I dont totally know the history here but just to be clear, the Red Army did this no more than the Western allies did correct?
I dont totally know the history here but just to be clear, the Red Army did this no more than the Western allies did correct?
absolute or per capita? there's no honest comparative assessments to my knowledge, and lingering perceptions of soviet violence on civilians is permanently tainted by late-war nazi propaganda.
but talking absolutely, if the american GI and soviet soldier had an identical propensity for abuse, more would've been done on the eastern front, with so many more soviet soldiers deployed on a wider front occupying more territory. and i'm not sure we should think the occurrence of war crimes was identical, the motives of reprisal & revenge didn't exist as strongly for people from new england than soldiers that might've been from regions that suffered massacres and sexual violence for years under axis occupation. it's ugly to think about but i really wouldn't be surprised if soviet soldiers were crime-ing at a bit higher rate for that reason. i read an account that directly tied an incidence of violence (that was punished with execution) with a leave to their liberated home village & hearing about the atrocities that occurred there.