What were the experiences of the USSR soldiers?

Question by ✖ XIANG ✖: What were the experiences of the soldiers during the USSR?
What were the experiences of the soldiers during the USSR? they can be from either group, just an experience/facts. like nearly 1 million people died etc etc, faced starvation etc etc. What happened to them?

Facts, information, or something that was written by the soldier himself, or anything ABOUT the EXPERIENCES of the soldiers are greatly appreciated 🙂 if you found it in a website, can you please include the source? thank you 🙂

Answers and Views:

Answer by centurion216
Hi,
You did not specify a time period, but from what you say i think i can narrow it down. Two times in Soviet history millions of soldiers died. One was over civil war starting roughly with october takeover in 1917 and lasting into 1922 to signing amstrices with neighbours. Second one was ww2, which started with roughly 1939 but took off into life and death mode in 1941 and ended in 1945 with defeat of germany and her allies, and then Japan.

Best sources for this are primary sources. They are letters, diaries, work documents from that time period. Soldiers in 1941-1945 produced a lot of letters. You can search google and should find some translations. Ones i came across are very uncensored 1939 to sometime to midwar. Tjen say in early 1943 all letters were indeed read by special troops, and any info found like village names or other military wartime secrrets were taken out.

Overall it was laxer experience for privates in in1939 then a more chaotic time in 1941, and more organized experience from 1942 to end of war..
Like any place in life if person could stand up for himself and did not do unacceptable things he did ok.

Examples is a junior officer, who wrote to his wife a few letters in 1941. He was pragmatic about military situation, briefly describing how quickly plans change because of enemys advance. He showed a lot of attention toward her receiving benefits back home in moscow. Told her to muscle in to get money she needs to get. He seemed like a very selfless person because of this. He died two months into war in smolensk area in 1941 during a company assault across a field with tall crops.

I hope its helpful.

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