On the Causes of World War II (01.11.2022)
A dialogue with a Stalinist student from Russia about the causes of World War II: Stalin’s role in Hitler’s rise to power, the pact on the division of Europe, the Munich Agreement versus the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, and the fallacy of the teleological view that “everyone knew war was coming.”
Key moments
- 01:33 Mobilizations in Russia over 100 years: 1914, 1941, 2022 — 'mobilization is an element of war'
- 08:05 Stalin's directive: communists in the Reichstag elections to run separately from the socialists; this gave Hitler his chance
- 08:28 Hitler's pact with Stalin — an agreement on the division of Europe
- 09:05 The Munich Agreement did not lead to war; the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact led to it directly
- 11:36 Versailles brought Hitler to power and fueled revanchism; the policy of appeasement
- 13:33 The 'Generalplan Ost' is not from Mein Kampf
- 16:44 The 1935 treaty: why the USSR 'could not' help Czechoslovakia