Success💪🏻

[u/Thanos_6point0]

[u/Gruffleson]

The most annoying thing with that movie, is they didn't pick an actor with a wide enough chest to sport all the medals Zhukov actually had, in full size.

[u/Independent-South-58 → u/Gruffleson]

To be fair Zhukov had a frankly insane amount of medals, both imperial R*ssian/Soviet and Foreign

[u/Mr_SunnyBones → u/Independent-South-58]

in the movie they actually didn't show the amount Zhukov really had , they had to cut the total count down ,as it just looked ridiculous

[u/BambaiyyaLadki → u/Mr_SunnyBones]

Genuine question: how many of them were well-earned? Like, did he actually pull of such insane shit in all the imperial/R*ssian wars?

[u/AnnieBlackburnn → u/BambaiyyaLadki]

A lot of them were given to honor him more than anything but Zhukov was absolutely a great general, and what’s more, he managed to be one while keeping his head, which was not easy under Stalin

The real test of the Soviet generals' acumen in general was the disorganization and unpreparedness of the Red Army as a whole. That, and its enormous size. They were not German generals, working with the absolute best soldiers in the world at the start of the war, with outstanding organization and training.

Soviet generals were commanding vast legions of men who were barely trained, and led by junior officers who themselves were barely trained. Their forces were haphazardly equipped with a mixture of old equipment and new equipment that they had no training in or knowledge of how to use even in theory.

They also had to navigate an intensely hazardous political environment around Stalin and his inner circle, where one wrong turn of phrase could end your career, and even your life. Zhukov in particular excelled at this, and was notably firm in his opposition to Stalin's orders on many occasions. He still managed to maintain his post and defeat the Wehrmacht. In the first months of the war, when losses were most acute, Zhukov advocated for what are now regarded to be the correct moves, even though Stalin typically overrode him and forced the Red Ay repeatedly into desperate losing fights.

Zhukov was later closely involved in many of the Red Army's key victories against the Germans, and thus he earned his legacy as one of the great generals of the war.

Were the medals overkill? Maybe, but Zhukov himself was the best general on the side that fought 80% of German forces.

[u/EagleOfMay → u/AnnieBlackburnn]

It should be mentioned the poor training at the highest levels of the soviet military was self-inflicted due to Stalin's purges in the late 30s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Purge :
3 of 5 marshals
13 of 15 army commanders
8 of 9 admirals
50 of 57 army commanders
154 of 186 division commanders
all 16 army commissars
25 of 28 corp commissars.

I suspect that if Zhukov had annoyed some communist party Apparatchik he would have been swept up in the purges also. Lucky for Russia he didn't.

[u/AnnieBlackburnn → u/EagleOfMay]

I do mention the purges twice in my comment

[u/VAS_4x4 → u/AnnieBlackburnn]

I'd say it adds a lot of context to tge extent of the purge. I thought it would have been like 30-40%, not nearly everyone.

[u/steauengeglase → u/AnnieBlackburnn]

Wasn't Zhukov the one who said, to Stalin's face, that he wasn't the best general the USSR had to offer, but he was the only living one after Stalin killed them all?

[u/AnnieBlackburnn → u/steauengeglase]

I can’t speak to the quote specifically but Zhukov was famous for being one of the few people who could say no to Stalin’s face and get away with it. I don’t know if that extended to open criticism of Stalin’s politics, I honestly doubt it, but I can certainly believe he thought it.

But also the reason he was able to be more blunt with Stalin while others were not is precisely because he was a great general. Good enough that openly defying Stalin’s orders didn’t get him killed, he was too valuable.

So it’s a little of both. It’s perfectly possible that better generals were killed during the purges, and Zhukov himself would’ve certainly thought so, having studied under a lot of them. But when push came to shove, Zhukov did do his job very well, which to me makes a great general.

If anything doing what he did with an army bereft of most of its talent makes him a better general

[u/the_gay_historian → u/Mr_SunnyBones]

which is even more funny because the movie is a parody

[u/SasugaHitori-sama → u/Gruffleson]

They should make Zhukov look like this.

[u/GarlicThread → u/Gruffleson]

They actually chose to reduce the amount of medals compared to the real Zhukov because they thought the audience would assume it's a joke.

