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From: lrb@hpcnof.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: The myth of Allied invasion of Russia after the revolution
Message-ID: <50400001@hpcnof.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 17-Oct-85 19:57:00 EST
Article-I.D.: hpcnof.50400001
Posted: Thu Oct 17 19:57:00 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 31-Oct-85 08:04:43 EST
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Organization: 17 Oct 85 14:57:00 MST
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>> Military history is not the reason for Soviet paranoia of the West.  The 
>> reason is ideology.  By their religion, we are the devil, the "bad guys".  It
>> is as impossible for them to trust us as it is for any Christian to trust
>> Satan himself.
>
 .......
>.........  It is not so much paranoia (they keep themselves well in-
>formed of Western intentions and decisions) as that  their  whole
>cultural background and their unconscious, deep-seated philosoph-
>ical attitude requires *eliminating the opposition*. ..............
 ...........
>		 Jan Wasilewsky

This reminds me of an interesting theory concerning USSR/Russian history that
was proposed by a "Kremlinologist" or Russian history expert or whatever.  (I
wish I could remember who it was or where I read it so that I could directly
quote it!)  But the conclusion of this man was that from the U.S.'s point of
view, the Communist Revolution was the best thing that could have happened
to Russia rather than the worst.  I couldn't accept this at first, since it
was contradictory to what I have always thought.  But the logic behind his
argument was really very good.  Instead of dividing Russian history into the
usual pre-1917 and post-1917 periods, he looked at those attributes that were
consistent through ALL of Russian history from the very beginning through
the present time.  One factor he saw was a consistent history of expansion,
from the tiny state of Muscovy into the Russian Empire and then to the current
USSR.  ("Russia" nowadays refers to a republic which includes Moscow and
Leningrad, comprises about 50% of the population of the whole USSR, and is
one of many republics which include the Ukraine, Siberia, the Baltic republics,
etc.)  Regardless of the reasons for their thirst for expansion, whether
paranoia or greed or self-defense or cultural or what have you, Russia has
been doing her best to conquer her neighbors for 700 years, always having new
neighbors to conquer as soon as her old neighbors become part of her!  (The
USSR has more than twice the landmass of any other country.)  Thus the postwar
domination of Eastern Europe is seen in the historical context as just another 
chapter in the age-old story of Russian conquests.  
     This historian also brought up two more important factors concerning
the USSR:  First, that the Soviet Union has far greater natural resources
than the USA.  Second, that Communism, even though it is perhaps the most
efficient form of political control ever devised, is also one of the worst
forms of economic production ever devised.  So this historian plays a 
"What if" game by predicting what would have happened if Russia had NOT had
a Communist revolution, and instead had ended up with a capitalistic rather
than a socialistic economy these past 68 years.  According to his theory,
Russia would STILL be as expansionist as it always has been for the past
700 years, since their form of government has apparently never had any
effect on their expansionist tendencies one way or the other.  The major 
difference would be that their economy would now be unbelievably strong, 
much stronger than the U.S.'s, due to Russia's immense resources being fully 
utilized by an industrialized nation unhampered by Communist economics.
The combination of this economic power AND the expansionist tendency would
pose a far greater threat to the West than the USSR does today.  If this guy's
theory holds water, then we should be GRATEFUL for the 1917 revolution.

Interesting theory, eh?

Larry Bruns, Hewlett-Packard, Colo. Networks Oper. R&D, Ft. Collins, CO
ihnp4!hpfcla!l_bruns  or  hplabs!hpcnof!lrb