LogFAQs > #968403624

Chunky posted...

I agree. Stalin was a horrible military leader. But there's one important thing people are missing: his refusal to surrender even when they were getting crushed bad. I feel like any other person in that same leadership position would have surrendered after so many encirclements and defeats. To compare, France surrendered shortly after Paris was taken. Someone can correct me if I'm way off on this.

the french people were offered terms that didn't include the total annihilation of the population to make room for germans to settle. hitler and the nazis hated the french because of the role the french played in ww1 and the terms of the versaille treaty but they didn't view the french as subhumans who must be exterminated. the russians had nothing to gain by surrendering, they were being annihilated through death marches and laboring to death or just outright mass murder.

if the germans had handled the early stages of barbarossa differently and not just annihilated the people of everywhere they conquered there may have been more russian appetite for surrender.