Soviet Paintings from WW2

[derspiess]

They deserved it.

I thought the point of winning that war was to reject that kind of thinking.

Stalin's regime was all about ruthless conquest.  His barbarian horde subjects were more than willing to buy into it, and we (the west) did what we could to stay out of his way.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Hmmm.....ever heard of "socialism in one country"?

One of the unpleasant consequences of Hitler's vile stupidity was getting that Soviet policy to change.

[derspiess]

Hmmm.....ever heard of "socialism in one country"?

One of the unpleasant consequences of Hitler's vile stupidity was getting that Soviet policy to change.

I was really referring to the end of the war & beginning of the Cold War.  But since you mentioned it, was it really socialism in one country or socialism in 1 country plus Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, half of Poland, Finland (attempted), and Ukraine?

[saskganesh]

Stalin, like a lot of Russians still do, saw Tsarist Russia as its natural borders. so, ya, "one country."

[grumbler]

Hmmm.....ever heard of "socialism in one country"?

One of the unpleasant consequences of Hitler's vile stupidity was getting that Soviet policy to change.

Socialism in one country was always intended as a temporary state of affairs. Hitler's actions sped up the Soviet timetable, but didn't change any policies, IMO.

[DGuller]

They deserved it.

I thought the point of winning that war was to reject that kind of thinking.

Stalin's regime was all about ruthless conquest.  His barbarian horde subjects were more than willing to buy into it, and we (the west) did what we could to stay out of his way.

Are you sure that you're not the one from Argentina?

[Josquius]

I dunno, socialism in one country does still kind of hold valid. Even if things were all about Russia uber alles its better to have a eastern european buffer of the same ideology even if spreading that ideology isn't your primary goal.

[Josephus]

It wasn't like they were important countries anyways. I mean really, nobody gives a shit about Poland, Hungary, Romania and what not.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Stalin was a cautious paranoid man who died (probably  ) of natural causes. I think that, without the push provided by the Nazis, he might have found that Socialism in one country suited him fine right until his end. Soviet expansionism apart from WW2-related Eastern european occupations was very limited in scope, maybe because whenever they tried they always achieved rather indifferent results.

Rather than Stalin's regime being all about ruthless conquest I would say it was all about ruthless internal repression and the preservation of Stalin's personal paramount role in the state. I accept that this may look a rather perverse opinion when the bugger occupied half of Europe  ; but having been forced to participate in a massive war of survival it would have been very curious for any Russian regime/state not to have arranged matters in Eastern Europe to it's own satisfaction.

[Valmy]

It wasn't like they were important countries anyways. I mean really, nobody gives a shit about Poland, Hungary, Romania and what not.

I do.  They have the hottest women.

[Faeelin]

One of the unpleasant consequences of Hitler's vile stupidity was getting that Soviet policy to change.

Socialism in one country was always intended as a temporary state of affairs. Hitler's actions sped up the Soviet timetable, but didn't change any policies, IMO.
[/quote]

I'm really trying to find any evidence of this, given how Soviet rearmament was tied directly to the rise of Nazism and the fact the USSR spent the 1930s pleading iwth teh west for a united front and collective security.

[Josephus]

If it was, it certainly wasn't something Stalin was planning on doing for a while yet. By 1941, as we all know from playing HOI, the Soviet army was in disarray. Finland was a bust. It hardly looked like anything getting ready for world domination.