Stalin offered a million troops to help Britain and France deter Nazi Germany 2 weeks before Germany invaded Poland. The Allies turned them down, and the rest, as they say, was history. But why did they refuse? 🧵
The upper class of both France and Britain were terrified of Bolshevism. They viewed Nazi Germany as a "Bulwark" against Soviet Communism. This sympathy wasn't merely emotional - these classes had a great deal of influence on national policy - and normalized fascism.
Of course, this admiration for fascism didn't begin with Nazi Germany. It began earlier, with the admiration of Fascist Italy. There are many quotes from British leaders on this - this one is from Churchill in 1927:
This 1936 photo is of the exterior of a Nottingham, England arena at which a German boxing team held a match. bbc.com/news/uk-englan…
The primary goal of British and French foreign policy since 1918 was the containment of socialism, not fascism. This movement was fronted by their wealthy elites. dw.com/en/hitlers-gir…
After Hitler took power in Germany in 1933, he found massive material support from the West. Billions in loans, industrial investment, treaties authorizing re-armament. Perhaps the worst: Britain handed over 5.6 million pounds of Czech gold to Hitler. smh.com.au/business/how-b…