Russia at war 1941-1945

foreign nations will resume their own lives, but there will always remain in their hearts the memory of your great human culture, of the soul of the Soviet people—of that people who shed their blood so that millions might be free and happy."

He then went on to say that the Rumanian countryside was poor, and that all the loot went to Bucharest:

Quietly, with an ironical smile, our soldiers march along these sumptuous streets...

The Rumanians had expected "Russian beasts" to enter the city. They were expecting murder and robbery and rape. Nothing like that happened... A few

bandits in Russian uniform who were caught turned out to be Rumanian deserters...

Soviet comments on the Slav countries—Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia—were

somewhat different, even though these, too, had their "well-dressed people sitting at café tables"—especially Czechoslovakia. For one thing, there was more good feeling for the Russians there than there was in Rumania, let alone Hungary.

Also, whatever official writers said, the Russian soldiers were far from always being gallant knights in shining armour. If, in the southern and central-European Slav countries, their conduct was reasonably good (though far from perfect—the Yugoslavs had a great deal to say later on that score), it was worse in Rumania and worse still in Hungary and Austria. Nor was it by any means exemplary in Poland. Sometimes this conduct varied

from army to army. Malinovsky's troops had a worse reputation than others, and the

Kazakhs and other Asiatics sometimes emulated their forebears, the warriors of Genghis Khan, especially in Germany, where anything from wrist-watches to young boys attracted their covetous attention.

It is not denied by the Russians themselves that some Russian troops ran wild, especially in Germany; but here there were, of course, some weighty extenuating circumstances.

PART EIGHT Victory—And the Seeds of the

Cold War

Chapter I INTO GERMANY

The final Russian offensive against Germany, which was not to stop until her capitulation nearly four months later, began on January 12. On the following day the Russians

published this communiqué:

The troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front under Marshal Konev (Chief of Staff,

General Sokolovsky) took the offensive, on January 12 in the area west of

Sandomierz and, despite bad weather, which made air support impossible, broke

through the enemy's strong defences along a twenty-five mile front. Our artillery barrage was decisive. In two days the troops advanced twenty-five miles and the

width of the breakthrough is now forty miles. 350 localities have been occupied.

The statement that the Russian offensive was started "without air support" had a diplomatic story behind it.

In 1948 the Russian Foreign Ministry published the letters exchanged between Churchill and Stalin before and during this January offensive.

After the Germans had launched their Ardennes Offensive, which had placed the Anglo-

American troops in a "difficult position" (the Russian publication said), and Britain was threatened with "a second Dunkirk", Churchill sent the following message to Stalin on January 6, 1945:

The battle in the west is very heavy and, at any time, large decisions may be called for from the Supreme Command. You know yourself... how very anxious the