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Story with Galil is much more complicated than this. At the beginning of the program (right after Six Day War, I believe) they evaluated virtually everything either available in 5.56 NATO or being able to be adapted to the cartridge, and that included multiple incarnations of Stoner's design. It...

I've studied the design a bit during my research on Russian history (Russians were so desperate for LMG during WWI, they bought license to produce them, as Danes were the only ones who were willing to sell license without royalties). It had been used by many peacetime armies for good many years...

From what I know, I wouldn't dare to bet on either side, guys are two sides of the same coin as far as power games are concerned. It is quite possible that Sverdlov would eat Joe for breakfast and wouldn't notice...

OK, but it doesn't make a decision to introduce self-defence and police round (decent stopping power at close range and inability to hit the proverbial barn in 100 ft) into army's supply chain.

If Lenin is shot in 1918, Sverdlov would be the next ruler. It is up to you to butterfly his 1919 death away or keep him alive. If he's dead in 1919 as per OTL, Trotsky would likely suceed.

Chauchat LMG had been mentioned earlier, and this is one nomination I fully support. Disagree. PPD is standard 1st generation SMG, not better or worse than MP-18 or universally admired Suomi. Relatively expensive to produce using extensive machining, more demanding to workforce's skills than...

I wonder why Gatling designs hadn't been resurrected earlier. WWII had numerous warplanes and AA systems which tried tio compensate for lack of single-barrel punch by having double, tripel and so on (wasn't some Hurricane using 8 rifle-caliber guns?) installation. Why didn't they use good old...

My Comments on Soviet pre-WWII tank designs (I'm completely ingnoring testbeds, i.e. anything built in less than 2 dozen numbers): T-35. It shouldn't have been put in more-or-less mass production, as extensive testing should have revealed it's main flaws, commander's inability to co-ordinate...

Helicopters had been used in WWII in Burma. They would have been mightlity useful on Eastern Front too (courier duty and all sorts of insurgency/counterinsurgency operations in forests). Allied Navies could have used it for ASW. As far as Apache-type attack helicopter is concerned, the answer is...

"Oseh Shalom Bimromav" for Israel "Farewell of Slavic Woman" for Russia (it had been actually proposed in early 1990s) or "Shiroka Strana Moya Rodnaya" (My Homeland Lies Far and Wide) for Russia. Hopak or "Perevedi Menya Cherez Maidan" (Help Me Cross The Market Square) for Ukraine Suliko for...

Sweden? Switzerland? :) Seriously speaking, Turks and Franco jumping into Axis bandwagon isn't out of question, but I doubt they would be game-changers Refresh my memory, please, what other front drew more than 5% of Germany's troops in 1941. Rommel had grand total of 1% of Eastern Front troop...

With Slovakia being created by Nazi after Munich and post-war zeal to "roll back Munich injustice" independent Slovakia is all but impossible. You would be surprised, but in all practical terms OTL Czechoslovakia was dominated by Czech for most of it's history. It isn't a coincidence that a lot...

Yeah. IOTL Greek commies (who, by the time British arrived, controlled the whole country except downtown Athens and couple of other German garrisons) were begging Stalin to let Greece in the fold, but he refused them as it violated Yalta conditions.

There's a world of difference between "shit happens" type of event (and this type of shit is unavoidable, taking circumstances into account) and (citing all-important opening paragraph in The Telegraph's article linked here) "THE Red Army's orgy of rape in the dying days of Nazi Germany", which...

There's a bit of contradiction here. NKVD "enforcement"-type units weren't all that numerous (although NKVD, being the ministry of interior, did have shitload of paramilitary troops, gendarmerie etc.) However, you are likely right that rear troops (not only NKVD) were less disciplined. Again...

Stalin spent 1939-1941 in mad scramble reforming and re-arming Red Army. It is very questionnable that Germany (which did not have any significant distractions in 1941 as far as military affairs were concerned, British Commando attacks and Rommel War being but a tiny sideshows) would be luckier...

Let me give you an example. It is virtually undisputed fact that post-war (I would say post-1948, but this is hair-splitting) USSR developed very elaborate system of anti-semitic discrimination, which included strict limits on employment and education. However, you would be hard-pressed to find...

You mean NKVD actually investigated crimes against civvies commited by Red Army servicemen and tried to deal with that? Noble sir, you're accusing Mr. Beevor of lying, as main premise of his writings is that the rape campaign had been encouraged from the very top. Or are you naive enough to...

Oh, not one more recitation of "clay-legged colossus" mantra. Germany lost one war badly exactly because of this way of thinking. P.S. Imho any NAZI invasion to USSR is doomed, barring absolutely ASBish sequence of lucky shots, which isn't known to humankind up until now. Alexander's conquest...

I knew it. All racist propaganda about "Ruskie animals raping decent European women" is, without exception, traced to single person and his poisonous propaganda writings (I refuse to call "Berlin" a historical research, as I refuse to call Stalin propaganda "research"). Mr. Beevor managed to...