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Copy pasting my answer Akash Anand's answer to What was your IIT-JEE preparation story?Disclaimer - This is going to be a long answer, better grab something to eat.I belong to a middle class family of a small town near Meerut, Modinagar. It lies in western Uttar Pradesh. Since my birth I was a patient of sinusitis and my nose septum is deviated for which I am getting operated this year as I am 18 now. From nursery to the end of middle school studying was the last thing I was interested in. I used to hate mathematics from my childhood, maybe because of no proper guidance. I was always feared of that subject. In class nursery and KG my mom used to teach me every thing as a result I always got 95% + in my school exams. When class 1 started I used to run away to play whenever my mom or my dad used to ask me to study. Forget about self study. As a result I was sent to Tution in my neighbourhood. My grades became poor. Till class 8th I used to get 70%. I could be easily found sitting on the floor as a punishment on every alternate day because of not completing homework, forgetting notebooks, etc. My mother used to change my Tution frequently in hope that my grades might improve but nothing worked. Our section was the most mischievous batch of whole school. Frequently principal used to come to our class to warn us. As a result in class 9 all the sections were shuffled. I had section B from class 1 to 8. Now I was given section A, which was taught by best teachers of our school.Till my quarterly exams I was not very different from class 8, but here came the turning point of my life, I was made to sit with a boy who just joined our school. Let’s call him V. V was topper of his previous school which was not so good as our school though(ST. Teresa’s Academy is considered best in Modinagar). I and V were opposites. He use to love studying, I use to love everything except studying. He used to love mathematics. I hated mathematics from depth of my heart. Now came the effect of peer pressure. I started studying . With the help of good teachers and him I started loving physics and computer applications. My grades started improving. My grades became even better than him in these two subjects. We used to discuss a lot of programs of JAVA. I used to ask a lot of doubts from him. In the final exams of class 9th I secured 9th position in class with 80% marks and he got 4th position in the class(It is very difficult to get GOOD marks in internal exams of St. Teresa’s Academy). In class 10 I continued interest in physics and computer programming. I amazed my teacher by securing a perfect score in physics in semi annuals. But still maths was my weakness. I somehow became interested in geography and topography too.Just between my pre-boards I was searching for some query on google related to Alternating current, the first search result showed some website called “QUORA”(I was unaware about it at that time) , ignoring the name of the website I opened it, my query was solved, I was amazed of discovering such a website. I had heard from my parents that some of their far-relatives were IITans and my parents used to discuss very respectfully about them. Suddenly my eyes fell on a question under related questions section. I opened it up, I read that answer (although I was have forgotten it now) and I was (kind a) amazed. Now began the research for IIT-JEE. I came across many successful IITians profile. I was fascinated by knowing them interning in US or doing a job at great places in world with fat packages. I made my mind I would study for JEE and study CSE at IIT B and work very hard for JEE(Every JEE Aspirant’s initial dream). I asked my parents for admitting me in coaching classes. I thank my parents for their support at that time, they enrolled me in FIITJEE Meerut center. I being weak at mathematics was just able to get a mere 20% fee wavier in FIITJEE entrance exam. My board exams went well and I secured 93.1% marks and V got 93%. I also got perfect 100 in Computer applications but a mere 88 in mathematics.I started going to coaching taking a dummy admission in a not so good CBSE school of my city. I started reading Aman Bhaiya’s blog. I started “following “ books he recommended by him. My marks used to be really poor in phase 1 of Fiitjee. I got mere 250/700 in first phase test , of which maximum were in physics, in spite of “working hard”. I was not able to figure out the reason for this. My poor performance continued in phase 2 too. Phase 3 was also similar. Just before the phase test three in a chat with my maths faculty figured out where I was going wrong.In school life we all have developed the habit of reading a lot and lot of theory and cramming it up. I was not able to upgrade my learning style to what was required for JEE. I was reading a lot and lot of theory, almost the same from multiple books, coaching notes etc. I was in a misconception “pehle theory ache se kar lu questions to khud ho jayenge” meaning - “ If I understood theory nicely then I can automatically solve question of any difficulty level”, As a result I was only able to do very easy formula based questions in tests, rest all I used to leave. And what my Math teacher said next fell like a thunderstorm on my head - “agar aise pado ge to kam se kam IIT to nahi kar paoge” means “if you will study like this, at-least you would be not able to clear IIT”. As a result I was also not able to clear KVPY in class XI.Then, I had my summer break after class XI, I first worked upon my strength and solved whole class XI HC Verma in mere 1.5 months.I was though not able to solve much of maths and chemistry problems due to school exams.Then came the Reshuffling Test of Fiitjee. For those who do not know, it is a test in which batches are shuffled on the basis os marks scored. I gave it and secured 18th rank in my whole FIITJEE centre in which 50% marks were in physics. My two friends of class XI secured 17th and 21st rank. Now I was among the top 3 performers of my batch. As a result I was offered the top batch of my center in which almost all the students were studying from class 9th and all were NTSE scholars, Some have even cleared KVPY in class 11. Classes were conducted 4 days a week, 8 hours daily, including test on almost every Monday. So I had to travel 25+25=50 KM on every weekday from Modinagar to Meerut, which costed around 