>>From http://www.historystudystop.co.uk/php/displayarticle.php?article=39&page=4&topic=meu

>>From http://www.johndclare.net/EC2.htm

>>Russia was not in an immediate danger of being invade, but certainly was in the longer term. Stalin did not want to wait for that.
>http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/stalin.htm
>http://www.artukraine.com/famineart/sedlyar.htm
>+ His pogroms against the jews
>+ the millions who died in the gulags
>Yeah, he was all for population expansion!

Though I absolutely agree on these, it is besides the issue that stalin feared the western world after WWII, as outlined in the articles above.

>YAWN! We're just going round in circles here. You're right, Stalin didn't want these satellite countries for himself, he wanted them as a buffer for when the Americans, going it alone, ignoring the lessons of history given by Napolean and Hitler, mobilised their forces and started rolling into the USSR.

Yes.. He did fear the west esspecially since the USA had atomic power. And the US did not have to go alone, it would take its allies with them (The US asked the dutch to ally with them in the korean war, so this is not imaginary).

We can agree to disagree on there, but AFAICS the russians feared the west as much as the west did fear the russians. Esspecially stalin who was terribly paranoid anyways. I'd think that any other mindset really is biased depending on which side of the iron curtain you were born.

Walter,