A book I've been reading indicates that Stalin actively discouraged the socialist revolution in China, in Yugoslavia, Greece in Albania, and many other places. It does not elaborate on the reasons that Stalin decided not encourage these reveloutions, why was Stalin so opposed to socialist internationalism? I know he was a conservative, but surely he could see the benefits of spreading the reveloution, the capitalist countries could not be trusted, and the prospect of returning the USSR To a pre-World War II situation of economic and diplomatic isolation was hardly ideal.
History questions not worth their own thread II
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sydhe
King of Kongs
It sounds like he wanted to control the revolution as it spread, not create independent power sources like Tito and Mao.
Cynovolans
Not in my dimension.
Stalin was in favor of Socialism in One Country after the failed communist revolutions in Germany and Hungary from 1917-1921, and that the Soviet Union should strengthen itself internally.
LightSpectra
me autem minui
Thirteen Years' War and the Twenty-Seven Years' War as well.
Not too creative though. Otherwise you get things like the "War of Jenkins' Ear" and the "Pastry War."
ParkCungHee
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But everyone remembers the War of Jenkins Ear. I was about to answer that the French did relatively well in the Nine Years War because nobody was trying to fight them.
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
Beginning in the mid-1920s, the Soviets generally gave up on the Trotskyist internationalist stance and adopted a more Stagist one; this policy began when the USSR switched its support from the Communist Party of China to the Kuomintang, which was, at that time, the bourgeois, social-democratic party, roughly analogous to the role the Socialist Revolutionaries and Kadets played after February. This is to be understood as part of the trend during the 20s that saw abandonment of the NEP and the proposal of the first Five-Year Plan, it being accepted that European Revolution was no longer imminent.
I assume here that you're talking about a post-WWII environment. In that case I'm not sure exactly what you mean. I do know that the Stalinists who persisted after Stalin's death argued against alliances with, for example, India, Egypt, and Yugoslavia (I'm thinking of Molotov specifically), yet accepted China as a leader in the socialist sphere alongside the USSR; these were the same ones who argued against the Hungarians in 1956; at all cases, they were opposed by Khrushchev and Bulganin. I could not tell you why, Molotov, Kaganovich et al argued this, though. And I do not know their stance about revolutionary movements in other countries.
I absolutely love these names.
Harvin87
The Youth
Who was the real hero in Tannenberg (1914), Hindenburg or Ludendorff? or perhaps Hoffmann with his daring plan?... what do you think?
Also the Seven Weeks' War between Prussia and Austria. Probably more we can't remember right now as well. Maybe even the Winter War.
Wars just don't have creative names often. If it's not how long they go for, it's the place the war is fought in - Gulf War, Peninsular War - or the countries it's fought between - Russo-Japanese War, Iran-Iraq War. Why can't we come up with awesome names like: The War of the Shining Sword? The War of Dancing Monkeys? The War of Shady Political Machinations?
nonconformist
Miserable
Oberst Max Hoffmann, for his ability to see Samsonov would not aid Rennenkampf.
Not specific enough. That could describe most of them.
LightSpectra
me autem minui
The plan was Hoffmann's, but there's also something to be said about the fact that the Russians announced their marching plans on uncoded radio multiple times.
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
Emu War was best war.
Harvin87
The Youth
That particular thing still amazes me everytime I read something about the battle. One can't be that negligent.
Hoffmann wrote self-serving memoirs that made him look great and got away with it, mostly. We're quite sure, for instance, that his story of Rennenkampf and Samsonov arguing at the train station is incorrect since Rennenkampf was, at the time, confined to a stretcher due to injuries, and nowhere near the train station in question. His personal correspondence at the time doesn't make him look nearly as good, and it casts a lot of doubt on his denunciations of Prittwitz, who admittedly did panic (though we're not exactly sure how much he did in fact panic and how much was Moltke misinterpreting events in a very trying period of time) but was more of a fall guy for the draw at Gumbinnen than anything else. Ludendorff was overly excitable and it certainly wasn't entirely his plan - hell, it was basically a copy of a plan Schlieffen had used in a war game a few years before his retirement. And Hindenburg ended up playing the role that commanders usually were supposed to have played in the Imperial German Army - a calming, sane influence that brought everybody back to reality. He didn't get elevated to such an exalted status in national culture just by being a figurehead. There was some truth behind the myth.
To be honest, I'd be hesitant to apply the label of 'hero' to any of the German generals. It really was a team effort, more so than many campaigns, with no overarching 'brilliant mind' sketching the dispositions, while many of the individual German units performed their roles with amazing courage and skill. Everybody made mistakes, everybody had moments of genius or glory, and the adjective that best applies to their performance as a whole is 'professional'.
To be honest, I'd be hesitant to apply the label of 'hero' to any of the German generals. It really was a team effort, more so than many campaigns, with no overarching 'brilliant mind' sketching the dispositions, while many of the individual German units performed their roles with amazing courage and skill. Everybody made mistakes, everybody had moments of genius or glory, and the adjective that best applies to their performance as a whole is 'professional'.
So did the Germans, but that's an inconvenient truth that can be ignored because the Germans won. Coding and decoding practices at the time often meant that attempting to use the radio in total secrecy for anybody took longer than was profitable in time-sensitive military operations. And it wasn't that unreasonable of a risk - at the time - for the Russians to suppose that the Germans weren't listening in on that frequency. They got caught quite by chance, and the result of the radio intercepts was mostly to confirm the Germans on a path they were already going down.
Kind of why I said it.
sydhe
King of Kongs
I like the names of some of the great Chinese rebellions: The Red Turbans (against the Mongols), Yellow Turbans and the Five Pecks of Rice (both against the Han), White Lotus (middle Qing), the Red Eyebrows (against Wang Mang, the Xin emperor) and, of course the rebellion by the Righteous and Harmonious Fists (the Boxer Rebellion, late Qing).
IdiotsOpposite
Boom, headshot.
I don't know about that... Most of the wars have all right names. You know, Seven Years War, Hundred Years War...
Well, the Wars of the Roses is a counterexample at least. It sounds poetic.
Well, the Wars of the Roses is a counterexample at least. It sounds poetic.
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