"Maybe Eugenirus remark, he took exception to soviet tankers thinking Sherman's were soviet made. From what I read of the soviet army, it consisted of everything from the educated to the barbarian tribes, so anything is believable."

Barbarians? Seems so. Some former Soviet republics like Kazakhstan (watch BORAT movie), Uzbekistan, Tadzhikistan, Kirgizstan are really poor and many people there are illiterate even now, not to mention 60 years ago period.
Now many of them come to Russia to get their bread. They are used as cheap work power.
From the tankers' memoirs I found out that people of other nationalities dispised asians (Kazakhstan (watch BORAT movie), Uzbekistan, Tadzhikistan, Kirgizstan) for their low IQ.