I basically consider myself an amateur military historian. I do various impressions, and this impression here today is to represent the contribution of the soviet union as an ally of the americans and the british to helping them win world war ii. We have to give either equal credit to our allies. Some would say we couldnt have done it by ourselves. The point is people ask me why do i do this impression . And i think because the reason is that we need to tell the story about the eastern front. Okay . If you dont understand what happened on the eastern front, you dont understand world war ii. The soviets made a significant contribution to winning that war. Now, for example, what i normally do is, on my display on the table over here, i have a National Geographic magazine. Its dated may of 1944. The first article in it has to do with the libber aches of the ukraine. The point being, the significance of that is that, of course, one month later we had dday. And the point, the relationship of the soviet contribution is that as of that date, when we pushed, when you liberate the ukraine you in fact push the germans out of your country. So by that point in time, one month before dday, we had been occupying 65 , maybe, of the best german troops fighting us. If we hadnt done that if they hadnt failed that if we had failed at maoscow, stalingrad o kursk all of it could have been a different outcome. The story that has to be told thats a significant droix w contribution to winning the war. Needs explained to us as americans because we all contributed and theres nothing wrong with supporting as we all do. My father fought in world war ii. Our contribution, but we have to understand the war as a total picture, and the eastern front, thats where we need to do it. As well as that strategic advantage, just the numbers. The sacrifice. Thats a story that needs to be told. There were something in the area of 20 million to 22 million who died on the eastern front. Half of whom they allege may be military. And even if you dont like those numbers, if you were to cut them in half, thats a lot of people. And when it comes to the soviets, for example, at least half im sorry. About, as Many Red Army soldiers died in one battle in stalingrad as all the americans killed in action in the entire war. So we can see that thats a significant contribution a part of the story that needs to be told. When it really comes to, though, the soviet contribution, the interesting thing i find and try to communicate to people is the differences, if you will, in the soviet contribution as opposed to the british and the americans. And i find there are three significant differences. One of them has to do with the partisan movement. Now, the partisan movement in the soviet union has a has a a resistancetype function. Its totally different than all of the other resistance in france or belgium. All of those were underground. Okay . They were they did good things. No doubt about it. For example, the french found a lot of american, got a lot of american airmen back to london. But in the soviet union, the partisan movement was big. It was well organized. It was organized in the military fashion. There were, as i say, not only numbers but because of the geography of that place, they could obviously hide, if you will, from the germans. And for action behind the german lines a new army was formed. An army without uniforms, whose home was the forest. Whose front was the enemys rear, the guerrilla army. Minimum of glory and maximum of determination. Their achievements were seldom recorded. Look well at these faces. You will never see them again in the lengths of war prisons or read their names over heroes graves. Ahead of them lay nothing but the rope and the halter and that stayed behind and went on fighting. Their only goal merciless destruction. The partisan movement ban m in 1941 in terms of its composition basically. When stalin made his first speech to the people, he united and urged them to become partisan. Rise up like the russians did when napoleon invaded russia, referencing back to the history of russia. Translator this war is not an ordinary war. It is the war of the entire russian people. Not only to eliminate the danger hanging over our heads, but to aid all people groaning under the yoke of fascism. Now, when he said that he probably didnt really mean it, because for the first year the only partisans that were allowed in the partisan movement were either Red Army Soldiers caught behind the lines or communist party members. Now, in many cases, that wasnt a bad deal, because you werent getting a lot of other volunteers. Especially in places like the ukraine, which were behind the lines. Because the ukrainians were initially, when the germans first invaded the ukraine, the ukrainians welcomed them thinking, of course, like in world war i when the germans came into ukraine and made them an independent nation, that they would again be an independent nation. I think after about a year they began to realize that they have two devils. Stalin on the one hand, because they dont like the soviet system. They dont like the fact that this cost them tens of thousands of people who died of starvation because of that system. But and, oh, by the way, we also see that today. That that juxtaposition in terms of between the ukraines and russians and animosity they have there. What happened is that now they realized in was another devil. That is hitler and the