Ah yes, I'm sure the Red Army would have "liberated" Britain from the fascists, just like they liberated Eastern Europe.
Who Started the Second World War? - Marx and Engels believed that clashes between the capitalist nations would create avenues for the establishment of socialism. Lenin shared this belief. He saw World War I as a way among capitalist-imperialist powers, fighting over the plunder of the world. The more brutal and destructive the war, the more the power bases of the capitalist classes would be weakened. And out of this destruction would come the opportunity to transform a capitalist war into a "class war," resulting in the victory of communism.World War I created the conditions for the Bolshevik Revolution and the triumph of socialism in Russia. Lenin believed that another world war would bring about the death of capitalism in other nations. Hence, anything that created the conditions for another world war was viewed as good from the revolutionary Marxist point of view.
During the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Soviets assisted the Nazis in destroying the Weimar Republic in Germany. "Icebreaker" was the Soviet code name for Hitler — the man who Would "break the ice "bring about another world war, and create the opportunity for the destruction of capitalism in Europe and the victory of socialism under Soviet leadership.
By signing the Nazi-Soviet pact in August 1939, Stalin deliberately produced the conditions for the world war that he wanted. Germany would fight the Other two main European powers — Britain and France — and then the Soviet Union would enter the war in its final stages to come out as the ultimate victor.
Why else would instructions be given on how to take English speaking prisoners?
1940 was a year before Germany and the Soviet Union started a war. In 1940, Germany and the USSR were at peace after having split Poland and Germany was at war with France, England and much of the rest of Western Europe. Those historians seem to have forgoten history and are thus condemned to repeat it in a remedial class.
The book was dated 1940. Sounds to me more like Stalin was preparing the Red Army to take part in Operation Sea Lion along with his Nazi allies.
To send troops to Britain Stalin would have needed long distance sea lift on a massive scale, which he did not have. Having a land-lubbing army, the only way it could make sense would be for operations in a Nazi alliance.
bttt
bttt
"My hovercraft is full of eels"
Russian sent a battalion or two to France during the first world war. They were forgotten, ill-used and mostly died. They were looked down upon by the French not tolerated by the populance.
I dont think the British would have suffered Stalins 'help' for long. The fear of the 'red menace' was high in pre-war England.
Stalin joined Hitler in dismembering Poland in 1939. They remained solid allies throughout 1940 and into 1941, despite Hitler's growing desire to doublecross Stalin. To think that Stalin, who was deathly afraid of German military might, would strain to put Soviet troops in England to fight Hitler - when it would be much easier to do it in, say, Poland or East Prusssia - is in the realm of weird doublethink fantasy.
"But the date of the phrasebook's publication, summer 1940 ... The book includes staples of military confrontations such as "Hands Up!", "Surrender!" and "If you make noise I shall kill you!" all with guides to pronunciation in the Cyrillic alphabet. Others are aimed at calming down nervous civilians, such as "Do not be afraid of the Red Army men!", "Everything taken by the Red Army from the inhabitants will be paid for!" and even how to ask for more tea"
--- A possibly more reasonable explaination is found in Russia's long time desire for a warm water port. Most of the Middle East and all of India was under British rule or occupation at that time. Relatively easy matter for the Soviets to attack from the 'stans into Iran then turn west into Egypt & east in India.
When one offers Stalin... as opposed to Hitler, you are not given much of a choice.
Being a man of simple interpretations, to me, this revelation means only one thing. The "Icebreaker" theory is completely true, the Kremlin's goal was to use WW2 as the entree to conquer all of Europe, and the assault on the UK (from which an island hopping campaign across the North Atlantic, coincident with a simulatneous one across the Aleutians orignating in Kamchatka, would be launched) was a key objective.
Interestingly, keeping all this in mind, and viewing the new demon, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, I'd have to say that significant elements of that old plan are still relevant. What are the West's contingency plans for a multipronged SCO conquest into Europe, SE Asia, the Persian Gulf, and beyond? If the answer is "ICBMs" then whoever made that plan is an idiot. Oh, of course we need ICBMs, but we need a whole lot more than that!