View allAll Photos Tagged BLAME
CSX Q418-11 breezes east through Woodbourne after nightfall with CN D9-44CW 2550 leading a bright future CW40-8 after taking entirely too long to spin their power in Philly. I had very limited time to get ready for these guys as they managed to sneak up the line to Langhorne without me hearing them on the radio until then, leaving me with this "for what its worth" shot.. January 11, 2017.
Monday 23 November 2009: This one's for Buttercup (and, you can blame Eydie Gormé for my inappropriate affection for ruffles). I think she'll like these sexy, comfortable Destroy boots. A trip to the mart of darkness (SW Food Mart in Southwest Harbor, ME— avoid at all costs, if able), then a quiet pre-Thanksgiving dinner with our son before the holiday drama begins. Made matzo ball soup and latkes without a spot on a ruffle. Bought the shirt and jacket a size too large to make sure the sleeves would be long enough, which is worth the enormous waist room trade-off for these particular pieces (Redcats are dreadful at sizing). Guess I was going for Alexander McQueen on a budget... a very LOW budget. Except for the magnificent boots, of course.
Black boyfriend blazer: Roamans (yes, I know), roamans.com, c.$19 (on sale + coupon), c.2009
Ivory ruffle peachskin blouse: Roamans (yes, I know), roamans.com, c.$15 (on sale + coupon), c.2009
Shape FX leggings: Spiegel online, spiegel.com, c.$11 (on sale), c.2008
Black Destroy mid-calf boots with silver buckles: (Great winter boot— fantastically comfortable and well balanced in the snow.) Shoegazer, Ellsworth, ME, c.$70, c.2005
Patent Anya Hindmarch tote: Target online, www.target.com/, c.$20, c.2008
Jewelry: Assorted necklaces, Additionelle, Montreal, Canada, additionelle.com, c.$10 (BOGO), c.2006. Watch, Avenue, 3rd Ave. & 44th St., NYC, avenue.com, c.$20, c.1999. Sterling snake ring w/ pink glass stone, W Hotel Store online, whotelsthestore.com, c.$15 (on sale), c.2007. Sterling Russian wedding band (thumb), street fair, 3rd Ave., NYC, c.$10, c.1999. Engagement ring and wedding band: Pyramid Studios, Ellsworth, ME, 2005 & 2006 respectively.
Hair: Paul Mitchell extra-body daily shampoo & rinse. Paul Mitchell super skinny serum.
Face: Clinique 3-step #2, super-defense cream, even better makeup SPF15 in neutral, quick liner in black honey, high impact mascara in black/brown & color surge lipstick in tenderheart: all from the Clinique counter at Macy's, Bangor, ME or online, clinique.com
Thanks to the quality carpentry work by "not sure, but lets call him Hasse", a young blue-tit family have moved into what is today known as Villa Blåmes in Norrby. And while the usual suspects were busy drinking and dining on the veranda Mom and Pop Blåmes were busy raising and feeding their unseen chicks. No idea how big the family might be, but there could be up to ten chicks in there. The local cat have been informed, but is yet to take any action in the matter.
Music: "Cyber toy" by Hicham Chahidi www.MusicScreen.org
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
"The devil (or at least the female form - check the name on the bicycle) made me do it" as often the cry of some of contemporary Christianity. More likely it is blame another so one does not have to accept personal responsibility for one's actions.
Then I could admit I wanted to get a photo of a good bike - that might be denial.
There's a shit ton of Kremlin propaganda about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on social media (including many variations of the list in the above screenshot) which seeks to portray the infamous pact between the Nazis and Soviets as being essentially no different from all the other treaties in the list, which - surprise, surprise - is not the case. It's just another Russian lie.
To illustrate this, let's compare the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with the Polish-German Non-Aggression Treaty of 26th January 1934, which for some strange reason is referred to here as the "Hitler-Pilsudsko Pact" (sic).
The Polish-German non-aggression treaty is often used by mindless vatniks and tankies to portray interwar Poland as "pro-German" in a dishonest attempt to excuse the Soviet Union's subsequent collaboration with Nazi Germany at Poland's expense and the war crimes that the USSR committed against the Polish people as a direct result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (ie "let's blame the victim - they got what they deserved").
