This is extraordinarily embarrassing: x.com/peacemaket71/s… Kaja Kallas, the EU Foreign Policy head, doesn't even seem to be aware that Russia and China were among the winners of WW2. Immensely ironically, she dismisses it as "something new" and propaganda for people who "don't read or remember history that much" 🤦♂️ Not sure how she explains how Russia and China got their permanent seat at the UN Security Council 🤷♂️
@RnaudBertrand She's right in one important way: Russia and China overwhelmingly bore the losses whereas the Anglo powers (US+UK) got all the benefits. The losses for Russia in particular were so severe that they contributed to the demographic causes of Soviet collapse in 1989-1991.
@RnaudBertrand It's partially why Cold War historiography is so deficient in its thematic grounding: it portrays the US and USSR as coequals, when in fact the USSR was gravely wounded while the US was totally unscathed. And of course China merely survived (+ was also denied fruits of victory).
@blob_watcher @RnaudBertrand The USSR did gain hegemony over the entire Slavic world (except Yugoslavia although Yugoslavia did become communist) though which is something that eluded the Russian Empire for its entire existence.
@blob_watcher @RnaudBertrand Indeed. Japan only retreated from Chinese territory after they surrendered in Aug '45. I don't see how anyone can say that China won anything. "merely survived" is well put IMO.
