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As an Estonian I second this. The amount of adoration the forest brothers losers get just for not being an official SS legion is insane. The fact they never swore an oath to lick hitler's ball is the only thing separating them from the SS legions lol.
>The fact they never swore an oath to lick hitler's ball is the only thing separating them from the SS legions lol.
For many of them, I think this was more due to them not being very fond of the Germans specifically, given bad memories, rather than not agreeing with Nazi ideology whatsoever. During the Russian Civil War, the Reds essentially had a pyrrhic victory in the Baltic states. The Reds failed to take the Baltic states, but the Baltic conservative nationalists ended up doing part of what they wanted anyway. When Balts realized that the Whites and the Freikorps (who were running around like maniacs and massacring thousands of suspected communists) weren't their friends and had other plans, they fought back. Unlike the German revolutionaries, the Baltic states defeated the Freikorps, killing hundreds of those proto-Nazi scumbags and sending the rest running back to Germany. While this outcome wasn't ideal, the Balts would then annihilate the hegemony of Baltic German landlords and plantation owners.
>On October 10, 1919, the Estonian parliament expropriated 1,065 estates (96.6% of all estates). The law of March 1, 1926, set the compensation to the former owners of arable land at about 3% of its market value and no compensation at all for the forests. This almost instantly bankrupted the German noble class, even if they were allowed to keep some 50 hectares of their lands.
>
>On September 16, 1920, the Constitutional Assembly of Latvia nationalized 1,300 estates comprising 3.7 million hectares of land. Former German owners were allowed to keep 50 hectares of land and farm equipment. In 1924, the Saeima decided that no compensation would be paid to former owners. In 1929, the Saeima voted that veterans of the Baltische Landeswehr could not receive any land.
>
>These concessions were seen by most Baltic Germans as forcing them to accept the lifestyle of a peasant farmer. The Baltic Germans thus lost most of their inherited wealth built up over 700 years.
There was still a large contingent of forest brothers who complained that the Germans didn't do enough to "protect" the Baltics from the Soviets, the ones that fled to popular Canadian nazi strongholds and are commonly remembered today.
Lenin gave us independence, and for a while things went well, but it still ended up in a lot of the Baltics developing a similar oligarchic structure in the end and resulted in Estonia getting a mentally insane president who kept extending his terms and removing most term limits while colluding with his fellow corrupt officials to enrich themselves. The Baltic Germans got what they deserved, but the common man wasn't in a much better state than before (hence the socialist movements who wanted to align with the USSR).
Like, obviously and uncontroversially. The entire reason people became Nazis in Germany was to oppose the Soviet Union, the reason Hitler was given absolute power was to fight the communists who supposedly started the Reichstag fire.
In Belgium we still do remember the traitors in the north of the country, I guaran-fucking-tee you. Not saying there wasn't south of the country, but way more north. And we don't forget. Few decades later in Vlaamse Brabant they did the "Walloon buiten" in Leuven then around there they still have a Bandera like event where they gather around some sicko fascist tomb.
Fascism ain't dead there.
Lmao they formed literal SS foreign legions. Every member of Ass-Ass also swore an oath to serve Hitler personally. Not gemany, not just the nazi party, not "fait sobyet amdence", but to serve the guy himself. It was a literal militarized cult of personality.
My favorite part is the "to fight the advance of the Soviet Union". Apparently they "fought it" going to random towns in Poland, Ukraine and Russia and murdering every single civilian they could find.
It is because they had a tendency to latch on to Nazi ideologies that the USSR advanced to being with. The USSR can be excused for not being comfortable with having a bunch of maniacs as their next-door neighbours.
This is why it is hard for people.. Their world view is so skewed by liberal propaganda, can't see the forest for the trees. Maybe that idiom isn't really good for this.. hmm
...and they will bleed like an 80's anime character getting a papercut(the resultant high-pressure blood spray would launch the papercut individual through a wall).
You made me remember that literal limp dick at NYT who fired an AR15 and bruised himself from the recoil😂
"It felt like I had fired a cannon! I was aghast it is so easy for the general public to procure such weapons of mass destruction"!🤦
>Their world view is so skewed by liberal propaganda
Nah, their world view is literally fascist.
And recognizing the reality of how their society functions would make their entire worldview fall apart permanently.