Stalin's apologists routinely do the same to other victims of the pact, as well as victims of Soviet tyranny in general, because in their delusional fantasy world it was perfectly fine for the Soviet Union to invade, occupy and terrorise other countries. Obviously, when Hitler or western imperialists did stuff like that - it was bad, but when the Soviets did it - it was good.
And if you were one of the millions of men, women and children who were robbed, gang-raped, imprisoned, sent to the gulags, tortured, starved to death, executed or ethnically cleansed by Stalin's henchmen - the Kremlin's shills and useful idiots will either deny it happened, or blame it on somebody else or - if there's no way of doing that - they'll just say that you deserved it. Because they also frequently try to dishonestly portray all Stalin's victims - or anybody who opposed Soviet tyranny - as fascists and/or Nazis.
And as a lot of people are very ignorant about the history of central and eastern Europe (or only seem to see it from the perspective of the so-called "great powers") this kind of bullshit is widely believed, even though it's blatant historical revisionism.
Interwar Poland was very aware that it was sandwiched between two aggressive neighbours who wouldn't hesitate to wipe "the bastard child of the Versailles treaty" off the map if they got the chance. As such, Poland signed non-aggression treaties with both the USSR and Nazi Germany in an attempt to normalise relations and reduce tensions that existed along their borders. In the aftermath of the Polish-Soviet War and Treaty Of Riga, Polish statesman Józef Piłsudski initially believed that the more immediate threat was from the Soviet Union, because prior to the rise of the Nazis, Germany was a million miles away from the force it would eventually become by the end of the 1930s (Germany only seriously re-armed after Piłsudski’s death in 1935).
Russian disinfo generally avoids any mention of the fact that Poland signed a non-aggression treaty with the Soviet Union first, in 1932 (and this treaty was subsequently re-confirmed in 1938). The treaty with Germany two years later was simply a continuation of the same policy of trying to maintain peaceful co-existence with Poland's neighbours.
Piłsudski was deeply concerned about the emergence of Hitlerism, although disputes over the free port of Danzig (Gdańsk) were already ongoing before Hitler came to power. Poland had retained the right to formally welcome foreign ships into the port, but in 1932 the Danzig Senate kept delaying the renewal of the requisite agreement. Piłsudski used the planned visit of three British warships for a show of strength and they were duly welcomed into Danzig by the Polish destroyer Wicher, after he'd made it clear that the ship had instructions to open fire on the nearest government building if the local German authorities intervened. The incident annoyed the League of Nations but successfully secured the renewal of the agreement sought by Poland.
Immediately after Hitler came to power Piłsudski made a similar gesture, by assigning 120 more Polish troops to Westerplatte (on 6th March 1933) - and again the Germans acquiesced.
According to some accounts (by Jan Karski and Norman Davies for example), Piłsudski actually suggested a pre-emptive attack on Germany to the French government in 1933, with the aim of removing Hitler from power, but his proposal was rejected by the French.
Poland was also alarmed by Italy's plan to cut "minor" nations out of European settlements, which would be determined by the four "major" powers — Britain, France, Germany and Italy - and could have potentially included decisions about Danzig and the "Polish Corridor" to the Baltic sea.
These are the events that prompted Poland to seek a non-aggression treaty with Germany in 1934 - and after signing it, Polish Foreign Minister Józef Beck travelled to Moscow to reassure the Soviets that the Polish-German declaration did not affect the 1932 Soviet-Polish Treaty of Non-Aggression in any way, and offered to extend the treaty to ten years.
It's perfectly understandable why a country in Poland's position would enter into such agreements in an attempt to safeguard its security. Furthermore, a non-aggression treaty is not an alliance, and these treaties did not make Poland "pro-Soviet" or "pro-German". Poland's 1934 agreement with Germany had no secret protocol or ulterior motive, and any comparison with the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact is completely false.
One of the more ludicrous claims made by Kremlin propagandists is that Poland tried to form an alliance with the Nazis to attack the USSR. However, this is yet another Russian lie.
