希特勒如何造就了俄罗斯这个超级大国? [美国媒体]

How Hitler Made Russia aSuperpower

希特勒如何造就了俄罗斯这个超级大国?



After suffering more than twenty million military  and civiliandeaths in World War II, Russia has little cause to thank Hitler.

在二战中遭受超过二千万军民死亡的俄罗斯没有任何理由感谢希特勒。

But with Wednesday, June22 marking the seventy-fifth anniversary of OperationBarbarossa, the Nazi invasion of the SovietUnion, it is time to recall one of history’s greatest ironies. Adolf Hitler wasobsessed with turning Russia into a vast German colony and the Russian peopleinto slaves. Instead, half of Germany was occupied by the Red Army, its peoplesubjects of the Russian empire. When four million Nazi soldiers crossed theSoviet border in the early hours of June 22, 1941, they dreamed of seeing thespires of the Kremlin. Instead they unleashed a chain of consequences thatstill shape the world today.

但是在今年6月22的周三，即纳粹入侵苏联的巴巴罗萨计划75周年纪念日，是时候让我们重新回顾一下这个历史上最大的讽刺事件。阿道夫.希特勒沉迷于将俄罗斯变成德国最大的殖民地，以及奴隶俄罗斯人民。可笑的是最终一半德国领土被红军占领，人民臣服于俄罗斯帝国。当400万纳粹士兵于1941年6月22日穿过苏联边境时，他们幻想着看到克林姆宫的塔尖，事与愿违的是这次行动造成的一系列后果至今影响着世界。

To claim that Russia wasnot a great power before Hitler would be silly. Abundant in territory,resources and population, Russia has been a heavyweight since at least the eighteenthcentury, a behemoth strong enough to destroy the army of Napoleon (who alsothought Russia would be easy prey). Yet three-quarters of a century later, itis hard to appreciate just how different the global balance of power was backthen.

在宣称俄罗斯不是大国之前，希特勒肯定是愚蠢的。丰富的自然资源和人口使俄罗斯至少从18世纪开始就是一个大国，一个足以摧毁拿破仑军队的庞然大物（拿破仑当时也认为俄罗斯很容易被征服）。在75年后，我们很难想象那时的世界权力格局与当今有多么不同。

In the late 1930s, theUnited States had an army smaller than Romania’s. Britain, whose destroyerstoday can’t sail in warm water, owned aquarter of the Earth’s surface, and was reckoned to have the world’s mostpowerful navy. France, now the butt of many “I surrender” jokes, was consideredto have the most powerful land army in Western Europe. Germany, whose militarytodayappears barely functional, hadbeen terrifying its neighbors since 1870.

在1930年代末时，美国的军队规模小于罗马尼亚，现今驱逐舰都不能航行在温水海域的英国在当时占有全球四分之一领土，并且被认为拥有全球最强大的海军。如今经常被“我投降”拿来开涮的法国在当时的西欧拥有最强大的陆军。如今被认为不具有军事力量的德国，从1870年代开始就威胁其邻国。

And then there was Russia,the enigmatic Communist colossus racked by Stalinist purges, the giant withfeet of clay that could barely subdue tiny Finland in 1939–40. It wasn’t justHitler and his generals who believed Russia would collapse like a house ofcards; even British and American experts did not expect Moscow to surviveHitler’s blitzkrieg. Yet in May 1945, it was Britain that was broke, Francedevastated, and Germans who watched Russian tanks clank through the rubble ofBerlin. Like a boxer bloodied but still triumphant, it was Russia that remainedon its feet and became one of the world’s two superpowers for more than fortyyears.

在1930至1940年代时，神秘的社会主义国家俄罗斯正因斯大林式的清洗迫害而深陷泥潭中，甚至都不能征服弱小的芬兰。不仅是希特勒和他的将军们认为俄罗斯会像纸牌屋一样倒塌，甚至英国和美国专家也不认为莫斯科能挺过希特勒的闪电袭击。然而在1945年5月，英国和法国一样变得满目疮痍，德国人亲眼目睹俄罗斯坦克开过柏林废墟。就像鲜血淋漓依然依然获得胜利的拳击手一样，俄罗斯最终站了起来，并在接下来超过五十年的时间里成为世界两个超级大国之一。

What would Russia looklike today if World War II had never happened? What if Hitler had remained afailed painter in Vienna, or had been blown up byan assassin’s bomb in a Munich beer hall?

如果二战没有发生，如果希特勒依然是维也纳一个失败的画家或者在慕尼黑的啤酒大厅中炸弹暗杀中身亡，今天的俄罗斯会是什么样

Without Hitler startingthe war, the Soviet Union would never have seized their European empire.Britain and France were so anti-Communist that they almost bombed Russia’soil fields in 1940 after Stalin signed a pact with Hitler, and consideredsending troops to support Finland. They would not have remained idle if theSoviet Union marched into Germany (which might actually have happened if theSoviets had defeated Poland in the Russo-Polish War of 1920).

