RE: Springtime for Hitler FOOTNOTE

Christopher Jones described attempts to understand Hitler as a human, saying "It is not a revision to rehabilitate, it is revision to be able to understand the phenomenon Adolf Hitler". I commented "Will there be a revision so that we can understand the phenomenon Joseph Stalin?"  Christopher replies: "Cameron Sawyer in Moscow is far better qualified to answer about Stalin, but I should add that the story of Hitler's last days is based solely on the memoirs of Traudel Jung, one of his young secretaries.  As Joachim Fest pointed out, in our collective effort to convert Hitler from a flawed human into Godzilla, most historians lost the chance to interview others who were in the Berlin bunker when they were released from Russian captivity. (I saw one interview in a film made by SMERSH with an SS general who described his last meeting with Hitler, the death of the Goebbels family and the attempt to broker a surrender after their deaths -- impossible.  SMERSH then found the body of Blondie -- the dead pooch's picture was included)  In fact, Fest is behind both docu-films, acting as historical consultant, on "The Downfall" which is based on his latest book.  Curiously, it seems that again it was Fest who was instrumental in getting Albert Speer to start talking after the war and played again his editor.  This is one of my prime preoccupations with the history of this period.  Historians were/are just too politically correct to even talk to the right people. Another interesting personality who never talked much was Arno Breker, the sculptor of the Nazi Reich, who did all those classic figures in "Olympia" and the famous bust of Hitler.  Reportedly, the artist Hitler did not get along with Breker, although the sculptor spent the war working at Albert Speer's side"

RH:An ignoramus, I checked Google to find out about Godzilla.  From 628,000 (!) entries I chose this: "It was a peaceful and productive forum; lively, congenial and a bounteous source of useful information. Then one day, completely without warning, Godzilla arose from the depths and blew his scalding breath on everything in his path. A phalanx of Warriors mobilized to attack the monster, only to be crushed like so many toy tanks under Godzilla's mighty feet. Godzilla soon reduced the forum to searing and consuming flames. Just as abruptly, he rumbled back beneath the waves, leaving all to tremble in fear of his return. Net life would never be the same. Sadly, many netizens who survive a Godzilla attack will become Xenophobes". I could not download the picture of the dragon Godzulla, who is clearly very unWAIS. Turn WAISers into xenophobes?? Never!!!

As for SMERSH, here is a note on Ian Fleming's James Bond series: "Smersh (short for Smert' Shpionam ( ), or "Death to Spies") was formed during the Great Patriotic War The Eastern Front was the primary theater of combat between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II. It was somewhat separate from the other theatres of the war, not only geographically, but also for its scale and ferocity. In Russia, the war is referred to as the Great Patriotic War (Velikaya Otechestvennaya Voyna in Russian), a name which alludes to the Russo–Napoleonic Patriotic War on Russian soil in 1812. Some scholars of the conflict use the term Russo-German War, while others use Soviet-German War or German-Soviet War.
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Smersh was also used to punish those with in the NKVD The NKVD, or Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del ( )­People's Commisariat for Interior Affairs, was the name for the political (or "secret") police in the USSR in one of the stages of its development.  it was allowed to investigate whomever it wished within the NKVD structure, department and directorate heads were not immune from it, and if it found even the slight bit of evidence that they were somehow involved in whatever plot it was that week, they would be arrested, and tortured by Smersh, forced to sign fake confessions, put on a show trial .Typically, show trials were used to deal with the political opponents of the current government or of the Church.

One of its most notorious moments was when they slaughtered many Polish officers in the Katyn massacre The Katyn Forest Massacre occurred in the Soviet Union, in a forest near Gnezdovo village, a short distance from Smolensk. Many Poles had become prisoners of war following the invasion and defeat of Poland by the Nazis and the Soviet Union in September 1939. The Soviets filtered out any army and police officers and gathered them in three camps: Kozielsk, Ostaszkowo and Starobielsk. In addition, an atrocity that was later blamed on the Germans. Smersh was also used by INO (the NKVD's later KGB The KGB, short for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Russian: ; English: Committee for State Security), was the name of the main Soviet Security Agency and intelligence agency, as well as the main secret police agency from March 13, 1954 to November 6, 1991. The KGB's domain was roughly comparable to that of the American Central Intelligence Agency combined with the counterintelligence and internal security divisions of the FBI.    FCD, First Chief Directorate, responsible for foreign intelligence operations outside of the USSR) to hunt down "enemies of the people" outside of Soviet territory. Eventually Smersh's activities were slowed down, but they never really ceased. Its name may have changed as the NKVD changed, but its duties always remained the same".

RH: Can Cameron Sawyer tell us if James Bond is known in Russia?  There is obviously plenty of material here for the suggested explanation of Stalin as a human being.