Posted on 08/21/2009 1:39:49 PM PDT by markomalley
Seventy years ago Sunday, the Soviet Union signed a pact with Nazi Germany that gave dictator Josef Stalin a free hand to take over part of Poland and the Baltic states on the eve of World War II.
Most of the world now condemns the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, but Russia has mounted a new defense of the 1939 treaty as it seeks to restore some of its now-lost sphere of influence.
"This is all being rehabilitated because this is now a very lively issue for Russia," said military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer. "This is not about history at all."
(snip)
The Soviet Union officially denied the existence of the secret protocols for decades. They were only formally acknowledged and denounced in 1989.
But as the 70th anniversary of the treaty has approached, some Russian historians have stepped up to vociferously defend the Soviet Union's decision to expand its territory at the expense of its neighbors.
The Foreign Intelligence Service, once part of the KGB, published a book of declassified intelligence reports in an effort to make the case that the nonaggression treaty and its secret protocols were justified and essential to the victory over the Nazis.
(snip)
After last year's conflict with Georgia, a U.S. ally, President Dmitry Medvedev asserted Russia's right to intervene militarily in what it regards as its zone of "privileged interests" along its borders.
The war stripped Georgia of pieces of its territory, which are now under the control of Russian-backed separatists.
"In his understanding of Realpolitik, Vladimir Putin does not diverge from the line set by Josef Stalin," military analyst Alexander Golts wrote in the online Yezhednevny Zhurnal. "Military force decides everything and if there is an opportunity to grab a piece of someone else's territory then it should be taken."
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Sean Penn’s father Leo was a big supporter of the Molotov-Rippentrop Act.
Stalin thought he’d pulled of a diplomatic masterpiece...he just never factored in the possibility that Germany would over run France is six weeks.
He still bitches about his dad’s “blacklisting” in the 1950s.
Just another commie bastage.
In November 1940 Hitler was trying to convince Stalin to joing formally the Axis. Even more important than concessions in Europe was the willingness of Hitler to give Stalin the "general direction towards the Persian Gulf", meaning the Middle East with it's oil, once British influence was eliminated once and for all.
Jodl and other Generals of the OKH were considering a joint German-Soviet offensive through Iran into British India...
However Stalin tried to get further concessions from Hitler, including Finland and the Dardanelles. Hitler was offended by Stalin's counterproposal to his "generous offer" and joined the camp of the Nazi ideologues around Rosenberg to finally attack the Soviets.
The disappointment of unrequited love.
Russia has always believed that if the country does not expand its holdings it will die. To them, a country must grow to prosper. One reason for this is that they beat down their own people so much, they must look to others that still feel they have some freedoms left. When they beat them down, they will go on to the next country.
“Stalin thought he’d pulled of a diplomatic masterpiece”
YES, he did...
A large buffer zone between himself and Hitler at the Bug River line, and re-occupation of the Baltic states that had broken away after the revolution, flanking the well-laid defenses of the Romanian frontier, as well as further isolating Finland.
This led directly to the Litvinov-Titulescu pact, and the seding of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the USSR.
No matter what Putin and those in control of rewriting history, Stalin was nothing but a communist B U T C H E R who killed his own people by the MILLIONS. He is rotting in Hell awaiting final judgment and his own space in the Lake of Fire.
The US had no more business in WWII than it did in WWI; beneath the propaganda, both wars were fought between 2 bad guys.
....................and we should have given the Japanese the west coast also.
“Stalin was much more guilty than Neville Chamberlain for greasing the the path to WWII.”
Stalin had his own problems, and was dealing with severe unrest in the Caucuses, and the ‘stans, in the late 30’s.
“Stalin was much more guilty than Neville Chamberlain for greasing the the path to WWII.”
Stalin had his own problems, and was dealing with severe unrest in the Caucuses, and the ‘stans, in the late 30’s.
Again, beneath the propaganda, there was no reason to enter the war. After Japan had developed into a modern economy, we knew damn well that an oil embargo left them no choice; kind of like the last 35 years of our foreign policy indicates.
I Geoirge Washington had turned left instead of heading straight, we could have avoided the war of 1812.
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