>>>I disagree with your conclusion. Russia was going to expand anyway, the German defeat just made it easier.
>>
>>Where do you base this conclusion upon ??
>
>It had been expanding for over 400 years before WW2
>http://www.dushkin.com/connectext/wp/ch04/russian.mhtml

According to the map, it did lose some territory as well. Aside from that, to me, it sound a lot like the stock trading market: Profits made in the past are no guarantee for the future. Your conclusion is too far fetched to me. If germany did not start the war, it would have been very difficult for russia to gain territory in europe, just because of the presence of the german army. Esspecially given the fact that russia had to learn an awfull lot hard lessons in WWII to become an efficient military power. After WWII Russia took the opportunity to take control of eastern europe and could only do that because of the political and military vacume created by that very same war.

Walter,