World News

39032 readers

3101 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world

Recommendations

How to spot Misinformation and Propaganda

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

little_cow@lemmy.world

quinten@lemmy.world

NewsAutoMod@lemmy.world

jordanlund@lemmy.world

Tenthrow@lemmy.world

lemmyAtom@lemmy.world

FlyingSquid@lemmy.world

222

An Allegedly Corrupt Russian Commander Sent His Best Drone Operator To Die As An Infantryman (www.forbes.com)

submitted 2 months ago by Hubi@feddit.org to c/world@lemmy.world

33 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] totallynotaspy@fedia.io 21 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I boosted because for the most part I agree, however the 40k style commissar executions by the Soviets was wildly overblown by Hollywood and the joys of the First Cold War (imo, it either never ended or began anew in the past 20 years).

I dug around to find some relevant info:

These barrier troops operated by apprehending retreating troops and sending them back to the frontline. When this was not possible, retreating troops were detained to await trial. Although they had orders which allowed them to shoot deserters and “cowards” on the spot, and while this most certainly did happen, it was not the norm. Of those detained and found guilty (around 900,000), roughly 422,000 were sent to penal battalions where they would continue the fight against the Germans by performing the most dangerous jobs. This number accounted for around 1.5% of those who would serve in the Red Army during World War II. Another 436,000 were imprisoned

An example of these ratios can be found in an internal list from the NKVD regarding the Battle of Stalingrad from 1 August 1942 to 15 October 1942. According to the list, 15,649 soldiers were picked up by barrier troops. Of these, 244 were imprisoned, 278 were shot, 218 were sent to penal units, and 14,833 soldiers were returned to their units.

So these blocking units were technically being operated by NVKD orders and officers, and according to their data, the vast majority of retreating/deserting troops were sent back alive (to die on the front line). Also for context for any readers unaware, the NKVD was the predecessor to the KGB, much like how the US had their OSS more or less turn into the CIA.

Couple quick sources since I'm too lazy to dig through my Russian history textbooks: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2022/11/05/the-soviet-army-once-shot-its-own-troops-for-retreating--the-russian-army-could-do-the-same/ https://www.thecollector.com/soviets-in-world-war-ii-myths-and-misconceptions/

[–] InvertedParallax@lemm.ee 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

the NKVD was the predecessor to the KGB, much like how the US had their OSS more or less turn into the CIA.

Whoooa-ooaahh!!!

That's, that's not even a comparison you can make, that's insane!

The nkvd was a monstrous organization that controlled every aspect of Soviet civilian life, it was Stalin's personal enforcement arm, responsible for all the purges and executions.

It was led by this fucker here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavrentiy_Beria

The hundreds of underaged girls he raped and tortured are literally the least of his crimes.

Comparing the nkvd with the Cia? I don't even understand how you can try.

The KGB exists because the nkvd was utterly out of control under Stalin and they wanted something a bit less insane. Still a brutal arm of state security, but the NKVD was schizophrenic serial killers on meth.

The US has never, EVER in our history had anything that can remotely compare to either. The Cia specifically operates against foreign targets, there were very few exceptions to that rule.

[–] totallynotaspy@fedia.io 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That wasn't the point I was making.

[–] InvertedParallax@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago

I get it, I just didn't like the parallel, the NKVD were absolute monsters, nightmares in human form, the CIA has a LOT of faults, but outside of Pinochet and a few things in the 80s, I can't see them on the same level at all.