The Soviets' Motivation to Fight in World War II

4min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Comments

Transcript

Episode notes

The Soviets fought fiercely in World War II because they were up against a genocidal adversary. The Germans had already murdered 2 million Soviet POWs by December 1941, more than they had murdered Jews at that point. The Soviets understood that if they were taken prisoner, they would die, so they fought like wild dogs. Hitler's plans for the Soviet Union, such as the hunger plan and the Grand Plan Deist, indicated that many tens of millions of people, including the Poles and the Roma, would have been murdered. The Soviets realized the gravity of the situation and had powerful incentives to fight hard to ensure that the Germans did not win.

John Mearsheimer is an international relations scholar at University of Chicago. He is one of the most influential and controversial thinkers in the world on the topics of war and power. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
– Notion: https://notion.com
– ExpressVPN: https://expressvpn.com/lexpod to get 3 months free
– InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/lex to get 20% off
– Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/lex to get special savings
– AG1: https://drinkag1.com/lex to get 1 month supply of fish oil

Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/john-mearsheimer-transcript

EPISODE LINKS:
John’s Website: https://mearsheimer.com
John’s Books:
The Tragedy of Great Power Politics: https://amzn.to/3FWrqkX
How States Think: https://amzn.to/3udaWST
The Great Delusion: https://amzn.to/3syXKXS
Why Leaders Lie: https://amzn.to/3ucs4rU
The Israel Lobby: https://amzn.to/47fxrVU
Books Mentioned:
Leviathan: https://amzn.to/49zCFgu
The End of History and the Last Man: https://amzn.to/47wTVBf
Who Are We: https://amzn.to/3QXDk44

PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8
RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/
YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman
YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips

SUPPORT & CONNECT:
– Check out the sponsors above, it’s the best way to support this podcast
– Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman
– Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman
– Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman
– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman
– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman
– Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman

OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(09:52) – Power
(33:06) – Hitler
(50:33) – Russia and Ukraine
(1:46:45) – Israel and Palestine
(2:47:37) – China
(3:29:58) – Life and mortality