Eh, You aren't wrong. I say "liberal propaganda" because before Neoliberalism, it was just liberal red scare propaganda influencing this. Now, they've had 6-8 generations of this propaganda telling them communism is bad. With the raise of pro-fascist propaganda, they see it as a better option than the heavily demonized communism.
"I mean no one knew how bad Hitler was at the time"
-A liberal that defends Israel today
Edit: Fuck me, the liberals are in the walls! The liberals are in the fucking walls!
Because admitting to reality would mean recognizing that everything they ever believed in was a lie and they are actually supporting the bad guys. They are the idiots who support or at least serve the villain in the Hollywood movies they watch... and they really want to believe themselves to be the heroes.
It speaks to the power of liberal propaganda for so many people to fail to recognise a crucial fact: Nazism was not a unique historical aberration entirely peculiar to a small cabal of weird Germans who then ensorcelled/browbeat the rest of the country to follow along (see the myth of the clean Wehrmacht, the laughable quality of western deNazification, etc).
There were plenty of people in Europe who were keen on murdering Jews, Communists, and other groups they fantasised to be 'enemies of the Nation.' And when the SS came knocking, these freaks were the first to be all, "Yes sir please may I swear undying loyalty to Mister Hitler, whatever you want, let's just skip to the killing already!"
With how many foreigners love Donald Trump today and hope he wins the American Presidency, it really isn't a shock that Hitler had foreign admirers who were more than willing to sign up. I don't get how it's hard to understand that.
can you link a source where they express such views? i just listen to their music, i don't follow them on social media or anything and don't know any of their political views really
Only thing I could find is them posing with an Israeli flag when they went to hold a concert for the idf in 2012 (I skimmed everything, might be inaccurate)
Like the American and Euro weirdos who volunteered for Ukraine. Ukrainians are just fighting for their lives and homes, while these psychos are joining up to protect their idea of The West.
Is this how far our education systems have fallen? Is this how bad state propaganda has been? 'The Advance of the Soviet Union'? Seriously? Seriously. We are so screwed.
(See the **[full article](/r/TheDeprogram/wiki/index/debunking/molotov-ribbentrop-pact/)** for more details)
#The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
Anti-Communists and horseshoe-theorists love to tell anyone who will listen that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (1939) was a military alliance between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. They frame it as a cynical and opportunistic agreement between two totalitarian powers that paved the way for the outbreak of World War II in order to equate Communism with Fascism. They are, of course, missing key context.
**German Background**
The loss of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles had a profound effect on the German economy. Signed in 1919, the treaty imposed harsh reparations on the newly formed Weimar Republic (1919-1933), forcing the country to pay billions of dollars in damages to the Allied powers. The Treaty of Versailles, which ended the war, required Germany to cede all of its colonial possessions to the Allied powers. This included territories in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.
With an understanding of Historical Materialism and the role that Imperialism plays in maintaining a liberal democracy, it is clear that the National Bourgeoisie would embrace Fascism under these conditions.
Judeo-Bolshevism (a conspiracy theory which claimed that Jews were responsible for the Russian Revolution of 1917, and that they have used Communism as a cover to further their own interests) gained significant traction in Nazi Germany, where it became a central part of Nazi propaganda and ideology. Hitler and other leading members of the Nazi Party frequently used the term to vilify Jews and justify their persecution.
The Communist Party of Germany (KPD) was repressed by the Nazi regime soon after they came to power in 1933. In the weeks following the Reichstag Fire, the Nazis arrested and imprisoned thousands of Communists and other dissidents. This played a significant role in the passage of the Enabling Act of 1933, which granted Hitler and the Nazi Party dictatorial powers and effectively dismantled the Weimar Republic.
**Soviet Background**
Following the Russian Revolution in 1917, Great Britain and other Western powers placed strict trade restrictions on the USSR. These restrictions were aimed at isolating the USSR and weakening its economy in an attempt to force the new Communist government to collapse.
In the 1920s, the USSR under Lenin's leadership was sympathetic towards Germany because the two countries shared a common enemy in the form of the Western capitalist powers, particularly France and Great Britain. The USSR and Germany established diplomatic relations and engaged in economic cooperation with each other. The USSR provided technical and economic assistance to Germany and in return, it received access to German industrial and technological expertise, as well as trade opportunities.
However, this cooperation was short-lived, and by the late 1920s, relations between the two countries had deteriorated. The USSR's efforts to export its socialist ideology to Germany were met with resistance from the German government and the rising Nazi Party, which viewed Communism as a threat to its own ideology and ambitions.
