Desertions from the Red Army during WWII

[Glebsky]

Many thanks to ML59 and Art! It is much more nuanced issue than I thought.

I indeed was interested mostly on whether there was a connection/fit between the (dis)loyalty to the state and regime on the one side and the desertions and harsh discipline on the other. Was Soviet Union or Russian population (living over 20 years under a totalitarian dictatorship and propaganda state) really so united against the Nazis onslaught as popular historiography leads us to believe. How much did the harsh discipline originate from Soviets' own mistrust of their own people, etc. I'm not sure if simple comparisons with the Western countries are as simple, because the society of the Soviet Union at the time was something significantly different and, at the same time, to an extent always militarized for all sorts of mobilization campaigns. I guess we've all heard the stories of Russian peasants initially (!) welcoming Germans as liberators (not to mention the Balts and Ukrainians), but I haven't read anything that takes this issue under serious scrutiny. I guess it also relates to the multiple fronts in the "bloodlands" as well as the phenomenon of the Russian Liberation Army, the partisan republics etc.