Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple C
I don't even see how a puppet regmne in the Soviet Union is possible. The USSR despite the westerner's perspective was the strongest and most cohesive regime on Russian lands, perhaps ever, ideologically, materially, politically. Facisists and communists after all hated each other.
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The Stalinist Communist regime was clearly not 'popular', nor was it supported by the majority of the population. It maintained control via a brutal police state. That is the type of regime that is vunerable when it comes under attack from an external source. The fact that there was so much collaboration with the Germans, in spite of the fact that the Germans did nothing to encourage support among the local population and did much to discourage it is evidence of how hated the Stalinist regime was. In the end, the peoples of the Soviet Union were faced with a choice between living under a repressive Stalinist regime or being exterminated by the Germans, they chose to fight for survival. When they decided to do so, the Germans did set up fascist puppet regimes (France, Slovakia, Croatia, ...) and it was effective to some extent - at least in neutralizing opposition if not in gaining active support. There is good reason to believe it would have been effective to some extent, particularly in the Baltic states, Ukraine and Caucuses. However, Hitler didn't want to, and did not believe he needed to - so the entire character of the campaign from the start was based on brutal treatment of the local populations. When it turned out that the Germans had 'bitten off more than they could chew', the gratuitious brutality came back to haunt them.