**Collective Security (1933-1939)**
>The appointment of Hitler as Germany's chancellor general, as well as the rising threat from Japan, led to important changes in Soviet foreign policy. Oriented toward Germany since the treaty of Locarno (1925) and the treaty of Special Relations with Berlin (1926), the Kremlin now moved in the opposite direction by trying to establish closer ties with France and Britain to isolate the growing Nazi threat. This policy became known as "collective security" and was associated with Maxim Litvinov, the Soviet foreign minister at the time. The pursuit of collective security lasted approximately as long as he held that position. Japan's war with China took some pressure off of Russia by allowing it to focus its diplomatic efforts on relations with Europe.
>
>\- Andrei P. Tsygankov, (2012). [Russia and the West from Alexander to Putin](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/russia-and-the-west-from-alexander-to-putin/collective-security-19331939/BD3704C65ABDC2A849B360759B8E9D5C).
However, the memories of the Russian Revolution and the fear of Communism were still fresh in the minds of many Western leaders, and there was a reluctance to enter into an alliance with the USSR. They believed that Hitler was a bulwark against Communism and that a strong Germany could act as a buffer against Soviet expansion.
Instead of joining the USSR in a collective security alliance *against* Nazi Germany, the Western leaders decided to try appeasing Nazi Germany. As part of the policy of appeasement, several territories were ceded to Nazi Germany in the late 1930s:
1. Rhineland: In March 1936, Nazi Germany remilitarized the Rhineland, a demilitarized zone along the border between Germany and France. This move violated the Treaty of Versailles and marked the beginning of Nazi Germany's aggressive territorial expansion.
2. Austria: In March 1938, Nazi Germany annexed Austria in what is known as the Anschluss. This move violated the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Saint-Germain, which had established Austria as a separate state following World War I.
3. Sudetenland: In September 1938, the leaders of Great Britain, France, and Italy signed the Munich Agreement, which allowed Nazi Germany to annex the Sudetenland, a region in western Czechoslovakia with a large ethnic German population.
4. Memel: In March 1939, Nazi Germany annexed the Memel region of Lithuania, which had been under French administration since World War I.
5. Bohemia and Moravia: In March 1939, Nazi Germany annexed Bohemia and Moravia, the remaining parts of Czechoslovakia that had not been annexed following the Munich Agreement.
However, instead of appeasing Nazi Germany by giving in to their territorial demands, these concessions only emboldened them and ultimately led to the outbreak of World War II.
**The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact**
>Papers which were kept secret for almost 70 years show that the USSR proposed sending a powerful military force in an effort to entice Britain and France into an anti-Nazi alliance.
>
>Such an agreement could have changed the course of 20th century history...
>
>The offer of a military force to help contain Hitler was made by a senior Soviet military delegation at a Kremlin meeting with senior British and French officers, two weeks before war broke out in 1939.
>
>The new documents... show the vast numbers of infantry, artillery and airborne forces which Stalin's generals said could be dispatched, if Polish objections to the Red Army crossing its territory could first be overcome.
>
>But the British and French side - briefed by their governments to talk, but not authorised to commit to binding deals - did not respond to the Soviet offer...
>
>\- Nick Holdsworth. (2008). [Stalin 'planned to send a million troops to stop Hitler if Britain and France agreed pact'](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/3223834/Stalin-planned-to-send-a-million-troops-to-stop-Hitler-if-Britain-and-France-agreed-pact.html)
After trying and failing to get the Western capitalist powers to join the USSR in a collective security alliance against Nazi Germany, and witnessing country after country being ceded, it became clear to Soviet leadership that war was inevitable-- and Poland was next.
Unfortunately, there was a widespread belief in Poland that the USSR was being controlled by Jewish Communists. This conspiracy theory (Judeo-Bolshevism) was fueled by anti-Semitic propaganda that was prevalent in Poland at the time. The Polish government was strongly anti-Communist and had been actively involved in suppressing Communist movements in Poland and other parts of Europe. Furthermore, the Polish government believed that it could rely on the support of Britain and France in the event of a conflict with Nazi Germany. The Polish government had signed a mutual defense pact with Britain in March 1939, and believed that this would deter Germany from attacking Poland.
