Hello, and thank you for listening to the history of World War II podcast, Episode 153,

Stalin-Bio, Part 1.

If someone were to ask you of the influence of Alexander of Macedon in history, the

first thing your brain would probably do is tack on the great, and although you may not

be able to answer the question in any detailed way, you would probably still think of him

as Alexander the Great.

The same would be true for its ar-Peter of Russia, for those who have studied him.

The great naturally follows, Peter, yet Stalin was known as had earned the title of the great

in his lifetime.

Yet many Westerners do not attach this honorific now.

Yet it was Stalin that remained standing, as Western Russia was lost to the Germans during

the summer and fall of 1941.

Coming directly at him was the greatest, best-trained, most experienced army on the planet

at the time.

And what did Stalin do?

He knew he could not win outright at the moment.

So he threw men, millions of them, though ill-equipped and he'll trained, at the German

hordes as they approached Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalin-grad.

Many, if not most of these men, were lost relatively quickly, but Stalin kept the process

going, if only to use up the time before the winter, and coincidentally use up many German

bullets and shells.

And this bloody, bloody tactic worked.

...