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Red Army Quotes

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Red Army Quotes

“Red Army soldier Danylo could only sleep while moving – in transport – and even that could hardly be called sleep at all.”

WarHistorical FictionWorld War IiUkraine War1941Red ArmyMilitary FictionMilitary LifeSoviet HistoryUssr History
Book:Камень. Биографический роман. Книга вторая. Непростые дороги в ад: Выживание в условиях насилия
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“Bang!” The explosion thundered right beside him. Danilo’s body was thrown aside like a rag doll, and his mind shut down instantly. What happened next, Red Army soldier Shablia neither saw nor heard. The sounds of battle, the shouts of men, machine-gun fire, shell bursts — even the massive shockwave when the bridge and dam were blown up — could no longer reach his consciousness. Author: Volodymyr Shablia: Context note: This passage describes the moments of Danylo Shablia's last battle during the chaotic retreat of the Red Army, emphasizing the sudden, impersonal nature of events in World War II.”

WarWorld War IiUkraineMilitary History1941Red ArmyMilitary FictionSoviet HistoryUssr HistoryEastern Front
Book:Камінь. Біографічний роман. Книга друга. Непрості дороги до пекла: Виживання в умовах насильства.
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“[Letter to his wife, Natalia Sedova] In addition to the happiness of being a fighter for the cause of socialism, fate gave me the happiness of being her husband. During the almost forty years of our life together she remained an inexhaustible source of love, magnanimity, and tenderness. She underwent great sufferings, especially in the last period of our lives. But I find some comfort in the fact that she also knew days of happiness. For forty-three years of my conscious life I have remained a revolutionist; for forty-two of them I have fought under the banner of Marxism. If I had to begin all over again I would of course try to avoid this or that mistake, but the main course of my life would remain unchanged. I shall die a proletarian revolutionist, a Marxist, a dialectical materialist, and, consequently, an irreconcilable atheist. My faith in the communist future of mankind is not less ardent, indeed it is firmer today, than it was in the days of my youth. Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.”

LoveLifeHappinessDeathSufferingHopeBeautyWifeViolenceAtheismYouthTrue LoveAtheistOppressionCommunismEnjoymentMaterialismSovietTendernessMarxismMagnanimityRed ArmyDialectical MaterialismMaterialistProletarianRevolutionistIrreconcilable AtheismIrreconcilable Atheist
Author:Leon Trotsky
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“And thus to my final and most melancholy point: a great number of Stalin's enforcers and henchmen in Eastern Europe were Jews. And not just a great number, but a great proportion. The proportion was especially high in the secret police and 'security' departments, where no doubt revenge played its own part, as did the ideological attachment to Communism that was so strong among internationally minded Jews at that period: Jews like David Szmulevski. There were reasonably strong indigenous Communist forces in Czechoslovakia and East Germany, but in Hungary and Poland the Communists were a small minority and knew it, were dependent on the Red Army and aware of the fact, and were disproportionately Jewish and widely detested for that reason. Many of the penal labor camps constructed by the Nazis were later used as holding pens for German deportees by the Communists, and some of those who ran these grim places were Jewish. Nobody from Israel or the diaspora who goes to the East of Europe on a family-history fishing-trip should be unaware of the chance that they will find out both much less and much more than the package-tour had promised them. It's easy to say, with Albert Camus, 'neither victims nor executioners.' But real history is more pitiless even than you had been told it was.”

HistoryIsraelRevengeIdeologyCommunismPolandJewsNazisEastern EuropeHungaryAntisemitismStalinCzechoslovakiaEast GermanySecret PoliceCamusRed ArmyGermansJewish DiasporaDavid Szmulevski
Book:Hitch 22: A Memoir
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“Now there is a modern-day anthropology* for the criminal type: a great number of so-called 'born criminals' have pale faces, large cheekbones, a coarse lower jaw, and deeply shining eyes. How can one not recall this when one thinks of Lenin and thousands like him? How many pale faces, high cheekbones and strikingly asymmetric features mark the soldiers of the Red Army and, generally speaking, also of the common Russian people - how many of them, these savage types, have Mongolian atavism directly in their blood! They are all from Murom, the white-eyed Chud. And it is precisely these individuals, these very Russichi, who gave us so many 'daring pirates', so many vagabonds, escapees, scoundrels and tramps - it is precisely these people whom we have recruited for the glory, pride and hope of the Russian social revolution. So why should we feign surprise at the results?”