2 hours apart from 8. My both friends also resided outside Meerut and they both rejected the offer and continued in weekend batch because they thought that they were just able to complete Coaching module when they got 4–5 days to do(2 day classes in 11th weekend batch),it would be not possible to do modules in 2 days and it will also cost their time in travelling and they were pretty right, but I out of excitement accepted the offer.I soon realised I made a wrong decision but now I could not change my batch because the order of chapter in which they and we studied was different. I was not left with time to solve even modules. Since I was an average student many times it took me about an hour just to understand one page of my class notes. I was left with very less time.My result of phase 4 was better than any phases of class 11 but not better than my those 2 friend’s phase 4 result . People in CM batch of 17–19 were most uncooperative. I was not very much able to adjust myself in that batch and they even hardly helped each other. Our HOD also told all of us to be more mutually co-operative. He took the example of 15–17 batch in which he told that students co-operated with each other openly and that batch gave Fiitjee meerut it’s best result ever. That batch produced AIR 111,AIR 286, AIR 365 and much more, but our batch was highly broken down into small islands, constituting 1–3 people. And I was surely alone. There was nothing called as healthy competition. I was not able to make any friend in that batch till last. Every student wanted to somehow lower the marks in tests of other.And my teacher’s words became very true when JEE Advanced 2019 result came. Fiitjee meerut had its worst result since last three batches with only one student got under 1000 rank.One more mistake I did was copying other people what books they are following without completing FIITJEE’s material. I would say first complete your own coaching material then jump to any other books. I can bet you just your coaching and your teacher can give you that much material you cannot sincerely complete. And my those two friends were able to avoid both of these mistakes and now they are joining IIT.JEE Main January came and I was not at all prepared for the exam, I got a mere 97.57 percentile. I became depressed after my result of JEE Mains January attempt. Think of a guy aiming for IIT B CSE on starting which only top 0.005 percent people of country get and not being even in top 1 percentile at the end.I started my board preparation and read NCERT which I ignored earlier(another mistake). After completion of board exams I was left only about a week for JEE main April. I solved problems from FIITJEE review packages. My paper went better than previous attempt ,not because I was prepared well but because it was easier than a typical JEE Main paper.Result came and it was even worse than previous attempt. I got 97.56 percentile and a 27k rank. I had hardly improved from previous attempt.I got totally depressed. I did not wanted to study anymore for JEE Advanced then.I tried, but I couldn't study. I was lying on bed all day long and not doing anything. My parents got worried. One week before JEE Advanced was BITSAT. My mother forcefully sent me to give it. I didn't wanted to give it. I had lost hope for it too after seeing my Jee main result. I ended up getting 294 marks. I was feeling a little better that at least I can get a seat in any of BITS campuses according to past year score vs rank analysis . In worst case I might get chemical at BITS Hyderabad campus. So, I gave Advanced in a relaxed mood, without being in touch of a book for past 1.5 months.I was not even able to clear cutoff of JEE Advanced. I am finally joining IIIT Sonepat IT.Here are some important tips for a JEE aspirant from my side.Help others as much as you can. Never fear that it would decrease your rank. The more you help others , the more you will learn and it would in fact increase your score.Complete your coaching material and past year JEE problems before jumping to any book.Do not take your parents for granted. You are preparing for JEE for your own benefit.Do not take up JEE preparation too seriously that you ignore everything else in life. Your JEE score may benefit you but not more than your good health and strong bonds with your family.JEE preparation is mentally exhausting. Understanding difficult concepts and problems use a lot of brain power which can frustrate you. So definitely include stress busting activities and sports in your daily schedule. Other wise you might end up with depression in the most crucial face of your preparation like me. Incorporate them from the very beginning.At last remember that there are only few thousand seats in IIT’s. It is possible you might not end up in an IIT. You have to consider other government colleges like IIIT’s and NIT’s also from beginning of your preparation.Hope you learned something from my experience!

Taking a break at the Eastern front.It was hell on Earth, will be the simplest answer, but that will not suffice to describe the War, without knowing why?First, you had at the top, two ideological ruthless persons commanding, Adolf Hitler, and Joseph Stalin, not his real last name but a nickname he was born as Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili, in Georgia in the Caucasus Stalin means Steel, now figure out anybody proud to be known as such, not a sweetheart, a despot compared with the likes of Ivan the Terrible, and Peter the Great.Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin or Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin, was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. Among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who took part in the Russian Revolution of 1917, Stalin was appointed general secretary of the party's Central Committee in 1922. He subsequently managed to consolidate power following the 1924 death of Vladimir Lenin through suppressing Lenin's criticisms and expanding the functions of his role, all the while eliminating any opposition. By the late 1920s, he was the unchallenged leader of the Soviet Union. He remained general secretary until the post was abolished in 1952, concurrently serving as the Premier of the Soviet Union from 1941 onward. Under Stalin's rule, the concept of "socialism in one country" became a central tenet of Soviet society. He replaced the New Economic Policy introduced by Lenin in the early 1920s with a highly centralized command economy, launching a period of industrialization and collectivization that resulted in the rapid transformation of the USSR from an agrarian society into an industrial power.Adolf Hitler an Austrian corporal, who fought in WWI and become the leader of Germany, an ideologist of the now day infamous Nazi party, also fairly well known today, to speak too much about his atrocities, and ruthlessness.Suffice its to say their different ideologies, antithetical in nature made them mortal enemies.Germany was bound by the Geneva, and Hague conventions on Warfare, but not the Soviet Union, when Germany captured Millions of prisoners of War Hitler suggested to Stalin to have some sort of accord for prisoners of War through the Red Cross."Hitler himself urged Red Cross inspection of [German] camps [holding Soviet prisoners of war]. But an appeal to Stalin for prisoners' postal services received a reply that clinched the matter: 'There are no Soviet prisoners of war. The Soviet soldier fights on till death. If he chooses to become a prisoner, he is automatically excluded from the Russian community. We are not interested in a postal service only for Germans'."Stalin's Order No. 270.If ... "instead of organizing resistance to the enemy, some Red Army men prefer to surrender, they shall be destroyed by all possible means, both ground-based and from the air, whereas the families of the Red Army men who have been taken prisoner shall be deprived of the state allowance [that is, rations] and relief."The commanders and political officers ... "who surrender to the enemy shall be considered malicious deserters, whose families are liable to be arrested [just] as the families of deserters who have violated the oath and betrayed their Motherland."Just a few lines, but they stand for the hundreds of thousands of children and old folks who died from hunger only because their father or son happened to be taken prisoner.Those few lines, but they amount to a verdict on those who never even thought of a crime, who were only waiting for a letter from the front.Well, Hitler in turn abandoned the issue, and turned on the Russian prisoners as slave labor, and worst.Given this situation, the German leaders resolved to treat Soviet prisoners no better than the Soviet leaders were treating the German soldiers they held. As can be imagined, Soviet treatment of German prisoners was harsh. Of an estimated three million German soldiers who fell into Soviet hands, more than two million perished in captivity. Of the 91,000 German troops captured in the Battle of Stalingrad, fewer than 6,000 ever returned to Germany.As an anecdote Stalin’s eldest son was taken prisoner by the GermansThe Germans announced the capture of Dzughashvili on 19 July. Stalin reacted negativity to the news: he had previously ordered that no soldiers were to surrender, so the idea that his own son had done so was seen as a disgrace.He was angry that Dzughashvili had not killed himself instead of being captured, and suspected that someone had betrayed him Meltzer the wife of Stalin’s son was not immediately told the news and, suspicious of her motives and the idea that Dzhugashvili surrendered, Stalin had her arrested. With Meltzer imprisoned, Svetlana took care of Galina.German Tanks at the start of Barbarossa June 1941Now its said that the Russians were caught by surprise by the German attack, its half true, both knew that War between them was inevitable, Hitler claimed Lebensraum.Lebensraum "living space") comprises policies and practices of settler colonialism which proliferated in Germany from the 1890s to the 1940s. First popularized around 1901, Lebensraum became a geopolitical goal of Imperial Germany in World War I (1914–1918) originally, as the core element of the Septemberprogramm of territorial expansion. The most extreme form of this ideology was supported by the Nazi Party (NSDAP) and Nazi Germany until the end of World War II.Following Adolf Hitler's rise to power, Lebensraum became an ideological principle of Nazism and provided justification for the German territorial expansion into Central and Eastern Europe.[5] The Nazi General plan Ost policy (the Master Plan for the East) was based on its tenets. It stipulated that Germany required a Lebensraum ('living space') necessary for its survival and that most of the indigenous populations of Central and Eastern Europe would have to be removed permanently (either through mass deportation to Siberia, death, or enslavement) including Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Czech and other Slavic nations considered non-Aryan. The Nazi government aimed at repopulating these lands with Germanic colonists in the name of Lebensraum during World War II and thereafter. Entire indigenous populations were decimated by starvation, allowing for their own agricultural surplus to feed Germany.Hitler in VienaDespite the fact a War was expected, and Stalin knew a war was coming, but been a dictator, and politically minded, was not a General, or had a clear view of what an Army should be like, to him a General was just another fellow comrade, subordinated to his all powerful command, and he played the game he knew how to play, being the supreme boss, and highly indoctrinated on his Marxist ideology, who played at his will deciding what was better for everybody, with little knowledge of how his decrees or policies affected, the effectiveness of his own Armies.THE COMMISSARIn the military, a political commissar or political officer (or politruk, a portmanteau from Russian "political leader", "political official", is a supervisory officer responsible for the political education (ideology and organization of the unit they are assigned to, and intended to ensure civilian control of the militaryThe function first appeared as ‘commissaire politique’ (political commissioner) or 'représentant en mission' (representative on mission) in the French Revolutionary Army during the Revolution French_Revolution 1789–99.It also existed, with interruptions, in the Soviet Red Army from 1918 to 1942, as well as in the armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1943 to 1945. The function remains in use in China's People's Liberation Army.