this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2025
91 points (71.4% liked)
Memes
51657 readers
1365 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It's not so much the non aggression part that people have a problem with, it's more the let's together invade Poland and hold a celebratory victory parade after that normal people find not so nice.
Germany invaded Poland, and in response, the USSR went into Poland to keep Germany from occupying all of Poland, which would have broken the agreement regarding “spheres of influence.” In fact, Germany did break that agreement, and the “parade” was about Germany withdrawing from its overreach into the USSR’s “sphere.”
Once Germany entered Poland, all of Poland would have been occupied by the Nazis if the USSR did nothing, and that would have put the German forces right on the USSR’s border.
And why did generous general Stalin agree to that whole spheres of influence thing in the first place? If he wanted to protect poor Poland from the evil Germanz, surely telling the world about Hitler's evil plans would have been even better? Or at least warning Poland.
But hm, strange, nothing of the sort was done. One could get the impression generous general Stalin didn't care for the plight of the common polish citizen that was just to be unleashed on them.
The Cold War And Its Origins, 1917–1960. Vol. I, 1917–1950 By Denna Frank Fleming, Chapter 5
This assumes that 1) Poland was somehow unaware of what its neighbor was up to and 2) the USSR was aware and chose not to tell them. Those are some big assumptions.
Wait, just to confirm: you really believe that signing a pact to partition Poland isn't a sign that in fact Poland will be invaded?
That Germany was very likely going to invade Poland was hardly a secret. Why else would the USSR have two weeks before offered Britain & France to send in a million of its troops to kill the baby while it was still in the crib? And why did they wait until that offer was refused before signing a non-aggression pact with Germany, a week before Germany invaded?
The USSR had known for years that Nazi Germany was going to eventually try to destroy it. The Anti-Comintern pact had been signed six years before. Destroying communism was one of Nazi Germany’s primary goals, which is why first they came for the Communists. The USSR agreed to the Pact in order to buy itself time to built up its military for the inevitable invasion attempt by Germany.
He literally did try to warn about the fascist threat repeatedly and was constantly rebuked by the west due to anti-communism and "appeasement" politics.
They also weren't in a position to go on an offensive against Germany all alone if that's what you're gonna suggest next.
Their only option was a deal along these lines to buy time for themselves to build up productive forces.
In other words, appeasement from the West is good policy, appeasement from the East is bad policy.
The classic combination of being extremely smug while also being factually wrong
You really think no one knew what Nazi Germany was up to and that it should have been the USSR's job to tell the world? lmao