nazis, because they are killing people who are, just because they are on the low totem pole, if you will of the racial identity that the nazis project. And they send their young back to germany as slave laborers. So at that point now were able to get people to join the partisan movement, and in the soviet union, moscow, the leader of the partisan bureaucracy finally convinced stalin he should actually issue an order opening the partisan movement to all people of the soviet union. Whether they were red army or communist party members. So they began to move, as i said, and increase in numbers through that period of time. And most everything they did as an organized group was designed to support the regular army. The red army. Okay . And so, for example, basically four different things, lets say, as a partisan movement. Again, three of them in adjunct to or support of the red army. One, provide intelligence. Again, on my table over here, we have a picture. Okay . And this picture depicts one of those elements. A red army scout dressed in a camouflage uniform is consulting with partisan members. So moving back over here to this display, we then see parts of the uniform and equipment that he would have worn. In this case he wears the camouflage outfit. And in this case its a leaf pattern as opposed to what they call the amoeba pattern in that picture. Hes lightly dressed with that. He doesnt have a helmet. He has a soft hat. He has a bag, which is backpack, with a few items in it. Thats his map case. He has binoculars. He has a canteen. He has a belt. And his compass. All right . His weapon is the p ps41. Again, slightly dressed. He provides intelligence. Also i have another element that he would be carrying. And this is the scout knife. Very few Red Army Soldiers were provided with knives of any sort. Unlike the american whose have things like the kbar and whatever. The scout knife was provided to the scout. By the soviet army. The unique thing about it, of course, is that, its used in a particular way. As you could see, the knife has a blade edge and a nonblade edge and one would think you would use a knife in that manner, but a scout is actually trained to use it in one particular way. If you see the hilt, the way it fits my fingers designed for two motions. One motion is across the neck, from behind, and the other one is from the bottom and up. Its designed to be lethal, quick and silent. Which is the role of the scout. Not to be discovered, but take his intelligence back to the main red army. Unobserved. The other thing that partisans did, for example, were then raids. Sabotage. The things we normally think of guerrilla fighters being involved in. Sabotage. One of the more significant ones was what they called the railroad war as part of the battle of kursk. Again, the partisan movement is directed from moscow. There is a bureaucracy in moscow. They knew about the battle of kursk, knew they would be attacked, were defending against it. Orders went out to all the various United Nations s of theo begin attacking the germans communications. The supply and whatever. Thats what they did. Those would be small unit operations, in which you would have, lets say a half dozen men or a dozen men, again, with munitions to go out and blow things up, attack convoys and whatever. The other thing they did is raids which were different in the sense of the size and purpose. For example, the Ukrainian Partisans were actually directed by stalin, as we called him, the boss. That they should conduct the raid down to the mountain, and this would be unit involving Something Like 700 partisans, which is a substantial number of armed warriors like machine guns, to draw the germans away, to chase them. That was the idea of the raid as opposed to the sabotage. So those are the three things, for example, that the partisans did in support of the army itself. The other thing the partisans did is they represented the government of the soviet union. This, represented them to the people behind the lines. For example, one of the directors, by the way, as an aside over again to my display. Youll note a number of weapons on this other display. Most of them are german. One of them, by the way, is italian. Again, an axis ally or ally of the german. Even the belt buckle, of course, is german. But the point is that the directive was that we were supposed to be selfsufficient. So getting arms one way to do it, of course, capture them from the germans. Thats exactly we used the german supply chain to supply the partisans. Even including, as i said, the belt buckle. We adopted it to the soviet union partisan group covering the swastika with the soviet star. So your directive that doesnt mean we werent provided supplies by the soviet union. We were. But we supplemented them, as it were, to try to be as selfsufficient as possible. When it came to food, though, then had you to go to the collective farms. And you went to the collective farms and the theory would be, bring along your commissar or political officer. He would talk to the people. He would say, you must give food to the partisans because they are fighting to support the motherland, just like your motherland. Oh, and by the way, a speech of of giving support, if you will, and motivation and confidence to the people about the fact that the war is going to be run and comrade stalin is still in moscow. And we are going to win. But then also probably a a directive, a warning. Do not give aid