History Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread VII

There is also that deal on influence in Eastern Europe that Churchill wanted to seal with Stalin in the late WW2, which I don't know the veracity of.
 
Did Napoleon have good relationships with (most of) his siblings? Having looked at the wikipedia articles it seems that he did indeed, especially since he gave them kingdoms to rule over and what not, but I'm wondering, say, if he had any rivalries/conflicts/major disagreements with any of them.
 
Did Napoleon have good relationships with (most of) his siblings? Having looked at the wikipedia articles it seems that he did indeed, especially since he gave them kingdoms to rule over and what not, but I'm wondering, say, if he had any rivalries/conflicts/major disagreements with any of them.

From the top of my head I knew he gave one of his brothers the throne of Holland, then forced his abdication when the brother proved too independent-minded.
 
Some motivation/justification for the occupation of Eastern Europe was to act as a buffer/defence for the Soviet Union, wasn't it. With Yugoslavia, there's no such justification.

The same could be said with Bulgaria or, more importantly, East Germany.
 
With East Germany the question was surely that the Russians were already there and that they would have been fools to give ground when the western allies had West Germany as effectively a satellite state.
 
Did Napoleon have good relationships with (most of) his siblings? Having looked at the wikipedia articles it seems that he did indeed, especially since he gave them kingdoms to rule over and what not, but I'm wondering, say, if he had any rivalries/conflicts/major disagreements with any of them.

Napoleon was really generous towards his family and they generally did not return the favour. I don't know if that counts as 'good relations'. One can't pick one's family, after all.
 
The same could be said with Bulgaria or, more importantly, East Germany.

Bulgaria remained loyal in any case; actually by far the most loyal, least-troublesome Warsaw Pact state, IIRC to the point that its leader seriously entertained annexation by the USSR at one point.
 
Which didn't happen. Fortunately.

Imagine Bulgara as an autonomous federal republic of Russia.

Oh dear. That means the good ol' Russian Empire would be uncomfortably close to Constantinople.
 
Imagine Bulgara as an autonomous federal republic of Russia.

Oh dear. That means the good ol' Russian Empire would be uncomfortably close to Constantinople.

Russian control of Constantinople is like dividing by zero.

You can take the limit of Russia approaching Constantinople, but you cannot put Russia in Constantinople.
 
let's hope my subscription post doesn't offend anyone by suggesting everybody is actually wellcome to try ; it's a sad story with all those Russian nobles ending up in Istanbul in the 20s doing the dishes in return for food and the descendants are real proud with their ancestors struggled without actually going "lower" .
 
Russian control of Constantinople is like dividing by zero.

You can take the limit of Russia approaching Constantinople, but you cannot put Russia in Constantinople.
It's an Achilles and the Tortoise sort of deal. The closer Russia comes to Constantinople, the further it still has to go.
 
let's hope my subscription post doesn't offend anyone by suggesting everybody is actually wellcome to try ; it's a sad story with all those Russian nobles ending up in Istanbul in the 20s doing the dishes in return for food and the descendants are real proud with their ancestors struggled without actually going "lower" .

Just like the friendly nobles after 1917 who went to Paris so that they can serve at cafes, only a century after they took the cavalry on a walk there.
 
One of the weird things about Paris in the 1920s is that you get two distinct subcultures of Russian émigrés, one of aristocratic Whites and one of dissident Reds (Mensheviks, anarchists, etc.), and they hated each other only very slightly less than they each hate the Bolsheviks. Sometimes they even ended up killing each other.
 
Bulgaria remained loyal in any case; actually by far the most loyal, least-troublesome Warsaw Pact state, IIRC to the point that its leader seriously entertained annexation by the USSR at one point.

Nah, i think that Czechoslovakia could give Bulgaria serious run for its money when it comes to brown-nosing USSR. And yeah, including the seriously considering being annexed by Soviet Union.
 
At which point in history? Czechoslovakia was the only Warsaw Pact state that was clearly forced into it (with the exception of East Germany, I guess) and actively broke away from Moscow only to be invaded. At what point did they consider annexation? If it was post 1967, it's hardly fair to count it.
 
We gladly entered the Warsaw pact on our will. And I think it is wrong to interpret Prague Spring as an active breakaway from Moscow. The invasion was mostly horrible miscalculation of Moscow position that was interpreted as silent agreement with the reforms and underestimating the Ublricht and Gomulka hatred for something that they saw as a start of contrarevolution leading to uprising that they both seemed crushed in their own countries. And there was Andropov who was ignored by Czechoslovakian diplomacy but it was probably him who convinced Brezhnev to invade.

Even back in home the party already felt in summer that the reforms are getting out of their hands and even without invasion, they would be rolled back during the next six or twelve month.

But ing and living in impression that we can improve the system and than getting surprised is a common trope in Czech history. Hus just wanted to improve the Church. Czech nationalist just wanted (for the most part) improvement withing the Austrian Empire. Just that time Soviets had more tanks than Pope or His Apostolic Majesty.
 
At which point in history? Czechoslovakia was the only Warsaw Pact state that was clearly forced into it (with the exception of East Germany, I guess) and actively broke away from Moscow only to be invaded. At what point did they consider annexation? If it was post 1967, it's hardly fair to count it.

Since the Warsaw Pact was primarily a pact between mutually dependent Communist regimes 'being forced into it' seems somewhat redundant. In 1968 there was no question of breaking away from Moscow, but rather of a liberalization of the regime. Moscow did not like, and Czechoslovakia's neighbour regimes can hardly be expected to have liked the development. As to the latter, I've never heard of any Soviet plans to annex Czechoslovakia. (For one, it would be seriously counterproductive. Secondly, it hardly seems in accordance with existing treaties the USSR had with its satellites. Thirdly, it would send a very disturbing message to other supposedly independent regimes. And lastly, when push came to shove, the USSR could always resort to outright invasion under the guise of Warsaw Pact assistance - as indeed happened repeatedly.)
 
As to the latter, I've never heard of any Soviet plans to annex Czechoslovakia. (For one, it would be seriously counterproductive. Secondly, it hardly seems in accordance with existing treaties the USSR had with its satellites. Thirdly, it would send a very disturbing message to other supposedly independent regimes. And lastly, when push came to shove, the USSR could always resort to outright invasion under the guise of Warsaw Pact assistance - as indeed happened repeatedly.)

There was never Soviet plans to annex Czechoslovakia - but after '48 in Czechoslovakia, one of the considered plans for the future was to be voluntarily annexed by the USSR. (And in 1943 there was a report of a communist Czechoslovakian cabinet in exile (not recognized by the West, they recognized Beneš cabinet that after war, slovakia would become part of USSR and Czcechia would stay independent). The only time that annexation by Soviets was on the table was in 1968 after invasion but everyone swiftly decided that this is nothing they want)
 
We gladly entered the Warsaw pact on our will.

Sorry, I should clarify that I didn't actually mean the Warsaw Pact. I was referring to having Communist rule. Most of Eastern Europe had the same pattern. Governments consisted mostly of Communists, Socialists, and left-wing allies. The Communist parties formed coalitions of these groups and expelled right-wing parties from the government. Then these non-Communist groups were either expelled or merged into the Communist party. Czechoslovakia was different. It had a stable democratic government that didn't have a Communist-allied majority and there was no prospect of forming a permanent ruling coalition of just Communists. Then the Communist party took over in a coup while Soviet troops waited just outside. Once the coup happened, their position changed dramatically and that's why it's an entirely different animal to say that they might have wanted to be annexed into the Soviet Union.
 
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