Russians: You Win

I'm still thinking about a PBS World War II special that I was watching last week. It's atypical focus was on the Eastern front, and the Russian experience in particular. It wasn't actually that good of a show, containing those horribly acted re-enactments that you see in historical shows sometimes, but the subject matter I found to be enthralling.
Like a lot of young males, I used to love war documentaries, films, books, anything. My favorite movie ever was Saving Private Ryan, and I was one of the people who actually loved that back in the day all the History Channel ever aired was WWII shows. But even through this exhaustive coverage, you don't often get the full story. According to everything I was ever presented with, D-Day was the biggest thing ever, and the North African and Italian invasions were anything more than diversionary. This is of course false. The Eastern front during WWII was far bloodier and more "important" than anything the U.S. did elsewhere. The Russians basically won the war for us, or put more descriptively, the Russians wore out and defeated the Germans, which allowed the Allies to win the war. I think partially because this side of the story is so often left out of the history that Americans consume, and partially because the actual scale of the Russian/German fighting, is precisely why I am so fascinated by it.
One focus of the PBS special, and the reason I'm still thinking about it a week later, was the Battle of Stalingrad. I urge you now to do a quick search of this battle just to educate yourself. It was immense and horrible and hugely deadly and basically the end of the Third Reich. And the Russians were literally fighting in defense of their country, meaning if they had lost they might not have had a country anymore. This small matter is something that the U.S. has not had to face since at least 1815. Sure we have participated in wars since then, but never really with the fate of the country or its civilians' lives at stake.
The point of this post now is to display my complete awe at the country of Russia (Soviet Union) in general, and specifically the people who participated in the Battle of Stalingrad. Secondarily, I would like to ask any American alive during the Cold War who thought they would like for us to actually go to war against the USSR, just what the hell were you thinking? The Russkies would have completely destroyed us in any ground (non-nuclear, I know the qualifier is non-trivial, but go with it) war, the reason being that they as a people are simply made of tougher stock. It's hard to make these comparisons, but I consider myself to possess relatively strong fortitude, but I can promise you that there is no way I would have held up through Stalingrad. No way.
Scroll back up and take another look at the statue in the picture. That statue was dedicated in 1967 on a hill overlooking Stalingrad where particularly bloody fighting took place. It's 279 feet tall. The sword alone is 108 feet long. It's called "The Motherland Calls." It's hard to see, but look at the face. They showed a close-up of the face during the PBS special, but the point is that the mouth is wide open and the face is straining in horror as if desperately exhorting someone to action. It's terrifying. It would be terrifying if it were only 6 feet tall, but those crazy Russians built it 279 feet tall. The imagery is supposed to call to memory the fact that Russians from all over the country were summoned to Stalingrad to fight and die (fact: at one point during the battle, the life expectancy for a newly arriving Russian solider was less than 24 hours) to defend the Motherland.
I simply can't imagine how the United States would ever have a chance against that kind of national backbone. Even today, weakened and relatively shamed as a world power and failed economic state, I would not want to mess with Russia in a traditional war. We have innumerable technological advances that would likely never let a war devolve into the brutality of Stalingrad, but you still can't hide from the fact that those Russians are some frightening sons of bitches.