Chapter 658: European Situation
The main ethnic groups of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union are Slavs, and the political systems are also the same. It stands to reason that the relationship between the two countries should be very good.
But the fact is exactly the opposite. The relationship between the two countries is very bad.
And there are various reasons for this.
For example, Tito was very dissatisfied with the Soviet Union, and the roots of this can be traced back to World War II. In 1941, Germany attacked Yugoslavia. The capital of Yugoslavia fell in just seven days, and more than 600,000 troops became puppet troops. Tito led the Yugoslav people to resist the German occupation in the form of guerrilla warfare, and contained hundreds of thousands of German troops.
The Germans were well-equipped and their individual soldiers were of high quality, but the Yugoslav guerrillas were in an extremely miserable situation and suffered heavy casualties. As a result, Tito sent telegrams to the Soviets many times, requesting support for medicines, weapons, etc., but they were all rejected by the Soviets. The reason for the refusal was that the Soviets looked down upon the guerrillas led by Tito, and the Soviet Union recognized the Yugoslav 'government in exile' in London internationally.
This made Tito very dissatisfied and sent a strongly worded telegram to Stalin, mocking him, "If you can't support us, at least don't hinder us."
Stalin stamped his feet in anger after seeing this telegram.
Although there was no support from the Soviet Union, Tito's guerrillas still grew and grew. By 1944, they had grown to hundreds of thousands, and their strength should not be underestimated.
At this time, the Soviet Union took complete initiative on the Soviet-German battlefield. Therefore, in September 1944, Stalin met with Tito, and the Soviet Union began to support the Yugoslav guerrillas. The two sides agreed that the Soviet Union would provide supplies and send an army into Yugoslavia to jointly attack the German army and liberate the capital and eastern areas of Yugoslavia.
After the Soviet army helped liberate Belgrade, it withdrew from Yugoslavia. Tito led the Yugoslav army to liberate the entire country one month before the German army surrendered. Yugoslavia and Italy originally had a disputed territory called Trieste. During the process of liberating Yugoslavia, Tito "incidentally" sent troops to capture Trieste, taking the disputed territory into his own hands.
During World War II, Italy and Germany were allies. Yugoslavia's occupation of Italian territory was reasonable and legal.
But after the war, the United States proposed to the Soviet Union that Trieste be divided into two areas, Area A and Area B, with the former occupied by the West and the latter occupied by Yugoslavia. Trieste is an important industrial city. The urban area is classified into Area A, and Area B is composed of rural areas and outer suburbs. Yugoslavia suffered a big loss from this plan.
When the Soviets heard that it was not their own territory anyway, they agreed without Tito's consent, which made Tito very angry.
Furthermore, at the end of World War II, when Stalin met with Tito, he said that Yugoslavia and Bulgaria would merge to form a powerful country in southern Europe to contain Western power. After World War II, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria secretly signed an merger treaty after friendly negotiations, and only informed Stalin afterwards.
But Stalin had changed his mind, so the Soviet Union forced the two countries to 'break up', and the two countries had to give up.
In addition, there were many issues on which the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia disagreed.
The fundamental problem here is that the Soviet Union wanted Yugoslavia to take orders from the Soviet Union, but Yugoslavia did not want to take orders from the Soviet Union and wanted to be independent.
After a series of events, both sides completely understood each other's trump card.
In 1948, the Soviet Union completely squeezed Yugoslavia out of the camp, and Yugoslavia embarked on a path of independent development and non-alignment.
When Liu Tao thinks of Yugoslavia, he can't help but think of China, because sometimes the experiences of both sides are similar.
If the Soviet Union could handle it well, everything would be different.
It is estimated that mankind has officially moved towards great unity long ago!
Look at how strong Yugoslavia used to be. Among the red camp countries at that time, the Soviet Union was the first brother, and Yugoslavia was the well-deserved second brother. With its military and economic level, if you look around the world, Yugoslavia was a very powerful existence, which made many Westerners The country is envious.
In the 1970s, Yugoslavia has become one of the few developed countries in Eastern Europe. Its economic and military power dominates Eastern Europe, and it is known as the "Balkan Tiger".
In 1974, the Yugoslav Army had 600,000 men and 2 million reserves, equipped with more than 1,100 tanks, 600 self-propelled anti-tank guns, 1,300 various armored vehicles, and more than 1,000 heavy guns with a caliber of 105 mm or above, 82 mm and There are more than 8,000 120mm mortars, 160 rocket launchers, various types of anti-tank missiles and 4 anti-aircraft missile regiments.
Moreover, its navy and air force are not weak either. The air force has 32,000 people. The main fighter is the MiG-21, a total of more than 400 fixed-wing aircraft and more than 200 helicopters. The navy has 10,000 people and more than 80 ships.
At that time, it can be said that Yugoslavia surpassed China except for the number of troops.
It is a pity that after Tito's death, Yugoslavia failed to follow the right path. Now it has many contradictions, both internal and external. I am afraid that if this continues, Yugoslavia may go down the same old path of history.
To be honest, from the perspective of strategic interests, the existence of Yugoslavia is a huge benefit to China.
The relationship between Yugoslavia and China is very friendly.
The friendly relations between the two sides can be traced back to the 1950s, when Yugoslavia adopted an independent line internationally and developed friendly relations with China. On this basis, the two countries established diplomatic relations and signed a series of cooperation agreements.
In recent years, the relationship between the two countries has continued to develop, and cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, culture, and tourism has continued to deepen, and the trade volume between the two sides has continued to rise.
China sends students to study in Europe, and some of them go to Yugoslavia.
But even Liu Tao is not sure whether Yugoslavia will follow the old path of history.
After all, the butterfly effect caused by his butterfly is already very obvious.
The Berlin Wall is still there, dividing Berlin into two.
The internal roots of Yugoslavia are ultimately conflicts between ethnic groups.
"What about the countries of the Warsaw Pact, especially the three Baltic countries?" Liu Tao asked.
The three Baltic countries refer to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania on the coast of the Baltic Sea, with a total area of 174,000 square kilometers.
Liu Tao asked about these three countries because he had the impression that these three countries danced the most happily.
Liu Qi introduced the three Baltic countries. He had been there. In his words, the three Baltic countries have always maintained a state of separation from the Soviet Union since entering the Soviet Union.
Of course, there is no armed resistance in the three countries, because the armed resistance in the three countries was completely suppressed in 1955.
With Gorbachev coming to power and proposing the so-called new thinking reform, the central government completely delegated power to the local governments, freedom of speech was completely liberalized, and all kinds of demons and monsters were released. Among them, the three Baltic countries were the most active.
However, they all remained in the political parties and public opinion, but there was no armed struggle.
Liu Tao shook his head slightly. Sure enough, some things are always inevitable. The development of the Soviet Union only covered up the problem, but did not solve it.