CriminalsRussiaSoviet UnionAnthropologySoviet RussiaLeninRed ArmyAnti Communism
Book:Cursed Days: Diary of a Revolution
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“Of the 403,272 tank soldiers (including a small number of women) who were trained by the Red Army in the war, 310,000 would die. Even the most optimistic troops knew what would happen when a tank was shelled. The white-hot flash of the explosion would almost certainly ignite the tank crew’s fuel and ammunition. At best, the crew—or those at least who had not been decapitated or dismembered by the shell itself—would have no more than ninety seconds to climb out of their cabin. Much of that time would be swallowed up as they struggled to open the heavy, sometimes red-hot, hatch, which might have jammed after the impact anyway. The battlefield was no haven, but it was safer than the armored coffin that would now begin to blaze, its metal components to melt. This was not simply “boiling up.” The tank would also torch the atmosphere around it. By then, there could be no hope for the men inside. Not unusually, their bodies were so badly burned that the remains were inseparable. “Have you burned yet?” was a question tank men often asked each other when they met for the first time. A dark joke from this stage in the war has a politruk informing a young man that almost every tank man in his group has died that day. “I’m sorry,” the young man replies. “I’ll make sure that I burn tomorrow.”

WarDeathTanksWorld War 2Soviet RussiaRed Army
Book:Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945
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“– But keeping such large troop formations idle here, while the enemy can outflank us from the right, is extremely dangerous!” Context note: Rigid command structures in the Red Army and a fear of initiative often led to catastrophic delays and encirclements in the early years of the war. In this case, the military leader is frustrated by the impossibility of implementing an obvious solution.”

TotalitarianismSecond World WarUkraine WarMilitary HistoryMilitary Leadership1941Red ArmyUssr HistoryPolitical ControlEastern Front
Book:Камінь. Біографічний роман. Книга друга. Непрості дороги до пекла: Виживання в умовах насильства.
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“I heard people talking about what this Red Army did to any Germans they captured, and this only added to my fears.”

WwiiHitlerWw2Survival StoryNazi PartyHitler S GermanyWar StoryRed ArmyAlfred NestorUncle HitlerSecond World War In GermanyAlf NestorAuthor Alfred NestorSecond World War ChidhoodRussian Red Army
Book:Uncle Hitler: A Child's Traumatic Journey Through Nazi Hell to the Safety of Britain
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“The most effective move would be to send the tanks with infantry west of Bolshaya Belozerka” Commander Smirnov proposed. “Enemy units there are nearly destroyed — we could threaten a real encirclement.” “That won’t be possible,” the chief of staff objected. “A combat order has just arrived from фронт headquarters: the 15th Tank Brigade, the 530th Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment, and the 30th Cavalry Division are are redeployed to support the 12th Army near Pavlograd, where the situation is critical.” Smirnov turned pale, then his eyes filled with blood. “Damn it!” he slammed his fist on the table. “We needed just two more days. Without tanks now, we’re helpless. — Volodymyr Shablia, Stone. Book Two Context note: In 1941, rigid bureaucracy and centralized command in the Red Army often prevented commanders from exploiting battlefield opportunities. Delays, reassignments, and fear of independent decisions frequently led to disastrous outcomes.”

LeadershipMilitaryDecision MakingWorld War IiBureaucracy1941Red ArmyMilitary FictionSoviet HistoryWar History
Book:Камень. Биографический роман. Книга вторая. Непростые дороги в ад: Выживание в условиях насилия
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“I fear that even my authority as an army commander won’t help. The fear of the High Command is too great.”

Historical FictionWorld War IiMilitary HistoryStalinism1941Red ArmyPower And FearMilitary FictionUssr HistoryAuthoritarian Systems
Book:Камень. Биографический роман. Книга вторая. Непростые дороги в ад: Выживание в условиях насилия
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“By seizing the formerly little-known Height 102.0 - the Mamayev Hill - the Red Army fought its way to the fascists' den - Berlin. We are proud to say that our victory in Stalingrad radically changed the whole situation in the Second World War. And this victory meant that our Motherland had withstood one of the most difficult tests in its history.”

