On Sep 13, 2009, at 12:08 AM, Dennis Brasky wrote: >> By Seumas Milne >> The Guartdian (UK) >> September 9, 2009 >> http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/09/second-world-war-soviet-pact >> Stalin's pact with Hitler did indeed set off the war. But without that pact the war would have broken out anyway within a year or two, and it would have been an even greater disaster.
It was in June 1939 that Trotsky wrote that Chamberlain and Daladier were forcing Stalin to do a deal with Hitler. By August it was clear to everyone that the British and French empires had no interest in an alliance with the Russian empire against the German. Stalin therefore had every reason to expect that the British and French would do another Munich accepting Hitler's declaration that Danzig and the Corridor were his last territorial ambitions in Europe, a deal which would leave a German-dominated Polish regime, motivated by its hereditary hatred of everything Russian, at Hitler's service for an invasion of Russia. Having destroyed the military capability of the Red Army in 1937-38, Stalin had placed himself in the position where Russia could not plausibly threaten war, and so he could claim to have no choice but to realize his long-term ambition to form an alliance with the German nationalists. He did disrupt the Anglo/French strategy and forced them into war (they were forced to declare war because the Russian alliance and the resulting German domination of east-central Europe meant that Hitler would become ever stronger so the military balance, still equal in 1939, would inevitably tilt ever more toward the German side). Unfortunately for Stalin, Hitler was no Hindenburg or Ludendorff. He turned out to be quite the wrong sort (the insane plebian vonless sort) of German nationalist. Shane Mage > This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it > always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire, > kindling in measures and going out in measures." > > Herakleitos of Ephesos ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
