It's a bit harsh to demand that people are thankful for decades of oppression. Central and eastern Europe were caught between two monsters, but one of them lasted a lot longer.
The main reason that the USSR's role in the start of WW2 has been ignored for so long, is because they were part of the victorious side, and their contribution was absolutely vital to the defeat of the Nazis. But they did launch offensive wars, against Poland, Finland and the Baltic states. They're traditionally not seen as part of WW2 only because the Nazis weren't involved and they were initiated by one of the victors of the war, but they happened at the exact same time, while Germany was invading Poland and Scandinavia.
Russia's conquest of eastern Europe was no liberation.
> Russia's conquest of eastern Europe was no liberation.
This is an insane statement. Driving out the genocidal Nazi rule was absolutely liberation. Practically no one in Eastern Europe would be alive today if the Soviets had lost the war.
He literally said the Soviets “started with genocide before the Nazis even arrived” and then listed three things that aren't genocide, as a way of downplaying the fact that the Nazis planned to exterminate most of the people in Eastern Europe. Baltic peoples, Ukrainians, Poles, Czechs all exist today. That would not be the case if the Soviets had lost the war.
That really depends on how you look at it. By that argument, to Ukrainians, the Nazis were the liberators. The Soviets had starved millions of Ukrainians in the Holodomor, and many, including the infamous Stepan Bandera, erroneously saw the Nazis as liberators. Thing is, liberation requires actually being free afterwards. Neither the Nazis nor the Soviets were liberators. They just replaced another oppressor.
And sure, the Nazis were even worse, but we should really stop pretending that the Soviet occupation was great.
The main reason that the USSR's role in the start of WW2 has been ignored for so long, is because they were part of the victorious side, and their contribution was absolutely vital to the defeat of the Nazis. But they did launch offensive wars, against Poland, Finland and the Baltic states. They're traditionally not seen as part of WW2 only because the Nazis weren't involved and they were initiated by one of the victors of the war, but they happened at the exact same time, while Germany was invading Poland and Scandinavia.
Russia's conquest of eastern Europe was no liberation.