What is today little known is the Russians kept their piece after the war. To add insult to injury, they made the allegedly independent post-War Polish state a Russian puppet and communist dictatorship for 30 years.
Oh, and let's not forget the Katyn Massacre, where the Russians murdered over 20,000 Polish officers and tried to tag it on the Germans.
Yes, the Germans double-crossed the Russians and invaded Russia after gobbling up most of the rest of Europe. Yes, the Russians eventually won a glorious victory and truth be told were largely responsible for the defeat of the Nazis on the ground. But let's not forget the facts Putin finds inconvenient.
Also, don’t forget that the Russians allowed the Nazis to devastate the Polish resistance in Warsaw before the Nazis were forced to retreat. This inaction allowed the Russians to install their own puppet regime in Poland.
I prefer to give credit where credit is due. Thus, it must also be acknowledged that Russia only managed it with immense sacrifice and huge amounts of American aid. Military supplies, trucks, tanks, aircraft and food. Even General Zhukov said that Spam saved the Soviet army from starvation.
The annexation of Austria was more than a year before that pact in March 1938. Czechoslovakia was in Mar, 39.
A pact signed in August 1939 did not “set off WWII”.
>>were largely responsible for the defeat of the Nazis on the ground.
While they no doubt took the casualties, they could never have done it without U.S. logistic support.
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/pearl/www.geocities.com/Pentagon/6315/lend.html
http://citizensnewswire.org/files/mjd.pdf
Meh...almost all of Europe signed non-aggression pacts with Germany prior to WW2, including Poland in 1934. A fact which almost always get forgotten by Western propagandists.