This hurts cause this is my dad. I figured they like the military and battle shit, not the political environment that lead to it.
They do like the military and battle shit. That’s the problem, they’re completely blind to any of the more complicated, interpersonal stuff.
Pew pew boom boom yaaaay, yap yap nooo
WW1 - they hit some dude in a car and everybody was pissed.
WW2 - everybody was sick of paying for WW1
Easy!
Learning about WWII doesn’t teach you how the most progressive, industrialized society in the world at the time, and possibly ever, became fascist. For that you need to learn about WWI, the failed Spartacist uprising from 1917-1923, and the following period where the Nazis rose to power and the last remnants of the USPD and KPD were destroyed.
So unless your uncle is a fan of Rosa Luxemburg, he’s probably clueless
Learning about WWII doesn’t teach you how the most progressive, industrialized society in the world at the time, and possibly ever, became fascist.
But enough about Spain.
Tons of US fascists fought in Europe. From their perspective, they weren’t fighting against fascism, they were fighting against Germany.
As an uncle who knows something about WWII and also notices the current rise in fascism, I must point out there is an error in the article:
At press time, Poppavich signed up for a local history group’s WWII reenactment, requesting a position within the Axis powers, specifically the USSR since he “likes Putin’s style.”
Actually, the USSR was not an axis power during the war. They were one of the Allies on the side of Great Britain and the US. The Axis was Germany, Italy, and Japan
The Soviets initially signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, in '39, after Stalin concluded that the old Allied alliance of WW1 was functionally dead and the US/UK’s government wasn’t going to put up a fight against German encroachment.
A lot of American liberals took that to mean Stalin was a German ally, intent on carving up Europe between them. And there’s ample period propaganda with Hitler and Stalin in cahoots. One famous bit even has them getting married.
The “Trump/Putin Kissing” meme is an echo of these critiques.
Molotov-Ribbentrop was a non-aggression territorial and economic agreement, not an alliance. One that every knowledgeable historian agrees was seen by the signees as temporary (except possibly by Stalin’s drunk ass)
It was not an alliance, they were not in the Axis, and any suggestion otherwise is suspect especially in this context.
Shit, the first thing that happened between them after the invasion of Poland was the Winter War where Finland was supplied by Germany and was a hair’s breadth and some racism away from joining the Axis itself.
It was not an alliance, they were not in the Axis
It was a detente that allowed Germany to focus its military expansion into Poland and France without fear of a Russian counterattack.
If you want to really bust balls, you could easily argue that America was a German ally, given how influential Ford, IBM, and Standard Oil were in getting the German war machine off the ground. But that’s something of an argument for M-R, as Russia wasn’t in a position to fight a war with both Germany and America (any more than Germany was able to years later). German expansion into France ruined its relationship with the US and allowed the Soviets to broker a deal with FDR. And the rest is history.
Shit, the first thing that happened between them after the invasion of Poland was the Winter War where Finland was supplied by Germany
That was a bit more complicated, as it was initiated by the Russians with the intent of installing a Soviet-friendly government as a buffer zone around Leningrad. The war ended in Russian defeat and - after Germany broke the non-aggression treaty - very nearly cost them Leningrad as a result.
The war ended in Russian defeat
The Winter War did not end in Russian defeat. After initially getting slapped around by Finland, the USSR committed more troops and forced Finland to concede to all of the Soviets’ initial territorial demands (and more).
Pyrrhic Victory, then, given the costs. It did not meaningfully improve their security, as Leningrad was under siege by the Germans shortly thereafter.
WW2 people missed WW2 coming and they’d just gotten out of WW1 twenty years prior.
You can cut 70 year old History Channel nerds a bit of slack.
