This summer we saw the Axis invade the Soviet Union, between now and then we have seen the Red Army suffer monumental losses and the Axis make staggering gains. Though despite all of this, we see the Red Army still putting up a tenacious defense and fighting back, to the dismay of Axis strategists. In this episode, we get a brief history of the Red Army and see what it looked like in 1941. Hope you enjoy this episode, be sure to read our rules of conduct before commenting: community.timeghost.tv/t/rules-of-conduct/4518 Cheers, Dennis

My grandfather was a 18 years old Sakha (Yakut) boy when drafted in 1941. It took him weeks to get to Moscow from Russian Far East via railroads, but once he got there, he jumped off the train to see Red Square. It'd been a dream of his, and grandfather just wanted to see it before going into battle. After short training, he was among those thrown against Nazis at their mightiest exactly where this series has been covering - Vyazma, Smolensk, the whole Rzhev Meatgrinder. The casualties were so heavy, that he was at some point battlefield promoted to acting company commander - an asian siberian village boy. He was eventually heavily wounded in a counterattack, saved only by a dead horse that fell on top of him, shielding from further damage. Shot through his right elbow (it crippled the arm for life), he was discharged from active service in 1942, awarded with Medal For Courage. He spoke very little about war, clearly suffering from undiagnosed PTSD at the time, resorting to alcohol as a relief to his mental wounds left from the harshest period of war. A few years ago I saw a post war interview with Zhukov and when he mentioned and thanked troops that fought stubbornly at Vyazma, saying that their effort was crucial and time they had given to organize other defences was critically important - I almost cried hearing that. It must have been hell to be thrown into such meatgrinder at the age of 18, but my grandfather, among many others, gave it his all.

You know the war has gotten real when Indy busts out the 3D pie chart.

2 of my great-grandfathers from my mum's side (we're Uzbek) served in the Red Army druing the war and survived through it, one of which actually had just gotten back from the Winter War earlier after being wounded. That same great-grandfather later served on the front as one of the people who would have to carry cables/telegraph wires through the frontline to maintain communication and actually got wounded several more times till pretty much the end of the war. My other great-grandfather served as a lietutenant-colonel or some other officer rank but he was in charge of logistics for a railway carriage or something like that and he had to make sure that supplies were delivered to the front. I think my great-grandfathers on my dad's side did serve as well, but they just didn't make it by the end and probably died on the front.

Two of my great grandfathers fought in the Red Army. Makar Kazantsev, on my dad's side, was a Siberian Cheldon (descendant of the first, insular wave of Russan-speaking settlers in the Urals and Siberia). Miraculously, he didn't fall victim to the dekulakization despite having a personal farm somewhere in the vicinity of Iskitim. Possibly, due to living rather remotely, like many Cheldons did. He was over forty when the war started, but in 1942 he volunteered and joined as a heavy machine gun operator (probably, a less physically demanding duty, plus prior experience ). He fought all the way to 1944, when during Operation Bagration he had a shrapnel wound that the field surgeons considered inoperable. He was told the shrapnel was too close to his heart, so he had about two years to live. He was sent home, since the war was already leaning toward the Allied victory. He lived for another 20 years, shrapnel or not. My dad had few memories of Makar, except him being a fiercely independent, grim man who had a saber hanging on his izba's wall. On my mom's side, Lev Skribovsky, was a Jewish boy from the Rovno shtetl who was resettled under Stalin to the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the Far East, Transamur region. This later turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as a big chunk of their family that stayed in Rovno later fell victims to the Nazi atrocities. He was 15 when the war started and barely spoke any Russian. In 1942, he volunteered to the frontline, lied about his age (said he was 18) and said he forgot his passport at home. The conscription officers probably saw through his lies, but enrolled him anyway. However, instead of sending him to the meatgrinder, he was at first assigned to the field kitchen duty, where he learned to speak decent Russian. He later became an operator of an anti-materiel rifle. After getting wounded in 1944, his regiment moved too far west for him to catch up, so he was reassigned to a newly formed CQC unit as an avtomatchik (submachinegunner), He made it to Konigsberg, which is where he met the end of the war in 1945. Fun fact: apparently, he told my grandma when she was young that had he met Stalin, he would've shot him. Not sure if he would've had the guts or motivation to do so back in the 40s, but that speaks a lot about how complicated the people's loyalties were back then.

an episode about krushev and brezhnev during the war would be amazing.

The best analogy of the Red Army is that it was like Rocky: it could take a hit and keep going,

My great great grandfather was a teacher in the village ( Modern Atyrau district, Kazakhstan), he was free from the draft, but volunteered and gone the front, technically MIA, it's obvious, he didn't survive the war. Father says that he gone to the front out of shame ( you are only man in the village from your generation, who stays behind the front), but given that grandfather was dedicated communist, I tend to think that he sincerely wanted to help in war effort.