When Hermann Goering visited Poland in January 1935, he sounded out the Polish government about a possible anti-Soviet alliance but the idea was promptly dismissed. In February 1937 Goering again visited Warsaw to suggest that Poland align itself with Germany against the Soviet Union. Beck turned him down. When German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop came to Warsaw in January 1939, Beck informed him that Poland would not agree to German demands (made since 1938) for the return of Danzig to the Reich and an extraterritorial highway to East Prussia, and would also not join the Anti-Comintern Pact against the Soviet Union. In a speech to the Reichstag on 28th April 1939, Hitler denounced Germany's non-aggression treaty with Poland. Beck responded in a speech to the Polish parliament on 5th May 1939, making it clear that he refused to be intimidated.
In reality, it was Germany that tried to persuade Poland to enter into an anti-Soviet alliance, and after Poland declined, the Nazis then turned to the Soviet Union and negotiated the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which was presented to the world as a simple non-aggression treaty, but was really a plan to carve up Europe between Germany and the USSR - involving the mutual invasion and partition of Poland, a free hand for Hitler to attack Western Europe and for Stalin to annex the Baltic states, Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, and to attack Finland.
And funnily enough, that's exactly what actually happened....
TL;DR - Russian propagandists are lying as usual.
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union led directly to the outbreak of the Second World War, and all its tragic consequences, almost immediately after the pact was signed on 23rd August 1939.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Non-Aggression_between_Ge...
The signatories were the foreign ministers of the two countries, Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop - hence its name.
A week later on 1st September, Nazi Germany attacked Poland from the west and just over two weeks after that, the USSR attacked Poland from the east (which is another topic that the Kremlin simply can't stop lying about)....
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Poland
www.flickr.com/photos/stillunusual/52386755378
What also makes the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact different from the other treaties listed in the screenshot above, is that it was just one step in a continuum of Nazi-Soviet collaboration that lasted until June 1941, and was well documented in the numerous diplomatic communications between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union throughout this period. After the Second World War, the relevant documents that had been stored in the archives of the German Foreign Office were translated into English and published in a book called "Nazi-Soviet Relations 1939-41". The complete collection can now be found online.
www.ibiblio.org/pha/nsr/nsr-preface.html
There was actually a sickening prelude to Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, ie the dismissal by Stalin of his staunchly anti-fascist foreign minister Litvinov (who also happened to be Jewish), and his replacement by the more Nazi-friendly Molotov (who was told to purge the ministry of Jews) in order to facilitate negotiations between the two tyrannies.
This change was received favourably by the Nazis, and after Molotov took over from Litvinov, Stalin immediately sounded them out to see if this would make it easier to do business, as shown by this quote from the German Foreign Office Memorandum dated 5th May 1939: "Astakhov touched upon the dismissal of Litvinov and tried without asking direct questions to learn whether this event would cause a change in our position toward the Soviet Union. He stressed very much the great importance of the personality of Molotov, who was by no means a specialist in foreign policy, but who would have all the greater importance for the future Soviet foreign policy"....
The pact was signed on the basis that: "there exist no real conflicts of interest between Germany and the USSR. The living spaces of Germany and the USSR touch each other, but in their natural requirements do not conflict" (as stated in a telegram from Ribbentrop to the German ambassador in the Soviet Union on 14th August 1939).
It had seven articles....
ARTICLE I
Both High Contracting Parties obligate themselves to desist from any act of violence, any aggressive action, and any attack on each other, either individually or jointly with other powers.
ARTICLE II
Should one of the High Contracting Parties become the object of belligerent action by a third power, the other High Contracting Party shall in no manner lend its support to this third power.
ARTICLE III
The Governments of the two High Contracting Parties shall in the future maintain continual contact with one another for the purpose of consultation in order to exchange information on problems affecting their common interests.
ARTICLE IV
Neither of the two High Contracting Parties shall participate in any grouping of powers whatsoever that is directly or indirectly aimed at the other party.
ARTICLE V
Should disputes or conflicts arise between the High Contracting Parties over problems of one kind or another, both parties shall settle these disputes or conflicts exclusively through friendly exchange of opinion or, if necessary, through the establishment of arbitration commissions.
