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Music Hello everyone and welcome to history of the Second World War.

Episode 140, the Soviet Union, Part 10, the Red Army.

This week, a big thank you goes out to Carl, Fitter, Robert, and

Martin for becoming members. You can find out more over at History of the Second World War.com

slash members. Many of the challenges faced by the Red Army in 1941 would be blamed on

the purges and the effects that those purges had on the overall performance

of the Red Army. In some ways, this was true. The purges resulted in thousands of officers being

removed from the Army, many of them to be executed. The purges would also have particular effects

on the more radical thinking officers, even if that radical thinking was limited to military

strategy. The officers that were no

longer in the ranks of the Red Army were also those that had built the Red Army up to what it was

in 1937. And the processes and the people and the equipment and everything else that they had

built, you know, had to be handed off to other people. So while the purges did have an

effect, it is important to remember that there were many other challenges that were facing

the Red Army during this time period as well. The first was one of size. Throughout the last

...