There was no antagonism from the Nazis because they had agreed to not press farther, or risk breaking the non-aggression pact. Without the non-aggression pact, Poland would have been totally colonized by the Nazis and subject to the Holocaust. It effectively stalled the Nazi advance without the Soviets needing to go to war quite yet.
The Soviets informed Lithuania to warn them of Nazi aggression, not to threaten them. Britain and France declared war but didn’t do jack shit, to the point that this era was remembered as the “Phoney War.” What happened next, was Britain extending diplomacy with the USSR and trying to finally form a cohesive alliance.
Again, because you’re relentlessly dodging this, what’s your point, exactly? That the nation that spent a decade trying to form an anti-Nazi alliance, was ideologically opposed to Nazism, when the Nazis were murdering communists, were secretly friends the whole time and that the war was an unexpected betrayal? This kind of nonsense anti-communism is historical revisionism and erasure of context.
My point is that your link claiming the Soviets didn’t agree to invade Poland with the Nazis is historical revisionism, blatantly ignores facts and context and just does not hold up under mild scrutiny. It’s literally what I stated in my first comment.
When the Soviets did not manage to get an alliance with the west (the west still deemed the communists a huge threat as well), they did genuinely attempt to ally with the Nazis. And that’s what initially happened. Stalin didn’t believe the alliance would last of course, but ultimately he too was surprised by how early Hitler invaded. Molotov even called fascism “a matter of taste”, to demonstrate the collaboration between the two nations at that point.
The “Phoney war” has always been a bit of a misnomer. Poland fell before the British expeditionary force could even be deployed. Later revealed French intelligence showed that France severly overestimated the German strength on the French border. They didn’t press hard yet because they believed they wouldn’t be able to.
But they UK and France didn’t declare war for performative reasons. They stepped in, even if not immediately effectively, whereas the Soviets initially collaborated with the Nazis and waited to be attacked instead. They too could have unilaterally guaranteed Poland, yet chose not too. They spied an opportunity for themselves to regain lands lost to Poland in an earlier war instead and took it.
The Soviets, plainly and simply, did not agree to invade Poland. That was not a part of the non-aggression pact, nor what “spheres of influence” entailed. Those were lines the other party was not meant to cross if the likely war broke out, and secondly neither party expected the other to uphold them long-term. The Soviets never intended on allying with the Nazis, non-aggression is not an alliance. You are doing historical revisionism, as much as you deride me for it.
As for the British and French, again, they did absolutely nothing of value and watched it all happen. Should the soviets have let Poland fall entirely to the Nazis? Should the soviets have launched a war they weren’t ready for? Seems to me you wished the soviets were stronger than they were at the time and could have taken on a far more industrialized power with a fair degree of confidence, or otherwise let Poland fall to the Nazis and be subject to Nazi slaughter and the Holocaust.
Explain to me why the Soviets agreed on a sphere of influence that went straight down the middle of a sovereign country. Explain to me why the Soviets coordinated militarily with the Luftwaffe during the invasion, even before the Soviets entered the war. You keep incessantly dodging these questions because the facts do not fit your false narrative.
The UK and France weren’t ready for war either. As already mentioned (which you also keep ignoring) the BEF wasn’t deployable before Poland fell, and France believed they weren’t able to attack and defeat Germany yet. Despite that, they declared war.
The Soviets could have unilaterally guaranteed the Poles. Such a guarantee, on top of the Allied one, could have deterred Hitler for longer. The Soviet army could at least have given the Poles a fighting chance. The Germans would have been less effective without the military assistance from the Soviets. Instead, they did prepare the Red Army for war; one against Poland.
The Germans weren’t ready for a two-front war yet. With no eastern front left, they were able to break through France and capitulate them. With the knowledge that the Germans would be fighting in Russia, France may have successfully invaded the Nazis.
I didn’t dodge either of those points. They agreed to spheres of influence that contained areas of Ukraine and Lithuania, inhabited by ethnic Ukrainians and Lithuanians, and they didn’t give support, they only partially complied in a way that didn’t really help.
