The myth of Soviet expansionism in Eastern Europe (2)
What were the main motives, aims and purposes behind Soviet presence in Eastern Europe ? What did the Soviet they seek to achieve through their presence in Eastern Europe at the end of the Second World War ? The first driving and continuing motive was is security which was also the dominating factor in the outbreak of the so called Cold War. This imperative of security was not new in the Soviet foreign policy and its geopolitical perspective. The cardinal and outstanding motive behind the conclusion of the western propaganda called falsely Molotov-Ribbentrop or Hitler Stalin Pact was in fact a truce having requested by the Soviet Government for a security purpose aiming at gaining enough time in order to build up its military defence and fortifications. how could anyone who lived the horrible war doubt it ?
Consider briefly the key facts. The Soviet Union had lost roughly 25 million of its citizens, 30 million made homeless and 60 million treated to very degrading and brutalising experience . The Nazis and their satellites destroyed completely or largely 15 large cities 1710 towns and 70 000 villages they burned or demolished 6 million buildings and deprived 25 million people of shelter. they demolished 31 850 industrial enetrprises, 65 000 kilometres of railway track and 41 000 railway stations ; 36 000 postal, telegraph and telephone officies ; 56 000 miles of main highway, 90 000 bridges and 10 000 power stations. The germans ruined 1135 coal mines and 3000 oil wells, carrying off to Germany 14 000 steam boilers, 14 000 turbines and 11 3000 electric generators. the Germans and their satellites sacked 98 000 collective farms and 2890 machine and tractor stations, slaughtered 7 million horses, 17 million cattle, 20 million hogs, 27 million sheep and goats 11 million poultry. the Nazis and their satellites attacked even Soviet cultural institutions by looing and destroying 40 000 hospitals and medical centres, 84 000 schools and colleges and 43 000 public libraries with 110 millions volumes. Some 44 000 theatres were destroyed and 427 museums and more than 2800 churches being wrecked.
keeping all this figures in mind, we can say that no people in the world who had first suffered as the soviet people have and then won a tremendous military victory would go into eastern Europe merely for the ride. They would be bound to make sure that the invasion gate was closed. Only then could we understand how the Russians feel about their security from future attack through East Europe, since Russia had been invaded three times through eastern Europe Surely the Reds must know also that frontiers do not mean anything any more. After all those devastations of their country, the Soviets must ask themselves why they were denying the right to buffer zone in Eastern Europe when in the same time they observe American military bases mushroomed all over the world, located many thousands of miles from home, in Japon and the Philippines, in Greece and Turkey, in the Mediterranean and western Europe all around the Soviet Union. How then can the Russians forget what they have suffered at Germany’s hands through eastern Europe during the next century. Soviet-Union’s security is the beginning of all wisdom in the period after World War II. without a keen understanding of the deepest and strongest psychological posture left by that war all else is vain. On November 6, 1944, Stalin made it clear in his Party speech in a strikingly statesmanlike utterance recognized that « the only fact which overrides all others is that the aim of Russia is security »
