I came across this interesting flyer from WW2 today, it includes a speech by Albert Einstein and the goal of the flyer is donations for something or other on the front in the fight against the nazis.
I found this part particularly interesting:
In the political field, it was the Russian government, of all the great powers, that labored in the most honest and unequivocal way to promote international security. She pursued this goal in her foreign policy until shortly before the outbreak of war—actually until the other powers brusquely shut her out of the European concert, in the days of the betrayal of Czechoslovakia. Then she was driven to conclude the unhappy pact with Germany; for it was notorious that an attempt was being made to turn the force of the German attack eastwards. Russia, in contrast to the western powers, had supported the legal government of Spain; she offered assistance to Czech׳ oslovakia; and was not guilty of strengthening the arms of the German and Japanese adventurers.
There's a lot to unpack here but Einstein says:
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The USSR made all efforts to stop the war happening.
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The western powers(UK, France, US, etc) shut the USSR out of European discussions and betrayed Czechoslovakia.
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Molotov-Ribbentrop was an unhappy last resort that they were driven to, that the western powers were attempting to drive the nazis into attacking the USSR and that's why they would not help the USSR stop them.
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The USSR supported everyone while the other powers (UK, France, US, etc) strengthened the nazis and Japanese.
This is all obviously stuff most people here already know and agree with, but I think it's notable that Einstein said it. You may have libs in your life that will listen to him.
Sound eerily similar to how Nato empowers far-right groups against socialist 'threats' still in modern times
It does, because fascism has always been the means by which the capitalists attack the left through.
Without Molotov-Ribbentrop to temporarily turn Germany's attention away from them I believe that the US, France and UK may have supported Germany against the USSR.
The sentiment was definitely there. Truman was reported to have said before he was president “If we see that Germany is winning the war, we ought to help Russia; and if that Russia is winning, we ought to help Germany, and in that way let them kill as many as possible...”
actually Stalin and Hitler were best buddies who wouldn’t think of hurting each other until the soviets backstabbed Germany
Yes.
Why Socialism? - An essay by Einstein
Not to mention he wrote numerous letters in defence of Stalin, the purges, trials and several other things.
“ By the way, there are increasing signs that the Russian trials are not faked, but that there is a plot among those who look upon Stalin as a stupid reactionary who has betrayed the ideas of the revolution. Though we find it difficult to imagine this kind of internal thing, those who know Russia best are all more or less of the same opinion. I was firmly convinced to begin with that it was a case of a dictator's despotic acts, based on lies and deception, but this was a delusion.”
Letter to Max Born (no date, 1937 or 1938); The Born-Einstein Letters (translated by Irene Born) (Walker and Company, New York, 1971).
It's a shame that Stalin's contribution to communist theory were largely overshadowed by his (admittedly important) other roles. He wrote a whole damn history of the Bolsheviks, even!
I think people still read Pricipals of Leninism and even his book on diamat.
I thought it was very something to find out that is most significant worldly posession was a huge library of like 25k books that he'd been sent or gifted or picked up during his life. He gets portrayed as somehow simultaneously the most diabolical evil menace to ever menace, but also a dumb hick who didn't know anything, and both those things can't be true.
Interestingly enough, I think he didn’t support Lenin’s ideas, but said that he didn’t have any other options given the climate in Russia. Or maybe I’m thinking of another famous person whose socialism was memory holed
“I am literally smarter than Einstein.”
libs“Einstein was right about physics but too idealistic about politics.”
“Einstein was wrong about some things.”
Einstein was right obviously but libs have easy coping mechanisms to worm around a dude whose name literally means “smart person.”
Ehh, some brilliant scientists haven't been great politically, even the really accomplished ones. Stephen Hawking was a liberal for instance.
And James Watson (who is surprisingly still alive) is an ardent racist. There's also Schrodinger who was a pedophile.
Yes, but Einstein name is specifically used in the lexicon to represent the most intelligent among us. He is essentially known as the smartest man of all time to the layman college graduate.
You know whats funny is you know Sean Carrol got his YT channel/podcast AMA monthly thing and he is a massive lib, I watch/listen to it for the science content(it is good for that purpose only) but the irony of how many people constantly asking him questions about politics and economics. It was never about scientist man being right or wrong, but whether or not scientist man is following the lib discourse period.
The libs are always stupid liars, never take them at face value. The same crowd that will say those things about Einstein because he was almost a socialist are the same fucking morons asking Sean Carrol his opinions on democracy every god damn fucking month, without fail like clockwork, like I can't stress enough how blatantly obvious and infuriating it is.
Like a baby telling you he doesn't like chocolate while his baby hands and face are all covered in it, that is the best mental image I have for these idiots.
“Don’t you know he was racist against Asians?” the liberal says while the Henry Kissinger poster is sitting on the wall
I can't believe everything I've said about Czechoslovakia is corroborated by one of the most accomplished scientists in history!
In retrospect, it's crazy there was ever an alliance between the USSR and the US/UK
Oh fuck this vicious nasty dog that we ignored and armed to attack the USSR is biting us instead! Help us USSR!
"woopsie poopsie my german shephard got off its leash" - Winston Churchill, 1939
I think both the western allies and the USSR were pragmatic about their goals, it's just that their interests diverged at first (the west wanted the ussr to die) but converged when Germany threatened the west as well. I really wonder what would have happened if Nazi Germany focused on looting the second and third world, if they would have been able to align with the allies. It's a very morbid timeline, but it feels like one that almost happened if not for the party leadership being True Believers in their hokum to the point of suicide.
Interesting considering that a lot of jews left the cpusa at this point to join trokskyiset groups in America because of this pact. Then the unspeakable the sovet union continued trading resources between 1939 and 1941 all the way until the days of operation barbarossa you had resources that end up lengthening the end of the war.
