Hacker News Reader

Comment by dayofthedaleks | Hacker News Reader

A ground invasion of the USSR wasn’t just plausible, a bunch of Allied troops left over from WWI were landed at Arkhangelsk to actively fight the Bolsheviks in cooperation with White Russian forces. [1]

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Russia_intervention

View on HN

Participating in a multilateral civil war is much easier than actually invading a unified country, because you have friendly forces to get you in past the frontier and help your supply lines out. Generally speaking invading armies haven’t had a great time in Russia when there wasn’t a civil war on. America on the other hand is an absolute nightmare to consider invading, given geography and the power of our navy.

The Bolsheviks were absolutely correct to be paranoid about the west’s intent towards them. But that doesn’t mean that American tanks rolling east through the Fulda gap was that likely either. Too bloody, and too likely to fail.

Agreed. In the end, for whatever reasons, both Blocs were paranoid of something that was unlikely to happen (invasion way less likely than accidental nuclear war) because the costs and consequences of defeat (or even winning!) were way too terrible for either of them.

The Cold War with their proxy conflicts and puppet governments was a whole different deal though.

Hardly an attempt to sieze Russia.

Maybe not an attempt at annexation, but Winston Churchill made speeches late in life bemoaning the effort’s failure to ‘strangle bolshevism in its cradle.’

Tell me where things would have stopped if the Whites, Allies, and Czechoslovak Legion had gained the upper hand.

> Tell me where things would have stopped if the Whites, Allies, and Czechoslovak Legion had gained the upper hand.

In no way would it involve the UK or US controlling any part of Russia.

Also, the Whites were Russian. The Bolsheviks had no claim on representing Russia any more than the Whites did.

Given that UK's habits at the time I'm pretty certain we'd have found some excuse to hold onto a chunk of Russia in those circumstances.

Whites would have reestablished empire and put whatever Romanov bolsheviks did not murder on the throne? Stalin would be dead.. Beria, Ezhov and co too. :)

It would be an amazing thing if bolsheviks could be strangled in the cradle. I think only Poles had a chance if they waged their offensive through Ukraine better, western powers had no real say in any of it after the ww1 bloodletting nobody was going to go invade Russia.

The Bolsheviks were completely correct in being paranoid about western attitudes and intentions towards them. But that’s a far cry from “the UK is going to seize Moscow”

Reply on news.ycombinator.com