So did Germans, and they are fine now.
It was 5-6 pickem between the two of them for most of Eastern Europe, and their reward for being freed from German oppression was decades of Soviet Oppression.
There’s a few points here. And I am in total agreement that Soviet communism is a difficult thing to live with at least from my American capitalist perspective. But there’s tons of Russians I talk with that say they were proud of the Soviet empire. I mean what kind of person would like to see their kingdom or Empire crumble like the Soviet one did??. The early 1990s was a disaster for the Russian economy.
I Never lived in the Soviet Union and knowing that there are tons of ex Soviet people who missed the so-called glory days of the Soviet union and then there are also people who are happy to have left it. That thing goes both ways…. now that is being fair to history.
It is fair to say that yes Ukrainian and French, and other collaborators of ww2 deeply admired Hitler and in their view they say it was a beautiful time. To live in the third reich they liked it. We cannot take it away from them.
But I think it is completely fair to say that you’re average Soviet person was a nice and kind person. We simply cannot say the same thing about a Nazi. I mean, at least from my American perspective. Putting people in ovens because of their Jewish religion is solely a Nazi thing. There is nothing that the average Soviet person did that ever compare to that. The Nazis were unique in destroying peoples lives because of their religion or perceived ethnicity. I mean, they didn’t even give them a chance to convert to a different religion or ideology. Communism is entirely different from that.
The other point to consider it was our grandparents who supported America and World War II, who also deeply supported their Soviet and British allies. I feel like it is an insult to them to compare the Soviet person to the German or Ukrainian or French Nazi. I’m not talking about Joe Stalin or Adolf Hitler. I’m talking about the people.
Finally, for the modern time. For whatever reason, the Ukrainian government is propping up Nazi symbols. It really is stupid. One can say. It takes away from any Ukrainian who is fighting for their homeland and fighting against the Russian aggression. So that’s a serious thing. Ukraine is just as if not more authoritarian compared to Russia. All of these arguments against Putin can be made against Zelinski who has shut down elections And has a state ran media. He has also banned religions in his country.
Finally a point about Vladimir Putin. Yes he is authoritarian but there are tons of authoritarian leaders in the world that are heads of states in countries allied to the USA. So the morality point of view just doesn’t cut it meaning to say that people try and argue that “Russia is evil, or Putin is evil” that is hypocritical coming from an American perspective. Knowing that the United States has invaded other countries, these are the kind of things that Donald Trump talks about and He is right.
There’s a lot of different points I made here so it’s a huge discussion… there’s not one point to be taken away from all of this. We need to look at Russia Ukraine with an open mind.