“Politruk” Alexey Yeremenko leads his men into combat, armed with a Tokarev TT-33. He was killed minutes after this photo was taken. Khorosheye, near Voroshilovgrad, Ukraine, July 12, 1942.Well, the Russian Army was practically run by ideology not by the Military Generals, it was as like if the Ministry of propaganda will be leading the military decisions of the Army, and Navy, during the peacetime they run the Army on Stalin’s name, it was a good thing, and a bad thing, a good commissar instilled patriotism, and unity between the soldiers, a bad one undermined military authority, questioned superiors, and got on everybody soldier business, and not a few of them, were shot by their own soldiers due to long held animosity, when hostilities between the two countries started on June 22 1941.It fell to the men to express their views, political officers reports were full of comments, like: “ If I end in combat I will stick my revolver in your throat first!” or “The first person I will shoot will be politruk Zaitzev!” Two run away deserters caught without getting punished returned to their post said: “ As soon as we get to the front, I will kill the deputy politruk!” Some soldiers maliciously will paint swastikas, and leave German leaflets on the belongings of the politruk.Tensions and resentments between politruks, and the men were common, during peace time the soldiers took constant instruction from the political deputies, and the hours of real soldier’s training reduced, to accommodate them, when war broke and the need for real training was necessary, the political training become to get on soldiers nerves, since there was hardly time for resting, and considered useless, and not essential at least for the moment, when other things were more urgent.Commissar Nikita Khrushchev (center) and Nikolai Vatutin (right), 1940s ww2dbaseA military run by ideologies rather than to accomplish victory by Strategical, Logistics, and Tactical priorities in any Army, subservient to the political necessities, rather than practical needs of a functioning Army.And the reason why on the beginning of the War the Germans inflicted so heavy casualties on the Russians, totally impaired by ideological political concerns, than the practicalities, and necessities of a conflict of such magnitude.Rostov 1942The Great Purge or the Great Terror was a campaign of political repression in the Soviet Union which occurred from 1936 to 1938. It involved a large-scale purge of the Communist Party and government officials, repression of wealthy landlords and the Red Army leadership, widespread police surveillance, suspicion of saboteurs, counter-revolutionaries, imprisonment, and arbitrary executions. In Russian historiography, the period of the most intense purge, 1937–1938, is called Yezhovshchina (literally, "Yezhov phenomenon", commonly translated as "times of Yezhov" or "doings of Yezhov"), after Nikolai Yezhov, the head of the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, who was executed a year after the purge. Modern historical studies estimate the total number of deaths due to Stalinist repression in 1937–38 to be between 681,692 and 1,200,000.Soviet dictator Josef Stalin (center) and Soviet secret-police head Nikolai Yezhov (right) walk near Moscow in 1937, the same year Yezhov signed Order No. 00447, which began the Great Terror.VICTIMS OF THEIR OWN PROPAGANDAMovies, news, propaganda, and indoctrination, was the real accomplishment of the Soviets before WWII.The communist ideology by itself superior to the Fascist ideology was reason enough for their triumph, everyone in Russia of school age, since the Revolution, knew that, and believed it, despite the fact that the Russian Army was totally ill equipped at the time, regardless of its size, was of little concern to them, they even had movies were the war was more of a pleasant affair, were there was hardly any shootings, and instead of bombs, over Berlin, the planes will release leaflets for all the Capitalistic workers to raise in arms, and join their communist, fellow brethren.Well, all those dreams come to a crash, when the German Army unleashed its power, on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.Operation Barbarossa.The operation opened up the Eastern Front, in which more forces were committed than in any other theater of war in world history. The Eastern Front became the site of some of the largest battles, most horrific atrocities, and highest World War II casualties (for Soviet and Axis forces alike). All of which influenced the course of both World War II and the subsequent history of the 20th century. The German armies captured some 5,000,000 Red Army troops during the war,a majority of whom never returned alive.The start of the war June 22 1941.Their near failure, in The Winter War in Finland did little to alert them. 30 November 1939 – 13 March 1940. To the operational low level of the Soviet Army. Even the victory of Georgi Zhukov at Khalkhin Gol, in Mongolia 11 May – 16 September 1939. Against the Japanese Imperial Army. Following the battle, the Soviets generally found the results unsatisfactory, despite their victory. Though the Soviet forces in the Far East in 1939 were not plagued by fundamental issues to the same extent as those in Europe during the 1941 campaigns, their generals were still unimpressed by their army's performance. As noted by Pyotr Grigorenko, the Red Army went in with a very large advantage in technology, numbers, and firepower, yet still suffered huge losses, which he blamed on poor leadership. However Zhukov’s experience was vital to stop the Germans at the gates of Moscow.German Tanks on the AttackThe first five Marshals of the Soviet Union in November 1935. (l-r): Mikhail Tukhachevsky , Semyon Budyonny , Kliment Voroshilov, Vasily Blyukher Aleksandr Yegorov . Only Voroshilov and Budyonny survived the Great Purge.The purge of the Red Army and Military Maritime Fleet removed three of five marshals (then equivalent to four-star generals), 13 of 15 army commanders (then equivalent to three-star generals), eight of nine admirals (the purge fell heavily on the Navy, who were suspected of exploiting their opportunities for foreign contacts), 50 of 57 army corps commanders, 154 out of 186 division commanders, 16 of 16 army commissars, and 25 of 28 army corps commissars.At first it was thought 25–50% of Red Army officers had been purged; the true figure is now known to be in the area of 3.7–7.7%. This discrepancy was the result of a systematic underestimation of the