Today Is The Anniversary ...

 ... of dozen of European languages invading Russia in 1812. It was the largest army (how novel for Russians, not) in history at that time to invade Russia. Napoleon assembled all of Europe for that. Well, French excluded most of the battles from their so called "history" books (you know, frost, all those nasty Russians and Cossacks et al interfered with otherwise "brilliant" Napoleon), but reality is--it was a calamity of unimaginable scale (how traditional, eh). And it was at Borodino that Russians exorcised European spirit for pillage, theft and robbery for almost a century.   

And then, as you all know, came June 22, 1941. 

Let us imagine two men who have come out to fight a duel with rapiers according to all the rules of the art of fencing. The fencing has gone on for some time; suddenly one of the combatants, feeling himself wounded and understanding that the matter is no joke but concerns his life, throws down his rapier, and seizing the first cudgel that comes to hand begins to brandish it. Then let us imagine that the combatant who so sensibly employed the best and simplest means to attain his end was at the same time influenced by traditions of chivalry and, desiring to conceal the facts of the case, insisted that he had gained his victory with the rapier according to all the rules of art. One can imagine what confusion and obscurity would result from such an account of the duel.

The fencer who demanded a contest according to the rules of fencing was the French army; his opponent who threw away the rapier and snatched up the cudgel was the Russian people; those who try to explain the matter according to the rules of fencing are the historians who have described the event.

After the burning of Smolénsk a war began which did not follow any previous traditions of war. The burning of towns and villages, the retreats after battles, the blow dealt at Borodinó and the renewed retreat, the burning of Moscow, the capture of marauders, the seizure of transports, and the guerrilla war were all departures from the rules.

Napoleon felt this, and from the time he took up the correct fencing attitude in Moscow and instead of his opponent’s rapier saw a cudgel raised above his head, he did not cease to complain to Kutúzov and to the Emperor Alexander that the war was being carried on contrary to all the rules—as if there were any rules for killing people. In spite of the complaints of the French as to the nonobservance of the rules, in spite of the fact that to some highly placed Russians it seemed rather disgraceful to fight with a cudgel and they wanted to assume a pose en quarte or en tierce according to all the rules, and to make an adroit thrust en prime, and so on—the cudgel of the people’s war was lifted with all its menacing and majestic strength, and without consulting anyone’s tastes or rules and regardless of anything else, it rose and fell with stupid simplicity, but consistently, and belabored the French till the whole invasion had perished.

And it is well for a people who do not—as the French did in 1813—salute according to all the rules of art, and, presenting the hilt of their rapier gracefully and politely, hand it to their magnanimous conqueror, but at the moment of trial, without asking what rules others have adopted in similar cases, simply and easily pick up the first cudgel that comes to hand and strike with it till the feeling of resentment and revenge in their soul yields to a feeling of contempt and compassion.

Fucking illiterate idiots with fake credentials who teach the so called "strategy" in the US (Western in general) military academies and war colleges still cannot resign themselves to a simple truth, that forces larger than them in intellect and resources are at play here and that they have no clue about what they are dealing with. 

P.S. What's the deal with this June thing, hm? I guess they love solid roads in Russia. I always said--I don't like this whole highway system in Russia, wink, wink;) 

P.P.S. I reiterate, Tolstoy doesn't say "And it is well", he says "И Благо тому народу"--And Blessed are the people. 

Bundestag Marks Anniversary.

Odessa Jew Roman Shwartzman (89 years old). "First, Hitler wanted to kill me because I am a Jew, now Putin wants to kill me because I am Ukrainian" (c). 

Now you understand why there is nothing to talk about not just with Germany, but with most Germans and why Doug Macgregor is dead wrong when talking about historic affinity between Russia and Germany--it was a short historic period when Russia's and Germany's interests coincided. Germany is an existential enemy of Russia and Russian people and will remain so. 

To Those Who Forgot...