ARTICLE VI
The present treaty is concluded for a period of ten years, with the proviso that, in so far as one of the High Contracting Parties does not denounce it one year prior to the expiration of this period, the validity of this treaty shall automatically be extended for another five years.
ARTICLE VII
The present treaty shall be ratified within the shortest possible time. The ratifications shall be exchanged in Berlin. The agreement shall enter into force as soon as it is signed.
However, the above articles were just a cover story for the secret protocol between the Nazis and Soviets, which defined their mutually agreed "spheres of influence", ie the territories that each of the signatories could invade without having to worry about retaliation from the other.
SECRET ADDITIONAL PROTOCOL
On the occasion of the signature of the Non-aggression Pact between the German Reich and the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics the undersigned plenipotentiaries of each of the two parties discussed in strictly confidential conversations the question of the boundary of their respective spheres of influence in Eastern Europe. These conversations led to the following conclusions:
1. In the event of a territorial and political rearrangement in the areas belonging to the Baltic States (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), the northern boundary of Lithuania shall represent the boundary of the spheres of influence of Germany and the USSR. In this connection the interest of Lithuania in the Vilna area is recognized by each party.
2. In the event of a territorial and political rearrangement of the areas belonging to the Polish state the spheres of influence of Germany and the USSR shall be bounded approximately by the line of the rivers Narew, Vistula, and San. The question of whether the interests of both parties make desirable the maintenance of an independent Polish state and how such a state should be bounded can only be definitely determined in the course of further political developments. In any event both Governments will resolve this question by means of a friendly agreement.
3. With regard to Southeastern Europe attention is called by the Soviet side to its interest in Bessarabia. The German side declares its complete political disinterestedness in these areas.
4. This protocol shall be treated by both parties as strictly secret.
It's interesting to note that the protocol already includes a provisional agreement about the future border between Nazi Germany and the USSR "in the event of a territorial and political rearrangement of the areas belonging to the Polish state" and it's also fascinating to read through Nazi Germany's diplomatic records of the negotiations between the Nazis and Soviets to define all the "spheres of influence" that Hitler and Stalin eventually agreed on.
www.ibiblio.org/pha/nsr/nsr-02.html
These negotiations clearly demonstrate that when the Kremlin subsequently made the ludicrous claim that the Soviet invasion of Poland was some kind of spontaneous rescue mission to protect the Belarusians and Ukrainians living in the east of the country, it was just another gratuitous lie.
Further negotiations after the pact was signed also led to minor alterations in the "spheres of influence".
TL;DR - Russian propagandists are lying as usual.
Soviet military and economic cooperation with Germany actually dated back to the Treaty of Rapallo in 1922, although it was initially discouraged by Hitler after coming to power.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Rapallo,_1922
However, from August 1939 onwards the USSR provided Hitler with a great deal of much needed economic and military support, which ironically also helped the Germans in their preparations to launch Operation Barbarossa in June 1941.
During their mutual invasion of Poland, the Nazis and Soviets issued a joint declaration on 18th September 1939 to justify their actions.
On 20th September, Nazi and Soviet military leaders discussed coordinating the actions of the Wehrmacht and Red Army.
www.flickr.com/photos/stillunusual/54795737145
www.flickr.com/photos/stillunusual/54795404531
www.flickr.com/photos/stillunusual/54795737150
On 22nd September, a Nazi–Soviet military parade took place in Brest-Litovsk (in Polish: Brześć nad Bugiem or Brześć Litewski).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German%E2%80%93Soviet_military_para...
A Friendship and Border treaty was signed by Nazi Germany and the USSR on 28th September 1939, along with a secret protocol establishing the border between the two countries. Three additional protocols were added to the agreement, the third of which stated that: "Both parties will tolerate no Polish agitation in their territories which affects the territories of the other party. They will suppress in their territories all beginnings of such agitation and inform each other concerning suitable measures for this purpose".
