"General Mud" Has Usually Been on Russia's Side in War. Not This Time.
Like many, I was surprised by Vladimir Putins decision to invade Ukraine, and to not limit his activities to the countrys separatist regions. If Putins invasion had been planned for some time, he certainly didnt choose the best time of year to invade Ukraine. The forecast for the next few days is unusually cold, but in much of the countryas will soon be the case farther northit is currently the time of rasputitsa or rasputitsia (распутица in Russian).
One Russian dictionary defines rasputitsa as a time [of year] when dirt roads are difficult to traverse or indeed impossible to do so; the condition of roads at this time [of year]. I have not only spent many a number of springs and falls in Russia but, as someone living on the Canadian prairies, am familiar with the equivalent here. In the spring, melting snow and rain often make dirt roads and fields impassible until they dry out; in the fall, the rains before the snow have the same effect. Strangely enough, the onset of colder temperatures typically makes the going easier, when the ground is frozenbefore there is really deep snow, which hampers mobility again.
The timing of Putins invasion is particularly odd for someone who seems to place so much stock on historical precedent, given the impact the rasputitsa has had on past foreign invasions of Russia and the Soviet Union. During Napoleon Bonapartes invasion of Russia in 1812, the spring rasputitsa was not an issue for the French advance, because Napoleonin some ways wiselywaited until the summer to launch his invasion. I write in some ways, because waiting until the summer does not give armies invading Russia a lot of time before the fall to defeat Russian forces in the vast territory over which they are forced to operate. The fall rasputitsa undoubtedly complicated the initial phases of the retreat of Napoleons Grande Armée from Russia, at a time when man and beast struggled in the mud of unpaved roads.
The impact of the rasputitsa is perhaps more celebrated in the case of Nazi Germanys invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. Although the invasion was supposed to have begun in May, a wet spring and the need to send German troops to Yugoslavia in the face of a coup there meant that Operation Barbarossathe invasion of the Soviet Unionwas delayed until late June. Although the dust on the many unpaved roads in the summer caused its own problems, far more detrimental for German mobility was the fall rasputitsa.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/%e2%80%9cgeneral-mud%e2%80%9d-has-usually-been-on-russias-side-in-war-not-this-time/ar-AAUVLdD
Chainfire
(17,304 posts)During WWII, the Germans really tried to blame all of their problems, their failures and their defeats on either General Winter of General Mud. It was as if on the other side of the lines, it was always warm, fair and sunny. Russian weather has not changed substantially, you would think that the Russian General Staff would know how to deal with it. It terrible leadership and poor planning. Perhaps the Russian military leadership got their jobs because of who they knew instead of what they knew. Nothing flushes out poor leadership like a crisis. I hope that they have to pay for there errors with their heads. (and it appears that some senior leadership has already)
May Dog Damn Putin and his minions.
paleotn
(17,778 posts)For those in warmer climes, it is a real thing. 3 months worth of precip melt in short order turning frozen ground to seas of mud. If not for pavement, nothing moves until things dry out. And the more you drive on muddy roads, like moving troops, equipment and supplies, the worse they become. In VT, we know mud season very well.
Though I personally don't think it would have mattered, one can argue that Xi and the Winter Olympics cost the Russians Ukraine. I wonder if that was on purpose? The Chinese and Russians aren't natural allies. More a case of their interests coinciding on occasion.