Abstract:

Devoid of an industrial base, the Russian peoples labored through political purges and unworkable five-year plans in a desperate game of catch-up with the western world.

Suffering everything that befell them, the Russian devotion to their motherland remained strong.

The heroism and self-sacrifice of the Soviet peoples helped stop Hitler in his tracks. Yet for many soldiers returning from the West, reward for faithful service was a train ride to the gulag.

Twenty million people died. Stalingrad, Smolensk, Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, and a hundred other cities lay pummeled. Galleries, libraries, and cathedrals were plundered or destroyed 

The Russian soul endured. (download to read more)

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