equal credit to our allies. The point is that people ask me why do i do this impression. And i think because we need to tell the story about the Eastern Front. If you dont understand what happened on the Eastern Front you, dont understand world war ii. For example what i normally do is on my display on the table over here, i have a National Geographic magazine. Its dated may of 1944. It has to do with the liberation of the ukraine. Dday. And the relationship of the soviet contribution was that as of that date, when you liberate the ukraine, you push the germans out of the country. So by that point in time, one month before dday, we had been occupying 65 maybe of the best german troops fighting us. If we hadnt done that, if we had failed in moscow, or solid ground, all of those troops could well have been under normandy beaches. The story that has to be told is that thats a significant contribution to winning the war. It needs to be explained to us as americans. Because we all theres nothing wrong with supporting as we all do. My father fought in world war ii. Our contributions. But we have understand the war as a total picture. And the Eastern Front, thats where we need to do it. As well as that strategic advantage, just the numbers sacrificed is a story that needs to be told. There was something in the area of 20 to 22 Million People who died on the Eastern Front. Half of whom, its alleged, may be military. Even if you dont like those numbers, thats a lot of people. And the soviets, for example, at least half im sorry, about as Many Red Army soldiers died in one battle as all the americans killed in action in the entire war. So we can see that thats a significant contribution, a part of the story that needs to be told. And it really comes to the soviets contribution. The interesting thing that i find, that i try to communicate to people is the differences, if you will, in the soviet contribution. As opposed to the british and the american. There are three significant differences. One of them has to do with the partisan movement. The partisan movement and the soviet union as a resistance type function is totally different than all of the other resistance in france, belgium. All of those were underground, okay . They did good things. No doubt about it. For example, the frern found a lot of american got a lot of american airmen back to london. In the soviet union, the partisan movement was wellbased, hadorganized in a military fashion. There were not only numbers but because of the geography of that place, they could obviously hide, if you will, from the germans. For action behind the german line, the new army was formed. An army without uniforms, whose home was fallen and whose front was the enemys rear. A guerilla army. A minimum of glory. And a maximum of determination. Their achievements were so person. Look well at these tales. You will never see them again in the likes of war prisons or read their names over heroes graves. Ahead of them lay nothing but the ropes in the halls when they stayed behind and went on fighting. Their only goal was merciless destruction. The partisan Movement Began in 1941. Basically. In terms of its composition. When stal nin his first speech to the people, okay, he reminded them and urged them to become partisan to. Rise up like the russians did when napoleon invaded russia. This war is not an ordinary war. It is a war of the entire russian people. Not only to eliminate the danger hanging over our head but to aid all peoples gloating under the yolk of fascism. When he said that, he probably didnt really mean it. For the for the time, the only partisans that were allowed in the movement were either Red Army Soldiers who were caught behind the lines or communist party members. In many cases, that wasnt a bad deal. Because you werent getting a lot of other volunteers, especially in places like the ukraine, which were behind the line. Because the ukrainians were initially, when the germans first invaded the ukraine, the ukrainians welcomed them. Thinking like in world war i, when the germans came into the ukraine and made them an independent nation. That they would again be an independent nation. I think after about a year, they began to realize that they had two devils. Stalin on the one hand, because they dont like the soviet system. They dont like the fact that collectivization cost them tens of thousands of people who died in starvation because of that system. And by the way, of course, we also see that today. The juxtaposition between the ukrainians and the russians and the animosity that they have there. What happened is that now they realized theres another devil. And its hitl nazis. Theyre on totem pole, of the raciality. Identity. At that point now, were able to get people to join the partisan movement. And in the soviet union, moscow, the partisan bfinally burock accuracy convinced stalin. And most everything they did as an organized group was designed to support the red army, okay . And so, for example, they did basically four different things, lets say, in the partisan movement. Again, three of them in adjunct to or support of the red army. One was to provide intelligence. This is picture depicts one of elements. A red army scout dressed in camouflage uniform. He is consulting with partisan members. So moving back over here to this display, we then see parts of the uniform and equipment that he would have won. In this case, he its a leaf pattern as opposed to the amoeba pattern in that picture hes lightly dressed. He doesnt have a helmet. He has a bag. This is a scout knife. Very few Red Army Soldiers were provided knives of any sort. Unlike the americans. The scout knife was provided to scouts by the soviet army. And the unique thing about it, its used in a particular way. The scout is trained to use it in one particular way. And the hit, the way it sits, it is designed for two motions. One motion is across your neck from