Comments by "Андрей Борцов" (@Mentol_) on "WW2 in animated maps: Sept 1939 - Aug 1940" video.

  1. The Chinese army had few modern weapons, a weak industry and a civil war between nationalists and communists. So the Japanese army had the opportunity to advance.
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  2. This film is not historical, but conspiracy theories. In fact, the Allies and Poland had a secret protocol in which it was said that Poland would receive assistance only in the event of aggression from Germany.
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  3. Lenin said that there is an intelligentsia that works for the benefit of its people and there are parasites that do nothing, only exploit their country. The Bolsheviks supported useful intelligentsia and fought against parasites. You are very naive if you think that the industrial and cultural revolution in the USSR is possible without the intelligentsia.
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  4. I am not a Marxist, therefore I cannot comment in detail on the whole concept that Lenin used. I just say what I know about the history of the 20th century (which I love). After the revolution in Russia, there was great enthusiasm for gaining knowledge (before the revolution, access to knowledge was limited by your status in society). People during the Civil War read books between battles. Enthusiasm means that you do this both for yourself individually and for the society of which you are a part. The state helps financially young specialists (in the USSR, the highest salaries were received by people whose profession was difficult, for example, a miner, and not economists as they do now). The state also pursues a policy of eradicating illiteracy and publishes books at a low cost so that people can buy them. Stalin said in 1931: "We are 50 years behind developed countries and if we do not bridge this gap in 10 years, the imperialists can destroy us." Prophetic words. The USSR had to make great efforts to do this. Before the revolution, Russia occupied 5th place in the world in terms of gross industrial production, and in 1937 the USSR reached second place (despite the destruction after the civil war). But Germany annexed Austria and Czechoslovakia, so in 1938 it was ahead of the USSR and took second place. But that's another story. If the USSR had not reduced its economic backwardness from Germany, then he would have lost the war. Today, propaganda said that the victory was not due to Soviet efforts, but due to Western aid (Lend-Lease) or randomly (Hitler's mistakes, weather, logistics, etc.).
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  5. 1. England and France were not able to help Poland in 1939 because their military leaders believed that their army would be ready for action only 1.5 years after the outbreak of war (and this is the minimum). The question here is why these leaders did not tell the Poles about this. No need to think that they did this on purpose to destroy Poland (conspiracy theory). England gave Poland guarantees in 1939 so as not to lose its reputation after the failure of the Munich Agreement. But they could do almost nothing to fulfill their obligations. 2. To be honest, Soviet repression has always affected the activities of a person, not his status. For example, for the Poles, those killed in Katyn are intelligentsia, and for the Soviet government they are reactionary nationalists who use anti-Soviet propaganda. Just like today, Russian nationalists say that the Bolsheviks specifically killed ethnic Russians in order to weaken the Russian nation. They do not want to see what activities these people used. 3. Britain received nothing as a result of two world wars. Its influence was weakened at first, then it was destroyed as an empire. World war is the result of economic contradictions of leading nations. One nation cannot "organize a world war" - these are conspiracy theories. The same thing is said only to the address of the Soviet government by some nationalists - supposedly the USSR planned to organize a world war between the capitalist countries, although in reality it only planned to play on their contradictions. For this reason, the USSR entered into a pact with Germany in order to normalize the balance of power between the Axis countries and the anti-German coalition. The longer such a war continues, the weaker the capitalist system will be. But France was quickly destroyed and the balance of power was upset. Now Germany could attack the USSR.
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