Dear CCI Friends,
First, I hope everyone had a HAPPY JULY 4th WEEKEND!!!
On to our agenda regarding WWII …
The Soviet nation lost approximately 26,000,000 people (military and civilian) in World War II, compared to the European nations and the United States, each of which had less than 500,000 fatalities. I was told in the mid-80s that for young Soviet men born in 1921, only 3% of them survived the war. In addition, the USSR’s primary territory, cities and industrial base were destroyed during the war.
Trying to understand the conflicting issues in the lead-up to WWII, I went to the Internet, not always the best source, but all that was immediately available to me. It appears that Germany was the country which the other nations most greatly feared. Different combinations of them tried without success to align with each other for their own country’s safety. Early on, Stalin tried to align with a number of these countries but was refused, likely because all were suspicious of communism, with good reason.
Then, in 1939, Hitler’s Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop flew to the Kremlin with a “Non-Aggression Pact”. This Pact agreed that Germany and Russia would not attack each other for 100 years! Internet reports that Stalin agreed to 10 years. Did he really think Hitler wouldn’t attack Russia? As the Nazis began to push farther into European territory, Stalin’s behavior indicated that he believed the Pact would be honored. Amazing. Nonetheless, two years later Hitler attacked Russia in June of 1941 with some 3,000,000 troops spreading out across Soviet territory, killing and burning the countryside, villages, towns, cities … everything and everybody in sight.
The sheer numbers of countries involved in WWII is mind-boggling, each having their own convoluted histories with one another. Google the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact to help you understand the combination of nations involved including numerous secret protocols.
In such cases there are few totally innocent sides. Deciding who’s most at fault is never easy. With Germany it was clear they were the primary demonic force … but even their angst was complicated by their treatment at the hands of the other nations at the end of WWI.
Most sources agree that WWI and the Treaty of Versailles were responsible for WWII. The Treaty blamed Germany for WWI. Harsh penalties were levied on Germany in addition to the loss of German territory, massive reparation payments to the other countries were required along with the forced demilitarization of Germany. These penalties soon fueled ultra-nationalist sentiment across Germany that led to Hitler and the Nazi Party coming to power. The result was WWII.
Some 30 countries were involved in WWII, in one way or another. Why did these nations make the choices they did? Looking back it seems out of fear and simple self interest. Whose archives have been made public? Which countries have not made their archives public? (I can’t find this detail).
Why the deeply-held resentments toward Russia when the USSR fought to the finish and defeated the feared Nazis. Doing so, they lost far more countrymen, women and children than did all of the other countries combined. No doubt much of the resentment was because when Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt divvied up the spoils of the war, Stalin saw to it that a number of the smaller European countries were forced into becoming the USSR’s “buffer zone” for the next 40 some years.
Why are these emotions still so deeply engrained in the national character of so many countries? Probably because those peoples caught inside the “Iron Curtain” could never forget or forgive those who had taken away their freedoms, their statehoods and national identities.
The Soviet educational system did school their children in their national languages, histories, music and arts. All Soviet children were required to learn three languages: Russian, their native language, and a foreign language. The Soviet educational system was superlative regardless of how far out in the regions we traveled. By the 1980s a majority of Soviet children were choosing English for their foreign language; hence even today most Russians remember at least a smattering of English, some are fairly fluent and others totally fluent in our language. Lastly, it’s probably typical that generations down the time track have absorbed the angst of their elders and have little interest in “forgiving” decades of grievances.
Is Putin now taking on the huge task of opening up the real impacts of WWII to the world, hoping for some form of future reconciliation regarding all of the world’s past fears and resentments of Russia? It appears so to me … or at least I hope this is what is behind this initiative we are discussing. Again, thank you to The National Interest for printing this lengthy piece as it was written by Putin … without taking sides.
Let us ponder the facts:
WWII left some 85,000,000 fellow human beings dead … in four short years.
The frightening fact is that today we could kill far more than 85,000,000 in less than half an hour.
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Friends, our future at this moment in 2020 looks highly compromised. At its base, it has nothing to do with Russia. It has to do with our own unwise decision-making over the past several decades. We need to be extremely wise and avoid the potential for gargantuan misunderstandings and failures in the coming months. We are without adequate leadership in both of our major parties … and the potential for disastrous decision making should be of great concern to us all, regardless of how we each vote.
Let us examine the rumor-making and hype from the Left and risk-taking and hype on the Right. Let us think deeply and wisely and educate all whom we know, including our Congress members and our personal contacts via emails by passing on articles of genuine, non-inflammatory content as we move toward our 2020 election. We will send you non-inflammatory articles over the next few weeks and months that you can pass on to others.
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
PS: I may have made errors trying to give us all a smattering of knowledge about the lead up to WWII. Please check Internet sources yourselves. Let me know if you gain additional clarity that we all should know about.