The myth of Soviet expansionism in Eastern Europe(1)
According to dominant belief and widespread ideas in the West, the Cold War was the logical answer to Soviet expansionism in Eastern Europe. Russian-Communist control of East Europe was the basis of western propaganda trying very hard to make believe that the Soviet Union was out to conquer the World. Was there really planned Soviet expansionism in Eastern Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War ?
it will be ridiculous to attribute to the Soviet Union any expansionist motives in Eastern Europe in comparison with Hitler’s crazy dream which was really based on expansionist and imperialist motives. Contrary to France after Sedan defeat and her loss of Alsace Lorraine and Hitler claim to recover German territories lost after the First World War, there was no any claim on the part of the soviet union to recover all the gains of Peter the Great after the conclusion of the treaty of Brest-Litovosk. for example in Poland the Reds had a perfect reason to recover the 8 million Ukrainains and White Russians in east Poland but they never did so.
The Soviet occupation of east Europe was due simply and solely to the outcome of a huge war of aggression waged against the soviet Union. In this onslaught on Russia participated without exception all eastern European countries setting up by the West in the aftermath of the First World as buffer zone against Bolshevism; Finland, Rumania, Hungary and Austria were Hitler’s satellites and his step toward the soviet Union. Some 700 000 Austrians fought in Hitler’s armies and amount of human and matrial damage to Russains . the Finns also fought on several fronts other than their own. the Rumanuians carried out the brunt of the war in the southwestern Ukraine and they massacred 200 000 Soviet citizens in Odessa and troops were captured all the way to Stalingrad. All during 1944 there was no interference in Rumania’s internal affairs. Hungary helped Hitler in his invasion of Russia although the resistance of the Hungarian peasants who were forcibly conscripted by their native masters and sent off to Russia. At the Potsdam Conference Stalin said that the Hungarians had sent 26 divisions against Russia. Even Fascist Italy, as it was the case during the Spanish civil war, did her best by sending several divisions to Russia and Franco Spain contributed the large “Blue Division” Altogether the scores of divisions supplied by Hitler’s satellites contributed their full share to the immeasurable onslaught and devastation in the Soviet Union.
In conclusion, the Soviet Union presence and occupation of eastern Europe was not a planned aggression or the outcome of expansionist and imperialist motives but because of war of aggression waged by Hitler and his satellites to destroy red Russia. there is no other reason . It would be a mere folly on the part of the Soviets and the red Army to stop at their borders and wait. One can remember that at Teheran Conference Roosevelt and Churchill had agreed to concede a sphere of influence to Russia in eastern europe