behind. And the other one is from the bottom and up. Its designed to be lethal, quick, and silent, which is the concern of the scout. Not to be discovered and take his intelligence back to the main red army. Unobserved. The only thing that partisans did, for example, were then rigs, sabotage. Things we normally think about guerilla fighters being involved in, sabotage. One of the more significant ones was what they call the road war. The partisan movement is being directed from moscow. There is a bureaucracy in moscow. They knew about the battle of kurtz. They knew they were going to be attacked. They were defending against it. So orders went out to all the various pods or units of the partisans, that they should begin attacking the German Communications the supply, and whatever. And thats what they did. And these small unit operations, in which you would have a half dozen men or a dozen men, again with munitions to go out and blow things up, attack convoys and whatever. The other thing they did were rigs. Different in the sense of the size and purpose. For example, the Ukrainian Partisans were actually directed by stalin, the as we called him, the boss, that they should conduct raids under the carpathian mountains. And this would be a unit involving Something Like 700 partisan, which is a substantial number of arms. To draw the germans away to, chase them. So those are the three things, for example, that the partisans did in support of the army themselves. The other thing they did, they represented the government of the soviet union to the people behind the lines. For example, one of the directives, by the way, as an aside, youll note a number of weapons on this display. Most of them are german. One of them, by the way, is italian. Again, an axis ally or ally of the german. Even the belt buckle is german. The point is that the directive was that we were supposed to be selfsufficient. So one way to do it was to capture them from the germans. We used the german supply chains to suppl partisans. Even including the belt buckle. But we adapt today to the soviet union partisan group, covering the swastika with the soviet star. That doesnt mean we werent provided supplies by the soviet union. We were. But we supplemented them, if you will, to be as selfsufficient as possible. When it came to the food though, you went to the collector farms. And the theory would be you would bring along your commissar, or your political officer. And he would talk to the people. He would say you must give food to the partisans because they are fighting to support the motherland, just like your motherland. And by the way, give me support, motivation, confidence to the people about the fact that the war is going to be won, and comrade stal sin still in moscow. And were going to win. But then also, probably a directive. A warning. Do not give heed to the germans. If you collaborated and give aid, you might get even permanent discipline. And we know, of course, permanent discipline would involve a firing squad. And sometimes the partisans did have to exercise that kind of discipline in terms of representing the government. The partisans continued on until 1944. Ukraine was liberated. They were pushed out of the soviet union. Now theres no need for partisans anymore because there are nelines to fight behind. So most of the units were disbanded. And they were amalgamated into the regular red army unit. One of the things that i find interesting about the soviet contribution, one i partisans. Other one was calvary. I represent aical vary sergeant. My uniform is a fairly standard uniform. I have my red stripe on my pants. My hat has various combinations of colors. The idea being the blue on my epilet, and the sabre. I am carrying what they call the shaska. It harkens back to the cosacks. But there were other types of favors. Calvary men were lightly armor, they were mounted. The advantage, the interesting thing about the soviet military in te calvary, they have these large numbers of mounted calvary groups. I might represent the fourth guard calvary corps. By the way, the guard has this medal. What happened of course is as the war progressed, things changed in the military. And one of the things was to adopt a prewar set of manner uniforms. Medals and uniforms. So in the times of the czar, there were elite units, guard units. When you were a unit that did heroic, you would be distinguished as a guard unit. And you would be given better pay and better supplies. The point though, were gonna take that large, mounted force, again, all the armor. Pis swords. Maybe that submachine gun. Maybe the morars, light submachine guns. But they were then taking that Corps Division and combine it with a mechanized group. Or a mechanized division. So the tools were a group that worked in tandem. They were, of course, armored with the soviet p34, the kv1. And some american tanks that were provided. First of all, the calvary would perform a function. Calvary is sudden out, they bring back information to use. When theyre in a mounted operation, the theer neworking together this is. That the calvary first will come in on the flanks and get into the rear. They will supply, transportation, pack headquarters, cause turmoil in the rear. And as theyre doing that, again, trying to extricate themselves because theyre many times outnumbered and outgunned, then the mechanized part of the team hits the front. And that causes the germans to respond to that, giving time for theical vary to escape. For the calvary to escape. And thereby accomplishing the purpose of surprise and causing a rift. Thats the theory. Didnt always work. Outside of the polish calvary, and the german calvary in world war ii, large groups of mounted calvary, in a somewhat very effective manner. The other big thing, or important thing, i think about the soviet contribution, is the use of women in combat. And with that, ill turn it over to you want to introduce