As I said in another thread: the Nazis absolutely paid the price - they were subjected to war crimes trials, had their regime disassembled, and their country carved up and occupied by the allied powers for decades. How is that not a heavy price?
Meanwhile the USSR was subjected to nothing of the sort - it was actually the opposite, they were allowed to keep and drain the resources of all their conquored territories (even those unrelated to the Nazi regime).
True, but also the allies decided that war reparations had been a bad idea that helped the rise of the Nazis and instead of trying to extract a monetary penalty, they decided that investing in and supporting West Germany was the best plan for peace and international harmony. They were right, but it didn’t half make West Germany an economic powerhouse of Europe, especially because they didn’t spend any government money on the military because they weren’t allowed to have one.
Meanwhile the USSR faced economic sanctions.
So yes, absolutely you’re right about Germany, but it’s more than a little bit imbalanced to suggest that the second half of the twentieth century was characterised by sweetness and light towards the USSR hand brutal repression of Germany. It wasn’t like that at all.
Definitely wasn’t implying the USSR was treated sweetly, though I was under the impression sanctions toward them were all the result if their post war actions - i.e. not cooperating with the allies’ post war agreements. You may be more familiar with that than I am though.
As I said in another thread: the Nazis absolutely paid the price - they were subjected to war crimes trials, had their regime disassembled, and their country carved up and occupied by the allied powers for decades. How is that not a heavy price?
Meanwhile the USSR was subjected to nothing of the sort - it was actually the opposite, they were allowed to keep and drain the resources of all their conquored territories (even those unrelated to the Nazi regime).
True, but also the allies decided that war reparations had been a bad idea that helped the rise of the Nazis and instead of trying to extract a monetary penalty, they decided that investing in and supporting West Germany was the best plan for peace and international harmony. They were right, but it didn’t half make West Germany an economic powerhouse of Europe, especially because they didn’t spend any government money on the military because they weren’t allowed to have one.
Meanwhile the USSR faced economic sanctions.
So yes, absolutely you’re right about Germany, but it’s more than a little bit imbalanced to suggest that the second half of the twentieth century was characterised by sweetness and light towards the USSR hand brutal repression of Germany. It wasn’t like that at all.
Definitely wasn’t implying the USSR was treated sweetly, though I was under the impression sanctions toward them were all the result if their post war actions - i.e. not cooperating with the allies’ post war agreements. You may be more familiar with that than I am though.