As long as Dmitri Petronko lives, the heart of the Red Army can never be broken!

Marshal Boris Shaposhnikov is criminally underrated

One thing that should be added is the purges, were not mainly murder, it was mostly imprisonment, meaning once war started the soviet's reintroduced these officers back into the army, this is technically and ironically became somewhat of an advantage as it means they have a strong core of experienced officers, who haven't been taken striaght away by the original thrust of the german armed forces, that even the best commanders would have struggled to stop, leading to capture or death of those officiers. Don't get it twisted this is in no way some sort of defense for the purges just an interesting fact.

Oh, my grandfather didn't fight against the Red Army, he was a navigator on a spice freighter!

What a funny title! Isn't it clearly said in the famous song: "The White Army and the Black Baron Are trying to restore the Czar's throne, But from the taiga to the British seas The Red Army is the strongest of all!"

Fun Fact: after the civil war Trotsky actually flipped and wanted to return to the old militia/ red guard structure with a more decentralized army, safe to say some of the old tsarist officers weren't to pleased.

USSR did have a huge amount of manpower, but it was not endless, already in 1944 they started to have problems with conscription, so older men and who previously had a exemption were mobilised. in 1945 divisions became smaller in size simply due to lack of manpower. Aslo a large amounts of women serviced in the Red Army, most of them (except of nurses) were volunteers.

Note: The Red Army did not actually have an unending pool of manpower. That'll be an important thing to keep note of in a few years.

Its interesting how the Red Army was in many ways behind the times but also ahead of the times. They were the first Army in the war to use a self-loading rifle (The SVT 40. This spurred on the Germans to develop their own self-loading rifle in response) in quantity though it still played second fiddle to the Mosin Nagant because it was much quicker and chapter to produce, especially during the first couple of years when they were more concerned with quantity over quality (hence why the early T-34 tanks were well armed and armored but extremely crude and unreliable. Once momentum had shifted they focused more in improving the overall quality of their arms and military vehicles).

8:19 "Tartar" is a sauce. The ethnicity's called "Tatar", no R in the middle.

Not mighty enough, they don't have the great patriotic war buff yet

"The can only recruit 106 teachers (bc of Stalins purges), 61 of whom are under active investigation". Im sorry but thats just hilarious. It perfectly illustrates Stalins paranoia.

Well as the song goes *the Red Army is the strongest*

I recommend the book 'Ivan's War' for a detailed examination of the lives and attitudes of the ordinary soldiers in the Red Army.

It's important to note that the purges also had a positive influence, allowing new officers into the command structure. Old experience can be just as bad as no experience. You'll not that most armies went through something like this, though in a dramatically different way. The US General Marshall sacked an enormous amount of senior officers which allowed for some officers like Eisenhower to rise to the top. Germany, restricted by the treaty of Versailles had to save their officer 'slot's to the most experienced/modern officers. Of course, neither the US or Germany murdered their officers... But they were replaced! Another enormous thing to note is that the command structure in the Red Army does not have a Corp level and their divisions are half the size of German ones. (which makes battles where people simply compare divisions to be waaay less dramatic) This means that the Red Officers are overlooking more units but the same amount of soldiers. In short. The Red army Senior officers had way less Command & Control and this meant that the leadership was enormously strangled. This mirrors in some aspects the French campaign of 1940 where the command structure is also strangled but for completely different reasons ie. decision making is slow.

My three great-grandfathers fought in the Eastern Front and all of them are listed MIA. My last great-grandfather was a kolkhoz lead, so he avoid the conscription and I'm really grateful for that.

Will you do a special episode on that single Australian half-strength cavalry division which invaded a non-port province in Montenegro in 1941? It happens every time in HoI4 so it must be historically accurate.

As a Filipino I also read about the Heroism of the Russian nation During WW2 ..I always admired Their love for the motherland And resiliency of the Russian army .....

Fun fact; NKVD still had 1.7 million slave laborers 930,000 would die during the war. “Stalin-the court of the Red Czar”. By Montefiore

"It takes a brave man to be a coward in the Red Army." -- Stalin

We want a part 2 on this! Thank you so much!

Superb production. So much information, so lucidly condensed. Thank you.

In Soviet Russia privates conscript their officers. -Count Nikolai, you have been conscripted to command in the people's Army. You're Comrade General Nikolai now. -But I'm not a Bolshevik. "Commissar pulls gun" -Long live the Revolution!

Looking sharp, Indy!! Much love crew!!