to fritz, as they were called. The germans. If you collaborated and give aid you might be given permanent discipline, and we know, of course, permanent discipline would involve a firing squad. And sometimes the partisans did have to exercise that kind of discipline in terms of representing the government. The partisans continued on until 1944. The last operation being an operation in which as it indicates in that article we saw ukraine was liberated, pushed out of the soviet union. Now theres no need for partisans anymore, because there are no lines to fight behind. So most of the units were disbanded and they were mall a l amalgamated into units. One of the other things i find interesting about the soviet contribution is, as i said, one was the partisans. The other one was calvary. So i represent a calvary, in my case a calvary sergeant. My uniform is a fairly standard latewar uniform well call it. I have my red stripe on my pants to represent the calvary unit. My hat also, of course, has various combinations of colors. The idea being, again, the blue on my epaulets and also i have a symbol with the crossed sabres and, of course, im carrying a sabre. His harkens back to the cossacks. There were other types of sabres. Again, calvary men were lightly armored. They were mounted. The point here, the advantage, the interesting thing about the soviet military in terms of calvary is that they had large numbers of mounted calvary groups. For example, i might represent the 4th guards calvary corps. By the way, a guard, he has this metal. Now, what happens, of course, as the war progressed, things changed in the military, and part of the change was to adopt a, ill call it a prewar set of medals and uniform. So in the times of the czars there were elite units. Guard units. So when you were a unit, that did something very good, notable. Probably heroic, you would then be distinguished as a guard unit, and you would be given better pay and better supplies. So lets say im the 4th guard. The point being, though, we would take that large, mounted force. Again, all theyre armored with is pistols, a sword, maybe a pop popashard as we saw earlier, maybe mortars, maybe a light submachine gun, but they would take that corps or division and combine it with a Mechanized Group or division. So the two of them were a group that worked in tandem. So they were, of course, armored with the soviet t34. The kv1 and also some american tanks provided under lease. The way they would work theoretically. First of all, the calvary would perform a function when calvary had been providing since the American Revolutionary war. Intelligence. Reconnaissance. Calvary sent out, gain information, bring it back to the commander to use. When they mound an operation the theory of working together is this that the calvary first comes in on the flanks and get into the rear. They will enter supply, transportation, attack headquarters. Cause turmoil in the rear and as theyre doing that, again, trying to extricate themselves, because there are many times theyre outnumbered and outgunned. Then the mechanized part of the team hits the front. That causes the germans to respond to that, given time for the calvary to escape. And then theyre accomplishing their purpose of surprise and causing turmoil in the rear. Now, thats the theory. Didnt always work. There are certain battles unfortunately the Mechanized Group didnt get there fast enough and scalvary units were pretty badly mauled up. That is a very unique part. Outside of the polish calvary and german calvary in world war ii, a country that used large groups of mounted calvary in a somewhat very effective manner. The other big thing or important thing i think about the soviet contribution is the use of women in combat. And with that ill turn it over to you want to introduce yourself . Yes. Aye name is sheryl williams. And i am representing the female contribution to the soviet effort in world war ii. I guess just to start off just to let you know, the soviets were actually unique at that time in their desire and ability to include women in combat. So the women served as medics, as tank drivers. They served as pilots. They were actually called not quite so affectionately by the germans called the night witches. Fellas would bomb germans during the day and ladies come in and bomb them at night therefore called the night witches. Also most flamboyantiently and famously the women snipers. Soviet women snipers, lethal, very effective. One actually went on tour with Eleanor Roosevelt during the war to raise money. A war bond tour n. That is the soviet female contribution to war. Something not done a lot. A story that hasnt been told. We typically, craig and i enjoy doing things that are just a little bit different. And people seem to respond very well to it. These events are always wellattended. To me its an interesting story and something that doesnt get told a lot. Questions and an introduction to get a we get a lot of oh. I didnt know that. Oh i mean, quite honestly. I learned tell you something. Conversely, i learned something every time i do this. I learn from the people who come. I learn from my partner here. I learn something every time i come and do one of these events. So we get a lot of questions about the span. Actually. Well, the spam, by the way, represents on our, if you are aware of our table and part of our scenario the fact we were, of course, an ally to the United States and britain and