true size of the Red Army officer corps, and it was overlooked that most of those purged were merely expelled from the Party. Thirty percent of officers purged in 1937–1939 were allowed to return to service, during the War.And the purges were not only in the Army, every field of Soviet society got affected, Arts, Science, Intellectuals, Writers, Farmers (Kulaks) , Merchants, etc.Kulaks were purged and murdered in great number (in Ukraine, for example) by deportation and starvation under the Soviet campaign of dekulakization.Iconic picture of the start of the offensive.Well needless to say propaganda, and make believe its one thing, reality its a whole different matter, despite of the big Army, it was badly trained, its weapons mostly antiquated, but for a few new innovations, the fact the German advance overtook large portions of Western Russia, and that the Industry had to be dismantled and sent beyond the Urals in a rush, and a lot of people evacuated with it, didn’t help the Soviets either, at the time.“In the Soviet army, they were very poor. Very little food, the boots were poor, and the discipline was not good. For example, we walked in the Caucasus Mountains with blisters on your feet. You could barely walk, and had to go so slow. Officers on horseback would come by with a whip and say, "Comrade, you're walking too slow, you must walk fast. You must walk fast for this country and for Stalin." Once someone fought back against an officer, and was shot. This scared us into keep walking, no matter what.”Michael Mirson Russian soldier.The Russian soldier was caught in a terrible quandary, patriotic or not, fanatic, or demoralized, it didn’t matter if you were loyal, or secretly a defeatist, you were sacrificed stupidly, and squandered right, and left, expected to counterattack the enemy with your bare hands if it was necessary, against armored units, the word retreat, was unmentionable, or you could be shot on the spot, even if logic demanded such a move, to fight another day, surrendering was treason, and your family will suffer for it, friends will tell each other, if I disappear, get prisoner, or left wounded behind, please tell you saw me shot to death, so my family will not suffer.Soviet soldiers killed during the Toropets–Kholm Offensive, January 1942.Officially, roughly 8.7 million Soviet soldiers died in the course of the war, including millions of POWs.Just Military deaths there’s no agreement but range between 8,668,000 to 11,400,000, not counting civilians deaths by war, or famine, also enormous, with a total between 20,000,000. To 27,000,000.But the Soviet Army by the end of 1942, had learned its lesson and helped by the US, and Britain, were able to turn the tide, and reverse the situation, to a great cost nevertheless.The German Army now bleed white, of men and power it was their time to be on the retreat.The siege of Leningrad.The siege of Leningrad started on 8 September 1941, when the Wehrmacht severed the last road to the city. Although Soviet forces managed to open a narrow land corridor to the city on 18 January 1943, the Red Army did not lift the siege until 27 January 1944, 872 days after it began. The blockade became one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history, and possibly the costliest in casualties suffered.Historian Michael Walzer summarized that "The Siege of Leningrad killed more civilians than bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined." The US Military Academy evaluated that Russian casualties during the siege were bigger than combined American and British casualties during the entire war.Soviet soldiers at Stalingrad during a short rest after fightingHitler’s war against the Soviet Union fused ideological aggression with racial impetus and colonial aspirations that resulted in a conflict of unsurpassed brutality. Rather than being an unwilling participant in this brutal struggle, the Wehrmacht was a loyal and enthusiastic player.In March 1941, Hitler issued what has come to be known as the ‘Commissar Order,’ which clearly spelled out the future nature of the war in Russia. The coming conflict was to be ‘one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be waged with unprecedented, unmerciful, and unrelenting hardness.’ It also instructed Hitler’s subordinates to execute commissars and exonerated his soldiers of any future excess. ‘Any German soldier who breaks international law will be pardoned,’ the Führer stated. ‘Russia did not take part in the Hague Convention and, therefore, has no rights under it.’At a subsequent gathering to explain the application of this order to senior army officers, General Edwin Reinecke, the Reich officer responsible for the treatment of POWs, told his audience: ‘The war between Germany and Russia is not a war between two states or two armies, but between two ideologies — namely, the National Socialist and the Bolshevist ideology. The Red Army [soldier] must be looked upon not as a soldier in the sense of the word applying to our western opponents, but as an ideological enemy. He must be regarded as the archenemy of National Socialism and must be treated accordingly.’ Reinecke continued with the admonishment that this must be made plain to every officer taking part in the operation,’since they were apparently still entertaining ideas which belonged to the Ice Age and not to the present age of National Socialism.’ Under the direction of the Commissar Order, immediately after capture all Soviet political officers should be killed and that thereafter, under a’special selection program of the SD [Sicherheitsdienst, the Nazi Party’s security service], all those prisoners who could be identified as thoroughly bolshevized or as active representatives of the Bolshevist ideology’ should also be killed.War turned into an ideological criminal enterprise.The War doesn’t stop just because you are wounded.German patrol running into Russian patrolGerman Soldier after firefight.Oorah!! Soviet soldiers on the attack.Furious combat aftermath, German forces counterattacking.Of the 403,272 tank soldiers (including a small number of women) who were trained by the Red Army in the war, 310,000 would die. Even the most optimistic troops knew what would happen when a tank was shelled. The white-hot flash of the explosion would almost certainly ignite the tank crew’s fuel and ammunition. At best, the crew—or those at least who had not been decapitated or dismembered by the shell itself—would have no more than ninety seconds to climb out of their cabin. Much of that time would be swallowed up as they struggled to open the heavy, sometimes red-hot, hatch, which might have jammed after the impact anyway. The battlefield was no haven, but it was safer than the armored coffin that would now begin to blaze, its metal components to melt. This was not simply “boiling up.” The tank would also torch the atmosphere around it. By then, there could be no hope for the men inside. Not unusually, their bodies were so badly burned that the remains were inseparable. “Have you burned yet?” was a question tank men often asked each other when they met for the first time. A dark joke from this stage in the war has a politruk informing a young man that almost every tank man in his group has died that day. “I’m sorry,” the young man replies. “I’ll make sure that I burn tomorrow.”