如果希特勒没有发动战争,那么苏联永远也不会统治欧洲帝国.英国和法国是十分的反共产主义,他们甚至在斯大林同希特勒签订<苏德互不侵犯条约>的1940年轰炸了俄罗斯油田,也谋划派遣军队到芬兰.如果苏联进攻德国的话,他们也不会保持中立.(苏联差点进攻德国,如果苏联在1920年代的俄罗斯-波兰战争中获胜的话)。

A considerable chunk of theGerman armies in Operation Barbarossa came from Axis allies that foolishlyjoined Hitler’s “crusade against Bolshevism,” including Romania, Hungary,Bulgaria and Finland (the thought of Italian troops eating pasta in the snownear Stalingrad is still surreal). Conquering Romania, Hungary and Bulgariaallowed Red Army bayonets to install Communist regimes in those nations, as didliberating (yes, it was liberation from the horrors of Nazi rule) Poland andCzechoslovakia. In other words, no Hitler, no Warsaw Pact.

巴巴罗萨行动军队中有相当大的部分来自于轴心国同盟,愚蠢的加入希特勒的反布尔什维主义十字军.这些轴心国包括罗马尼亚、匈牙利、保加利亚和芬兰（不包括意大利）。红军征服罗马尼亚、匈牙利、保加利亚后，像一把刺刀插进了这些国家，与此同时也也解放路波兰和捷克斯洛伐克。换句话说，没有希特勒就没有后来的华沙组织。

The borders of Russiatoday would also look different. Hitler and Stalin carved up Poland in 1939,and after the war the Soviet Union annexed mostof the Polish territory it grabbed in 1939, with Poland being “compensated”with German territory. These lands would never have changed hands were it notfor the war, while East Prussia would be part of Germany today instead ofRussia.

俄罗斯的领土与现在也很不一样。希特勒和斯大林于1939年瓜分了波兰，而且在二战后苏联吞并了在1939年瓜分的波兰大部分领土，同时由德国的领土补偿波兰被瓜分的领土。如果没有二战，这些版图就不会变化，那么东普鲁士在今天仍然会属于德国而不是德国。

True, Operation Barbarossadevastated the industry and natural resources of Russia and Ukraine, ashortfall only part made up by Lend-Lease and postwar Soviet looting ofGermany. Stalin’s ruthless push for industrialization in the 1930s had grownthe Soviet economy at a remarkable rate, and transformed the Soviet Union froma Tsarist peasant state into a major industrial power capable of producingenough weapons to defeat Hitler’s panzers. Evenwith the economic contradictions of Communism, it would have been interestingto see how the Soviet economy would have compared to others in the long run ifnot for the war.

确实，巴巴罗萨行动给俄罗斯和乌克兰的工业和自然资源造成了巨大的损失，这些损失通过美国租赁法案和战后苏联对德国的掠夺进行了补偿。斯大林在1930年不予余力的推行工业化使苏联经济有了巨大的增加，同时使俄罗斯从沙皇时代的农业国家变成了一个发达的工业国家，能生产足够的武器来打败希特勒的装甲部队。虽然经济学和社会主义相矛盾，如果不是战争的话，从长远来对比苏联和其他国家的经济将会很有趣。

However, there weren’tmany others. Except for the United States, Hitler’s madness eliminated theUSSR’s competition. The world of 1939 was multipolar, with multiple statescompeting for power. By 1945, there were just two superpowers: America and theSoviet Union. The other contenders were smashed, occupied or exhausted.

在当时，除了美国没有其他国家能和苏联经济对比。希特勒的疯狂减少了苏联的竞争力。1939年的世界是多极化的世界，很多国家来竞争霸权。到1945年时，仅剩下两个超级大国，美国和苏联。其他的竞争者要么被瓜分、要么被占领或者满目疮痍。

And that is the greatestlegacy that Hitler left Russia. Putin’s Russia has but a shadow of the militarypower and global influence of the Soviet Union. But compare the military powerand influence of today’s Britain, France and Germany to what those nationsenjoyed in 1939, and Russia doesn’t seem in bad shape. Moscow could maintain anexpeditionary force for months in Syria: NATO could barely muster enoughresources to tackle afifth-rate power like Gaddafi’s Libya in 2011.

这就是希特勒留给俄罗斯的巨大遗产。普京时代的俄罗斯是继承苏联的军事力量和全球影响力。但是就军事和影响力同当今英国、法国、德国来看，俄罗斯也不算差。莫斯科可以维持数月在叙利亚的远征军行动，相反看看北约在2011年却召集不了足够的资源解决三流国家利比亚。

Hitler left a power vacuumin Europe for Russia to fill. Whether this was worth twenty million dead isanother matter.

希特勒为俄罗斯在欧洲留下了权利真空以待其填补，关于战争给俄罗斯造成的二千万死亡值不值得就另说了。