JohannaK
Heroically Clueless
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.
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.
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.
The same could be said with Bulgaria or, more importantly, East Germany.
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.
It's an Achilles and the Tortoise sort of deal. The closer Russia comes to Constantinople, the further it still has to go.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" .
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.
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.
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.)
We gladly entered the Warsaw pact on our will.