e: If your talking about the former USSR, especially during the Second World War, don’t just call the whole thing “Russia,” it erases the suffering and sacrifice of non-Russians and furthers the myth that “Russia won the second world war” when millions of non-Russians gave their lives.
>By focusing on individuals and official proclamations, Western academia too often overlooked the fact that Stalin was obsessed with maintaining Russian imperial borders and had adopted the same toolkit – ethnic cleansing, crushing dissent, destroying national movements, privileging Russian ethnicity and culture – that tsarist Russia used to maintain them.
>**Soviet coloniality was dismissed also because knowledge about the Soviet Union in the West was Russocentric. The Soviet Union was often referred to simply as Russia.**
I remember reading that the US actually sent more tons total to the Eastern front than to the Western front, but not sure if that’s correct (there is probably some random qualifier to that statistic that I’m forgetting). If somebody knows what I’m talking about a source would be great 🙂
Seems like an oversimplification
This post in ungrateful, as the USSR would save the lives of millions in the western countries by defeating 80 percent of the nazi army.
>starting the cold war by “Sponsoring the civil war in Greece”
The certainly a hot take
The US is as much at fault for the cold war as the Russia, just blaming “the Russians” is falsifying history
There is a lot wrong here. First, the entire purpose of lend-lease was that it was *free*. The calculus of the US government was that supply weapons to the other allies was neccessary for the purpose of the US’ own defense and security, and making it free ensured that the allies would not limit themselves in their “purchases” as it were when victory was far from certain.
The debt you’re referring to also was specifically the US’ demands for material shipped past the cutoff-date for Lend Lease which, by their own admission, were entirely unrealistic. The “25%” is the sum that the two nations eventually settled on *together*, and was repaid in full in 2006 (the reason for this is long, complicated and frankly not that interesting).
Your categorisation of the civil war in greece is also incredibly incorrect, trying to distill years of polarisation under Axis occupation into the war that started in 1946. It’s also leaving out that much of that polarisation happened as a result of the National Bands Agreement, the initial favouring of ELAS and the eventual turn from ELAS to EDES by, primarily, the British. Specifically, when ELAS (communist resistance movement) began slipping out of allied control, the Brits, worried that communists might end up taking power in greece, started funding the anti-communist EDES (Also a resistance movement against the Nazis originally).
The biggest mistake here however is that it wasnt the soviet union that was the primary supporter of the KKE (communist party, whose armed wing was the ELAS), it was Tito’s Yugoslavia. In fact, Stalin was quoted repeatedly stating his *opposition* to the uprising. This disagreement on the greek civil war was a *big* factor in the Soviet-Yugoslavian split of 1948 actually, which ended up with Yugoslavia being expelled from ~~the soviet union~~ COMINFORM.
In fact, the start of the cold war is actually generally accepted to have been the Truman Doctrine, which is notably US, though its not accurate to say that the US “triggered” the cold war, as much as the cold war was always going to happen and that that was just when it became official.
There is enough horrible things the USSR, and Russia, have done, that we don’t need to engage in such dissemination of half-truths and outright misquotes. Let’s stick to the facts.
>triggered the Cold War immediately after WWII by sponsoring the Civil War in Greece
Lol, lmao even
That is a dangerous direction to go into. Good or bad, USSR did most of the heavy lifting in WW2. One of the most celebrated Allies battles is the Landing of Normandy and allies only landed up to 200,000 soldiers on the beach. In the battle of Stalingrad, up to 2 million soldiers fought in one of the most bloodiest battles in history.
Hating current Russia is okay. But going so far as to rewrite history is going a little too far.
Russia did pay its landlease debts in 00s
Btw, why do they call Britain on the propaganda poster when it clearly was the US help.
But anyway an interesting material, I love those historical pamphlets
F’uck Stalin, the USSR, and Putin as well.
But seriously, the US and UK provided material support to the USSR so the USSR could defeat Nazi Germany and pay with their blood rather than Western blood. Germany suffered 75 to 85 % of their casualties on the Eastern Front. It’s basically where they lost the war.
