Tukhachevsky, Mikhail Nikolaevich (16 Feb 1893 - 11 Jun 1937),
career army officer, with a reputation for brilliance, rose to be deputy minister of defense in 1936, before falling under suspicion of treason. In June 1937 Tukhachevsky was secretly arrested, sentenced to death, and shot. Various anti-Soviet propagandists claim this was part of a so-called "Great Purge" of experienced officers that weakened the Red Army before the 1941 Nazi attack.

Despite his objectionable political credentials, H. Himmler knew better. His perspective may have been shaped by continuing squabbles between Nazi generals and their political leadership, though they were all fascist bandits in any case.

Tukhachevsky was posthumously rehabilitated from the treason charges by N.S. Khrushchov, but since Khrushchov himself was a traitor, what can one expect?

Die Russische Führung

Zunächst die Kriegslage. Ich fange mit Russland an. Als -- ich glaube, es war 1937 oder 1938 -- in Moskau die großen Schauprozesse stattfanden und der ehemals zaristische Fähnrich und spätere bolschewistische General Tuchatschewski und andere Generäle erschossen worden, da waren wir in ganz Europa, auch wir in der Partei und in der SS der Ansicht, dass damit das bolschewistische System, dass damit Stalin einen seiner grössten Fehler begangen hätte. Wir haben uns in dieser beurteilung der Lage absolut getäuscht. Das können wir wahrheitsgetreu einmal feststellen. Ich glaube, Russland hätte die zwei Jahre Krieg -- und es steht jetzt im dritten Kriegsjahr -- nicht durchgehalten, wenn es die früheren zaristischen Generäle behalten hätte. Es hat, das stelle ich voraus, den politischen Kommissar zum General gemacht oder denjenigen, der aus der Roten Armee als Kommandeur, als General hervorwuchs, so ausgesucht, dass er zugleich politischer Kommissar sein konnte. Der sturste Willensträger der bolschewistischen -- Doktrin möchte ich es nennen, nicht Weltanschauung -- ist zugleich dort Kommandeur und Führer.

The Russian Leadership

Next -- the war situation. I begin with Russia. As -- I think it was in 1937 or 1938 -- the great show trials took place in Moscow and the one-time Tsarist lieutenant and later Bolshevik General Tukhachevsky and other generals were shot, we in the Party and the SS shared the common view in Europe, that with this the Bolshevik system, that with this Stalin had committed one of his greatest mistakes. In this judgement of the situation we were absolutely mistaken. This we can establish for certain. I believe that Russia would not have endured the two years of war -- and she endures already a third year of war -- if she had kept the earlier Tsarist generals. She has, I suggest, made the political commissar a general, or selected the same who rose out of the Red Army as commander, as general, so that he could simultaneously be a political commissar. The strongest supporter for the Bolshevik -- doctrine, I can call it, not world-view -- is there simultaneously commander and leader.

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