Recently the “VPK” magazine published a lengthy interview which the correspondent Natalie Bubnova took from a Senior Research Fellow of the international Carnegie Foundation Mr. Nathan Brown. The issue under discussion was war and peace in the Middle East. The conversation was highly politically correct, the sage was speaking solidly, smoothly, without anger and partiality.

This is the story about the death, suffering, feats and martyrdom. The story about the Soviet Union human losses in the Second World War. We will start with the things simple and harmless. With a mathematical paradox which is called "a small difference of large values". 1,000-999 = 1. Any objections? No...

The fact is that Hitler’s attack on the Soviet Union at dawn on June 22, 1941 became a horrible surprise for Comrade Stalin. Stalin didn’t believe in the possibility of events unfolding this way. Even on the evening of June 21, when coded messages from the border district headquarters to Moscow, informed that the Germans were taking down the barbed wire at the border and that the din of tank engines was vibrating in the air – even then Comrade Stalin doubted the credibility of the messages. Moreover, on the morning of June 22, it took several hours for Stalin to finally accept the reality...