[u/jnmtx → u/Gruffleson]

Death of Stalin (2017)

[u/Bob_Bagg → u/Gruffleson]

This isn’t Star Trek: Discovery? 🤣

[u/wh4tth3huh → u/Gruffleson]

They toned down the number of medals on the costume because the real amount of medals Zhukov wore looked fake and comically over the top.

[u/cttuth]

S-Tier movie

[u/Thanos_6point0 → u/cttuth]

[u/Mr_SunnyBones → u/cttuth]

It really is .

[u/GaddockTeegFunPolice]

The average warhammer 40k battle

[u/_Axolotl-king_ → u/GaddockTeegFunPolice]

30k casualties would be seen as a miracle lol

[u/PresidentSkillz]

I mean, the average R*zzian general is capturing tree lines and villages for twice the casualties, so it's kind of an achievement. Like how passing with a D- is good when everyone else got an F

[u/aaarry]

What’s a war ‘ero got to do to get some lubrication round ‘ere!?

[u/Cheeriodude_number2 → u/aaarry]

Shoot ‘im

Nah just fucken with y’as

[u/deeptut]

2 minutes later:

[u/awoelt]

Zhukov would be ashamed to be in this meme. He could take that village 100 times as fast and with double the casualties.

[u/WhatsRatingsPrecious]

Zhukov was a fucking strategic madman.

That said, he had ridiculously overwhelming numbers bristling with literal tons of armaments and materiel through Lend/Lease, going after an exhausted adversary that was on its last legs.

[u/ilpazzo12 → u/WhatsRatingsPrecious]

He did do great feats before all of that too though. He was in charge of some things with Barbarossa too, I think defending Moscow. But even before that, at Khakhin Gol he kicked the Japanese so hard they stopped thinking about war with the USSR whatsoever. Oh and after the initial winter war mess I think Stalin put him in charge to fix the mess, and it worked.

[u/Pyrross]

r/NonCredibleDefense

[u/tonybpx]

Imagine if we lived on a planet where all the war money was spent on healthcare, education & science

[u/esuil]

Of course it is a success. The more casualties and the longer, the better. After all, you setup line of trusted subordinates all the way down to steal few months of salary of each dead soldier while delaying the reports of their deaths.

Soldier dies -> your subordinate takes over financials and siphons the salary to crypto
Few months pass -> you report the death and move on to next set of casualties
Repeat for few months, stove the crypto away, retire, emerge as multi-millionaire few years later.

There is insane level of corruption on both sides right now. Neither side feels they can achieve any meaningful objectives and front has stalled, so corrupt fucks of both sides are in full on money making phase right now. Russians by skimming the salaries, Ukrainians by creating forced mobilization schemes of "pay us a bribe or go to the front". This war is fucked.

The towns are eventually captured as unintended consequence of throwing stuff at them while officers are busy making money, not as a direct result of meaningful tactics.

[u/1Katasav1]

This is just what warfare has evolved into since WW1. Not to be on Russia's side, but you're not going to see anything different from Ukraine, or any country for that matter.

[u/TheRealMykola]

This is hilarious and so true!

[u/Kinexity]

The problem that OP is overlooking here is that if the cost doesn't matter to Russia then it's their win because they took the city. It doesn't matter how many soldiers or armaments Russia loses if it doesn't bring Ukraine any closer to taking stolen lands back.

[u/Divniy → u/Kinexity]

Losing armaments totally do have impact on bringing Ukraine closer to taking stolen lands back. Stalemate is only possible when both countries are able to continue the fight. Once one country would give in, the borders would change drastically really fast.

War costs something. Losing soldiers and equipment costs something. The longer it goes, more problems accumulate. Support Ukraine so it is able to stand. Sanction russia more so it won't be able to afford to continue. It will give results in the end.

[u/Fandango_Jones]

Colonel 100, showing them how its done

[u/jmtamere]

Then https://i.imgur.com/fDzO6mc.jpeg

[u/Avtsla]

Also to be mentioned - ,the fact that by the end the town is reduced to beyond rubble, it basically erased from the map by the russian bombardments and artillery

[u/KernunQc7]

What are 30k men's sanity or even lives, compared to the career/survival of a r*ssian general? History tells us: nothing.