Documents show Stalin went to great lengths to stop Hitler
Posted under: 
Documents show Stalin went to great lengths to stop Hitler
(llco.org)
In 1939, Stalin tried to make a deal with the West against fascist Germany. Recently declassified archive documents show the extent that Stalin went to in an attempt to stop Hitler by offering an alliance to Britain and France on August 15, 1939. According to the documents, Stalin offered to commit one million troops to stand watch on the German border to deter Hitler from expanding World War 2. According to one source:
“The Soviet offer – made by war minister Marshall Klementi Voroshilov and Red Army chief of general staff Boris Shaposhnikov – would have put up to 120 infantry divisions (each with some 19,000 troops), 16 cavalry divisions, 5,000 heavy artillery pieces, 9,500 tanks and up to 5,500 fighter aircraft and bombers on Germany’s borders in the event of war in the west..” (1)
Had the deal been taken seriously, Stalin was prepared to up the level of support to double the number of Hitler’s fielded forces at the time. However, Stalin was rebuffed by the West.
A week later, August 23, 1939, Stalin made a treaty with Hitler after Germany attacked Poland. Stalin’s detractors criticize the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact as a purely opportunist move on behalf of a power hungry Soviet dictator. However, these documents indicate that, to the contrary, Stalin attempted to prevent World War 2. According to Major General Lev Sotskov, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact would not have happened had the West accepted Stalin’s offer of an alliance. It was only after being rejected by the West that Stalin was forced to sign a pact with Hitler in order to buy time to build up Soviet military strength.
Conservative leader Neville Chamberlain in Britain and the French had earlier, in 1938, enabled Hitler by allowing the German annexation of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia in the Munich agreement. The West warned Czechoslovakia not to invoke its treaty with the Soviet Union. Later, the Soviet Union, not the West, would do the bulk of the fighting against the German armies.
It is estimated that around 50 million people died in World War 2. The Soviet peoples suffered 26 million deaths, more than all the other allied nations put together did. Stalin tried to prevent this catastrophe, the West sold-out humanity and enabled the Nazis. More than any single leader, Stalin prevented the victory of fascism in Europe.
The Western view of Stalin was shaped by imperialists, fascists, and other anti-communists, especially Trotskyists. In Russia, Stalin is viewed very differently. In poll after poll, Stalin, a Georgian, tops the lists as a great Russian leader. (2)(3)(4)(5) This latest revelation about Stalin shows just how skewed Western history is.
Notes.�
1. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew….ops-to-stop-Hit ler-if-Britain-and-France-agreed-pact.html�
2. Surprisingly enough, many Russians still miss Stalin’s strong handhttp://english.pravda.ru/russia/history/10-07-2008/105747-stalin-0
3. Last Tsar Leads Stalin in Poll on Greatest Russian http://www.javno.com/en/world/clanak.php?id=165426
4. GEORGIA: GEORGIAN PUBLIC CHOOSES STALIN AS IDEAL LEADER – POLL.(Brief Article)http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6465/is_200108/ai_n26275688�
5. Could Josef Stalin be made a saint? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew….de-a-saint.html
4 Comments + Add Comment
Deja un comentario / Leave a comment / Mag-iwan ng komento / Hinterlasse einen Kommentar / Αφήστε ένα σχόλιο
Leading Light Essentials
Short, concise and to the point. This is a brilliant read, good job.
As I recall, Comrade Stalin offered to attack fascist Germany preemptively on the conditions that either Britain or France join the effort and that Poland allow the glorious Soviet Red Army passage through Polish territory. Britain and France spurned the offer, as did Poland.
Poland had been flirting with Hitler back then. “Sanacja” – movement influenced by Pilsudski – was polish version of fascism, and they seek unity against USSR. Polish-German war broke out because of territorial claims of Nazis, and because Poland signed treaty with France and UK, not because Poland was samewhat antifascist
“The Soviet peoples suffered 26 million deaths, more than all the other allied nations put together did. Stalin tried to prevent this catastrophe”
Stalin was not aware that this would happen. Also, the Western Allies tried to avoid the war with an appeasement policy with Hitler. When that failed, they declared war to Germany when it invaded Poland (invasion the USSR also took part BTW). Despite not having an alliance with the USSR, the French and British armed forces (with US support) were thought to be able to take out Germany. However that unfornately proved to be wrong for them.
“Stalin was forced to sign a pact with Hitler in order to buy time to build up Soviet military strength.”
Stalin wouldn’t have to sign nothing if he hadn’t purged the Soviet military. This allows us to make the same sort of criticism of this article in regard to the USSR: if, like the Western Allies in 1940, she was weak, she shouldn’t have refused a stronger military alliance.
My political-free historical analyzes will not be taken seriously by most here. However, like myself, I hope it will be informative for people who happen to find this link while researching in the Web.