It is not reasonable to displace Germany’s failure to kill Hitler into Stalin. Stalin may have had his own reasons not ok the murder of Hitler lest it gave the necessary courage a Red Army officer to do the same against Stalin. It was Germany that failed to kill Hitler and save the not only Europe but also Germany catastrophic disaster. The Generals could manage only the place a bomb under Hitler's a table in the hope that Hitler would be killed. We know how that ended.

I think a major fear of the Stalin was that if they killed hitler a competent leader may step forward, such as himmler, that would do far more damage to the allies and the soviets (although they couldn't win the war). Its thanks to Hitler's strategic errors because of ideology that: 1. Troops evacuated from Dunkirk 2. The USSR was invaded 3. Declaration of war on the USA 4. Stalingrad and Leningrad weren't given a higher priority of capture than Moscow.

I have been bemused by the vehement criticism from readers such as CountCash, Svetlana, Pauline and others of Estonia for daring to vigorously defend its borders in 1944 against the Red Army when it was returning to continue its 1940-41 mass atrocities against the country’s civilian population and to re-impose its repressive occupation that was to last for more than another 40 years. Their ostensible complaint was that by holding up the Red Army at Estonia’s borders, the end of World War 2 was also delayed and that Estonia was therefore somehow responsible for Germany killing more victims in concentration camps throughout Europe. And now it emerges that Russia itself had at least two opportunities to kill Hitler in 1943 and in 1944, and Stalin explicitly refused to do so – because it might end the War!!! I will wait with interest and barely contained anticipation for CountCash’s, Svetlana’s, Pauline’s and others passionate denunciation of Russia’s deliberate prolonging of the War, and of their unequivocal condemnation of Russia for complicity in the deaths of countless thousands of German concentration camp victims throughout 1943 and 1944. After all, that’s the way they condemned Estonia, and I know they are not hypocrites.

If true it only proves that Mr.Stalin was wiser than given credit for. It turns out that WW2 was a Nazi fight for supremacy and leadership, Anglosphere with enormous, valiant and costly help from Russian people won and now Germans are in service of Anglosphere Nazis. USSR needed time to develop defenses against Anglo-American alliance of terror, without Mr.Stalin's wise leadership it is doubtful it would've lasted till it did.

Marzipan6 I do not think historical facts are going to convince you that the Red Army did anything good in WWII, WWI or ever. Recently, I came across a shocking piece of historical evidence after watching a U.S made documentary about WWII. In this report, it was admitted after the Red Army liberated the biggest concentration camp in WWII ,Auschwitz, the Soviet media reports of this horror story were initially dismissed by the western media as another “Soviet Propaganda”! Information of the Third Reich policy of total destruction of the parts of the Soviet Union under Nazi occupation had been reported widely in the Soviet and western media. Jews were fleeing out of Europe and telling stories of systematic killing of Jews in all over Europe but no general plan was ever devised to save the Jews of Europe. The Soviet leadership and the Red Army were conducting a giant task of confronting the Third Reich whereas the U.K/US leaders were carefully weighting and calculating how the dual between Hitler and Stalin would unfold. The order of killing Hitler by Stalin would not have changed thing. As another commentator has already point out, most likely, more efficient SS fanatic would have taken Hitler’s place. This assertion is supported by the fact even after Hitler took his own life, there were fanatics willing to die for him and as result they killed hundreds of thousands of great and brave Red Army soldiers. Your singular job in this site is to say something hurtful nasty about Russia and the Red Army. I love the Red Army to the extent that you hate the Red Army. P/S. I do not believe the Red Army is blameless. There are documented evidence of brutality and horrific crimes of revenge, looting and rape by the Red Army. The allied forced from the West did the same. These are shameful crimes of war. But I reject campaign to reduce the heroic efforts of the Red Army who defeated the fascist war machine of the Third Reich.

