Hitler versus Stalin:

Both are the dregs of humanity, existing solely for power and having nothing of what we would call decency.

Gulags v. Final Solution:

Stalin sent millions to the gulags on the slightest -- or no -- provocation. An estimated 30 million never returned from these gulags, starved when the farms were forcibly collectivized or were killed outright in purges and disappearances. No accurate count can be made, since records were not kept of many of the latter. This occurred throughout the Stalin era over a period of more than 20 years.

Hitler killed between 14 and 16 million in his "final solution" to the Jews, Gypsies, Queers, etc. This number probably exceeds 20 million if Russian POWs and others who were worked to death are counted. Hitler managed this total in less than 12 years, so his average was higher.

These numbers EXCLUDE the dead resulting from wars of agression launched by both nations. Many moralists would include those as well and the numbers become staggering.

To argue who was worse is to compare turds -- the essential subject matter has not changed.



Murmansk:

Western supplies did not have a decisive effect on the '41 campaign. Though convoys began by August of 1941, serious tonnage did not arrive until 1942. The soviets rebuilt faster because of these supplies, but they themselves -- and Hitler's military ineptitude -- saved them in 1941.

Though the russians did love the thousands of trucks we sent, and were partial to the Ma Deuce (who wasn't!), they preferred Soviet equipment for almost everything else.