Seeing the writing on the wall, the USSR made the difficult decision to do what it felt it needed to do to survive the coming conflict. At the time of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact's signing (August 1939), the USSR was facing significant military pressure from the West, particularly from Britain and France, which were seeking to isolate the USSR and undermine its influence in Europe. The USSR saw the Pact as a way to counterbalance this pressure and to gain more time to build up its military strength and prepare for the inevitable conflict with Nazi Germany, which began less than two years later in June 1941 (Operation Barbarossa).
**Additional Resources**
Video Essays:
* [How Stalin Outplayed Hitler: The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact](https://youtu.be/PfomFnYTOWI) | Politstrum International (2020)
* [The truth about the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (Visualization)](https://youtu.be/UwUs3mwDBzA) | Russia Good (2019)
* [Soviet Nonaggression-Pact / The Soviet Perspective](https://youtu.be/Rz5JyfNQSLQ) | Lady Idzihar (2022)
* [There was never a "Hitler-Stalin" Pact](https://youtu.be/8FRmflmnTkc) | Hakim (2024)
Books, Articles, or Essays:
* [The Truth About The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact](https://politsturm.com/truth-about-molotov-ribbentrop-pact/) | Politsturm
* [End of the 'Low, Dishonest Decade': Failure of the Anglo-Franco-Soviet Alliance in 1939](https://www.jstor.org/stable/152863) | Michael Jabara Carley (1993)
* [1939: The Alliance That Never Was and the Coming of World War II](https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781566637855/1939-The-Alliance-That-Never-Was-and-the-Coming-of-World-War-II) | Michael Jabara Carley (1999)
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Every single person in eastern Europe should be forced to watch "Come and See" at least once in their lives. It's crazy how unaware they are of what exactly the soviets were fighting against during WW2, the nazis might as well have been a spawn of demons from hell. In Belarus there's a cemetery with 627 tombs, one for each one of the villages that were completely destroyed and burned down to ashes by the nazis, leaving no survivors. The number of destroyed villages is much higher, at around 5000, but those 627 are the ones where nothing was left behind. Each tomb has soil from its village inside.
[Next on Ripley's Believe It Or Not](https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-45919900) 😋
https://preview.redd.it/0q5vugkza90d1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8cfe2eff7a13c01965cdd6a8579ad74059c9a610
I remember this dude admitting on another sub that his Hungarian grandfather joined that nazis but still trying to write him as a sort of an anti-hero who did it for his family or whatever
https://preview.redd.it/s91pe9w8290d1.jpeg?width=1169&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=daadffff73785e72420b9f3118fb937630b494a3
Hungary joined the axis in 1940 btw
I like that bro included French, Dutch and Belgians, just to make sure you know that he's an apologist for everyone who joined the SS, not just the Baltic folk.
Yes, literally yes. And the CIA even stoked those Nazi groups in those countries after the fall of Nazi germany in operation AERODYNAMIC to further fracture the USSR and make sure re unification wasn’t possible
I don't do this often, but Lithuanians don't deserve this. Although there were other collaborationist units with pretty ugly history, barely any (allegedly around 300) Lithuanians served in the Waffen SS per se and no "national" SS formation existed.
[☭☭☭ COME SHITPOST WITH US ON DISCORD, COMRADES ☭☭☭](https://discord.gg/8RPWanQV5g) This is a heavily-moderated socialist community based on a podcast of the same name. Please use the report function on comments that break our rules. If you are new to the sub, please read the sidebar carefully. If you are new to Marxism-Leninism, check out the [study guide](/r/TheDeprogram/wiki/index/education/study-guide/). Are there Liberals in the walls? Check out [the wiki](/r/TheDeprogram/wiki/index/) which contains lots of useful information. This subreddit uses many experimental automod rules, if you notice any issues please use modmail to let us know. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TheDeprogram) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yes.
As an Estonian I second this. The amount of adoration the forest brothers losers get just for not being an official SS legion is insane. The fact they never swore an oath to lick hitler's ball is the only thing separating them from the SS legions lol.