WorldWayLittlesWarWholeDifficultSituationKnownChangedProudVictoryRedTestsArmyHillsHeightWar Of The WorldsBerlinFascistsSecond World WarDensSeizingMotherlandRed ArmyStalingrad
Author:Aleksandr Vasilevsky
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“It was my view that the catastrophe. . . . could have been avoided if Vasilevsky had taken the position he should have. He could have taken a different position. . . . but he didn't do that, and as a result, in my view, he had a hand in the destruction of thousands of Red Army fighters in the Kharkov campaign.”

IfsShouldHas BeensDifferentHandsResultsViewsTakenPositionRedDestructionShould HaveArmyCampaignsFighterCatastropheCould Have BeenAvoidedRed Army
Author:Aleksandr Vasilevsky
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“It is impossible not to recognise the Long March as one of the great triumphs of men against odds and men against nature. While the Red Army was unquestionably in forced retreat, its toughened veterans reached their planned objective with moral and political will as strong as ever... Their conviction had helped turn what might have been a terrible defeat into an arrival in triumph.”

MenLongHas BeensMightPoliticalTurnsStrongMoralImpossibleTerribleRedArmyDefeatConvictionObjectivesTriumphMarchOddsRetreatVeteranMight Have BeenRecogniseArrivalsPolitical WillAgainst The OddsRed Army
Author:Edgar Snow
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“Mao lived very much like the rank and file of the Red Army. After ten years of leadership of the Reds, after hundreds of confiscations of property of landlords, officials and tax collectors, he owned only his blankets, and a few personal belongings, including two cotton uniforms. Although he is a Red Army commander as well as chairman, he wore on his coat collar only two Red bars that are the insignia of the ordinary Red soldier.”

YearsWellsTwoTenTaxesOrdinaryRedArmyPropertyIncludingSoldierBarsOfficialsBelongingUniformsCoatsFilesCommandersBlanketChairmanCollectorsCottonCollarsMaoLandlordRed Army
Author:Edgar Snow
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“We know what we want. To us it means nothing that there is a Soviet Union somewhere in the world, for the sake of whose peace and tranquility the workers of Germany and China were sacrificed to Fascist barbarians by Stalin. We want revolution here in Spain, right now, not maybe after the next European war. We are giving Hitler and Mussolini far more worry with our revolution than the whole Red Army of Russia. We are setting an example to the German and Italian working class on how to deal with Fascism.”

KnowsWorldWantGivingMeanWarWholeNextDealsClassWorryExampleRevolutionRight NowRedArmyUnionsWorkersSakeChinaRussiaSettingSettingsGermanyItalianFascismSovietWorking ClassSoviet UnionSpainFascistsBarbariansTranquillitySetting An ExampleRed Army
Author:Buenaventura Durruti
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“What with the political monopoly, the Cheka and the Red Army, all that now existed of the 'Commune-State' of our dreams was a theoretical myth. The war, the internal measures against counterrevolution, and the famine (which had created a bureaucratic rationing apparatus) had killed off Soviet democracy. How could it revive, and when? The Party lived in the certain knowledge that the slightest relaxation of its authority would give day to reaction.”

GivingWarStatesDreamPoliticalCertainPartyDemocracyAuthorityRedArmyMythReactionsInternalsSovietRelaxationOur DreamsMonopolyTheoreticalFamineReviveCommunesCertain KnowledgeRed Army
Book:Memoirs of a Revolutionary
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“The Long March The Red Army is not afraid of hardship on the march, the long march. Ten thousand waters and a thousand mountains are nothing. The Five Sierras meander like small waves, the summits of Wumeng pour on the plain like balls of clay. Cliffs under clouds are warm and washed below by the River Gold Sand. Iron chains are cold, reaching over the Tatu River. The far snows of Minshan only make us happy and when the army pushes through, we all laugh. October 1935”

LongHappinessWaterLaughingFiveColdThousandTenMountainLaughterRedRiversGoldBallsArmyCloudsWaveWarmSnowChainsReachingSandIronMarchHardshipNot AfraidClaySummitCliffsOctoberSierraRed Army
Book:The Poems of Mao Zedong
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