Hi indy and team Enjoyed watching this video. Nice to have another history lesson.. Keep it up.. Thanks..🙏👍

Great channel . Superb attention to detail .

A special episode on the rest of the army of the other combating nation would be nice

Great video! Thank you

The first time seeing a picture of Timoshenko as a 14 year old scared the hell out of me.

Very interesting, it would be great to see more of these for the other major powers

向我的父親, 以及千萬為抗日流血奮戰的英勇戰士致敬. 向千萬在抗日戰爭中犧牲的軍民同胞致敬. 你們的奮鬥, 你們的犧牲, 讓我們這些後代子孫永遠敬仰和懷念. Pay tribute to my father and the heroic soldiers who shed blood for the anti-Japanese war. Pay tribute to the millions of soldiers and civilians who died in the War of Resistance Against Japan. Your struggles, your sacrifices, Let us future generations admire and miss forever.

Hey Indy, We're (you guys at least) getting pretty close to the December 7th, 1941 attack of Pearl Harbor, on the current timeline, well maybe a month to go. How will the 'minute by minute' broadcast/video breakdown of the attack go? So perhaps the attack lasted 2 hours, or 120 minutes, of which you and staff would breakdown the attack by maps, video, simulations, testimonies, etc.? Looking forward to this, should be exciting! Just my opinion, but that major wars and major battles never suffer from over-analysis, namely the germans invading russia, and only betting on absolute best case scenarios (plan A is fine, thank you!). Thank you for highlighting all the bad decisions by all parties, this is good analysis for war colleges also (and for quite a while too). A former squid, and stationed at Pearl Harbor (4 years), worked at Pearl Harbor (5 years), and lived in Honolulu (30 years), i had a lot of time to peruse over the bullet and cannon marks in the standing buildings of that era. My Best Regards, SSG Jay Deister USA ret.

I learned a lot in this episode. Really well done.

Thanks Indy, now I have another book to add to my list

Great video! May we get a video on the SS. Shedding light on the myth of them being superior, an elite among German divisions when German sources state that they were rather average, if even that. “Prone to take unnecessarily high casualties”

Great work, both in presentation, as in content.. Keep on...

My great great grandfather was a jewish soldier in the ukraine, and he fought for the red army, until he stepped on a mine in 1941 during a counterattack and was seriously wounded, rendering him disabled. he commanded for the rest of the war a small prison camp.

I' m hooked on this series. So much so I' m now watching the specials to tide me over. Help!!!!

Splendid Episode Indeed.

Totally addicted to these videos. Great work.

Oh. I just realised your tie is solid red. Well done. =)

thanks Indy!

“From taiga to British seas, red army is the strongest”

*"Did you sign up as a volunteer?''*

Answer: As mighty as Stalin says it is!

My great grandfather was from Ural Cossacks and served as cavalry unit. He told my grandmother how they used dead frozen bodies as base for wooden lags when they went across the swamp in Belarus.

Please mention Tannu Tuva

0:14 Anybody else thought of Thulean Perspective?

Hitler looked at the Soviet Red Army, watching them struggle in the Winter War, and he said "we have only to kick in the front door and the whole rotten structure comes crashing down." And *that* hubris, right there, is why the Nazi's lost.

это всех сильней. (I know, I know, not yet, but the song is just so good.)

Red Army: Desperate for good commanders to lead it in battle. Zhukov, Konev, Rokossovsky, Vatutin and others: Now this looks like a job for US

Man, that Napoleon behind you is quite a nice touch...

My Grandpa (German Maschine Gunner) always spoke about the bravery of the russians, he said " even tho they saw hundreds of their Commrads lieng in front of our Maschine Guns and the keept charching, idk if it was their bravery or the frear of their officers but this level of fighting spirit was nearly respectable if they didnt try to slay our throats".

Stalin's recruiting poster: "Uncle Joe Wants You!"

Hi indy I'm from jamaica we participated in ww1 and ww2 our first Premier of jamaica was norman manley field artillery gunner and his brother roy manley was an infantry soldier who died in the battle of the somme im new to your channel just finish watch all great war and time ghost episode now im tuning in to this now... can u do a special on jamaica contribution? I heard from my great grandad that when the british counter attack happen in north africa it was the west indies regiment led by jamaican infantry who drive back rommel to tripoli

Tatar people became the sauce, Renat Dasaev, the best football goalkeeper of the 80s Tatar

1:03 middle row second from the left knows he looks cool with his pistol haha

where do you guys find all of this footage?

Well guess we will find out how mighty the Red Army's resolve is with the Wehrmacht outside of Moscow...

Enjoyed this report very much not to mention how Anna continues to appear more beautiful by the moment!