The signing of the treaty was accompanied by an announcement stating that both parties wanted an end to the war between Germany, Britain and France - and that if Britain and France refused to stop the war "....the Governments of Germany and of the USSR shall engage in mutual consultations with regard to necessary measures".
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German-Soviet_Boundary_and_Friendsh...
According to Molotov: "....it is not only absurd, it is criminal to wage a war to 'smash Hitlerism' under the false slogan of a war for democracy".
At a session of the Supreme Soviet on 31st October, he bragged about the USSR's military partnership with Germany: "....it was proved enough for Poland to be dealt one swift blow, first by the German army and then by the Red Army, to wipe out all remains of this monstrous bastard offspring of the Versailles Treaty".
The USSR and Germany implemented parallel policies of suppressing resistance in occupied Poland and destroying the Polish elites in their respective areas of occupation. The Soviet NKVD and Nazi Gestapo coordinated their actions on many issues, including prisoner exchanges. Between 1939 and 1941 the NKVD delivered to the Gestapo over 4000 Jews and German communists who had taken refuge in Soviet held territory.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestapo-NKVD_Conferences
Hitler then proceeded to invade the other countries in his agreed "sphere of influence" while Stalin did the same in his agreed "sphere of influence"....
An important factor in Hitler's successes in the west was that he didn't have to watch his back following his alliance with the USSR, which gave him a free hand to mobilise all the forces at his disposal to rapidly conquer the countries of Western Europe.
And in June 1940, while the Germans were marching into Paris, the Soviet Union was simultaneously annexing the Baltic states (although they did find time to send congratulations to their Nazi allies).
The Soviets also provided all manner of assistance to the Nazis during their military campaigns in the west, and while Germany was fighting Britain and France, Stalin was not only calling them "criminals" and "imperialists" for opposing Hitler, but he was also helping his Nazi allies to break Britain's blockade by supplying Germany with raw materials. Provision was made for the supply from the USSR of a million tons of grain for cattle, 900000 tons of mineral oil, 100000 tons of cotton, 500000 tons of phosphates, 100000 tons of chrome ore, 500000 tons of iron ore, 300000 tons of scrap iron and pig iron, and numerous other commodities vital to the German war effort.
In the summer and autumn of 1940, when Polish pilots were defending the skies over Britain from the Luftwaffe (after escaping to the west following the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland), the German pilots were flying on fuel supplied by their Soviet allies.
More details here....
Nazi–Soviet economic relations (1934–1941)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi%E2%80%93Soviet_economic_relations
The Nazi–Soviet Commercial Agreement (1939)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German%E2%80%93Soviet_Commercial_Ag...
The Nazi–Soviet Commercial Agreement (1940)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German%E2%80%93Soviet_Commercial_Ag...
The Nazi–Soviet Border and Commercial Agreement (1941)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German%e2%80%93Soviet_Border_and_Co...
The USSR also furnished Germany with military cooperation far beyond that which the United States was giving to Great Britain during this time. The Soviets actually allowed Germany a naval base on Soviet territory near Murmansk, which proved valuable for U-boats operating in the North Sea, and played an important role in helping to supply Hitler's invasion of Norway.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basis_Nord
German ships such as the liner "Bremen" found refuge at Murmansk, as did a succession of blockade breaking vessels - and measures violating international law were adopted by the Soviet authorities to allow the Germans to escape with a captured American merchant ship, City Of Flint (which had been carrying a cargo of tractors, grain and fruit to Britain). German auxiliary cruisers were also equipped at Murmansk for raids on British shipping. The Soviets helped a German raiding cruiser, Schiff 45, to make its way through the ice around Siberia to the pacific, where it subsequently captured or sank 64000 tons of allied shipping.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_auxiliary_cruiser_Komet
In this and other ways the Soviet Union lent enormous assistance to the otherwise vulnerable German Navy.
Stalin actually requested the USSR's membership of the tri-partite Axis agreement as a full member, and negotiations took place over several months from 1940-41 but never reached fruition. He was "visibly pleased" at the idea and irritated when it didn't happen, although the USSR did sign a neutrality pact with Japan in April 1941.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German%E2%80%93Soviet_Axis_talks
These negotiations are also documented in the archives of the German Foreign Office.
www.ibiblio.org/pha/nsr/nsr-06.html
When they were published after the war Stalin was so embarrassed that he went to the trouble of publishing a book full of reality-denying nonsense about how he was just playing a game of bluff with the Axis powers, and didn't mean any of it - but then again, he would say that wouldn't he?
