Bashar al-Assad presented his version of the story of World War II

In the video of B. Assad’s speech distributed on Facebook in the record has Russian subtitles and a commentary:

“However, few people know that Hitler’s defeat began in 1941. under the walls of Moscow”.

The Syrian president spoke regarding the harmful distortion of the results of the Second World War by the West and reminded that NATO countries did not shy away from cooperating with Nazi criminals not only during the war, but also following it ended.

In his opinion, if the USSR had fallen in 1941, already in 1942. The “praiseworthy” West would have divided its territory and glorified Nazism.

However, according to B. Assad, in 1943 they already understood that if they do not recognize the USSR as an ally, then in 1945-1947 its borders will be on the English Channel, which will make it difficult for England and the United States to influence the continent.

“In general, we should remind the West and America more often who they are,” he added.

AFP/„Scanpix“ nuotr./Basharas al Assadas

The West fought once morest Hitler even before the USSR

In general, B.Assad’s discourse on the history of the Second World War is clearly influenced by the main ideas of Soviet historiography and modern Russian propaganda.

He states:

“Everyone believes that the West defeated Nazism in Normandy, during that great landing, and few know that Hitler’s defeat began in 1941. at the borders of Moscow, almost two years following the start of the war.

The Western powers, especially the United States, did not take any action once morest Nazism, and Stalin asked America to intervene, but was refused.”

In fact, it was the West he was cursing, ie Great Britain and France, in 1939. September 3 the first ones declared war on Nazism.

At the same time, on the eve of these events, the Soviet Union made a deal with Nazi Germany non-aggression pactwhich, in addition, had a secret protocol on the division of spheres of influence between Berlin and Moscow.

Until 1941 June 22 Only Great Britain and France fought once morest Hitler’s Reich, and the latter in 1940. was defeated and occupied.

All this time, the USSR officially remained neutral, not supporting the Western powers at war once morest Adolf Hitler.

Scanpix photo/Adolf Hitler

The US bailed out the USSR even before entering the war

in 1941 December 7 Japan attacked the United States of America, and on December 11 of the same year. Germany declared war on the United States.

But even before that, the American government approved lending programunder which the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition received weapons and various resources, from food to metal rolling and transport.

This program (also called lendlease) was started in 1941. in November, that is, before the USA officially entered the war, it was also applied to the Soviet Union.

Support to the USSR from the USA began in June 1941, officially under the lend-lease program – from 11.07.1941.

From 1941.09.06 lendlease also included support from Great Britain. Aid to the USSR was provided under 4 agreements (protocols).

According to the Moscow Protocol of 10.01.1941, 1.42 million was received. tons of production (half consisted of armaments, the other half – metals, oil, food products).

According to the Washington protocol of 10.6.1942, the support more than doubled (3.1 million tons, 1/3 consisted of food products, 1/4 – metals).

On 19.10.1943, the London Protocol provided for 5.75 million tons of support (1/3 food products, 13 percent – armaments, 18 percent – metals).

1944.04.17 Ottawa Protocol – 5.5 million tons (21% food products, 20% metals, 13% oil, 13% weapons).

According to official US data, the USSR received support from the US for a total of 11.3 billion. dollars, from Great Britain – for 1.7 billion dollars, from Canada – for 800 million dollars.

Wikipedia.org photo/Joseph Stalin (1935)

This aid was very important for the USSR. For example, the amount of aviation gasoline supplied by the Americans was 57.8 percent. of the total amount of aviation gasoline produced in the Soviet Union at the same time.

At the same time, the octane number of most of it was 99, while the octane number of the Soviet analogue did not exceed 74.

In other words, Soviet fuel was simply not suitable for the latest aircraft models.

Almost half of the rails used in the USSR during the war were also obtained under the lend-lease program, and the Soviet Union in 1942-1945. received 10.2 times more railcars than it produced.

And it was not only tanks, but also planes, food, uniforms and many other things.

Marshal Zhukov believed that the Americans “really saved themselves”

Marshal Georgy Zhukov, who was neither liberal nor pro-American, very precisely and clearly described meaning of this help:

“Now they say the allies never helped us. But it cannot be denied that the Americans sent us so much material without which we might not form our reserves and carry on the war.

We had no explosives, we had no gunpowder. We had no rifles and no ammunition.

The Americans really helped us with gunpowder and explosives.

And how much sheet steel they gave us! Would we have been able to start producing tanks quickly if not for the help of the Americans with steel?

And now it is presented as if we had everything in abundance”.

Wikipedia.org photo/Chorlogijn Choibalsan and Georgy Zhukov near Chalchin Gol (1939)

In fact, US troops did not land in Europe until 1944. However, at the same time, the country since 1941 fought a difficult war with Japan, an ally of Nazi Germany.

The USSR maintained neutral relations with the Japanese Empire all this time and only in 1945. declared war on her.

15min Verdict: Partially misinformed. Context is lacking, and a number of important historical facts are distorted or omitted.

The publication was prepared in 15 minutes in partnership with Metawhich aims to stop the spread of misleading news on the social network. More regarding the program and its rules – here.