Q about Italian & Soviet relations during the war and afterwards...

[huddyhuddy]

Hi,

Is there any way to find some historical information on the Soviet-Italian relations during the war and when where they re-established after 1945?

Tnx,
Neil

[Larboard]

I'm sure it's out there, covered in some book hopefully. Right now I'm reading (unbelievably tedious but worth it) France and Nazi Threat, recently translated for the first time. An the book is so very eye opening... about relationships between these old countries, with this horrible history behind them, and "rapprochement" with this country one day, and this one the next at the expense of the other, France, England, US, Italy, Germany, Italy, Poland, Yugoslavia, USSR, etc, etc... it's mind boggling.

It reminds me of grade school kids on the playground forming cliques and alliances and then being swayed by other kids to form others, except the stakes were much much higher.

This book deals strictly with 1932-1939, the end of reparations, "equal rights" the Germans wanted, debts between countries stemming from WWI, the 1929 stock market crash and the worldwide depression that followed.

It is fascinating, if I could stay awake for more than three pages at a time...

[huddyhuddy]

That's part of pre-war history that I never went into. I guess it should be a must: much reading ABOUT the war and not much about BEFORE the war. That should make the picture more clear with all that extra information. Whats the book title and by who?

The added image is of a diplomat that attended the 1929-1930 Young Plan conferences regarding war reparations...

[Larboard]

Neat document! The book is France and the Nazi Threat by Jean-Batiste Duroselle. Never heard of it, saw it on eBay and bought it on a whim. The pressures these countries put on one another is incredible... and there is so much linked to money, banks, loans, debts.

Interesting the other day I read a document from the US library of Congress that said very plainly that it if wasn't for the 1929 stock market crash, the Nazis would have probably never come to power in Germany. They were somewhat on the decline... but the ripple effects of the stock market crash nearly plunged Germany into civil war the situation was so bad, and the situation was ripe for a takeover. It's like Rahm Emanuel said "Don't let a perfectly good disaster/catastrophe go to waste"...

What's interesting is that the reason why Germany crumbled after the stock market crash was that it was getting by on loans from the US, much the same way we get by with loans from China now... but all the sudden the money stopped. It does make you wonder, was the US bankrolling German rearmament? For all the talk (I'm really going out on a limb here) about "Jewish banking conspiracies", were Jewish bankers here in the US loaning money to the Nazis through the 1920's?

Nothing is impossible when it comes to money?

Anyway, Germany had been allowed to stop paying huge WWI reparations for a balloon payment that never happened, but the US and England insisted France keep paying both of them back (England was paying the US back also, of course), but eventually no one was able to pay anything back, very hard economic times cause much unrest, and Fascism was on the rise. Germany, Italy, Spain, many other smaller countries also, in fact, as well as Fascist movements within England and France.

The political scene was one of intense turmoil, at the beginning of the book it mentions that "The world crisis further accelerated the disintegration of the executive branch in France. Between June 1932 and May 1940, there were sixteen different governments, each one lasting five months and twenty four days on average"

No one nowadays could even imagine anything like this.

Another interesting quote from the book; "The fall of France was the fulcrum of the century. If French power, as many expected at the time, had withstood Hitler's onslaught the war would have had a different ending. Without victory over France Hitler would not have invaded the Soviet Union. Hostilities might have ended with a negotiated peace without becoming a world conflict, keeping France a key player in world politics. "

During the fall of France, Hitler strangely lets go of the offensive at Dunkirk, via ground troops anyway. The Lufwaffe didn't get the memo and strafed the boats at will.. but the reason why Hitler let most of the troops escape (French also actually) is because (as mentioned in this book) he was always seeking an alliance with Britain (Churchill must have been quite the monkeywrench in the spokes!). He actually had a dream or call it a fantasy to carve up the world between these two superpowers, England and Germany, and at that time England certainly had a pretty large share.



The 20th century is an amazing time to study in human history, you could never cover it all...

[huddyhuddy]

Though parts of 20th century history do interest me very much, some less and some more. Issues of post-WWI plebiscites also fascinate me, and I also try finding document issued by the 'inter-allied' commissions that existed, say in Silesia, Memel &the area of Königsberg. I am sure that there is more than meets the eye regarding the events that led to Hitler's rise to power and those books are of interest as well. Thank you for the very interesting post above.