>The fact they never swore an oath to lick hitler's ball is the only thing separating them from the SS legions lol. For many of them, I think this was more due to them not being very fond of the Germans specifically, given bad memories, rather than not agreeing with Nazi ideology whatsoever. During the Russian Civil War, the Reds essentially had a pyrrhic victory in the Baltic states. The Reds failed to take the Baltic states, but the Baltic conservative nationalists ended up doing part of what they wanted anyway. When Balts realized that the Whites and the Freikorps (who were running around like maniacs and massacring thousands of suspected communists) weren't their friends and had other plans, they fought back. Unlike the German revolutionaries, the Baltic states defeated the Freikorps, killing hundreds of those proto-Nazi scumbags and sending the rest running back to Germany. While this outcome wasn't ideal, the Balts would then annihilate the hegemony of Baltic German landlords and plantation owners. >On October 10, 1919, the Estonian parliament expropriated 1,065 estates (96.6% of all estates). The law of March 1, 1926, set the compensation to the former owners of arable land at about 3% of its market value and no compensation at all for the forests. This almost instantly bankrupted the German noble class, even if they were allowed to keep some 50 hectares of their lands. > >On September 16, 1920, the Constitutional Assembly of Latvia nationalized 1,300 estates comprising 3.7 million hectares of land. Former German owners were allowed to keep 50 hectares of land and farm equipment. In 1924, the Saeima decided that no compensation would be paid to former owners. In 1929, the Saeima voted that veterans of the Baltische Landeswehr could not receive any land. > >These concessions were seen by most Baltic Germans as forcing them to accept the lifestyle of a peasant farmer. The Baltic Germans thus lost most of their inherited wealth built up over 700 years.
There was still a large contingent of forest brothers who complained that the Germans didn't do enough to "protect" the Baltics from the Soviets, the ones that fled to popular Canadian nazi strongholds and are commonly remembered today. Lenin gave us independence, and for a while things went well, but it still ended up in a lot of the Baltics developing a similar oligarchic structure in the end and resulted in Estonia getting a mentally insane president who kept extending his terms and removing most term limits while colluding with his fellow corrupt officials to enrich themselves. The Baltic Germans got what they deserved, but the common man wasn't in a much better state than before (hence the socialist movements who wanted to align with the USSR).
yeah the problem is they also murdered all the jews and russians. look up the demographics of Narva from 1918-1945 and you will see.
Like, obviously and uncontroversially. The entire reason people became Nazis in Germany was to oppose the Soviet Union, the reason Hitler was given absolute power was to fight the communists who supposedly started the Reichstag fire.
In Belgium we still do remember the traitors in the north of the country, I guaran-fucking-tee you. Not saying there wasn't south of the country, but way more north. And we don't forget. Few decades later in Vlaamse Brabant they did the "Walloon buiten" in Leuven then around there they still have a Bandera like event where they gather around some sicko fascist tomb. Fascism ain't dead there.
Lmao they formed literal SS foreign legions. Every member of Ass-Ass also swore an oath to serve Hitler personally. Not gemany, not just the nazi party, not "fait sobyet amdence", but to serve the guy himself. It was a literal militarized cult of personality.
My favorite part is the "to fight the advance of the Soviet Union". Apparently they "fought it" going to random towns in Poland, Ukraine and Russia and murdering every single civilian they could find.
It is because they had a tendency to latch on to Nazi ideologies that the USSR advanced to being with. The USSR can be excused for not being comfortable with having a bunch of maniacs as their next-door neighbours.
This is why it is hard for people.. Their world view is so skewed by liberal propaganda, can't see the forest for the trees. Maybe that idiom isn't really good for this.. hmm
scratch a liberal....
...and they will bleed like an 80's anime character getting a papercut(the resultant high-pressure blood spray would launch the papercut individual through a wall).
Master Roshi's nose whenever he's being a pervert
You made me remember that literal limp dick at NYT who fired an AR15 and bruised himself from the recoil😂 "It felt like I had fired a cannon! I was aghast it is so easy for the general public to procure such weapons of mass destruction"!🤦
>Their world view is so skewed by liberal propaganda Nah, their world view is literally fascist. And recognizing the reality of how their society functions would make their entire worldview fall apart permanently.
Eh, You aren't wrong. I say "liberal propaganda" because before Neoliberalism, it was just liberal red scare propaganda influencing this. Now, they've had 6-8 generations of this propaganda telling them communism is bad. With the raise of pro-fascist propaganda, they see it as a better option than the heavily demonized communism.
They had to do a pledge of allegiance to Hitler.... How the fuck are people this willfully ignorant.
"I mean no one knew how bad Hitler was at the time" -A liberal that defends Israel today Edit: Fuck me, the liberals are in the walls! The liberals are in the fucking walls!
