Russians angry over Romanian president's justification of 1941 invasion

[dps]

I'm a lot less knowledgeable about the Romanian invasion than events further north.  Was it more possible to have a working alliance with the Romanians than with the Poles or Balts?  Or even keep them neutral?

During the Munich crisis, Romania agreed to let Soviet troops have access through Romania to get to Czechslovakia to support the Czechs, so I'd say yes, even though they did put a lot of limits on the Soviets.

Incidentally, Poland apparantly actually threatened to attack Romania if they actually allowed the Soviets passage, which doesn't at all detract from your point that the Poles were dicks about the whole business.

[Maximus]

Did I miss Ide becoming a Stalin apologist or is it a new thing?

It got worse after he went to law school.

You can't blame him. We've all confused lawyers with Stalinists.

[Ideologue]

(Except for the part about him taking German bribes.  I looked him up just now basically to recall his name--but that's new.  That wasn't information available when I was doing my thesis on the M-R Pact back in 2006.)

Never heard of it. Link?

It's on Beck's Wikipedia page.  I make no claim about the veracity of it, like I said it's the first time I heard of it.

[Ideologue]

I'm a lot less knowledgeable about the Romanian invasion than events further north.  Was it more possible to have a working alliance with the Romanians than with the Poles or Balts?  Or even keep them neutral?

During the Munich crisis, Romania agreed to let Soviet troops have access through Romania to get to Czechslovakia to support the Czechs, so I'd say yes, even though they did put a lot of limits on the Soviets.

Incidentally, Poland apparantly actually threatened to attack Romania if they actually allowed the Soviets passage, which doesn't at all detract from your point that the Poles were dicks about the whole business.

Indeed.

Anyway, I don't think I'm a "Stalin apologist," only that I recognize that the USSR was in a very bad position in 1939 (largely because of Stalinist rule), and the inability of the Western Allies to recognize and allay Soviet fears of being abandoned (which were pretty well-founded), and the inability of Poland to trust the USSR (albeit with exceedingly good reason), is what permitted a Nazi near-conquest of the continent.  This was, both at the time and today, generally considered a bad thing, especially since it led to what no one, other than Stalin, ever wanted--the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.

[Ed Anger]

I'm glad Poland got raped in '39.