RE: Victory Day - Images From St. Petersburg
Great to see you back to your history posts again. I won't be asking many questions this time though. The more I have researched the war the more things haven't added up. It has been hard for me to figure out what is what as there was so much propaganda put out here in the U.S. during and more so even after the war.
It's a shame that so many had to give their lives back then. The one thing that didn't escape my notice was the final straw that led to England and France into attacking Germany (Poland invasion) didn't matter to them at the end of the war that Soviet Russia had also taken part in that. Guessing that by that time though just about everyone was sick of all the bloodshed.
There are probably hundreds of questions I would love to ask you. Probably the largest one, if someday you could write a post on it (as I am sure the answer has many contexts) is how the Russians feel/felt about the whole Soviet expansion beginning with the Bolshevik revolution that was funded by outsiders. It has troubled me for some years when I was going down this rabbit hole trying to make sense of what was going on back then to find out that Disney movie did its part to twist what was a horrible fate for the Duchess Anastasia into nice little profits at the expense of the truth.
I will admit that I had always viewed Russia in a bad context in relation to that war, as well as the Soviet experience that took so many lives. I had never even stopped to consider Russians celebrating the end of the war. I have to laugh at how much I draw inferences from the propaganda that has been filled into my head.
Anyway, I find myself rambling as I fight not to ask a books worth of questions to test Russian perception against American.
Sorry for the delay. It's been a busy couple of days and I barely had time to put up some posts. Great comments and questions as always, I'm going to try and brief.
Both the Finnish War and the annexation of Poland were shocks to many Soviets. It is hard to discern what info they were being fed to justify these expansions. However, most Soviet films and books with a war theme that pre-dated Poland featured the Germans as their enemy. Many of these were even before Hitler came to power. There was some sort of consensus that the Soviet Unions enemy of the future would be Germany. It is really quite remarkable to see the foresight amongst writers and film makers, which means there is probably something there.
Invading Finland and Poland is not so shocking from an overall historical context of Eastern Europe. Poland was often either a puppet for Russia, an adversary, or a puppet of Prussia or the church. Finland was the same. Therefore, I don't think people much cared or they at least believed that those nations would somehow benefit from the Soviet system. Of course, this doesn't excuse the expansion.
The funding of the Bolsheviks is an odd thing. First, they get outside support and then outside support switches to the "Whites" including an invasion of Russia by the U.S. - most people know nothing about this American Expeditionary Force in the north of Russia. Of course, the revolution had a lot of idealists, but most people were just happy to be rid of the Tsars and thought ANYTHING would be better. They especially hated the impact on the country from the Great War. This was the catalyst that threw support behind the revolution more than a political movement. Hence, another reason that Russians hate wars.
Okay. This was a really long answer. I will explore the topic more in a post sometime soon. All the best.
Looks like you were able to get some family time in, much deserved. Hope you were able to unwind a bit.
Looking forward to it. I learn much from your posts. I was unaware that the U.S. had invaded Russia.
Yes, most people aren't aware of the invasion. Partially because it would make us question exactly what the hell we were doing there and the next would be why was it such a disaster? So, the U.S. tried to prop up the "Whites" in a Revolution that had nothing to do with us - How far back do the "string pullers" start controlling our military?