I’m aware that France didn’t do anything, the BEF wasn’t deployable in time and they actively sabotaged talked of alliances leading up tk that moment.
The Soviets could not risk their lives protecting a country that hated them and starting a war they would have likely lost. The west had proven incapable of allying with the Soviets as a preventative measure. Germany would not have been less effective, if you actually checked the article I linked the impact of the Soviet’s partial compliance was marginal at best.
This is all alt-history fanfic on your part. It remains true that the country that did the most to try to stop the Nazi threat before World War II, and contributed the most to stopping the Nazis during it, was the Soviet Union, and it isn’t close.
You did not address the fact that the Soviets directly collaborated with the Luftwaffe from Minsk. You did not address the fact that the Soviets had already geared up for an invasion on the Polish border.
Don’t claim you did when anyone can read you didn’t.
You misrepresent the facts surrounding Brest. The article you referred to does these things to: omit the facts that don’t match your narrative. You ignore historical context and have now resorted to putting up a strawman regarding which country did most to stop the Nazis, which was never the point I challenged you on (the historical fact that the Soviets did indeed agree to divide Poland with the Nazis and collaborated on the invasion).
There’s no point in continuing this conversation if you keep failing to address these key points that directly undermine your narrative.
I did address those. Plus, based on the voting ratios, it seems that “anyone that can read” is siding more with me than you. Normally I think referencing vote ratios is a stupid frame of argument, but if you’re going to make the appeal first I may as well point out that it’s in my favor, not yours.
I’m not ignoring historical context, you’re trying to invent a narrative where the Soviets, for a very short period, were actually super pro-Nazi and totally fine with them, surrounded on both sides by decades of hostile opposition and offers to send a million troops on the conditions of forming an anti-Nazi alliance. The country that hated the Nazis from the beginning, and killed 85% of the total Nazi deaths in World War II, somehow forgot its history and decided to collaborate with the Nazis willingly.
I guess I’ll show you a mirror: there’s no point in continuing this conversation if you keep failing to address these key points that directly undermine your narrative.
There was no antagonism from the Nazis because they had agreed to not press farther, or risk breaking the non-aggression pact. Without the non-aggression pact, Poland would have been totally colonized by the Nazis and subject to the Holocaust. It effectively stalled the Nazi advance without the Soviets needing to go to war quite yet.
The Soviets informed Lithuania to warn them of Nazi aggression, not to threaten them. Britain and France declared war but didn’t do jack shit, to the point that this era was remembered as the “Phoney War.” What happened next, was Britain extending diplomacy with the USSR and trying to finally form a cohesive alliance.
Again, because you’re relentlessly dodging this, what’s your point, exactly? That the nation that spent a decade trying to form an anti-Nazi alliance, was ideologically opposed to Nazism, when the Nazis were murdering communists, were secretly friends the whole time and that the war was an unexpected betrayal? This kind of nonsense anti-communism is historical revisionism and erasure of context.
My point is that your link claiming the Soviets didn’t agree to invade Poland with the Nazis is historical revisionism, blatantly ignores facts and context and just does not hold up under mild scrutiny. It’s literally what I stated in my first comment.
When the Soviets did not manage to get an alliance with the west (the west still deemed the communists a huge threat as well), they did genuinely attempt to ally with the Nazis. And that’s what initially happened. Stalin didn’t believe the alliance would last of course, but ultimately he too was surprised by how early Hitler invaded. Molotov even called fascism “a matter of taste”, to demonstrate the collaboration between the two nations at that point.
The “Phoney war” has always been a bit of a misnomer. Poland fell before the British expeditionary force could even be deployed. Later revealed French intelligence showed that France severly overestimated the German strength on the French border. They didn’t press hard yet because they believed they wouldn’t be able to.
But they UK and France didn’t declare war for performative reasons. They stepped in, even if not immediately effectively, whereas the Soviets initially collaborated with the Nazis and waited to be attacked instead. They too could have unilaterally guaranteed Poland, yet chose not too. They spied an opportunity for themselves to regain lands lost to Poland in an earlier war instead and took it.
