How did the Russians defeat both Hitler and Napoleon?
First
off, they started pretty well. When the Germans first invaded, the
people thought they were being liberated (tells you a lot about the
government at the time) and were treated pretty well. But then they
started killing people and things went downhill. Now, Hitler had this
grand idea to take over Stalingrad (mostly for its namesake, Stalin). He
thought it would be a massive blow to the Russian morale. But instead
of basing his military strageties on logic, he did on feelings (he
wanted to beat Stalin); which is never a good thing. Unforunately, he
didn't anticipate Russian winter (which, luckily for the Russians, came
early that year and ironically the same year for Napoleon). So the
German army was stuck in Summer gear, rather then the proper Winter gear
(which was promised but never came through). AND look at Russia as a
whole: It's a huge country (I heard it takes around 8-10 days to just
get through Russia straight across). Now, to the other guy above me.
Russia isn't known for having the strongest armies ever. Actually,
compared to the Germans they were undisclipined, untrained and from all
types of backgrounds, and all ages, etc. Hardly sounds like an ideal
army. But the Russian people were stubborn and burned everything, so in
that way the German army failed. Plus, Russia had an endless supply of
men. Hitler was shocked to notice, there was always a fresh supply of
men waiting to fight.
So in conclusion, Russia's massive land(s) and brutal winters
contributed to both the fails of Napoleon and Hitler's conquer of
Russia.