From 1939 to 1941, the friendship between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union was promoted to the Soviet people in state propaganda - even that which was aimed at children.
www.tumblr.com/stillunusual/696491665705385984/pionerskay...
And as well as indoctrinating the citizens of the USSR with pro-Nazi and anti-western messaging, Stalin also ordered communist parties throughout the world to stop all agitation against Hitler's regime and to follow suit.
For example, the newspaper published by the Communist Party of Great Britain (which was then known as the "Daily Worker" but later changed its name to "Morning Star") began the war supporting resistance to the Nazis, but then rapidly changed its tune and began shilling for Hitler under orders from Moscow - and continued to do so even as German bombs were dropping all over the UK. Ironically, on 16th April 1941, the Daily Worker's London office was destroyed by fire caused by German bombing....
By this stage publication had already been suspended by the Home Secretary, Herbert Morrison, for contravening Defence Regulation 2D, which made it an offence to "systematically publish matter calculated to foment opposition to the prosecution of the war".
FUN FACT: Jeremy Corbyn's mother Naomi was an enthusiastic seller of the Daily Worker at the time....
Stalin was simping for the Nazis for two whole years before Hitler turned on his former ally - taking an unprepared Stalin completely by surprise and forcing him to execute the "great patriotic u-turn" and join the alliance against the Nazis out of sheer desperation.
TL;DR - Russian propagandists are lying as usual.
It's easy to see what motivated Stalin to agree to a pact between the world's only communist state and a fascist state.
Neither Germany nor the USSR recognised the Versailles treaty, Stalin's personal animus towards Poland was well known and when Hitler offered him an opportunity to destroy Poland he jumped at it (there may also have been an element of desiring revenge for defeat in the Polish-Soviet war two decades earlier, especially as Stalin's incompetence had played a role in that defeat). Dividing continental Europe into mutually agreed spheres of influence also suited both countries to an extent that made ideology irrelevant.
Two years later, when Hitler broke the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and launched Operation Barbarossa, Stalin refused to believe initial reports that Germany was invading his country, just as he'd previously refused to believe credible intelligence that Germany was preparing an invasion (these preparations had been monitored and even filmed by the Polish resistance, and having seen footage smuggled out of occupied Poland by Polish SOE agent Krystyna Skarbek, Winston Churchill personally warned Stalin about the imminent invasion, but the Soviet dictator stupidly brushed him off). Stalin's immediate response to Hitler's attack on the USSR was to run away and hide in his dacha in a state of panic because he didn't have a clue what to do.
He eventually re-emerged eleven days later to deliver a radio address to the Soviet people, in which he claimed that he agreed to the pact because he'd always known that a German invasion was inevitable and that it had "secured our country peace for a year and a half and the opportunity of preparing our forces to repulse fascist Germany should she risk an attack on our country despite the pact. This was a definite advantage for us and a disadvantage for fascist Germany".
This was a laughable claim, given that the German invaders were cutting through the completely unprepared and disorganised Red Army like a knife through butter at the time.
Although the Soviets had made some half-hearted attempts at building fortifications in the territory they'd gained via the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, nothing much had actually been accomplished and all this territory was rapidly overrun by the Germans. The obvious fact that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact resulted in Germany and the USSR having shared borders, which made it easier for the Germans to invade, didn't seem to occur to Stalin.
The huge economic and military aid that the USSR had provided to the Nazis, which helped them to expand and build up their war machine in preparation for the invasion also seems to have slipped his mind. And he also forgot about the fact that he'd been pumping out pro-Nazi, anti-western propaganda for the previous two years....
Stalin was clearly upset about being betrayed, but felt that Hitler would pay for his treachery with the damage it would do to Germany's public image: ...."What has fascist Germany gained and what has she lost by perfidiously tearing up the pact and attacking the USSR? She has gained a certain advantageous position for her troops for a short period of time, but she has lost politically by exposing herself in the eyes of the entire world as a bloodthirsty aggressor"....
