WWII military history is not my forte, as I generally find it to be a topic for divorced dads. Lol. However, what was that about and do you have any good resources on the subject of the German-Soviet pact? Was it a good decision? What were alternatives? I got people hollering at me bc I said the USSR saved Europe from fascism. And, without fail, they’re freaking out about Soviet imperialism. Aaargggghhh!!! I don’t know why they invaded Poland, but I do know there were pogroms and fascists there.
I’ll take it on myself to provide the simple, no bullshit answer. It wasn’t clear at the time if the West and USSR would end up teaming up against the Nazis, or if the Nazis and West would end up teaming up against USSR. Stalin’s primary concern was to do everything possible to avoid the latter situation and the MRP was the way in which he avoided that. Before the MRP Stalin had proposed a joint preemptive invasion of Nazi Germany with the West, they declined. Only then did he pivot towards making any sort of agreement the Nazis, whose bitterness towards the West over Versailles was something that could be taken advantage of. The MRP also had the side effect of pushing Japan into going through with it’s Southward strategy instead of attacking the USSR together with Germany, since they didn’t know Germany was planning on breaking it’s non-aggression pact and Japan knew it would be crushed going up against the USSR alone.
I will link you to a great resource for historical questions like this:
First about the German-Soviet non-aggression pact: https://espressostalinist.com/2013/10/30/bill-bland-the-german-soviet-non-aggression-pact-of-1939/
Next a debunking of the dual invasion myth: https://espressostalinist.com/2013/11/06/grover-furr-did-the-soviet-union-invade-poland-in-september-1939-the-answer-no-it-did-not/
Then there is the topic of the Winter War; you have not asked about this but i offer it pre-emptively since this is the other common topic of historical falsifications and anti-communist myths from this period: https://espressostalinist.com/2011/10/08/the-communist-league-the-soviet-finnish-war/
And finally a comprehensive overview of the foreign policy of the Soviet Union prior to the Second World War: https://espressostalinist.com/the-real-stalin-series/foreign-policy-before-ww2/
I would strongly advise any communist to familiarize themselves with especially the first three because they are topics that come up again and again when anti-communists attack the USSR and it is important to be able to counter their historical revisionism and propaganda lies.
In fact feel free to explore the site’s other articles too, most of them are excellent but be mindful that this is a Hoxhaist site, so while it will be very good on anything Soviet, Stalin and Trotsky related, it falls flat on its face on the topic of China, Mao, Deng, etc. …the usual “revisionism” accusations and the like.
Wonderful, thank you! It’s a topic I’ve been putting off, but I agree. It is important to learn about.
Incredible work, thank you
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short version of the M&R pact; Soviets needed to buy time to build up resources, knowing war with Germany was inevitable and being led to believe the western powers were going to ignore Germany in Europe. (US, France, and the UK refused to go to war with Germany. The UK’s line on it was “peace in our time”, and they tried to stick to that until the invasion of Belgium in 1940). A source nerd can provide the proper sources for this, I can’t be dicked rn.
According to this article by Grover Furr (not the best person for sources, but it’s a compelling article) the USSR did not invade Poland. Rather they upheld signed and agreed on promises made with Polish representatives, and did so to protect Polish citizens from Germany’s oppressive rule. The USSR also armed and aided Polish freedom-fighting groups and after the war returned their sovereignty to their rightful control. Germany invaded, the Soviets liberated.
Also if we need to come up with justifications for the invasion of Poland, the Polish government was leading genocide and harassment against the ethnic Ukrainians whose legal territory was wrongfully given to the new Polish state by the western powers following WWI in the breakup of the German state. The USSR’s “invasion” of eastern Poland ended that.
There is actually an alternative to Wikipedia called ProleWiki, chances are you already read about it around here. Here’s the link to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in ProleWiki. The article doesn’t have much but maybe you can get more information from its sources.
I think the obvious answer is clearly https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Non-Aggression_between_Germany_and_the_Union_of_Soviet_Socialist_Republics haha