Mr. Stone and his Conclusions

Another book and another puzzle! Mr. David R. Stone’s book Hammer and Rifle: The Militarization of the Soviet Union, 1926-1933, sheds a lot of light on the outcome of the first 5-year plan. Mr. Stone figured out that the Soviets managed to produce so much armaments by the 1933, that, “In a sense, the Soviet Union rearmed for the World War II six or seven years too early. By producing so much ordnance during the early and mid-1930s, the Soviet Union began the Great Fatherland War burdened with tens of thousands of obsolete tanks and planes.” (p.216) The question here is: Mr. Stone, if you are not a tank specialist, why do you bother to call Soviet tanks “obsolete”? Obsolete compared to what, Mr. Stone? Compared perhaps to the non-existent tanks of Germany, Britain, France, Japan and the US?

Mr. Stone goes on and says that the Soviet designs were superior to all existent other tanks around the world, and yet hypocritically states that they were at the same time obsolete?! Why is that Mr. Stone? Furthermore, he says that at the break of war in 1939, the Germans had 3200 tanks, which were less than what the Soviets produced in one year, and then goes on and states that the Soviets had more than 20,000 tanks, and then he even describes how many of each type. Well, Mr. Stone, if you did the same description of the “German 3200 tanks” you would be shocked to find out that most of them were obsolete right from the start, right from the moment they were designed, simply because the rest of the world, and mostly Germany were lacking so much behind in military industry and research and development, especially in tanks and planes, compared to the Soviet Union!

Instead of asking logic questions, Mr. Stone tries to fit his study into the existing historiography of the WWII, despite the fact that his own study disproves it, and rightfully questions it! Why didn’t you write conclusions such as, for example: According to my study the Soviet Union was well rearmed and most powerful militarily as early as 1933, thus it is very doubtful that Stalin was fearful of Hitler and the German military might, simply because the German military looked like a fly compared to the Soviet military elephant!?

Each and every study done of the Soviet Union inevitably shows the clear and massive militarization of the Soviet Union ever since 1927. It is so much and so modern, that it simply could not be compared with any prototypes which any other country had at that time, the Soviet Union was that much advanced! Yet, instead of taking these findings and put them into context, many historians, willingly or not, understandingly or not, end up disgracing their own studies with completely illogical and untrue conclusions, aimed at one goal only: to make them fit with the orthodox version of WWII historiography, rather than rightfully question it!

Sadly, this is how low today’s WWII historiography has fallen to!