• Deceptichum@quokk.auOPM
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    5 days ago

    Because they didn’t refuse, they took too long. Britain wasn’t taking it seriously, because they assumed they had all the time in the world, so they used the slow boats over planes for communication - after all it’s not like the USSR was going to ally with the Nazi’s or anything. And France naively took a backseat and let England do all the talking because they were still too weak after WW1 to really care, even if they were more keen on the alliance. It all fell apart because the Soviets felt they weren’t really committed and the Allies felt it was too demanding.

    Likewise the French had earlier entered into a mutual assistance pact with the Soviets in 1935 , but this failed due to how conditional it was and became largely symbolic of nothing.

    There’s a lot to fault Britain and France for in regards to the talks, but to say they refused is in bad faith.

    • IndustryStandard@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      The did not just “take too long”. They did not respond period.

      The Nazis were very clearly gearing up and the rest of Europe was too stuck with politicians refusing to war up because it was not popular after ww1. The Soviets knew what was up.

      • Deceptichum@quokk.auOPM
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        5 days ago

        What? There was multiple back and forth discussions. It was an ongoing process for a long time.

        • IndustryStandard@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          Which discussion are you talking about right now?

          The USSR signed the pact with the Nazis because they literally got no response and were not going to wait on games.

          They knew the West were glad to have the Nazis fight the Soviets. So by simply stalling the West could heavily disadvantage the Soviets and rake up big casualties on both sides.

          Now, if the West sent a letter accepting the Soviets request and the to fight the Nazis, and then the Soviets ditched them, you would have a point. But this did not happen.

          What Europe did during WW2 was infinitely worse than the Soviets. The hypocrisy is off the charts.