Evening star., 1942-07-26
Russian-German Conflict
Is Truly Battle Unto Death
Soviet Realizes Nazi Victory Will Throw Nation
Back to Landlocked, Isolated Status From
Which 1t Emerged Under Peter the Great
By Feli1 Morley.
By FeIix Morley.

lasting decision can scarcely be doubted.
The Russians realize that If Germany
wins all the territory gained piecemeal
since the time Of Peter and Catherine
will be torn from them. The Germans
anticipate that If Russia wins they will
be permanently confined and subjugated
by the Slav colossus In either case q
national dream, one or the other. will
be ended.
Psychological Warfare.
Each country uses, with telling effect,
the customary weapon OF psychological
warfare against Its opponent There is
no doubt that the average German
worker has come to regard Sovietized
Europe as the death-knell of everything
he holds dear. There is no question that
the average Russian peasant considers
conquest by the Nazis the final end of all
his oft-frustrated hopes OF personal
freedom. Strengthening the fear and
hatred each has for the other is realiza-
ton that now at last the racial and
nationl rivalry between Slav and Teuton
has come to the final showdown.
1t follows that not merely emotional
bitterness, but also passionate sense Of
self-preservation sets the Russo-German
hostilities apart from all the other cur
rent fighting. Great Britain wages war
for the preservation OF her far-nung
empire, the United States to make an
end Of policies Of aggression which might
eventually threaten the New World.
Threat TO Japan Also.
Incidentally, the fundamental char.
acter of the Russo German war explains
why the Berlin Toxic alliance Is not as
unnatural as sometimes pictured. To both
Germany and Japan the expansionist
tendency of Russia has long seemed
menace which has grown to constitute
a common cause. All of Japan's recent
victories are secondary to that country's
desire to control the adjacent Siberian
coast, whence bombing would be so easy.
That is why Japanese stab in the
Russian back grows more probable as
the German onslaught progresses in the
West.
One fact in particular indicates that
the war Is, rightly or wrongly, regarded
as less critical in both Great Britain
and the United States than is the case in
Russia That Is the failure, In spite Of
much talk and exhortation, to establish
a second front. No matter how great the
risk of disaster, that diversion would be
| attempted this summer II either the
British or ourselves were wholly con-
vinced that the German menace will
| lok1 10 "a Al
| it is today. for Russia.
If Japan should strike against Russia
| and the democracies still hesitate to
invade the continent Of Europe it would
be further evidence that the implications
| Of the developing picture are still but
little appreciated in this country.
A Japanese attack in Siberia would
only follow cold-blooded conclusion that
| Russia's doom is certain and would, Of
course, be calculated to precipitate that
| doom. Then Anglo-American failure to
do everything possible to avert Russian
collapse would have to be construed as
meaning that in the popular mind the
contemplated catastrophe has no really
disastrous personal significance.
Can Be Expected to Fight On.
Were the Russians an effete people
/ they might be affected, as were others.
by evidence that American assistance Is
more pronounced in glib assurance than
in grim fullllment. But the Russians
are anything but effete and their will to
resist is further bolstered by knowledge
that submission would mean an end not
merely of Communism but also of every
Russian aspiration to play leading role
In world affairs. So Russia, come what
may, can be expected to fight on.
| It does not follow that this fight, II the
Caucasus is cut of and Japan opens her
second front, will be successful. Time
and space are not, in spite Of radio as
surances to the contrary, necessarily on
the Russian side.
Terribly curtailed in OIL coal, iron.
textiles, cereals, livestock, vital manu-
| featuring centers, transportation and
| ports Of supply, the coming winter would
| prove far harder on PROSTATE Russia
than on triumphant Germany.