Originally Posted by peter123

Have just finished reading about the seige of Stalingrad in WW2, any suggested reading for before and after the war ?

Anthony Beever?

I take your point but I do think to some extent that a society can be judged in some extent that cultural product it creates.

"You know what the fellow said – in Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock." - Orson Welles

Originally Posted by peter123

The cold war ????

It's not as if the USSR didn't have very powerful enemies.

But it itself was very powerful and had massive resources.

Originally Posted by peter123

I have problems getting further than grubby deals with hitler and the Katyn massacre. I do know that in many parts of Russia he is held in high esteem. I usually put that down to their/his heroic triumph in WW2.

Not only WW2, but also how he was handling corrupted elite. This is very actual in Russia now.

Originally Posted by Cato

But it itself was very powerful and had massive resources.

Yes they were. That is no gaurantee of winning though. Ask hitler.

You asked why it collapsed and I gave you my view that it didn't colapse. It was beaten.

Originally Posted by BareBear

If the Soviet Union was still around in 2003 then Bush and Blair would not have dared invade Iraq.

That's true, but it does nothing to justify communism - it's just a statement of the realities of global power politics when there is more than one super-power.

Lately I have read that the Soviet revolution was co-ordinated by wall street in order to bring down the Russian empire which was outside the control of western bankers.

Originally Posted by BareBear

If the Soviet Union was still around in 2003 then Bush and Blair would not have dared invade Iraq.

Soviet union was around during first invasion to Iraq

Originally Posted by Cato

Anthony Beever?

Yeah cato thats the guy.

I'm onto D Day now. Housemate left them behind. Good reads.

Originally Posted by peter123

Yes they were. That is no gaurantee of winning though. Ask hitler.

You asked why it collapsed and I gave you my view that it didn't colapse. It was beaten.

Germany was lacking in resources during WWII compared to the allies, that's one of the reasons they lost (the other one being that they invaded Russia - always a stupid move).