― Catherine Merridale,Furious combat aftermath, German forces counterattacking.Conditions in Russia were not as the rest of Europe, mostly rural, with great expanses of land between mayor cities, it mean long lines of supply on muddy, or frozen roads through hundreds of miles, and a war of attrition for almost four years, were the Russian steppes, virtually devoured men, and material from both armies, Russians could afforded them, the Germans could not.Rasputitsa is a Russian language term for two periods of the year (or "seasons") when travel on unpaved roads becomes difficult, owing to muddy conditions from rain or thawing snow. That is, it is applied to both spring and autumn. The word "rasputitsa" is also used to refer to the condition of roads during both periods.Russian quagmire known as Rasputitsa.Their Armies, slowly but surely deteriorated, and become more sparse, and scattered, with weaker numbers on everything, men, and equipment.Until it reached the point of no return after Stalingrad 1,379 miles from Berlin, the German Army already weakened, meanwhile the Russian becoming stronger, and with enough experience from his Generals to conduct a war in their favor, and after the error of Kursk, a totally unnecessary battle for the Germans, and too weak to penetrate the Russians defenses, the fate of the German Army was sealed.German soldiers at Stalingrad 1942Stalingrad (23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943) was the largest confrontation of World War II, in which Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in Southern Russia.Marked by fierce close quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians in air raids, it was the largest (nearly 2.2 million personnel) and bloodiest (1.8–2 million killed, wounded or captured) battle in the history of warfare. After their defeat at Stalingrad, the German High Command had to withdraw vast military forces from the Western Front to replace their lossesNo battle in history was more ferociously waged. In house-to-house, factory-to-factory fighting, snipers were used to great effect by both sides, and the butcher’s bill ran high.Stalin considered his losses necessary. The surrender of the city would have been an irreversible victory for the Nazis.German Soldiers killed at Stalingrad January 1943The rest of the War it was a retreating defensive War, with no hope to stop the Soviet Juggernaut, and a fierce war it was, a desperate fight for avoid the inevitable end, total defeat.War not a pleasant business, their faces tell us, during a respite after battle.“What happened next? I retain nothing from those terrible minutes except indistinct memories which flash into my mind with sudden brutality, like apparitions, among bursts and scenes and visions that are scarcely imaginable. It is difficult even to even to try to remember moments during which nothing is considered, foreseen, or understood, when there is nothing under a steel helmet but an astonishingly empty head and a pair of eyes which translate nothing more than would the eyes of an animal facing mortal danger. There is nothing but the rhythm of explosions, more or less distant, more or less violent, and the cries of madmen, to be classified later, according to the outcome of the battle, as the cries of heroes or of murderers. And there are the cries of the wounded, of the agonizingly dying, shrieking as they stare at a part of their body reduced to pulp, the cries of men touched by the shock of battle before everybody else, who run in any and every direction, howling like banshees.Unrelenting War.There are the tragic, unbelievable visions, which carry from one moment of nausea to another: guts splattered across the rubble and sprayed from one dying man to another; tightly riveted machines ripped like the belly of a cow which has just been sliced open, flaming and groaning; trees broken into tiny fragments; gaping windows pouring out torrents of billowing dust, dispersing into oblivion all that remains of a comfortable parlor...”― Guy Sajer,Death the daily bread at the Eastern frontSS with Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle.Guderian wrote:“With the failure of Zitadelle (Kursk)we have suffered a decisive defeat. The armoured formations, reformed and re-equipped with so much effort, had lost heavily in both men and equipment and would now be unemployable for a long time to come. It was problematical whether they could be rehabilitated in time to defend the Eastern Front ... Needless to say the [Soviets] exploited their victory to the full. There were to be no more periods of quiet on the Eastern Front. From now on, the enemy was in undisputed possession of the initiative”Tiger Tanks at Kursk July 1943.With victory, the initiative firmly passed to the Red Army. For the remainder of the war the Germans were limited to reacting to Soviet advances, and were never able to regain the initiative or launch a major offensive on the Eastern Front.[295] The Western Allied landings in Italy opened up a new front, further diverting German resources and attention.The Vicious Katyusha Rocket LauncherOn the march again2nd Fallschirmjäger Division troops on a Tiger tank near Berdychiv during the successful Zhitomir operation in November/December 1943. They are hitching a ride with the 8th Company of the 2nd SS Panzer Regiment of the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich." This is Battlegroup (Kampfgruppe) Lammerding.The enemy showing unexpectedly, you got to act quick.Abandoned vehicles of the German 9th army at a road near Titowka/Bobruisk, BelarusBagration a military campaign fought between 23 June and 19 August 1944 in Soviet Belorussian in the Eastern Front of World War II. The Soviet Union inflicted the biggest defeat in German military history by destroying 28 out of 34 divisions of Army Group Center and completely shattered the German front line.Russians soldiers attacking summer 1944.German POWs after liberation of Minsk, Operation Bagration. 