Posted on 10/16/2014 1:34:47 PM PDT by goldstategop
The Russian and Serbian leaders watched as jets, including a Russian aerobatic team, flew in formation over Belgrade to applause from the crowd.
More than 3,000 Serbian soldiers took part in the parade, marching in heavy rain, with tanks, rockets and boats all featuring....
The event is likely to play well among Serbs and Russians nostalgic for Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union.
In another nod to the two countries' historic relations, a statue of Russia's last Tsar, Nicholas II, was erected this week in Belgrade.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
The two countries Russia and Serbia, share a common history, ties of culture and language and a common Orthodox faith. They were allies in both world wars.
For Russians and Serbs, the friendship is an enduring one.
How quick they forget the enslavement, and the iron fist of the Soviet Union.
apparently the Serbian military don’t go in for the outsized caps (the so-called “Pinochetka”) favored by the Russians..
if they are unveiling Tsar Nicky, they aren’t celebrating the Communist angle of the relationship.
They actually weren't enslaved by the Soviet Union. Yugoslavia essentially liberated itself and Tito chased the Red Army out of Yugoslavia. It's ironic that they're welcoming the Russians now as liberators -- that wasn't how the Yugoslavs ever saw the Russians.
You're obviously not all that up on Yugoslav-Soviet relations. They were hardly warm.
Yugoslavia was never subservient to the USSR. They were not a member of the Warsaw Pact, and were not occupied by the Soviets. Russia went to war with the Central Powers in WWI on behalf of Serbia (which is why the statue of Tsar Nicholas II). And when Clinton launched an illegal war to steal Kosovo and give it to Muslim terrorists, Russia stood by them. That’s what they remember.
The Communist-led Partisans liberated the country with little help from the Soviets.
It grated on the Yugoslavs that Moscow patronized them and treated them like a colony to be ordered around.
Things didn’t back to normal until after Stalin’s death.
Long connection between Serbia and Russia. And what’s happened in Kosovo bears on Putin’s mind in what he does.
They're Orthodox and they're Slavs. But throughout the Cold War they were enemies. Yugoslavia liberated itself with little help from the Soviets, refused to join the Warsaw Pact (unlike every other Communist country in Europe) and were expelled from the Cominform when they stood up to Stalin.
They got less tense - there were times when war between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia seemed likely - but the Yugoslavs never became Soviet allies, even after Stalin's death. They never, for example, joined the Warsaw Pact or allowed Soviet troops on their territory.
Russia. Soviet Union. Serbia. Yugoslavia. Mihailovich. Tito. Stalin. Broz. Dzugashvili. Brezhnev. Putin. There’s enough going on for any generalization to need a few clauses added.
Clinton did all he could to destroy their friendship with the US.
Although the Yugoslavs prepared for a Western contingency, the main Yugoslav war plan was always directed against a potential Soviet-directed invasion from the Warsaw Pact, particularly Hungary.
No doubt.
The Soviets tried to assassinate Tito several times.
I think that all too often people don't understand is that there was a civil war going on between the Serbs, Croats, etc. within a broader war - that broader war would be WWII.
I wish everyone that reads this site would read up on Mihailovich, as well. Adding to the ethnic mixture between Serbs, Croats, Montenegrins, Slovenians, Macedonians, Bosnians was the political mixture. Tito, half-Croatian, half-Slovenian, but all communist, held it together for a long time, steered Yugoslavia into leading the ‘non-aligned movement’ (along with India and others) which is distantly the origin of ‘the third world’. It’s not a bad place to try to understand, when trying to understand the story of Europe.
Yeah...I completely agree with you.
Mihailovic: Led the anti-communist and anti-Nazi resistance forces known as the Chetniks. He was betrayed by Communists in the OSS and SAS re their pro-Tito reports, thus leading to the US and England abandoning their support of him and throwing that support to Tito and his forces. This led to the destruction of the Chetniks and a communist takeover of Yugoslavia.
Tito led the communist dominated Partisans (not all Partisans were communists). Rep. Larry McDonald (D-GA), who was killed in the Soviet shoot-down of KAL 007, put an article in the Congressional Record revealing that Tito’s forces often made secret deals with the Germans in which each pledged not to attack each other in certain regions.
More research on this issue is definitely needed.
Yugoslavia was never “independent” of the Soviet Union. Seems that Tito and Moscow made it seem that way. The Senate Internal Security Subcom., Sen. Judiciary Committee, many years ago, put out a major study roughly entitled “The Myths of Titoism”. Worth reading.
Yugoslavia was the jumping off point for 3 Soviet divisions if they had to go to Egypt’s defense in the 1973 October/Yom Kippur War. The debate is whether Tito could have prevented the Soviets from using their air bases if they had refused them permission to use them. Worth more research unless there is a major work already out there on this issue.
Need to know more about Tito’s assassins in the post WW2 period. Also about any aid they gave to Hanoi during its wars of aggression in SE Asia.
Tanjug did have good news coverage of the Cultural Revolution in Red China. Perhaps they were helping Moscow keep its leadership position of the Communist Bloc while Red China devoured itself.
Need to know if Tito’s govt was involved in heroin smuggling in Europe. Vaguely remember something about this from the late 1960’s or early 1970’s.
Oh, the US OSS and the British SAS in Yugoslavia had so many communists in them that almost all the reports on how great Tito was were the only ones to get to the State Dept. and the Foreign Ministry.
Bomber pilot George McGovern gave a glowing report on how great the Partisans were when he was forced to land his plan on a Partisan-held island in the Adriatic. He became a great propagandist for the Tito regime even before he got to Congress.
I hope that I have given you some tidbits to think about and to research.
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