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Comment by nospice | Hacker News Reader

After making a secret deal with them to partition Europe. They didn't come around on principle, it's just that Hitler eventually decided to invade Russia too.

And after winning the war, Stalin proceeded to kill millions for good measure.

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Stalin did the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact to (successfully!) buy time and breathing room for the inevitable Nazi assault after his numerous entreaties to Western/Allied powers were rebuffed.

Or to recreate the czarist Russian empire by invading Finland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Romania, and Poland

That's one interpretation, another interpretation is that Stalin was expecting Hitler to struggle in France for years get worn down like in WW1 and then Stalin would attack and make whole Europe a satellite to USSR.

France buckled in months and Wehrmacht then attacked Red army which did not have setup defense positions because they themselves were preparing to attack...

That pact started the Eastern campaign of the Nazis. You could argue that it also bought time for the Nazis, as they could gain territory without worrying much about resistance from the Soviets.

I'm not really inclined to do too much Monday morning quarterbacking of the USSR's defeat of Nazi Germany. I'm especially not inclined to give it the time of day when it's coming from Westerners who never say a peep about their own countries having given Hitler territory and financing.

This claim would have been a lot more credible if Stalin didn't keep control of Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania after the war.

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