represents what was providing supplies to help us fight the germans. Everything from spam to tanks or locomotives. Interesting thing about the spam, of course, we also liked to add a little humor to our presentation. Ill tell you the bad joke. For example, wed say some mornings the cook will come to the troops say i have good news and bad news. We will say, what is the good news . He will say, we have potato soup all week. And we will say what is the baaed news . Hell say, no potatoes. So thank you america for spam to help us substitute for the potato soup during the week. This is, again, part of our display. You know, we the interesting thing, i kind of touched on it a little bit about the regular red army, because as i said, our goal here is not to describe the red army in detail. There are many reenactors or living historians like myself who could get av of information about the red army. This book, for example, again, down here on my display. It emphasizes a picture of the red army soldier. Over here the life magazine 1944. Thats a red army soldier. And in the life magazine. Again, we were allies. We were even to the point of being in the movies. You probably heard of this fella, gregory peck. Well, this is his first movie about red army partisans and, of course, he dies a noble death fighting for the soviet union. And then over here is also another one called the north star, which, again, depicts partisans to some degree. Containing many of the famous actors and actresses of the 1940s. But, of course, 1945 we have to say after 1945, things changed. Soviets became our enemies. We saw them saw them seldom in the movies. Excuse me. Until the soviet union fell. And then all of a sudden we began to see movies again. For example, again, defiance. About soviet jewish partisans. And many others that came along. But as i was saying about the uniform and about the reference that i am a guard, when the red army was first organized in the 1920s by trotsky, one thing he wanted to do is to eliminate the uniform of the past. Of the czarist regime. So under the czars, the uniform of a regular soldier, in many cases, looked very much like the one im wearing. The difference being, for example, they would have the raised collar and they would have epaulets so troske took the red army and said i want to make it a working mans army. So when you go to work you dont wear a suit that has a raised collar and epaulets, you have a suit with a laydown collar. As we saw on the front of that book, that was what we called the early war uniform. It was just a simple smock like this with a laydown collar and all the rank insignificaensig n the collar. More and more reference to the past, to the heroics of the hill tear achievemen military achievement under the czars. A lot of changes were made to encourage that, to reinforce that. So later on during the war the uniform was now changed back to, in a sense, the czaristlookingtype uniform with the boards and raised collar. Okay . Again, the medals came back. Medals were prolific. As i said, the guard medal. The idea of there were famous czarist guard units. Now were going to have elite red army guard units, again, to raise morale and encourage the men to fight. So i guess id like people to take away from this, ill give i will say, for example, that cspan is a source of much of the information that we use in our hobby, and ive heard numerous occasions on various historical presentations made on cspan but the professional historian about how we downplay or dont say enough about the soviet contribution to winning world war ii. And the story of the soviets in world war ii. With that i guess id like people to take away that story and understand that it was a significant contribution, both in terms of its strategic impact on winning the war as well as the total and great sacrifice that the soviets incurred in winning that war. Announcer the war in russia enters its third year with soviets pounding from the black sea to the baltic. [ gunfire ] [ explosions ] announcer retaking town after town, soviet forces find a ravaged country left by the nazis, but hitler paid a price for this wanton destruction. That price was more than 5 million nazi soldiers. Weeknights this month featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan3. Tonight we examine slavery and emancipation. Colonial Williams Burj revisits roots and evolution of its africanamerican storytelling. American history tv was there as former interpreters from the earliest days of the program described the challenges of portraying the lives of slaves. You can see it tonight starting at 8 00 eastern on cspan3 and watch American History tv this week and every weekend on cspan3. American history tv continues now with a discussion on world war ii food rationing including troop field ration innovations that led to modern day processed food. We also heard about Government Policies addressing farm labor shortages and food rationing on the homefront held by friends of the National World war ii memorial, this is 45 minutes. Im very pleased to welcome karen cavanna to give her presentation, she participateded in the conference in 2017. Two summers ago. The first one it was national instead of just local. Were very excited to have her back and shes going to talk to you about world war ii food provisions and how that can be an awesome thing to teach and do an activity with in the classroom. Please help me in welcoming karen. [ applause ]