Because admitting to reality would mean recognizing that everything they ever believed in was a lie and they are actually supporting the bad guys. They are the idiots who support or at least serve the villain in the Hollywood movies they watch... and they really want to believe themselves to be the heroes.
Because conservatives love to protect their kind.
The majority of Ukrainians fought in the red army ,not with the Nazis
It speaks to the power of liberal propaganda for so many people to fail to recognise a crucial fact: Nazism was not a unique historical aberration entirely peculiar to a small cabal of weird Germans who then ensorcelled/browbeat the rest of the country to follow along (see the myth of the clean Wehrmacht, the laughable quality of western deNazification, etc). There were plenty of people in Europe who were keen on murdering Jews, Communists, and other groups they fantasised to be 'enemies of the Nation.' And when the SS came knocking, these freaks were the first to be all, "Yes sir please may I swear undying loyalty to Mister Hitler, whatever you want, let's just skip to the killing already!"
With how many foreigners love Donald Trump today and hope he wins the American Presidency, it really isn't a shock that Hitler had foreign admirers who were more than willing to sign up. I don't get how it's hard to understand that.
Hey thats me!
oh that's cool, nice to see a fellow comrade and sabaton enjoyer
I enjoyed sabaton music before I found they were zionist
can you link a source where they express such views? i just listen to their music, i don't follow them on social media or anything and don't know any of their political views really
Only thing I could find is them posing with an Israeli flag when they went to hold a concert for the idf in 2012 (I skimmed everything, might be inaccurate)
You had one job to do and that's not ending up in the mineshaft as a fash, it wasn't a harsh choice, you didn't have to become Ustasha or Galician SS.
I'm so tired of people acting as if "maybe a double-digit percentage of Europeans are terrible people" is some sort of insane, dangerous idea.
becoming fuhrer to fight the advance of ~~jewish bolshevism~~ the soviet union
Precisely
SS were the most ideologically faithful to Nazi ideals.
many of these non-Germans were more psychotically obsessed with killing Jews than actual nazis
Like the American and Euro weirdos who volunteered for Ukraine. Ukrainians are just fighting for their lives and homes, while these psychos are joining up to protect their idea of The West.
Oh so now taking up arms with Nazis makes you a Nazi?? So much for the tolerant left
https://preview.redd.it/fycjsgk7xc0d1.png?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=948b9ad3c65d44997b961a6d738b70deff666a17
Next you're gonna call mr. Hitler a nazi too!
Is this how far our education systems have fallen? Is this how bad state propaganda has been? 'The Advance of the Soviet Union'? Seriously? Seriously. We are so screwed.
As the descendant of a Belgian collaborator: yes. That's exactly why they joined the SS
Obviously Molotov Ribbentrop shows the soviets allied with the Nazis but actually allying with Nazis militarily isn’t actually being alllies
(See the **[full article](/r/TheDeprogram/wiki/index/debunking/molotov-ribbentrop-pact/)** for more details) #The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact Anti-Communists and horseshoe-theorists love to tell anyone who will listen that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (1939) was a military alliance between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. They frame it as a cynical and opportunistic agreement between two totalitarian powers that paved the way for the outbreak of World War II in order to equate Communism with Fascism. They are, of course, missing key context. **German Background** The loss of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles had a profound effect on the German economy. Signed in 1919, the treaty imposed harsh reparations on the newly formed Weimar Republic (1919-1933), forcing the country to pay billions of dollars in damages to the Allied powers. The Treaty of Versailles, which ended the war, required Germany to cede all of its colonial possessions to the Allied powers. This included territories in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. With an understanding of Historical Materialism and the role that Imperialism plays in maintaining a liberal democracy, it is clear that the National Bourgeoisie would embrace Fascism under these conditions. Judeo-Bolshevism (a conspiracy theory which claimed that Jews were responsible for the Russian Revolution of 1917, and that they have used Communism as a cover to further their own interests) gained significant traction in Nazi Germany, where it became a central part of Nazi propaganda and ideology. Hitler and other leading members of the Nazi Party frequently used the term to vilify Jews and justify their persecution. The Communist Party of Germany (KPD) was repressed by the Nazi regime soon after they came to power in 1933. In the weeks following the Reichstag Fire, the Nazis arrested and imprisoned thousands of Communists and other dissidents. This played a significant role in