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Found an interesting article while looking for something else, was interesting reading (and amusing as well), and I was curious what some of you think of it (especially Victor, Dragos, Denes): I am more interested in the part where it says what aid USSR gave to nazi Germany while the latter was fighting against Allied troops (before 1941). http://www.geocities.com/ojoronen/EASTBALT.HTM| QUOTE | Soviet Aggression and Collaboration
with the Germans in World War II
"A Little Glasnost on History"
[...]
Soviet and Nazi collaboration
In Moscow in August of 1942, Churchill asked Stalin how he had come to sign the pact with Hitler in 1939. Stalin replied that he thought that England must be bluffing; he knew that Britain had only two divisions that could be mobilized at once, and he thought that Britain must know how bad the French Army was and what little reliance could be placed on it. He could not imagine that Britain would enter the war with such weakness. On the other hand, he said he knew Germany was certain ultimately to attack Russia. He was not ready to withstand that attack; by attacking Poland with Germany he could make more ground, ground was equal to time, and he would consequently have a longer time to get ready. However, none of this was true. To Stalin himself and most Party functionaries, the pact was not a necessity, but a highly congenial alliance.
Probably Stalin's most successful propaganda coup of all was the propagation of the myth that Soviet territorial acquisitions in 1939 were designed to establish a forward strategic line in case of a German attack. This tale has received wide acceptance, but eighteen months later when Hitler launched his invasion, virtually nothing had been accomplished in the way of fortifications, defensive lines or military airfields to exploit ground gained by the Nazi-Soviet Pact. In fact, the national armies of Finland, Romania and the Baltic States would have protected Stalin's flanks. As it was, Finland and Romania were turned into effective allies of the Germans, and the Baltic States provided Hitler with excellent troops.
Hitler gained a great deal from the pact. Provision was made for the supply from Russia of a million tons of grain for cattle, 900,000 tons of mineral oil, 100,000 tons of cotton, 500,000 tons of phosphates, 100,000 tons of chrome ore, 500,000 tons of iron ore, 300,000 tons of scrap iron and pig iron, and numerous other commodities vital to the German war effort.
While Hitler was fighting Britain and France, the Soviet Union was supplying him with his raw materials. Not only that, but they were helping Hitler to break Britain's blockade by supplying rubber and other essential supplies by transporting them on the Trans-Siberian Railway. It is interesting to note that while Stalin was supplying Hitler with thousands of tons of grain, his own people were starving.
It is very clear that what both Hitler and Stalin wanted was the complete dismemberment of Poland. Polish soldiers held captive in the Soviet Union were told that "...by being on good friendly relations with Germany the land would never again be an independent country. Poland is dead forever."
While the Soviet Union held back from joining Germany as a belligerent, she furnished Germany with military co-operation far beyond that which the United States was giving Britain at that time. The German navy was allowed facilities at Murmansk on a scale which contrasts favorably in many ways with restrictions placed on Allied use of the same port between 1941 and 1945.
The German liner "Bremen" found refuge there, as did a succession of blockade breaking vessels; and measures violating international law were adopted by the soviet authorities to allow the Germans to escape with a captured American merchant ship,
"City of Flint". German auxiliary cruisers were equipped at Murmansk for raids on British shipping.
More than this, the Soviets actually allowed Germany her own naval base on Soviet soil near Murmansk. It proved to be a valuable base for U-boats operating in the North Sea, and played an important role helping supply Hitler's invasion of Norway. The Soviets helped a German raiding cruiser, "Schiff 45", to make her way through the ice around Siberia to the pacific, where she sank and captured 64,000 tons of allied shipping. In this and other ways the Soviet Government lent enormous assistance to the otherwise extremely vulnerable German Navy.
The main reason that Stalin opposed Britain and France was because he considered them to be capitalists and imperialists and therefore enemies of communism. Stalin had respect for the Nazis because they were revolutionary, totalitarian, and Hitler was ruthless. Hitler also had a respectful admiration for Stalin, and Goebbels believed that Communists and Nazis were cut out of the same cloth.
In France in particular Communist subversion of the war effort was intense, and when France was defeated the Party declared that French imperialism has just suffered its greatest defeat in history.
An article in Pravda in May 28, 1940 said the following: A certain part of the Estonian intelligentsia regards the occupation of Norway and Denmark by the Germans as an aggression, as an enslavement of small nations. This part of the intelligentsia preaches a loyal attitude towards England and expresses its hatred of Germany and everything German... The ruling circles of Estonia are trying to remain neutral with regard to the events in the west... The Estonian Press likewise tries to avoid awkward problems and emphasizes its loyalty towards England.
It should be noted that both Denmark and Norway were neutral countries as were Holland and Belgium when they were attacked.
All collaboration with the Nazis ended on June 22, 1941 when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. (Roger Pratt, PEng. 1985)
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This post has been edited by D13-th_Mytzu on December 14, 2006 11:31 am
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USSR allied of Nazi Germany
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