There is a very good book. "The cursed and the slain" Viktor Astafyev. The book describes the life of soldiers, as well as the crossing of the Dnieper River in 1943. There is also the book "Memories of the War" Nikolai Nikulin. A very scary book that turned my view of the war in general.

I wished i had Indy as a World History Teacher!

Greeks from the Black Sea also fought in the Red army

I'm hoping we get to see that Napoleon picture frozen inside a giant icecube before Barbarossa is over.

Eastory is no longer making maps for this channel? I really liked those, sad to see it go

Excellent thankyou 'like a ravenous great beast devouring all before it!' Thats how its seeming it cant be stopped its almost scary still 80 years on when you think about it no individuality and do as your told as your fed into the jaws of the Beast!!

That Trotsky guy seems pretty cool!

One of the most defining characteristics of the Red Army is that it was a peasant army adapting to modern warfare. This is not to belittle the combat performance or leadership of the Red Army. In terms of the infantry serving, the vast majority were from the peasantry. This becomes incredibly apparant in it's later-war development: the unique aspects to the Soviet theory of combined arms warfare, Deep Battle, was the use of massed artillery in pre-planned fire concentrations, 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘬𝘢 concealing the massed build-up of troops, logistics to support large armies, and armored thrusts that favoured penetrations straight into the strategic depths rather than encircling the enemy. As well, the developing industry was created rapidly and excelled at mass production of cheap but effective weaponary. Yet the consequence of this was an general inferiority of Soviet tactical arms versus the tactically focused German army. This partly explains why the Soviet's generally took higher casualities, even in the later stages of the war.

Can you do the werchmant pls?

18,000 kasak in army Great success

This is cool.

My greate grandfather was a partizan in Russian army, he was born in Romania but for some reason when russia took Basarabia from Romania he went to Siberia to work in a steel factory, i dont know was he sent by russians or he decided to go by himself, in 1943 he was taken in russian army as a partizan to be sent back home in Basarabia, i presume because he spoke romanian. I found his CV where he says that he was sent to couple special schools of training, im hoping that those are diversant schools. Later he participated in operation Iasi- Chisinau where he participated in eliberation of Milestii Mici city. i have photos of his regiment where he served they met after 20 years and excanged with photos. After the war went on from Basarabia he was apointed to general in chief in Chisinau and later became a police oficer up to the 70s.

is it possible that we'll see this for all the major and/or interesting nations of the war? Like Republic of china, Communist china,UK and/or empire combined, Wehrmacht,Italian,Free french and Vichy as well as the US in time?

When you going to do another Q&A ??

Who commands it and who fights for it? *proceeds to name every single Soviet soldier ever*

Please make a Kirponos special. His fate was so sad.

Bio on Mannerheim, when?

When will there be a return to the homefront series?

Anyone noticed the look Napoleon is giving Indy?

Can there be a video about the Italian Army? Keep up the great work 👍

We Wish to Feature about the Italian Army During WW2

I think that Napoléon poster impling something i wonder what that is?

Seems like the light on the upper left of Indy's face is a bit too bright. I'm no cinematographer though

*Russia: We lost 20 million Soviet Army and civilians during WW2.* The World: Eastern Europe may have been part of the Soviet Union but it's not Russia and the people do not identify as Russians.

@2:50 So what else is new?

Stalin: It takes a brave man to be a coward in the Red Army.

Hey Indy, did you know that Germany's football rivalry with England and the Netherlands stem from the two world wars?

My favourite Army in the whole world, basically how everything was runned in the Red army and how discipline was enforced in the troops even using drastic measures is a very interesting thing to learn about, Soldiers of the red army were not just any soldiers, they were survivors 💯

Early gang, love these specials and the whole show in general, keep up the good work guys. Greetings on 3:40am from the land down under 🇦🇺🔥

Indie : "million strong force" Me : *somehow flashback to what stormfront said in the boys season 2

What all historician always forget to mention about the purges is the beneficial indirect effects of it, it allowed a new much younger generation of officers to raise, while the old but politically secure generals wich where dinosaurs in term of tactical abilities faded away. So from the original chaos something good come out of it _ a new generation of officers motivated wich understood modern warfare or learned it very quickly, a thing old generals with ww1 mind tactics could not do.

Hello Indy and team! Just wanted to thank you for all the great videos you do. I don't know where else I would've found information in the incredible scale you provide it. I was just curious if you read anything from Antony Beevor and if it's up to your standards I guess haha. There is an antiquarian near me that currently has 3-4 books about events in WW2 and was thinking about picking some up. Thanks again and keep up the amazing work, by the looks of it something is about to go down over in the pacific soon...