PR101, "In this report, it was admitted after the Red Army liberated the biggest concentration camp in WWII ,Auschwitz, the Soviet media reports of this horror story were initially dismissed by the western media as another “Soviet Propaganda”!"- .... in 1945. In 1942 Jan Karski- Polish scholar and spy reported to the British, U.S and Soviet governments on the situation in Poland, especially the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Holocaust of the Jews. He spoke to Anthony Eden, Churchill and Roosvelt. Jan Karski met with US Jewish politicians and leaders. His report was a major factor in informing the West but ... Many of those he spoke to did not believe him, or supposed that his testimony was much exaggerated or was propaganda from the Polish government in exile.

To PR101 who writes of me, “ I do not think historical facts are going to convince you that the Red Army did anything good.” If you read my posts you will know that I have said numbers of positive things about the wartime Red Army. I have praised its bravery, and commended it for its major contribution to weakening Hitler, so enabling the Western Allies to liberate Western Europe. (I also like the singing of the Red Army Chorus!) But I have pointed out – because it is true – that the Red Army brought no liberty to even one square metre of territory where it ever established its control. All the Red Army did in territories it won from the Nazis was replace one oppressive foreign dictatorship with another. Nor have I ever blamed the Red Army, or any army, for crimes which can be expected of ordinary men who have been brutalised by warfare, who have learned instinctively to kill or be killed, and who have had to meet every day as if it may be their last. But policies of deliberate oppression and organised crimes against humanity in which the Red Army was instrumental continue to earn my undying condemnation. Yes, the Red Army liberated Auschwitz. And then promptly turned part of it into an NKVD prison camp for political prisoners. And yes, Russia’s initial reports about Nazi crimes were not universally believed in the West. Soviet Russia’s own crimes against humanity had been so enormous and the Soviet regime’s lies so gross that the world learned to dismiss radical things from Soviet sources. Finally, I do not have a job on this site, singular or otherwise. But I do have an interest, namely to bring facts to bear about untruths of the past and present which Russia still embraces. Such lies are hurtful to Russia’s neighbours, and damaging to Russia’s own interests in the world. It would be more useful by far if RT did the same in its own articles.

Marzipan6 wrote below to PR101: "But I have pointed out-because it is true-that the Red Army brought no liberty to even one square meter..." I'm not sure about the area in square meters, but the Klooga Concentration Camp near Tallin in Estonia was big enough to imprison around 3000 of Jews from Lithuania, Latvia and the Soviet POWs. Most of them were executed and burnt. Only a few had survived because the Red Army liberated the camp in 1944. In 2005 the Klooga Memorial Complex was opened, and here what the Estonian Prime Minister Mr Ansip had to say at the opening ceremony: "The Government of the Republic of Estonia released an official statement, in which it regrets the fact that in cooperation with occupying powers, citizens of the Republic of Estonia also participated in perpetration of crime against humanity" "All these murderers must answer for their crimes as individuals..."

To Svetlana: Indeed Estonia established a memorial at Klooga in memory of the concentration camp that Nazi German occupants of Estonia set up and operated there in 1942-44. The camp was not established by Estonians, and was not liberated by Russians. As Russian forces re-invaded Estonia in 1942, Germans abandoned the camp after killing almost all its prisoners. Tragically, there was practically no one left to liberate. Other camps elsewhere in Europe were taken over by Soviet forces when their German guards fled, and were eventually emptied of their prisoners. But in the broader sense, no liberty sprang up at all. A new totalitarian and brutal Soviet occupation was established over the countries of Eastern Europe in place of the old, and concentration camp prisoners were “liberated” into that new wider prison. A part of Auschwitz was even converted directly into an NKVD camp for political prisoners. Ceremonies of remembrance are held at Klooga each year, attended by high-ranking Estonian leaders. Here is what the Estonian President said at his speech there in May, 2005: “Although these murderers must answer for their crimes as individuals, the Estonian Government continues to do everything possible to expose these crimes. I apologize for the fact that Estonian citizens could be found among those who participated in the murdering of people or assisted in the perpetration of these crimes.” One looks in vain for any similar expression of apology or regret from a President of Russia over Russians who murdered Baltic people, or even for any monument in Russia in memory of the more than 100,000 innocent civilians, mostly women and children, deported by Russians into Siberian slavery. In fact, there has never been a service of commemoration of the Baltic victims of Soviet Russians that has been attended by any Russian leader, or for which any Russian leader has extended any words of condolence. Do you not feel even just a little shame over this, Svetlana?

