Dear diary,An insane man who literally wrote a book about wanting to invade my country has come to power in a nearby country and started building up his military.I have chosen right now as the perfect time to start purging my own military.
>>538083043Faustian spirit
To be fair that was generally a good idea, he thought any ambitious generals would sue for peace with Hitler and destroy the government from within splitting up the army, etc. That's also why Stalin started massacring minorities and anyone suspected of anti-communist thought before the war, because he knew they might rise up to support the invaders the way the Armenians rose up to support the Russians in WW1 (the Russian army was so bad though it didn't help them back)And no I'm not condoning his actions, but they were logical from his standpoint of amoral realpolitik.
>>538083043Worked out in the end though
>>538083043Trotskyists deserved it.
>>538083174mainly because the UK and US bailed out Russia. That's not working today because they are supporting Ukraine instead.
>>538083200Everyone he killed in 1936-38 had denounced Trotsky a decade prior, especially Bukharin, Stalin got the idea of purging Trotsky for being too radical from him.
Everyone else's replies are sufficient to make the point but they leave out the fact that Stalin really liked Hitler and thought they understood each other personally, both being men of steel and history. He was pretty personally hurt by the betrayal and invasion.
>>538083043redditards pretending that Ukrainians are valiant White heroes of democracy and Russians are evil autocratic ork chinks (they're totally different people totally) and ignoring that Hitler was from Austria not Germany( totally different people) and that Stalin was Georgian and not Russian is always funny, lines on a map mean nothing guys we should all be gay race mixed communist and rise up against the bourgeoise
>>538083253they never liked each other, the alliance was one only of convenience that was to be dropped the second it was no longer useful. In Stalin's case he hoped that the German-French war would last a decade and exhaust both sides so that the USSR could build up its military and invade Europe with little resistance. When that failed to happen he knew that war was coming soon, and he actually hoped for an offensive war, not a defensive one. There's a reason they never actually met, they were ideological polar opposites.
>>538083213USSR bailed out the UK. Also the war was largely over before the land lease kicked in. Russia didn't realize how close Nazi Germany was to collapsing and how they were basically relying entirely on loot and plunder.
>>538083043but stalin didnt want to invade australia
>>538083200
>>538083362>Russia didn't realize how close Nazi Germany was to collapsingNazi Germany relied on Russian imports because the continent was otherwise being blockaded by the British. > war was largely over before the land lease kicked in. lmao you're retarded, it "kicking in" was what caused the reversal at the battle of Moscow, without UK tanks replacing the Soviet's countless losses, the Germans win.
