VERSAILLES - territorial, economic, and military adjustments

[maria11r]

what were the USSR's desires at this conference?
*what were the territorial changes they wanted?
*did they seek any overseas territory?
*did they believe in overseas freedom?
*what did they want for their industry?
*did they want to limit their military equipment?
BASICALLY.. how did THEY want the treaty to be structured?

i believe that in order to understand this, we must know the point of view of all the participating countries. i study in the US, and unfortunately my teachers won't go into the USSR's point of view.. they believe they are "evil".. (i'm actually quoting one of my stupid teachers). so i hope you can help me out.
i'll be very grateful. thanx
did they want the central powers to pay victimized allies?
did they believe in war disarmament? how did they want to enforce this treaty?

[peaccenicked]

The complete treaty is on line
http://history.acusd.edu/gen/text/versaill...ercontents.html (http://history.acusd.edu/gen/text/versaillestreaty/vercontents.html)

[Moskitto]

The USSR left the first world war at the Treaty of Brest-Litovic (sp?) in 1917, They had little involvement in Versailes. The security zone which was occupied when the USSR left the war became Belarussia, Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.

The French wanted to punish Germany harshly. Britain and America knew that wouldn't work. America thought annother war would start and Britain didn't want communism to spread. France could be blamed for WW2 in the long run.

[revolutionary]

THe Russains wanted to spead communism so they were not wanted in the T.o.V (treaty of versailles) or the League of Nations, Also they were not excepted to the league untill 1930's ( i think) and this was becuase they were trying to interfere with other countries politics. Also they did not want in besaue of the hatred of the west and they fact that as always they west were supporting ppl to fight against communism in Russia. But this time the west were supporting the 'White' communists to fight the 'Reds' so russia did not want in to the League

[maria11r]

hey thanx guys!
but i still want to know what they wanted!! for example, i know that they had ambitions in the balkans.. but what else? was it their only goal to spread communism?

**thanx for the URL.. it has been very helpful

[TheDerminator]

Even before the end of the WWII, the western intelligence agencies were gearing up to fight the new enemy, which would be Soviet Russia. This was well known to the Soviet Government, because one of its agents in Britain Kim Philby, became the Director of the British effort in this sphere. If Stalin was paranoic about the intentions of the West, Britain and the United States were fuelling that paranoia. In practical war terms, the creation of the Soviet bloc created a large terrorital buffer zone, as well as adding a resource for trade and industry. There is only speculation as to how much nazi scientists helped the Soviet space programme, but whatever the input, the Soviet Army used Katyusha Rockets in the WWII, so it they did possess their own rocket scientists, and it was the US, which took Von Braun and yet still lagged behind in the early space race, so draw your own conclusions.
In logistical terms, the Soviet Union could not afford a Marshall style plan for Eastern Europe, and in some senses they spread their own resources too thinly, because they were subsidising for military security, and the latter was a huge drain of resources during the arms race. There is no evidence, that even Stalin had any designs to invade Western Europe, and although no one should condone the creation of the Soviet bloc, because it deprived people of their rights to self-determination, and to civil liberties, at the same time if you are a paranoic bastard in charge of decimated Russia, at the end of WWII you too might be just as cynical as Stalin. Oh yeah the structure is a bit irrelevant, it is the objectives which matter. derminated

(Edited by TheDerminator at 9:32 pm on Feb. 10, 2002)

[HardcoreCommie]

The soviets wanted a lot from versailles, first and foremost they wanted to be there. They got nothing, because they weren't invited. They weren't invited because they had signed a seperate peace treaty against germany, the treaty of brest-livost.
Moreover its pretty disengenious to say that france is liable for WW2.
It is also equally disengenious to imply that western intelligence agencies were fueling soviet paranoia by gearing to fight the communist threat, when your corroboration is a stalinist agent in the british government. Doesn't it then seem to you that it's the soviets who are the agressors.

[HardcoreCommie]

Oh and last thought re: rockets

Katayusha rockets, untargetable, are amongst the most primitive of rocket technologies, simply incorporating designs which were in use by the British Army since the 18th century, with the mobility allowed by modern trucks. The most advanced rockets of WW2 were the german V2's, which were ICBMs.

[Moskitto]

notice the presence of the word "could" not "should" or "must."

[TheDerminator]

Don't know anything about rockets. Thanks for enlightening me. Nonetheless, there is still a tiny bit of gold in the nugget, the West had Soviet Russia down as the enemy, before the end of WWII. They had their own iron curtain.
derminated.