yourself . Yes, my name is cheryl williams. And im representing the female contributions to the soviet effort in world war ii. Just to start off, sdwroucht let you know, the soviets were actually unique at that time in their desire and ability to include women in combat. So the women served as medics, they served as tank driver drivers. Fellas would bomb the germans during the day, and the ladies would come in and bomb them at night. Therefore they were called the night witches. Most flam buoyantly and famously, were the soviet women snipers. One went on the tour with Eleanor Roosevelt to raise money. Its something that isnt done a lot. Its really a story that hasnt been told. And we typically, were doing things that are just a little bit different. And people seem to respond very well to it. These evens are always very well attended. To me, its an interesting story. And its something that needs to be told. What definitions and reaction do you get from the public a lot of oh, i didnt know that. Oh. I mean quite honestly, ill tell you something, i learn something every time i do this. I learn from my partner here, every time i come and do one of these events. So we get a lot of questions about the spam, actually. The spam, by the way, represents on our table and part of our scenario the fact that we were of course an ally, the United States and britain, and it represents that we were provided supplies to help us fight the germans. Everything from spam to tank. Or locomotives. We also like to add a little humor to our presentation. So ill tell you the bad joke. For example, we say some mornings the cook will come to the troops and say i have good news and bad news. And well say what is the good news. And he will say, well, we have potato soup all week. And we will say what is the bad news and he will say no potatoes. So thank you america, for spam, to help us substitute for potato soup. And again, this is part of our display. You know the interesting thing, i kinda touched on it a little bit about the regular red army. Our goal here is not to describe the red army in detail. There are many reenactors and historians like myself who can give a lot of information about the red army. Had book emphasizes, obviously, a picture of the red army soldier. Over here we have the life magazine, 1944. Thats a red army soldier. Again, we were allies. We were even to the point of being in the movie. You probably heard of this fellow, gregory peck. This is his first movie. And its about red partisans. And of course he dies a noble death fighting for the soviet union. And over here is another one called the north star. Which again depicts partisans, to some degree. Containing many of the famous actors and actresses of the 1940s. 1945, of course, after 1945, things changed. The soviets became our enemies. We saw them very seldomly i movies. Excuse me. Until the soviet union fell. Then we began to see movies again. Defiance, about soviet jewish partisans. And others that came along. I would say about the uniform, and the reference they am a guard, when the red army was first organized in the 1920s by trotski, one thing he wanted to do was to eliminate the uniform of the past, of the czarist regime. So under the czar, the uniform of a regular soldier, in many cases looked very much like the one im wearing. The difference being, for example, they would have the raised collar, and they would epilets. So he took the uniform and said i would to make it a working mans army. When you go to work, you have a suit that has a laydown collar. So as we saw on the 41 of that book, that was what we call the early war uniform. And it was just a simple smoke like this. But as the war progressed, there was more and more conference to the past. To the heroics of the military achievements under the czar. So a lot of the changes were made to kind of encourage that, to reenforce that. The uniform was now changed back to, in a sense, the czarist type uniform with the board and the raised collar. The medals came back. The guard medals. The idea of there were famous czarist guard units. Now were gonna have elite red army guard units. To again, raise morale, and encourage the men to fight. So i guess id like people to take away from this, i will say, for example, that cspan will be able to show us much of the fflgz that we use in our hobbies. And ive heard numerous occasions on various historical presentations, the professional historians, about how we downplay or dont say enough about the soviet contribution to winning world war ii. And the story of the soviets in world war ii. And with that, i guess id like people to take away that story and understand that it was a significant contribution. Both in terms of its strategy impact on winning the war, as well as the great sacrifice that the soviets incurred winning that war. The war in russia enters its third year, with soviet armies pounding the germans from the black sea to the baltic. Retaking town after town, soviet forces find the ravaged country left by the nazis. If theyre to pay a price for this wanton destruction, that price was more than five million nazi soldiers. This weekend in American History tv special, from fort monroe, point comfort, virginia. The first africans that arrived in america 400 years ago. Our guest, saturday at 8 30 am, eastern, is Cassandra Newby alexander from norfolk university, taking your calls about the origins and history of slavery. And live coverage continues at 9 30 am for a commemorative ceremony with virginia elected officials, governor ralph northam, senators mark warner, tim cain, and kirkland cox. At 6 00 pm, hear the story of the civil war told in 56 minutes by gary adelman of the American Battlefield trust. And sunday at 6 00 pm, american artifacts takes you to the Virginia Museum of history and culture for an exhibit on african American History from reconstruction through civil rights. A discussion on world war ii