People's Democracy

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In more than three years of brutal warfare the Red Army smashed Hitler’s war-machine, routed his forces and cleared Lenin’s land of Nazi forces. But it did not stop at its borders. It went in pursuit of the mortal enemy of freedom to deliver other lands from their bondage. Warsaw and Bucharest, Prague and Budapest, Sofia and Belgrade, Vienna and Berlin were liberated in quick succession. Even those lands where the Red Army did not intervene directly understood its contribution to their liberation.

Charles de Gaulle, the leader of free France, said in December 1944, “The French know what Soviet Russia has done for them, and they know that it was Soviet Russia who played the main role in their liberation.”

In May 1945 US president Harry Truman said, “We fully appreciate the magnificent contributions made by the mighty Soviet Union to the cause of civilization and liberty.”

In a message to Stalin, Britain prime minister Churchill said in February 1945, “Future generations will acknowledge their debt to the Red Army as unreservedly as do we who have lived to witness this proud achievement.”

Mao Zedong wrote at the time, “The Red Army has come to help the Chinese people to expel the aggressors. This has never happened in the history of China before. The influence of this event is invaluable.”

Assessing the importance and effects of the great victory Kim Il Sung said, “The great victory of the Soviet Union in the Second World War, the defeat of imperialist Japan by the Soviet army ensured the liberation of our country from prolonged colonial domination and the way to a new free life for the Korean people.”

One of the greatest German writers, Thomas Mann said after the banner of victory was raised over the Reichstag, “This is great hour not only for the victors but also for Germany, the hour the dragon was slain. The fearsome and insane monster called national socialism has expired, and Germany at any rate has been delivered of the stigma of being called a country of Hitler.”