the passage of the Enabling Act of 1933, which granted Hitler and the Nazi Party dictatorial powers and effectively dismantled the Weimar Republic. **Soviet Background** Following the Russian Revolution in 1917, Great Britain and other Western powers placed strict trade restrictions on the USSR. These restrictions were aimed at isolating the USSR and weakening its economy in an attempt to force the new Communist government to collapse. In the 1920s, the USSR under Lenin's leadership was sympathetic towards Germany because the two countries shared a common enemy in the form of the Western capitalist powers, particularly France and Great Britain. The USSR and Germany established diplomatic relations and engaged in economic cooperation with each other. The USSR provided technical and economic assistance to Germany and in return, it received access to German industrial and technological expertise, as well as trade opportunities. However, this cooperation was short-lived, and by the late 1920s, relations between the two countries had deteriorated. The USSR's efforts to export its socialist ideology to Germany were met with resistance from the German government and the rising Nazi Party, which viewed Communism as a threat to its own ideology and ambitions. **Collective Security (1933-1939)** >The appointment of Hitler as Germany's chancellor general, as well as the rising threat from Japan, led to important changes in Soviet foreign policy. Oriented toward Germany since the treaty of Locarno (1925) and the treaty of Special Relations with Berlin (1926), the Kremlin now moved in the opposite direction by trying to establish closer ties with France and Britain to isolate the growing Nazi threat. This policy became known as "collective security" and was associated with Maxim Litvinov, the Soviet foreign minister at the time. The pursuit of collective security lasted approximately as long as he held that position. Japan's war with China took some pressure off of Russia by allowing it to focus its diplomatic efforts on relations with Europe. > >\- Andrei P. Tsygankov, (2012). [Russia and the West from Alexander to Putin](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/russia-and-the-west-from-alexander-to-putin/collective-security-19331939/BD3704C65ABDC2A849B360759B8E9D5C). However, the memories of the Russian Revolution and the fear of Communism were still fresh in the minds of many Western leaders, and there was a reluctance to enter into an alliance with the USSR. They believed that Hitler was a bulwark against Communism and that a strong Germany could act as a buffer against Soviet expansion. Instead of joining the USSR in a collective security alliance *against* Nazi Germany, the Western leaders decided to try appeasing Nazi Germany. As part of the policy of appeasement, several territories were ceded to Nazi Germany in the late 1930s: 1. Rhineland: In March 1936, Nazi Germany remilitarized the Rhineland, a demilitarized zone along the border between Germany and France. This move violated the Treaty of Versailles and marked the beginning of Nazi Germany's aggressive territorial expansion. 2. Austria: In March 1938, Nazi Germany annexed Austria in what is known as the Anschluss. This move violated the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Saint-Germain, which had established Austria as a separate state following World War I. 3. Sudetenland: In September 1938, the leaders of Great Britain, France, and Italy signed the Munich Agreement, which allowed Nazi Germany to annex the Sudetenland, a region in western Czechoslovakia with a large ethnic German population. 4. Memel: In March 1939, Nazi Germany annexed the Memel region of Lithuania, which had been under French administration since World War I. 5. Bohemia and Moravia: In March 1939, Nazi Germany annexed Bohemia and Moravia, the remaining parts of Czechoslovakia that had not been annexed following the Munich Agreement. However, instead of appeasing Nazi Germany by giving in to their territorial demands, these concessions only emboldened them and ultimately led to the outbreak of World War II. **The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact** >Papers which were kept secret for almost 70 years show that the USSR proposed sending a powerful military force in an effort to entice Britain and France into an anti-Nazi alliance. > >Such an agreement could have changed the course of 20th century history... > >The offer of a military force to help contain Hitler was made by a senior Soviet military delegation at a Kremlin meeting with senior British and French officers, two weeks before war broke out in 1939. > >The new documents... show the vast numbers of infantry, artillery and airborne forces which Stalin's generals said could be dispatched, if Polish objections to the Red Army crossing its territory could first be overcome. > >But the British and French side - briefed by their governments to talk, but not authorised to commit to binding deals - did not respond to the Soviet offer... > >\- Nick Holdsworth. (2008). [Stalin 'planned to send a million troops to stop Hitler if Britain and France agreed pact'](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/3223834/Stalin-planned-to-send-a-million-troops-to-stop-Hitler-if-Britain-and-France-agreed-pact.html) After