This is also laughable.
Stalin was very happy to tear up treaties when it suited him - like the eight treaties he threw out of the window when the Soviet Union invaded Poland in 1939 as allies of the Nazis:
1. The Peace Treaty between Poland, Russia and the Ukraine signed in Riga on 18th March 1921, in which the eastern frontier of Poland was defined.
2. The Protocol between Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Rumania and the USSR regarding renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy, signed in Moscow on 9th February 1929.
3. The Non-Aggression Treaty between Poland and the USSR signed in Moscow on 25th July 1932.
4. The Convention for the Definition of Aggression signed in London on 3rd July 1933, signed by Estonia, Latvia, Rumania, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and the USSR.
5. The Protocol signed in Moscow on 5th May 1934 between Poland and the USSR, extending until 31st December 1945, the Non-Aggression Treaty of July 25th 1932.
6. The agreement resulting from the notes exchanged in Moscow on 10th September 1934 between the Polish government and the Soviet government, in connection with the entry of the USSR into the League of Nations. This agreement emphasised that the relations between the countries would, in every respect, continue on the basis of all existing agreements between them, including the Treaty of Non-Aggression and the Convention for the Definition of Aggression.
7. The Covenant of the League of Nations, to which the USSR acceded on 17th September 1934.
8. The joint Communique issued in Moscow on 26th November 1938, by the Polish and Soviet governments, which confirmed that relations between them were, and would continue to be, based on all the existing agreements, including the Non-Aggression Treaty dated 25th July 1932, and extended on 5th May 1934.
Stalin had also exposed himself as a bloodthirsty aggressor since signing the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In a speech by Winston Churchill broadcast in January 1940 (while the Soviet attack on Finland was ongoing), he made it clear that he viewed the Nazis and Soviets as opposite sides of the same barbaric coin: ...."Everyone can see how communism rots the soul of a nation; how it makes it abject and hungry in peace, and proves it base and abominable in war....if at any time Britain and France, wearying of the struggle, were to make a shameful peace, nothing would remain for the smaller states of Europe, with their shipping and their possessions, but to be divided between the opposite, though similar, barbarisms of Nazidom and Bolshevism"....
The Soviet Union continued to deny the existence of the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact almost until its dying day, as well as denying all the other well documented examples of Nazi-Soviet collaboration that took place between 1939 and 1941, and the numerous Soviet war crimes that are directly attributable to the pact, such as the Katyń massacre, which was carried out by the NKVD in 1940, and the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Polish and Baltic citizens to the gulags.
However, another fun fact that Kremlin trolls rarely mention is that in December 1989, a couple of years before the USSR was finally flushed down the toilet of history, its highest body, the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union, adopted a resolution denouncing the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact which finally condemned the secret protocol and accused Stalin and Molotov of "treacherous collusion" with the Nazis.
But even after that had happened, the Soviet Union and its successor state, Russia, were very reluctant to undo some of the consequences of the pact that still remained. For example, when the Baltic states declared independence, it took Russia until August 1994 to finally withdraw all its troops from their territories, after enormous international pressure was exerted on Moscow.
Under the iron grip of Vladimir Putin, Russia has tried to justify the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with lame propaganda (like the above list of pacts signed with Nazi Germany) that doesn't actually hold any water.
Another of the never-ending revisionist lies that the Kremlin's stooges promote is the ridiculous claim that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were never occupied by the Soviet Union. Russia also continues to occupy part of Moldova to this day....
TL;DR - Russian propagandists are lying as usual.
In summary, there are two fundamental differences between the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the other treaties in the screenshot.
1. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact contained a secret agreement to divide Europe into Nazi and Soviet spheres of influence that led directly to the immediate outbreak of the Second World War, after which the Nazis and Soviets both committed appalling war crimes in the countries they invaded as a direct result of the pact.
2. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was also the first step in a continuum of collaboration between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that lasted for the next two years.
