It shows about 2 dozen pictures of various celebrations/voting drives in Eastern European countries in support of annexation by the Soviet Union (1939-40).
Growing up in the U.S., we learned about the Evil Empire and it no doubt was. But these pictures show people in full support of becoming part of that Empire.
What's the real story behind Soviet annexation of the various eastern european countries? I find it hard to believe so many people were duped or misled. Is this a case of people seeing promise in the Soviet Union, only later to find they could not leave when things got much worse?
That "celebration" has more soldiers in it than celebrants.
"The biggest problems that we’re facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all."
protobuilder wrote:
What's the real story behind Soviet annexation of the various eastern european countries? I find it hard to believe so many people were duped or misled.
Why is that hard to believe? Were Eastern Europeans less dupeable than Germans?
The man in the window is Adolf Hitler.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Proto, I am no expert but I have been through parts of Eastern Europe many times and like any large area there is a wide diversity of opinion represented. I have no doubt that there were many people who actively either welcomed the Soviet embrace due to the promise of stability, or were actively persuaded by the communist cause. At the same time, there were entire sectors of the Ukrainian and Polish communities (you cited Lviv) which actively resisted the Soviets in partisan warfare at the very time those pictures were taken.
A final point, and this is important, is that neither these people nor Austrians who welcomed in Hitler during the anschluss were necessarily gullible. Both the Nazis and for a time the Soviets were dynamic and offered real improvements in the standard of living for SOME of the people. The same was true even during the Octover Revolution, where if you were a serf, the Bolshevik cause represented a real step up in the standard of living and an attractive ethos. To this day you will find many, many people across E. Europe who fondly remember Communist governments. Certainly that is true in the places where I have spent the most time, such as Yugoslavia and Czech Republic.
"That rifle on the wall of the labourer's cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy.
It is our job to see that it stays there." - George Orwell
Fat Cat wrote:Proto, I am no expert but I have been through parts of Eastern Europe many times and like any large area there is a wide diversity of opinion represented. I have no doubt that there were many people who actively either welcomed the Soviet embrace due to the promise of stability, or were actively persuaded by the communist cause. At the same time, there were entire sectors of the Ukrainian and Polish communities (you cited Lviv) which actively resisted the Soviets in partisan warfare at the very time those pictures were taken.
A final point, and this is important, is that neither these people nor Austrians who welcomed in Hitler during the anschluss were necessarily gullible. Both the Nazis and for a time the Soviets were dynamic and offered real improvements in the standard of living for SOME of the people. The same was true even during the Octover Revolution, where if you were a serf, the Bolshevik cause represented a real step up in the standard of living and an attractive ethos. To this day you will find many, many people across E. Europe who fondly remember Communist governments. Certainly that is true in the places where I have spent the most time, such as Yugoslavia and Czech Republic.
Good points. Also important is that these governments knew the value of propaganda and were innovative in how to use it effectively.
"Liberalism is arbitrarily selective in its choice of whose dignity to champion." Adrian Vermeule
Of course, and on top of it all, there is plenty of mixed ethnic communities in places like Ukraine and Poland. You could easily round up a shit ton of ethnic Russians to come and celebrate the march of the Red Army, but it wouldn't necessarily be representative of the feelings of Ukrainians terrorized by the Judeo-Bolshevik holodomor a few years earlier. And then again, all it takes is a gun at your back and someone saying "clap, bitch".
"That rifle on the wall of the labourer's cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy.
It is our job to see that it stays there." - George Orwell
And after the German annexation of Czechoslovakia, even though the Soviets were still buddy-buddy with the Germans, a lot of people would rather hitch their wagon to the Soviets than the Nazis.
