Radio War Nerd EP #534 — Stalin's Officer Purges & Decapitation Strikes, feat. Annibale

Mammals and others had to survive a couple centuries of being buried under volcanic ash. Dinosaurs had to easy. Those first 150 million years - those are Micky mouse eons. Talk to me when you survived a century of ash.

What Japanese video game was Annibale referencing?

As a lifelong paleontology nerd, listening to these uncultivated vulgarians stumble their way through deep geological history gives me rare sense of satisfaction.

Any good reads on the Western moves that fueled the Great Scare of ‘27?

I really feel that the Polish-Soviet War was The Most Important War in all of human history. If the Soviets had been able to make it to Germany and help the revolution succeed there, and spark the chain of revolutions envisioned by Marx that would resolve the class war in a positive way, then the fate of humanity looks very different. Instead, thanks to the Poles, we live in this doomed capitalist hell world. So thanks a lot, Poland. I think all nation-states are bad, but you really are the worst country ever. Also thanks to Lenin and Trotsky for somehow losing a war against Poland, the worst country ever.

You guys do great content but by Zeus you really outdid yourselves this time. How did we end up discussing the evolution of mammals before going back to Tukhachesky. My goodness, you guys are absolutely amazing and, really, Annibale should be a constant presence in RWN. Wow!

All I keep thinking during this is that Walter Schellenberg was pretty likable in Seventeen Moments of Spring, and maybe that just wasn't so?

To John's point, I remember watching a lecture about how George Marshall handled the US military at the outset of WWII. Basically the gist of it was that Marshall issued a lot of demotions to the existing staff of generals across the board, with the basic idea that the older ones would just retire and the competent ones would quickly work their way back up. It was a good lecture, and I'll just link it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxZWxxZ2JGE

Ofc Annibale is a synapsid appreciator, guy really never misses

Interestingly Schellenberg was portrayed in soviet cinema as a very intelligent spy chief in the mini series Seventeen moments of Springz

Stalin demonstrated the truth of the proverb "Just because you're clinically paranoid doesn't mean they're NOT out to get you."

I’m not a Stalin stan but one thing about the purges I have yet to see many historians look at is its effectiveness when compared to France’s military structure. The French surrender was basically precipitated by the generals who handed the political leadership a fait accompli saying the war was lost, partially because they did not want France to face extreme destruction. While military defeat was still likely, the French could have still tried to pull back and fight in the interior, raising new troops and building new defence lines etc. However there was not the political will for an all out fight to the death against Hitler. Stalin was constantly worried about lingering tsarist influence in the military and that his generals might do a ‘patriotic’ coup against him. Although the purges reduced the immediate effectiveness of the military and had the terrible effect of making remaining officers overly passive, the USSR was able to absorb cataclysmic battlefield defeats without the structure falling apart (something the Nazis counted on to win, a la France). I think many western historians see political considerations as primarily interfering nuisances in issues of pure military professionalism. But the fact remains that France collapsed due to its defeatist leadership after suffering a terrible battlefield defeat while the USSR stayed in the fight despite suffering a multitude of like defeats. Perhaps the same would have happened without the purges but this does pose potentially uncomfortable conclusions. Perhaps the bloody purges were necessary to keep the army from capitulating, even if it meant accepting reduced battlefield effectiveness. Many western historians tend to paint excesses of totalitarian regimes as both cruel and ineffective, showing the inherent faults of totalitarianism. But what is even more disturbing is having to evaluate whether the psychopathic purges were essential in keeping the military leadership absolutely loyal to the vozhd. We don’t have any way to test counter factuals but I think more scholarship evaluating the cold hearted logic of the purges with specific comparison to the case of France would be interesting.

Real man’s take: mammals are cuter but birds are prettier 💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪💪

I request, nay, demand a paleontology war nerd series.

Thank you for standing up for the Dinos Mark

Re listening this right now and I've realized I keep making a huge mistake through the show, saying that the Soviet intelligence and repressive apparatus was still the Cheka. Of course this is not true, as the Cheka had been dissolved in 1922, and the bulk of the repression was carried on by NKVD. Apologies for the confusion!

You heard my chanting ANIBALE!ANIBALE!ANIBALE!

Comrade Tukhachecsky's 'confession' was splattered with his blood

Another banger episode in the bag, boys.

cool

Sabertooth lizard

It’s so odd to imagine JD in the heart of the beast

I do think it was interesting for Anibale to end by saying that decapitation strikes don’t work when JD has made it quite clear that at least once it had a huge impact (Lincoln). And that’s probably why he has that impression about McClellan and Burnside, which is also probably accurate.

If John is staying about London...get down to The Yellow Bittern for some good Irish grub he will enjoy it...

Annibale the most knowledgeable level headed gamer

I adore this old Italian man

Without having yet listened to the episode, I am curious how Stalin and Budyonny's joint failure in the Polish-Soviet War, and their mutual hatred of Tukhachevsky will be handled. Budyonny's incompetence and steadfast opposition to mechanization played a large role here to the best of my knowledge.