Commentary Reports suggest that Russian generals are afraid to tell the truth, which proves the weakness of dictatorships in fighting wars. Recent news from the Ukrainian war indicates that Russian forces have accidentally shot down their own plane and that many military commanders are afraid to tell Vladimir Putin the truth. To understand why, we can simply examine a previous Russian dictatorship. Joseph Stalin’s actions in the late 1930s crippled the Russian army. Most of the senior officers were purged, and those that remained were convinced that their lives depended upon rigid and timid applications of Stalin’s orders regardless of battlefield conditions. Stalin was desperate to maintain peace with Germany, so he forbade units on the front lines from taking basic and proper defensive preparations. Cowed generals refused to offer alternate suggestions. In the early days of World War II, the complete strategic surprise and decisive penetration by German units …