1944Russian soldiers taking a break after battle.The tremendous numbers of men involved in the conflict from June 22, 1941 to May 8, 1945 was just mindbogglingly , as well as the number of battles, through a front that stretched from the North in Leningrad, to the South in the Caucasus, 1585 miles long, I read somewhere that if you divide the number of casualties, in both armies, plus the amount of civilians killed, by the amount of days of the conflict it was the equivalent of losing two divisions a day!On a conflict that lasted 1,433 days, you do the count.German Soldier pay last respect to lost comrades, before moving on.German prisoners of war in Moscow. 15 July 1944German soldiers pass by an immobilised Soviet IS-2 tank, during the fighting in Jelgava (Mitau) central Latvia. In 1944.Russian Soldiers of the 1st Baltic Front in action. Jelgava, 16 August 1944Grenadiers of the German SS Panzer Division "Totenkopf" change position during the battle of Warsaw, running past a burning Soviet T-34 tank. August 18, 1944.The battles on the Eastern Front of the Second World War constituted the largest military confrontation in history. They were characterized by unprecedented ferocity, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life due to combat, starvation, exposure, disease, and massacres. The Eastern Front, as the site of nearly all extermination camps, death marches, ghettos, and the majority of pogroms, was central to the Holocaust. Of the estimated 70–85 million deaths attributed to World War II around 30 million occurred on the Eastern Front. The Eastern Front was decisive in determining the outcome in the European theater of operations in World War II, eventually serving as the main reason for the defeat of Nazi Germany and the Axis nations.German snipers at the battle that was fought in the town of Bautzen. The German operation successfully recaptured Bautzen and its surroundings, which were held until the end of the war.Russian soldier dragging German soldier from hiding trench.Hitlerjung the last of the Germanic warriors defending Festung Breslau 1945The Siege of Breslau, also known as the Battle of Breslau, was a three-month-long siege of the city of Breslau in Lower Silesia, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland), lasting to the end of World War II in Europe. From 13 February 1945 to 6 May 1945, German troops in Breslau were besieged by the Soviet forces which encircled the city as part of the Lower Silesian Offensive Operation. The German garrison's surrender on 6 May was followed by the surrender of all German forces two days after the battle.Festung Breslau War to the end, the aftermath May 1945.The Siege of Breslau consisted of destructive house-to-house street fighting. The city was bombarded to ruin by artillery of the Soviet 6th Army, as well as the Soviet 2nd Air Army and the Soviet 18th Air Army, and the destruction caused by the German defenders.On 6 May, after 82 days of siege and shortly before the unconditional surrender of Germany in World War II, General Niehoff surrendered Festung Breslau to the Soviets. During the siege, German forces lost 6,000 dead and 23,000 wounded defending Breslau, while Soviet losses were possibly as high as 60,000. Civilian deaths amounted to as many as 80,000. Breslau was the last major city in Germany to surrender, capitulating only two days before the end of the war in Europe. Gauleiter Hanke had fled to Prague by the time of the city's surrender and was killed soon after.The end of the War Russians Soldiers from the Soviet Red Army after capturing Berlin, a Continent in Ruins.According to Grigoriy Krivosheev's work based on declassified archival data, Soviet forces sustained 81,116 dead for the entire operation, which included the battles of Seelow Heights and the Halbe; another 280,251 were reported wounded or sick during the operational period. The operation also cost the Soviets about 1,997 tanks and SPGs. Krivosheev noted: "All losses of arms and equipment are counted as irrecoverable losses, i.e. beyond economic repair or no longer serviceable". Soviet estimates based on kill claims placed German losses at 458,080 killed and 479,298 captured, but German research puts the number of dead at approximately 92,000 – 100,000. The number of civilian casualties is unknown, but 125,000 are estimated to have perished during the entire operation.The fighting on the Eastern Front was terrible and incessant, brutal beyond belief. Both sides fought with demonic fury—the Germans to crush the hated Slavs, and the Soviets to defend the sacred soil of Mother Russia. Atrocities including beheading and mass rapes occurred daily. Millions of captured soldiers died of exposure and maltreatment.A war unlike any other war, in horror, victims, and destruction.Destroyed Reichstag May 1945

My name is Pablo, I am from Spain, and I plan to apply this fall to some U.S. universities. My situation is not exceptional, but I believe that it isn’t the usual either, as I will graduate from high school in June, with the admission process for the class of 2024 long gone. You may be wondering why haven’t I applied this year. Studying in the U.S. has been something that I’ve wanted to do for several years, but last summer, when the application process began, I was too afraid to leave Spain, my family, and my friends; hence I decided not to even try applying. Now, after several months have gone by, I have realized that I might have made a huge mistake. I really want to leave Spain, explore the world, and study at a U.S. university! I hope it isn’t too late for me!Due to the current situation ongoing in the whole world regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, I assume that admission processes for the class of 2025 will be slightly different both for national and international applicants. Several institutions have declared that the submission of SAT and ACT scores are