The Soviets, plainly and simply, did not agree to invade Poland. That was not a part of the non-aggression pact, nor what “spheres of influence” entailed. Those were lines the other party was not meant to cross if the likely war broke out, and secondly neither party expected the other to uphold them long-term. The Soviets never intended on allying with the Nazis, non-aggression is not an alliance. You are doing historical revisionism, as much as you deride me for it.
As for the British and French, again, they did absolutely nothing of value and watched it all happen. Should the soviets have let Poland fall entirely to the Nazis? Should the soviets have launched a war they weren’t ready for? Seems to me you wished the soviets were stronger than they were at the time and could have taken on a far more industrialized power with a fair degree of confidence, or otherwise let Poland fall to the Nazis and be subject to Nazi slaughter and the Holocaust.
Explain to me why the Soviets agreed on a sphere of influence that went straight down the middle of a sovereign country. Explain to me why the Soviets coordinated militarily with the Luftwaffe during the invasion, even before the Soviets entered the war. You keep incessantly dodging these questions because the facts do not fit your false narrative.
The UK and France weren’t ready for war either. As already mentioned (which you also keep ignoring) the BEF wasn’t deployable before Poland fell, and France believed they weren’t able to attack and defeat Germany yet. Despite that, they declared war.
The Soviets could have unilaterally guaranteed the Poles. Such a guarantee, on top of the Allied one, could have deterred Hitler for longer. The Soviet army could at least have given the Poles a fighting chance. The Germans would have been less effective without the military assistance from the Soviets. Instead, they did prepare the Red Army for war; one against Poland.
The Germans weren’t ready for a two-front war yet. With no eastern front left, they were able to break through France and capitulate them. With the knowledge that the Germans would be fighting in Russia, France may have successfully invaded the Nazis.
I didn’t dodge either of those points. They agreed to spheres of influence that contained areas of Ukraine and Lithuania, inhabited by ethnic Ukrainians and Lithuanians, and they didn’t give support, they only partially complied in a way that didn’t really help.
I’m aware that France didn’t do anything, the BEF wasn’t deployable in time and they actively sabotaged talked of alliances leading up tk that moment.
The Soviets could not risk their lives protecting a country that hated them and starting a war they would have likely lost. The west had proven incapable of allying with the Soviets as a preventative measure. Germany would not have been less effective, if you actually checked the article I linked the impact of the Soviet’s partial compliance was marginal at best.
This is all alt-history fanfic on your part. It remains true that the country that did the most to try to stop the Nazi threat before World War II, and contributed the most to stopping the Nazis during it, was the Soviet Union, and it isn’t close.
You did not address the fact that the Soviets directly collaborated with the Luftwaffe from Minsk. You did not address the fact that the Soviets had already geared up for an invasion on the Polish border.
Don’t claim you did when anyone can read you didn’t.
You misrepresent the facts surrounding Brest. The article you referred to does these things to: omit the facts that don’t match your narrative. You ignore historical context and have now resorted to putting up a strawman regarding which country did most to stop the Nazis, which was never the point I challenged you on (the historical fact that the Soviets did indeed agree to divide Poland with the Nazis and collaborated on the invasion).
There’s no point in continuing this conversation if you keep failing to address these key points that directly undermine your narrative.
I did address those. Plus, based on the voting ratios, it seems that “anyone that can read” is siding more with me than you. Normally I think referencing vote ratios is a stupid frame of argument, but if you’re going to make the appeal first I may as well point out that it’s in my favor, not yours.
I’m not ignoring historical context, you’re trying to invent a narrative where the Soviets, for a very short period, were actually super pro-Nazi and totally fine with them, surrounded on both sides by decades of hostile opposition and offers to send a million troops on the conditions of forming an anti-Nazi alliance. The country that hated the Nazis from the beginning, and killed 85% of the total Nazi deaths in World War II, somehow forgot its history and decided to collaborate with the Nazis willingly.
I guess I’ll show you a mirror: there’s no point in continuing this conversation if you keep failing to address these key points that directly undermine your narrative.