They were. The same people ethnically, in the same location, speaking roughly same languagele, and the today's state claims this legacy (and even a plenty of troops get their Viking tattoos and worship Odin).
Which is unlike Königsberg, where the Prussian Germanized population entirely replaced by the Russians (Soviets) who have never been there before 1945.
If 'roughly the same language' counts, then it's as close to Russian as it is to modern Ukrainian - seeing as these languages had not even diverged from Old Church Slavonic at the time.
And the modern state claiming this legacy says not that much. Obviously, they'd grasp at any fig-leaf. Considering the many monuments built to Nazi collaborators and war criminals, even that.
Isn't settling your own people in conquered land against international law? I guess the allies cared as much about that as they did about the Katyn massacre.
And as for the Katyń, the Soviets wanted Germans to be prosecuted for it at Nuremberg.
The Allies told them to fuck off,
That's very noble of them. As noble as telling the Polish government in exile to drop it, and then to accept communist subversion.
(Obviously, I know they didn't have much of a choice in times of war. I'm just pointing this out because people pretend that the West is so noble, which obviously it is not. It's Realpolitik just like that of the Nazis and the USSR.)
but the Soviets hanged over 20 German officers for it anyway.
They were very merciful, hanging 49,979 fewer than FDR agreed to.
Btw the guards at Nuremberg were Baltic ex-SS who have defected to the Allies. They served in the American MP.
Those Balts man. First be over-represented among communists, help establish communism in Russia, then collaborate with the Germans against the Russians, and then defect from the Germans.
The Soviets also did it with the occupied Japanese isles too (100% ethnically cleansed and colonized, to this day, and btw WWII officially never ended between Japan and Moscow).
The Rus were not Ukrainian, any more than the original Prussians were Germanic peoples.
They were. The same people ethnically, in the same location, speaking roughly same languagele, and the today's state claims this legacy (and even a plenty of troops get their Viking tattoos and worship Odin).
Which is unlike Königsberg, where the Prussian Germanized population entirely replaced by the Russians (Soviets) who have never been there before 1945.
If 'roughly the same language' counts, then it's as close to Russian as it is to modern Ukrainian - seeing as these languages had not even diverged from Old Church Slavonic at the time.
And the modern state claiming this legacy says not that much. Obviously, they'd grasp at any fig-leaf. Considering the many monuments built to Nazi collaborators and war criminals, even that.
Isn't settling your own people in conquered land against international law? I guess the allies cared as much about that as they did about the Katyn massacre.
And as for the Katyń, the Soviets wanted Germans to be prosecuted for it at Nuremberg.
The Allies told them to fuck off, but the Soviets hanged over 20 German officers for it anyway.
Btw the guards at Nuremberg were Baltic ex-SS who have defected to the Allies. They served in the American MP.
That's very noble of them. As noble as telling the Polish government in exile to drop it, and then to accept communist subversion.
(Obviously, I know they didn't have much of a choice in times of war. I'm just pointing this out because people pretend that the West is so noble, which obviously it is not. It's Realpolitik just like that of the Nazis and the USSR.)
They were very merciful, hanging 49,979 fewer than FDR agreed to.
Those Balts man. First be over-represented among communists, help establish communism in Russia, then collaborate with the Germans against the Russians, and then defect from the Germans.
The Soviets also did it with the occupied Japanese isles too (100% ethnically cleansed and colonized, to this day, and btw WWII officially never ended between Japan and Moscow).