WAG: As May 9th, Victory Day in many post-Soviet states, approaches, decency demands that we celebrate the defeat of Adolf Hitler’s Germany and honor the millions of soldiers and civilians who gave their lives to rid the world of the scourge of Nazism.
At the same time, if we truly want to honor the dead, we must take heed of the historical lies that the Kremlin, both in its Soviet and post-Soviet hypostases, promotes about the USSR’s relationship with Nazi Germany.
For starters, the Moscow-controlled Communist International, and its sidekick, the Communist Party of Germany, made Hitler’s rise to power possible, if not indeed inevitable, by tarring the German Social Democrats as “social fascists” who threatened to split the proletariat and were, thus, a greater evil than the Nazis. Had the German left remained united against the real threat—Nazism—Hitler might not have come to power. (Many leftists make a similar mistake today, preferring Vladimir Putin’s fascism to American capitalism and thereby promoting war in Europe.)
Two sides of the same coin. The Soviets allowed Germany to develop air and tank power, in violation of the terms of Versailles, inside their borders long before WWII started. By 36 with the Spanish Civil War, both the Soviets and the Nazis got to try out their military doctrines while, basically, killing the Spanish and not each other. The Germans proved to be more astute. The Soviets proved to possess overwhelming resources (with the assistance of the UK and US).
Fanatical communist deceiver Uncle Joe sure was surprised when he got out-deceived by treaty partner and close ally Adolf the Jew Hater back in ’41. For some reason this bit of history reminds me of that Iran-Obama nuclear deal.