Why is Poland weaker than Russia?

Principally, I don't see a lot of reasons for Hitler to start war with either West or East. If he wanted a lot of territory and resources he could easily conquer entire South America - a huge territory with good climate and lot of resources.

Bismarck???

Hitler,of course!

Ach so....

Sure, his arrogance lost him the Eastern Front:-)
Thank G-d for such arrogance....

With hindsight it was a good thing. The moment the german army set foot in Russia the Nazi time was on the count down!

Imagine he had not....

If he won Germany would now, instead of brainwashing other EU members with neo-marxism dressed as "tolerance", teach in schools about 'ubermensh' and live of slavery of other Europeans nations.

Truly so. Paranoia must be added to this.

As regards your earlier post, Lyzko, where you questioned if Hitler ever studied the lessons of Napoleon's campaign in Russia - yes he did, and he took its lessons perhaps too close to heart. When Manstein, Guderian, and Von Reichenau advised Hitler, after a fantastically successful summer campaign, to push on to Moscow and behead the Soviet government, he overruled them. Instead, he ordered the capture of Kiev, and the opening of a supply corridor to the oil fields of the Caucasus. He ridiculed his generals exactly by citing Napoleon. He told them they were military dummies, who understood nothing about the bigger picture, and that the only way to defeat the Soviet Union was by starving it through cutting off its industrial base in the Ukraine and its hydrocarbon resource base in the Caucasus.

I don't think Nazis would be able to behead Soviet govt. by encircling Moscow as Soviets would just evacuate their govt. farther East. Also, it's difficult to tell how long the siege of Moscow would take (its population size alone was larger than entire German army in the East) and whether capture of Moscow would have any crucial impact on Hitler campaign in the East. For Napoleon it didn't. Taking the size of USSR into account and US help, Soviet troops could retreat almost endlessly and exhaust German forces. I'm not sure whether Hitler's plan to build defense line Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan was any real. There was no defense line which could completely stop a multimillion Soviet force with its thousands of tanks and thousands of bombers...

Had he done so, Bobko, why then did he insist that Manstein, Paulus and Runstedt engage in a Russian campaign in the first place? If he really took those lessons to heart which you're suggesting he did, he certainly was not a quick study:-)

I think the only "justification" for Hitler decision to attack USSR from strategical point of view would be a fear that USSR will strike him first. From what is publicly known it was hardly the case.

As a student of history, I'd tend to agree.

I would disagree. When Hitler's army entered the USRR they've encountered offensive Russian forces who were unable to defend themselves effectively (different equipment is needed for defense than for offensive manouvers).

Germans have also captured a lot of abandoned tanks and destroyed plenty of planes which were sitting on field airports up to 20-30 kilometres next to the border. Stalin was planning an invasion and Hitler stabbed him in the back (just before Stalin could do the same)

I wonder, what would be the "best" time of year for Hitler to invade USSR? He started in summer and approached Moscow in winter. Probably he would need to start at the end of winter to approach Moscow in summer? A difficult question.

Zhukov though was a tough bird and doubtless would have anticipated Hitler's rigid impetuousness.
Most likely, he would have anticipated the Germans, albeit the General Staff scoffed at much of their
Fuehrers poor knowledge of military tactics, and probably would have surprised the Nazis.

I'm sure the top Russian tank experts could match a Heinz Guderian any day!

By the way, in this year we will mark one more important date: 80 years since WWII began. Almost a century ago...

A portentious date indeed, as the prospects of a world any year about to hover on the brink of war grows ever more ominous!
Let's hope Trump and Gim Jung (Mentally-) Ill will finally come to some accord.

I think that if in the nearest 50 years WWIII will start, most likely it will start from US and China. I don't see any other likely candidates for now.

India and Pakistan?????

May it turn in WWIII? A local war... But I don't think they will start. There is no World-scale ambitions.

I don't think they will either,but I thought it more likely than USA v China.

Who knows. I can't predict something with a certainty about India and Pakistan, but think objectively they have no reasons to start full-scale war. Because such reasons may appear only if one of these countries will decide to conquer and assimilate the other country completely. In the last decades they had tensions over Northern mountainous region, but in my understanding this tensions already got quitter. US and China on other hand have giant potential tensions over World dominance. Or at least over full dominance in a certain parts of the World.

The reason that Germany launched its Drang nach Osten campaign was because the Germans had already been too late for the plundering of the world, or as the Brits like to say: "a just division of the world's goods."

"Divide and conquer", is that what you mean?

British and French had only minor colonies in South America (Guiana, Guyana).

Can Poland break Gazprom's hold on Europe?
Poland is at the heart of plans that could shift the balance of power in the EU.

dw.com/en/can-poland-break-gazproms-hold-on-europe/a-47979157

Not really. The price is just too high for it to have a serious effect, and most CEE consumers won't want to pay 20-30% minimum more for gas.

Interesting to note that the amount of gas bought from Russia has actually been increasing percentage-wise in 2018.

eadaily.com/en/news/2017/12/15/at-a-loss-why-has-poland-sold-its-lng-from-united-states-to-ukraine - worth a read.

I hope Putin will remember how Russia was insulted by Poland and return the favor on May 9.
No, I am not Russian and the rumors are fake news. I just hate stupid.

Why do you think the Trump administration stated that "The US strongly opposes the Nord Stream II and Turk Stream pipelines as they would deepen Europe's dependence on Russia..."? Because they love Poland so much or because they want to sell you some overpriced LNG?

economist.com/the-economist-explains/2018/11/16/why-america-struggles-to-sell-lng-in-europe

Bingo. US opposition to Nord Stream is all about the fact that the Americans have more gas than they can handle.

Being locked into unfavourable long term LNG supplies from the US is every bit as bad as being locked into bad long term deals with Russia.