optional, and applications will be analyzed taking into account the impact of the coronavirus in everyone’s lives.Now I’d like to tell you about myself and my profile. My GPA (not official; calculated by using the WES calculator) is of 3.8/4.0 from 9th to 11th grade, though I expect that my senior grades will boost it. In Spain, freshman and sophomore grades are not taken into account for college admission, therefore they are lower than my junior and senior grades. Sadly, I don’t attend an international high school, so I can’t get extra credit for specific courses, and A.P. classes don’t exist in Spanish high schools; but I have read that admission officers have in mind the opportunities offered at your school, so I’m not really worried about this. I was planning on taking the SAT at the end of summer and during fall, but I’ll have to see how the situation develops and if universities will require them or not. A few days ago I did my first whole SAT test in Khan Academy and I got 1200/1600, without knowing a thing about SAT, though I believe that if I work hard during summer, I’ll be able to get a great score (probably around 1500) and improve my chances of admission. Also, in Spain, we have an exam done right after we finish senior year called EvAU (Evaluación de Acceso a la Universidad = university access assessment) which is highly competitive, but I believe that I could make it to the top 10% on a national scale (though probably it won’t be very useful). In addition, my school is ranked in Spain’s top 15 schools, so maybe that could be of interest to some universities.That was all academic information, now I’ll write about myself. High school in Spain has nothing to do with high school in the U.S. In America, students have an infinite amount of clubs and sports teams to choose from, participating in regional and national competitions; whereas, in Spain, we do have clubs and extracurricular activities, but not as many and not as serious. Regardless, I have tried to involve myself as much as possible in my school (it is very common in Spain that the same school has primary, middle school, and high school programs, as it is the case of mine). I’ve been a member of the school magazine for two years, having published and printed several sports articles and interviews with teachers. Thanks to my participation in the magazine, I was offered a two-week internship at BuzzFeed Spain. I’ve been an active member of a volunteering program that consists of preparing activities for kids who have socializing problems during recess. I’ve been elected three times in a row as the class representative, having attended meetings with the school authorities several times and solving problems between the student body and the school staff. I run a group of about 25 kids from 6th grade from my school where we have weekly meetings for two hours doing social awareness activities and games previously organized by me. Outside of school, I’ve been for the past two years a volunteer in a day-care center for elderly people once a week; and I’ve played six hours of tennis a week for four years (though I do not compete seriously, it’s just for my enjoyment, I have won some in club championships). I have also created a socks company called “OhMySocks” (I couldn’t find any other name hahaha) with a pair of friends. It has hundreds of followers on Instagram and we’ve had profits of thousands of euros, which have helped my parents pay for my school trips. Last, but not least, I’m fluent in both English and French, both certified with a C1 in English and a B2 in French, (and obviously Spanish), and I am greatly interested in learning Chinese in the next years. I also studied 8th grade in a British school.I have already thought about my recommendation letters, and I know that my English and French teachers would write superb ones. About my personal essay, I have a main idea which could easily be related to my intended major. It would be about how my political and social beliefs were completely manipulated by a group of individuals due to my young age and innocence, and how has that influenced my way of thinking today.Regarding what I would do in the U.S., my intended major is PPE, but I’d have no problem doing Economics. It isn’t a really common major, but it is offered in a great variety of universities. I have considered applying to Richmond, Wesleyan, Yale, UPenn, Notre Dame, Akron, Tulane, or Drexel, among others. I know that some of these are extremely selective and my chances of getting in are probably negative, but I’d rather have a rejection letter than not even trying. I plan to pursue an international career, for example, in the UN, therefore I believe that PPE would be a great degree regarding the jobs I’m interested in. I also plan to get a graduate degree after my undergraduate degree to have the best academic education.I have also considered attending a community college for the first two years. They are way cheaper than 4-year colleges, and some offer “honors programs” which could lead me to a great university after those two years. I’ve done some research and I am really attracted to Rockland Community College, Quinsigamond Community College, or Brookdale.Regarding what I would do next year, as I cannot enroll in a Spanish university, I believe that I will take a gap year. My intention is to get an online certificate while I work in France; this way, I would earn some money (very important), at the same time as I improve my French and do some academic work.My top college would be Yale (Please, don’t mistake me as a snob). I obviously know that my chances of admittance are very low, but I’ve always liked to dream big (I’ve thought about applying early, as maybe that could increase my chances). But, needless to say, I would be delighted with any acceptance from any institution.I know that the whole admission process can be very expensive (paying for the SAT, TOEFL, application fees, official translations of documents…), therefore I don’t expect my parents to pay for it as I have no guarantee of getting in anywhere, but I have saved about $700 that I would not have a problem with investing in this. Obviously, I’m counting on my parents’ financial support if I were to study in the U.S.I don’t know if anyone is going to read this, but I will be really grateful for any answers and suggestions that I get.Thank you for your time and have a great day!