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Sacrifice One of the most important elements in the Soviet war effort was the cult of sacrifice. The Soviet people went to war with the psychology of the 1930s. Living in a state of constant revolutionary struggle, they became used to the idea of sacrifice. This readiness for personal sacrifice was the Soviet Union's greatest advantage over Western societies where greater value was given to individual interests. EXTRACT FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY. Orlando Figes, Revolutionary Russia, 1891-1991 (Pelican, 2014), pp. 312-14. In the first year of the war, the spirit of self-sacrifice was essential to the Soviet Union's survival, as it struggled to recover from the catastrophic summer of 1941... [FULL TEXT 414 WORDS] |
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