The Soviets made a strategic decision to help build up the Nazi military for economic reasons and because it would threaten Britain and France.
They then agreed to split Poland because they wanted the territory.
It wasn't appeasement, it was facilitation. Without the Soviets the Nazis couldn't have built up their military to the same extent.
The Soviet Union can not be held responsible for the rise of Hitler or the creation of the Nazi state. One could just as easily make the reverse argument, or we could argue about how other Allied nations and businesses dealt with the Germans. There's enough blame to go around, and all sides made mistakes. However, none of that changes the fact that the Soviet Union was the leading power against Germany, killing more German troops and losing more of their own people than any of the other Allied powers. If nothing else, that should count for something.
Which is the context the comment was made in, why it isn't "Sorosian Brussels" that is warmongering.
Eastern European countries are providing far more support to the Ukrainians than Germany and France for legitimate historical reasons.
I'm not arguing anything about "Sorosian Brussels."
If we're talking about historical reasons, then there may also be parallels between now and the history of nationalism in Europe. Eastern Europe, especially the Balkans, has been particularly vulnerable to nationalistic idealism. It's obviously taken hold on Putin and many of his followers, too. It also seems quite clear that the Ukrainian passion for defending their country is also reflective of strong nationalistic sentiment. Being attacked by a foreign power does tend to raise such passion.
When two tribes decide they don't like each other and want to fight each other, then it is what it is. It's not really a conspiracy theory, which is I tend not to argue along those lines. We're talking about a region of the world which has had a very messy history for the past several hundred years.
If history is your guide, then at least tell the complete history, not just selected bits and pieces.
I have close family there, including those who lived in the Soviet era and those will be the absolute first to be involved if there is any military escalation.
I'm telling you why most Eastern Europeans are not massive fans of Russia and why they have legitimate reason to be wary of its irredentist belicosity.
When someone threatens to nuke you out of historical animosity or invade you to reclaim what is "theirs", why should you just sit there hoping for the best and trying to relativise historical blame?
Even as far away as I am now from Ukraine, a worldwide nuclear war would put us all on the playing field in the event of an escalation. But as it is currently, a lot of world governments seem to have their hands full just trying to keep their economic systems from total collapse.
I'm not trying to relativize historical blame, whatever that's supposed to mean. It seems to me that, if one finds oneself in a state of war or conflict, a sane and reasonable person might try to seek a peaceful resolution. But whether one chooses war or peace, it seems to me that it would behoove one to have knowledge and understanding of who one's enemy is and what that enemy's objective might actually be. If one bases one's perception on speculation, fear, and historical resentments, then that may cloud one's reasoning and judgment.
I'm not from Eastern Europe, I have no ties there, so I'll concede that I may look at this issue from a different vantage point. I have studied a fair bit of history, and I wanted to study about Russia specifically because of the Cold War. I wanted to learn more about them and find out why they wanted to blow us up. Of course, I'm still an American and I tend to see things from an American point of view, but I also came to appreciate that they had a point of view, too. That didn't make them right, and there have been plenty of times when the Russians did the wrong thing - such as they're doing now.
But in the interests of peace and pulling back from the brink of nuclear war, I think it would behoove us all to come up with some kind of resolution to this problem. It's easy to sit around and call the Russians a bunch of evil, dastardly villains - or chide others for
not calling them evil, dastardly villains - but that doesn't really help much of anything.
Meanwhile, the world economy teeters in the balance. A rise in political extremism in the U.S. I honestly don't know what's going to happen, but it seems we're having pretty deep problems on our side of the world as well. If we can try to make peace with our adversaries, perhaps maybe we should.
