The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 658: European Situation
The main ethnic groups in Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union are both Slavs, and their political systems are the same. Logically, the relationship between the two countries should be very good.

But the fact is just 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 root of this can be traced back to World War II. In 1941, Germany attacked Yugoslavia. In just seven days, the Yugoslav capital fell and more than 60 troops became puppet troops. Tito led the Yugoslav people to resist the German occupation in the form of guerrilla warfare, tying down more than German troops.

The Germans were well-equipped and had high-quality soldiers. The Yugoslav guerrillas were in a very miserable situation and suffered heavy casualties. Therefore, Tito sent telegrams to the Soviets many times, asking for support of medicines, weapons, etc., but they were all rejected by the Soviets. The reason for the rejection was that the Soviets looked down on the guerrillas led by Tito, and the Soviet Union recognized the Yugoslav "government in exile" in London internationally.

This made Tito very dissatisfied, and he sent a strongly worded telegram to Stalin, ridiculing him, "If you can't support us, at least don't hinder us."

Stalin was so angry when he saw the telegram that he stamped his feet.

Although there was no support from the Soviet Union, Tito's guerrillas grew stronger. By 1944, they had grown to hundreds of thousands of people, and their strength should not be underestimated.

At this time, the Soviet Union had taken the full 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 fight the German army and liberate the capital and eastern regions of Yugoslavia.

After the Soviets helped liberate Belgrade, they withdrew from Yugoslavia. Tito led the Yugoslav army to liberate the entire country a month before the Germans surrendered. Yugoslavia and Italy originally had a disputed territory called Trieste. During the process of liberating Yugoslavia, Tito "incidentally" sent troops to capture Trieste and took the disputed territory into his own hands.

Italy and Germany were allies in World War II. Yugoslavia's occupation of Italian territory was legitimate and legal.

But after the war, the United States proposed to the Soviet Union that Trieste be divided into two parts, Zone A and Zone B, with the former occupied by the West and the latter by Yugoslavia. Trieste is an important industrial city, and the urban area is included in Zone A, while Zone B is all rural and suburban areas. Yugoslavia suffered a great loss from this plan.

When the Soviets heard this, they agreed without Tito's consent, thinking that it was not their own territory anyway, which made Tito very angry.

In addition, in the late stage of World War II, when Stalin met with Tito, he said that Yugoslavia and Bulgaria should merge to form a strong country in southern Europe to contain Western forces. After World War II, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria signed a merger treaty in secret after friendly negotiations, and only told 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, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia had many different views on many issues.

The fundamental problem here is that the Soviet Union wanted Yugoslavia to obey the Soviet Union, but Yugoslavia did not want to obey the Soviet Union and wanted to be independent.

After a series of events, both sides completely understood each other's cards.

In 1948, the Soviet Union completely excluded Yugoslavia from the camp, and Yugoslavia embarked on the path of independent development and non-alignment.

When Liu Tao thought of Yugoslavia, he couldn't help but think of China, because sometimes the experiences of both sides are similar.

If the Soviet Union had handled it well, everything would have been different.

It is estimated that mankind has already officially moved towards unity!
Look at how powerful Yugoslavia once was. Among the red camp countries at that time, the Soviet Union was the number one, and Yugoslavia was the undisputed number two. Looking around the world, Yugoslavia was quite powerful in terms of military and economic levels, which made many Western countries envious.

In the 1970s, Yugoslavia had become one of the few developed countries in Eastern Europe, dominating Eastern Europe in terms of economic and military power, and was known as the "Balkan Tiger".

在1974年的时候，南斯拉夫陆军有60万人以及200万后备役，装备有1100多辆坦克、600辆自行反坦克炮、1300辆各式装甲车以及105毫米口径以上重炮1000余门、82毫米和120毫米迫击炮8000多门、火箭炮160门、各型反坦克导弹和4个防空导弹团。而且，其海军空军同样不弱，空军有3.2万人，主力战机为米格-21，总共400多架固定翼飞机以及200多架直升机，海军则有1万人和80多艘舰艇。

At that time, Yugoslavia surpassed China in everything except the number of its troops.

Unfortunately, after Tito's death, Yugoslavia failed to take the right path. Up to now, it has many contradictions, both internal and external. I am afraid that if it continues like this, Yugoslavia will probably go down the 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 20s, when Yugoslavia took an independent and autonomous approach in the international arena 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, cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, culture, tourism and so on has continued to deepen, and the trade volume between the two sides has continued to rise.

China sent students to study in Europe, some of whom went to Yugoslavia.

But even Liu Tao was not sure whether Yugoslavia would follow the same old path of history.

After all, the butterfly effect caused by this butterfly is already very obvious.

The Berlin Wall is still there, dividing Berlin in two.

The internal roots of Yugoslavia, in the final analysis, are conflicts between ethnic groups.

"What about the Warsaw Pact countries, especially the three Baltic countries?" Liu Tao asked.

The three Baltic countries refer to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania along the Baltic Sea, with a total area of ​​17.4 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 been in a state of disharmony with the Soviet Union since they joined 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.

When Gorbachev came to power and proposed the so-called new thinking reforms, the central government completely delegated power to 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, this is all maintained in the areas of political parties and public opinion, and there is no armed struggle.

Liu Tao shook his head slightly. As expected, some things are always inevitable. The development of the Soviet Union only covered up the problem but did not solve it.

(End of this chapter)