--- Michael Hirsch <mmh at pipeline.com> wrote:
> I don't know the answer either, but in the demi-Trot
> world I inhabited as a yuff (mostly sitting at the
> feet of Hal Draper and Julie Jacobson) , their rap
> was that Stalin's pact with the Nazis was strategic,
> not tactical. Does that mean he expected it to last
> for decades. No, but certainly for many more years.
> Its collapse, said the elders, caught Uncle Joe
> totally unprepared and uncomprehending. Still sounds
> about right. And that's it for me on this thread.
>
>
I'm really interested in Il Duce's claim that Italy tried to prevent the war (I'll type in the whole quote if anybody wants). That seems totally anti-the-received-wisdom, but it seems not totally unplausible. That said, the whole point of the bulldog-faced one's articles at that point is self-absolution, shitting on the Monarchy, and working out his veiled resentment of the Germans and Hitler, so he's hardly trustworthy.
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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