Please excuse a typing error in my previous post. In its first paragraph I had written, "As Russian forces re-invaded Estonia in 1942..." That year, of course, should be 1944.

Marzipan6, It's almost too easy to be consumed by your own bigotry from the comfort of your armchair. Do your good deeds as an individual and, above all, as a human being - join the Russian commemorations of the victims of the Stalin's Great Terror next time. Russia doesn't discriminate against the race of all perished, and any human life lost is mourned and remembered ,and the Estonian victims are not exception. Lay a flower on the 'Solovki's' labour camp stone in Moscow when visiting, say your prayers, reflect on the past with sadness and on the future with optimism and...move on with your life.

Svetlana, when Russians kill, enslave and abuse other Russians in the service of the Soviet State, as tragic and as ghastly as this is, it is nevertheless a Russian matter. Whether they commemorate the victims or exonerate their tormentors is their own business. But when Soviet Russia reached outside its borders, invaded, occupied, savaged and terrorized its neighbours and kept it up to one extent or another for some fifty years, that is no longer just Russians’ business. That is a crime against humanity. And if Russia, the self-proclaimed chief successor state of the Soviet Union, refuses to bring a single perpetrator of those crimes to justice, refuses to offer the least word of remorse to neighbouring countries whom Russians abused, and worse, continues to shamelessly embrace Stalin’s own lies about Soviet Moscow’s Baltic aggression, then it deserves precisely the degree of trust and respect which it enjoys amongst its neighbours. You invited me to join Russians’ commemoration of victims of Stalin’s terror. If I am accessible to a location where such a commemoration is held, I will be there. I feel deeply sorry for the tragedy that has been life’s companion to so many Russians, and I have no problem at all mourning with them. But this does not relieve the primary successor state of the Soviet Union of the moral responsibility for apologising for the horror which Russians brought to their Soviet-occupied neighbours. You write that Russians do not discriminate against the race of all who perished. That is very generous. However, Russians discriminated totally against the nationality of those whom they savaged in Estonia. They were all Estonians. Just as the murders and deportations were focussed, so should the apologies be. Only then can trust and respect be re-built. I cannot believe that you are serious when you accuse people who hold this view of being bigots, so I will not comment on that at all.

It sounds to me like Stalin probably rejected the plots because neither had much merit.In the case of the first plot,its not likely that Hitler would have visited Moscow even if the Germans did capture it.In the second plot,it relies on a captured Russian having access to Hitler which is highly unlikely. Reading the posted comments is more interesting than the story.Its apparent that there are many deep scars from WW2 and the old wounds are easily reopened. I only know what I've read but between the rise to absolute power of two singularly wicked individuals, as Hitler and Stalin unequivically were, and the unprecedented scale of carnage and suffering that encompassed the Eastern Front, this was undoubtedly one of the darkest periods in human history especially for your part of the world..Its very positive to see people posting freely on websites such as this. Its an affirmation of a budding renaissance in the wake of the suffocating, absolute tyranny that was the Soviet Union. But to give the devil his due,at least in the case of WW2, its debatable whether anyone less than Stalin could have defeated Hitler and the Natzi army. As horrible as he was,it seems the Russian people feared him and his" aparatchik" more than the Germans. As a result, the Russian people were able to endure and ultimately prevail.Unfortunately Stalin and his system continued long after the war was won. Im sure that the tyrannical yoke of occupation, whether by the Germans or the Russians, differed only by comparison and degree. When I read about that period in your history,I count my blessings.

the allies did planned to assasinate Hitler, but afterward they didn't want to. becaus Hitler was a really bad strategist who always insisted on his will. Becaus the allies knew that the commanders under Hitler where better, they didn't want to kill Hitler, becaus better strategists would come to power. if hitler actually had been killed the axis might had a chance to win the war becaus if the axis didn't focus on killing Jews and others they had more power and people to fight the war.

stalin did not signed to kill hitler big mistake 'cause he let him killing 20 million russian citizens