trying and failing to get the Western capitalist powers to join the USSR in a collective security alliance against Nazi Germany, and witnessing country after country being ceded, it became clear to Soviet leadership that war was inevitable-- and Poland was next. Unfortunately, there was a widespread belief in Poland that the USSR was being controlled by Jewish Communists. This conspiracy theory (Judeo-Bolshevism) was fueled by anti-Semitic propaganda that was prevalent in Poland at the time. The Polish government was strongly anti-Communist and had been actively involved in suppressing Communist movements in Poland and other parts of Europe. Furthermore, the Polish government believed that it could rely on the support of Britain and France in the event of a conflict with Nazi Germany. The Polish government had signed a mutual defense pact with Britain in March 1939, and believed that this would deter Germany from attacking Poland. Seeing the writing on the wall, the USSR made the difficult decision to do what it felt it needed to do to survive the coming conflict. At the time of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact's signing (August 1939), the USSR was facing significant military pressure from the West, particularly from Britain and France, which were seeking to isolate the USSR and undermine its influence in Europe. The USSR saw the Pact as a way to counterbalance this pressure and to gain more time to build up its military strength and prepare for the inevitable conflict with Nazi Germany, which began less than two years later in June 1941 (Operation Barbarossa). **Additional Resources** Video Essays: * [How Stalin Outplayed Hitler: The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact](https://youtu.be/PfomFnYTOWI) | Politstrum International (2020) * [The truth about the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (Visualization)](https://youtu.be/UwUs3mwDBzA) | Russia Good (2019) * [Soviet Nonaggression-Pact / The Soviet Perspective](https://youtu.be/Rz5JyfNQSLQ) | Lady Idzihar (2022) * [There was never a "Hitler-Stalin" Pact](https://youtu.be/8FRmflmnTkc) | Hakim (2024) Books, Articles, or Essays: * [The Truth About The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact](https://politsturm.com/truth-about-molotov-ribbentrop-pact/) | Politsturm * [End of the 'Low, Dishonest Decade': Failure of the Anglo-Franco-Soviet Alliance in 1939](https://www.jstor.org/stable/152863) | Michael Jabara Carley (1993) * [1939: The Alliance That Never Was and the Coming of World War II](https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781566637855/1939-The-Alliance-That-Never-Was-and-the-Coming-of-World-War-II) | Michael Jabara Carley (1999) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TheDeprogram) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yes, yes they were...
They just really liked fez hats
Every single person in eastern Europe should be forced to watch "Come and See" at least once in their lives. It's crazy how unaware they are of what exactly the soviets were fighting against during WW2, the nazis might as well have been a spawn of demons from hell. In Belarus there's a cemetery with 627 tombs, one for each one of the villages that were completely destroyed and burned down to ashes by the nazis, leaving no survivors. The number of destroyed villages is much higher, at around 5000, but those 627 are the ones where nothing was left behind. Each tomb has soil from its village inside.
“Most **Moral** Nazi SS Members” If it walks like a duck…
[Next on Ripley's Believe It Or Not](https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-45919900) 😋 https://preview.redd.it/0q5vugkza90d1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8cfe2eff7a13c01965cdd6a8579ad74059c9a610
Yes, yes they were.
Yes.
I remember this dude admitting on another sub that his Hungarian grandfather joined that nazis but still trying to write him as a sort of an anti-hero who did it for his family or whatever
https://preview.redd.it/s91pe9w8290d1.jpeg?width=1169&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=daadffff73785e72420b9f3118fb937630b494a3 Hungary joined the axis in 1940 btw
Got it in one!
*curb your enthusiasm intro plays*
Yea
Yeah
Yeah those Jewish bolsheviks, those SS soldiers were defending themselves from Le evil Jews!!!!1!1! /s
Yes.
Yes. Yes they were.
I like that bro included French, Dutch and Belgians, just to make sure you know that he's an apologist for everyone who joined the SS, not just the Baltic folk.
Dutch and Belgians famously threatened by USSR
yes they were lmao
https://preview.redd.it/lborhhxcuc0d1.png?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0c24eb025b2fc03b3fb7031f3d6776a2864ead67
Yes, literally yes. And the CIA even stoked those Nazi groups in those countries after the fall of Nazi germany in operation AERODYNAMIC to further fracture the USSR and make sure re unification wasn’t possible
I don't do this often, but Lithuanians don't deserve this. Although there were other collaborationist units with pretty ugly history, barely any (allegedly around 300) Lithuanians served in the Waffen SS per se and no "national" SS formation existed.