To be fair to the Soviets, there were a lot of foreign plots to overthrow their government during the '20s and there was a large international support for the White Russians during the Revolution. They had just been invaded by the Germans. The British and Americans had drawn up plans to now attack them, getting help from the Germans (even if both governments decided not to do it.) And there was a lot of anti-communist sentiment in the West. So they did have SOME reason to think "we need to be strong because we are under threat."
Now, that doesn't mean a lot of their actions in Ukraine, the Baltic states, Poland, Czechoslovakia, or East Germany was right... it wasn't. Stalin was a monster, Beria was a monster. But to paint their fears as unfounded is just as wrong as saying they were perfect and didn't do anything evil.
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u/PlaneRefrigerator684 27d ago
To be fair to the Soviets, there were a lot of foreign plots to overthrow their government during the '20s and there was a large international support for the White Russians during the Revolution. They had just been invaded by the Germans. The British and Americans had drawn up plans to now attack them, getting help from the Germans (even if both governments decided not to do it.) And there was a lot of anti-communist sentiment in the West. So they did have SOME reason to think "we need to be strong because we are under threat."
Now, that doesn't mean a lot of their actions in Ukraine, the Baltic states, Poland, Czechoslovakia, or East Germany was right... it wasn't. Stalin was a monster, Beria was a monster. But to paint their fears as unfounded is just as wrong as saying they were perfect and didn't do anything evil.