 ... today is the anniversary of the conclusion of the Kursk Battle. I underscore again German numbers on any operation and losses are primarily fiction as is most what is written in the West (that is to say written by Wehrmacht losers). So...

 

 

The map is up to the August 1st, but the battle concluded on August 23 through conclusion of Orlov Strategic Offensive (Operation Kutuzov) and Belgorod-Kharkov Strategic Offensive (Operation Rumyantsev). This is Moscow State University summary, based on actual Red Army and Wehrmacht archives, not sore losers fairy tales by Wehrmacht generals:

The Battle of Kursk, which involved the largest tank battle of the Second World War, was fought on the steppe of Kursk oblast between July 5 and August 23, 1943. It was initiated by the Germans who, in retreat after their spectacular defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad, concentrated 50 divisions, two tank brigades, three tank battalions, and eight artillery assault divisions comprising 2,700 Tiger and Panther tanks, some two thousand aircraft, and 900,000 men in all. The Soviet forces, consisting of General K. K. Rokossovskii’s Army of the Center, General N. F. Vatutin’s Voronezh Army, and the reserve army of the Steppe Front under General I. S. Konev, numbered 1.3 million troops, 3,600 tanks, and 2,800 aircraft. The German offensive, code named “Citadel,” involved two simultaneous thrusts against the Soviet-held northern and southern salients. Both were successfully repulsed, and by July 12, the Soviet forces had gone over to the offensive. On August 4, the city of Orel was liberated and by the 18th the German army took up defensive positions east of Bryansk. It had lost 30 of its 50 divisions and up to 500,000 men killed, wounded or missing in action. From its victory in the Battle of Kursk, the Soviet Red Army went on to liberate most of Ukraine in the autumn of 1943, marching into Kiev on November 6. Although Western historiography traditionally marks the beginning of the German downfall to the D-Day invasion of Normandy, the crushing defeat of Kursk makes a more likely turning point for the war.

It was a cataclysmic event, which ended Blitzkrieg once and for all. It also dwarfs any operation by Allies in its scale, scope and ferocity, also being the largest armor clash in history and precisely because of that it is being rewritten in the West non-stop for sheer propaganda purposes. I will be talking about it tomorrow and why they are so desperate to rewrite history. For now the link to Ira Alksnis spot on description of the main reasons (in Russian).   

Meanwhile:

NATO (let's call it what it is) decided to play diversionary-recon group (DRG) with Russian Army at the border of Belgorod Oblast. Here is how it all ends for them.

Larry Beat Me To It...

 ... on how history is being rewritten as you read this. 

When I heard the initial report that the Auschwitz Museum in Poland banned Russia from participating in the 78th anniversary of the camp’s liberation by Soviet troops, it was presented as a spiteful act on the part of the descendants of the Jews who survived the Holocaust. But then I read the story:

“Given the aggression against a free and independent Ukraine, representatives of the Russian Federation have not been invited to attend this year’s commemoration,” Piotr Sawicki, spokesman for the museum at the site of the former camp, told AFP.

Friday is the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp built by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland — a date that has become Holocaust Memorial Day.

Until now, Russia has always taken part in the commemoration held every year on January 27, with its delegate speaking at the main ceremony.

Museum director Piotr Cywinski said it was obvious that he could “sign no letter to the Russian ambassador having an inviting tone” in the current context.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/auschwitz-museum-russia-not-invited-to-event-marking-camps-liberation-by-red-army/

Piotr Sawicki is a Polack. Probably Catholic. And has never been a fan of acknowledging what the Russian troops did in January 1945 because the vast majority of inmates at Birkenau and Auschwitz were Jewish, not Polish. Polish animus towards Russia goes back centuries and the leaders of the Auschwitz Museum used Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a timely pretext to exclude Russia from the ceremony tomorrow (January 27).

Read the whole thing at Larry's blog. Moscow, of course, reacted pro-forma through Zakharova. But Larry is correct--you cannot reason with these people. No point.