Evening star., 1941-09-21
Qualities of Soviet War Effort
Bring New Respect for Regime
Resistance Even Raises Question of Kind of Peace
Stain Would Demand if by Some
Miracle Russia Should Win
By FeHr Morley.

graph may be quoted from a brilliant
study of Napoleon published by the
great English historian, Herbert Fisher,
almost 80 years ago:
The state of Napoleon's mind in.
the year of preparation which pre-
ceded the Russian campaign is con-
elusive proof that he had no anxiety
to avoid the arbitrament of war.
He thought and spoke of the COM
ing venture not as if real impede
ment to European peace had arisen
=. but with the zest and exhilara-
ton of a pirate at the sudden un-
folding of new prospects of conquest
and plunder. People will want to
know where We are going" he said.
I'VE are going to make an end of
Europe, and then to throw ourselves
like robbers on other robbers less
daring than ourselves and become
masters of India" . .. He said that
in three years he would be master
of the universe.
So, on June pas compared with June
% in the case of Hitler-Napoleon be-
gan his invasion of Russia. BY the mid
die of August he had reduced Smolensk.
On September he won the hard-fought
battle of Borodino, described in death
less prose in Tolstoy's War and Peace,
A week later Moscow was burned to the
ground by its defenders and surrendered
to Napoleon as the hollow shell which
may soon be all that is left of Leningrad.
Then, on October %, having failed to
make decisive contact with his enemy,
the Corsican conqueror was forced 10
begin his disastrous retreat.
Differences in Two Invasions.
Whether, or at what point, this strik-
ing parallel breaks down completely will
be a matter for future historians to de-
termine. But already many significant
differences, aside from those caused by
mechanical progress, obtrude on the at
tention.
The most striking of these differences,
if we sidestep here the detailed task Of
delving into background is in the char
acter of the two invasions of Russia.
That of Napoleon was essentially raid,
striking direct at Moscow along single
line of attack and without any attempt
to organize or control the territory
evacuated by the retreating Russian
armies. Hitlers invasion, on the other
hand, has pushed forward methodicaly
both along and behind a tremendous
front. In spite of the gallantry Of Rus
sian resistance no counterattack has a.
yet been able to do more than retarG
a steady German advance.
During the invasion of 1912, no Rus
sian districts away from Napoleon's di-
rect line of march were touched by
the fighting. In consequence the econ
omy of Western Russia, from the Ukraine
north to Karelia, was very little dis
turbed But in the present campaign
thousands of square miles Of territory
have been captured; great manufactur-
ing cities have been devastated or cut
of; lines of supply essential to modern
industry have been broken or blocked.
In consequence the Russian economy
has been far more seriously injured,
both actually and even more relatively,
than was the case of Napoleon's i'll
fated attack. 1t is true, of course. that
much of Russias recent industrial de-
velopment has been established well to
the east of the present German ad-
vance But it is equally true that the
territory already seized or ravaged is
vital to protracted Soviet war effort.
Winter Doesn't Presage Turn of Tide.
1t follows that there is little real
significance or comfort in the mere fact
that Moscow capitulated to Napoleon
within three months of his crossing Of
the Niemen, while elapse of the same
period this year finds Hitler still some
distance short of achieving a similar
ambition. A calendar comparison of the
French dictator's timetable with that of
his modern counterpart is not enough.
1t is not minimizing the force of the
historical parallel to conclude that the
approach of winter, with Russia still
holding an unbroken front and even
striking back, is very far from presaging
that definite turn of the tide which
some have envisaged from the first fail
ure of Hitler's armies to conquer in a
short campaign. If history seems TO re-
peat, that Is often because it is SINH
larities rather than differences which
most readily capture the imagination.