12 comments
USSR*
e: If your talking about the former USSR, especially during the Second World War, don’t just call the whole thing “Russia,” it erases the suffering and sacrifice of non-Russians and furthers the myth that “Russia won the second world war” when millions of non-Russians gave their lives.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/1/24/how-western-scholars-overlooked-russian-imperialism
>By focusing on individuals and official proclamations, Western academia too often overlooked the fact that Stalin was obsessed with maintaining Russian imperial borders and had adopted the same toolkit – ethnic cleansing, crushing dissent, destroying national movements, privileging Russian ethnicity and culture – that tsarist Russia used to maintain them.
>**Soviet coloniality was dismissed also because knowledge about the Soviet Union in the West was Russocentric. The Soviet Union was often referred to simply as Russia.**
Romania’s [120 tons gold treasury was entrusted to the Russians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_Treasure) and they refuse to give it back.
I remember reading that the US actually sent more tons total to the Eastern front than to the Western front, but not sure if that’s correct (there is probably some random qualifier to that statistic that I’m forgetting). If somebody knows what I’m talking about a source would be great 🙂
Seems like an oversimplification
This post in ungrateful, as the USSR would save the lives of millions in the western countries by defeating 80 percent of the nazi army.
>starting the cold war by “Sponsoring the civil war in Greece”
The certainly a hot take
The US is as much at fault for the cold war as the Russia, just blaming “the Russians” is falsifying history
There is a lot wrong here. First, the entire purpose of lend-lease was that it was *free*. The calculus of the US government was that supply weapons to the other allies was neccessary for the purpose of the US’ own defense and security, and making it free ensured that the allies would not limit themselves in their “purchases” as it were when victory was far from certain.
The debt you’re referring to also was specifically the US’ demands for material shipped past the cutoff-date for Lend Lease which, by their own admission, were entirely unrealistic. The “25%” is the sum that the two nations eventually settled on *together*, and was repaid in full in 2006 (the reason for this is long, complicated and frankly not that interesting).
Your categorisation of the civil war in greece is also incredibly incorrect, trying to distill years of polarisation under Axis occupation into the war that started in 1946. It’s also leaving out that much of that polarisation happened as a result of the National Bands Agreement, the initial favouring of ELAS and the eventual turn from ELAS to EDES by, primarily, the British. Specifically, when ELAS (communist resistance movement) began slipping out of allied control, the Brits, worried that communists might end up taking power in greece, started funding the anti-communist EDES (Also a resistance movement against the Nazis originally).
The biggest mistake here however is that it wasnt the soviet union that was the primary supporter of the KKE (communist party, whose armed wing was the ELAS), it was Tito’s Yugoslavia. In fact, Stalin was quoted repeatedly stating his *opposition* to the uprising. This disagreement on the greek civil war was a *big* factor in the Soviet-Yugoslavian split of 1948 actually, which ended up with Yugoslavia being expelled from ~~the soviet union~~ COMINFORM.
In fact, the start of the cold war is actually generally accepted to have been the Truman Doctrine, which is notably US, though its not accurate to say that the US “triggered” the cold war, as much as the cold war was always going to happen and that that was just when it became official.
Also just as a last point, as far as “the USSR tried to join the Axis powers”, I will simply refer to [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/badhistory/comments/8wplv1/the_molotovribbentrop_pact_was_a_simple/e20e8ud/) well-cited comment that goes through the issues with that claim in a much better way than I ever could.
There is enough horrible things the USSR, and Russia, have done, that we don’t need to engage in such dissemination of half-truths and outright misquotes. Let’s stick to the facts.
>triggered the Cold War immediately after WWII by sponsoring the Civil War in Greece
Lol, lmao even
That is a dangerous direction to go into. Good or bad, USSR did most of the heavy lifting in WW2. One of the most celebrated Allies battles is the Landing of Normandy and allies only landed up to 200,000 soldiers on the beach. In the battle of Stalingrad, up to 2 million soldiers fought in one of the most bloodiest battles in history.
Hating current Russia is okay. But going so far as to rewrite history is going a little too far.
Russia did pay its landlease debts in 00s
Btw, why do they call Britain on the propaganda poster when it clearly was the US help.
But anyway an interesting material, I love those historical pamphlets
F’uck Stalin, the USSR, and Putin as well.
But seriously, the US and UK provided material support to the USSR so the USSR could defeat Nazi Germany and pay with their blood rather than Western blood. Germany suffered 75 to 85 % of their casualties on the Eastern Front. It’s basically where they lost the war.