It's not rocket science is it?
but because of the rain, i had an opportunity to hang out with 2 of my oldest and closest friends for several hours in a very cool coffee shop. thanks, guys, for imparting all your wisdom and warmth. <3 u.
The second BBQ of the year at Norrby was a cold one. Three of the usual suspects attended, plus one cyclist with very good eyes and one lucky neighbour. Sausages, bacon, potato salad and a green salad was on the table. Plus beer, whisky, cognac and rum. It was a chilly affair, but with the help of a few blankets we almost made it to the sunset.
Not a very exciting HBM shot but hey it was fun! & good 'excercise' ^_^
Happy Bench Monday!
(week 2/52)
Hercules Clay d1644 and wife Mary
"Wee two made one by his decree that is just one in Trinity. died live as one till death came in and made us two of one agen
Death was much blamed for our divorce but striving how he might doe worse
by killing th'one as well as th'other he fairely brought us both togeather
Our soules togeather where death dare not come, our bodies lye interred beneath this tomb
waytng the rresurrection of the just O know thyself (O man) thou are dust"
The monument (sadly the latin part) commemorates his miraculous escape during the Civil War, when in 1643 he and his family were delivered alive by Divine Providence from a battery of cannon during the siege of the town by the parliamentarians
“ Hercules Clay, Mayor of Newark, resided in a house at the corner of the market-place not far from the Governor’s mansion. For 3 nights in succession he dreamt that the besiegers had set his place on fire, and he became so impressed with the circumstance that he and his family quitted their abode. They had no sooner done so than a bomb, fired from Beacon Hill, occupied by the Parliamentary forces, and believed to have been aimed at the Governor’s house, fell on the roof of Clay’s dwelling, and, passing through every floor, set the whole building in flames. The tradition is that a spy, blindfolded, and bearing a flag of truce, came from the army on the hill to the Governor’s house, and was able on his return so accurately to describe its situation as to make the shot all but successful. To commemorate his deliverance, Mr. Clay left a sum of money to be distributed in charity (it. is given away annually in penny loaves), and the memorial to him in the parish church testifies in a lengthy and curious inscription to the miraculous nature of his escape: ‘Being thus delivered by a strength greater than that of Hercules, And having been drawn out of the deep Clay, I now inhabit the stars on high.’”
He died just 10 months after the siege and in his Will he left £100 to the church of Newark for a sermon to be said “Upon the 11th day of March yearly forever upon which day it pleased God of his infinite mercy wonderfully to preserve me and my wife from a fearful destruction by a terrible blow of a granado in the time of the last siege” He also left another £100 for bread to be given to the poor of Newark yearly on the same date. A memorandum written in the Newark Parish Register by Henry Fouler.Curate in the year 1753 states -"Hercules Clay sermon preached on the 11th day of March yearly". Attended by the mayor, councillors and recently, members of the Newark business community, the mayor lays a single rose on the this memorial. His family bible is brought to the altar by a surviving relative; At the end of the service, the mayor gives away small loaves of bread to the choir, to symbolise Hercules Clay's bequest of £100 to the poor people of Newark. traditionalcustomsandceremonies.wordpress.com/2012/03/31/...
Hercules a mercer by trade, was the son of Hercules and Margaret Clay of Sutton-in-Ashfield and grandson of Thomas and Cecilie Clay of Rowthorne in Ault Hucknall Derbyshire
He m1 1631 Mary Lante
He m2 1641 Elizabeth Saunders
He had 8 children, John, Hercules, William, Timothy, Thomas, Elizabeth, Frances and Mary, all to whom he left substantial amounts of money.
The shield of arms are those given to Sir John Clay of Crich in Derbyshire in 1588,
After the Civil War was over and Hercules Clay had died, his brothers, John Clay of Kelham and William Clay of Sutton, had to answer charges in 1648 that Hercules had loaned £600 for the maintenance of the Royalist garrison at Newark during the siege, the charge was proved and the money was declared to be forfeited to the state.
- Church of St Mary Magdalene Newark, Nottinghamshire
But you can blame it on me
and the person you thought I wanted you to be
but don't you blame it on love
'cause you will regret it then, and from now on...