More Soviet Union and Evolutionary Psychology Tidbits
Not really anything new today in Evolutionary Psychology. I'm sure most of you have heard of the golden ratio between a woman's hips and waist (emphasis on RATIO, not WEIGHT) that makes her more attractive to men and have been linked to increased fertility. We did learn that they've done massive data collections amongst ancient statues/paintings from Egypt, Greece and various tribes in Africa and have discovered that ALL of them show females having a "golden" ratio of around .7-.75 (waist/hips). Ironically, they also show that these cultures prefer their men (or at least, their statues of men) to have a waist/hips ratio of around .85. That is some AWESOME historical proof right there for a modern theory. O_O;
Moving on to my infinitely depressing but very interesting Soviet Union in WWII class.
Today we went over the crazy, extremely complex period between WWI and WWII where socialist and facist governments were rising in every country in Europe after the Treaty of Versailles dissolved the Austro-Hungarian, German (WWI era) and Ottoman empires and redrew the European/Middle Eastern map. Germany, the loser, was obviously not invited to the Treaty, and neither was Russia, whom had pulled out of WWI and was currently going through the Russian Revolution. <--Not having these two at the Treaty will come back and bite everyone in the ass during WWII.
During the 1930's, things were basically shot to hell. There was the worldwide depression, many countries' (including Germany's) inclination to favor either facism or socialism (extreme forms of government), and a ton of new, little countries that were trying to figure out how to be independent (namely away from either Russia or Germany).
One particularly interesting thing we learned about (the POV that that Westerners do NOT learn about) is the Soviet Union's early reactions to the Nazi party's rise of power.
Very early in the 1930's, the S.U. saw that the Nazi party had gained the majority of the seats on the German parliament and began ringing alarm bells all throughout Europe. They called on for the European countries (and the U.S.) to adopt something called "collective security" in which they ("they" being at least the "four big ones", a.k.a. U.S., U.K., France and Russia) would come to the aid of any country attacked by Hitler's Germany.
Obviously, this didn't go over so well with other European countries. U.K. and France specifically adopted "appeasement" policies instead, mainly due to the fact that no one wanted another world war and that they (unfortunately mistakenly) thought that what the Nazis wanted were "simple" goals like to right the wrongs of the Treaty of Versailles. By the way, the U.S. was kind of in the worst Depression of its life so it wasn't really going to help in this decision.
ANYWAYS, after Germany invaded Austria and occupied Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union became even more alarmed and attempted many times to invoke "collective security". (They were repeatedly ignored.) The Soviets were terrified for the safety of the Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) and Poland, because those were the only countries standing between itself and Nazi Germany. In response, Poland, whom despised the Soviets for historical reasons and feared an incoming Soviet occupation, announced that no Soviet soldier was allowed to step foot on Polish soil.
And then Nazi Germany invaded it. Not a good idea, Poland.
By that point, Stalin was fed up with Western indifference and was beside himself about what to do. To secure the safety of his own country (since the Nazis were slaughtering any Communists they find in Europe), he metaphorically gave the West the finger and then signed the infamous Stain-Hitler pact of nonaggression, which stated that Nazi Germany would not attack the S.U. as long as the S.U. did not fight against it. (Looking back on this time, this pact --even though it didn't last for more than a few years-- probably saved the S.U.'s life, since they were still industrializing and would not be ready for war until after the 40's.)
And then the famous part comes in about how the Stalin-Hitler pact partitioned Poland into two halves, the west for Germany and the east for the Soviets. So at least they got something out of the deal, even if the U.K., U.S., and French were all "DAMN IT ALL!!!" about not having the Soviets on their side (initially) when Germany turned to them in the war.
Also, another "what-if" scenerio: if everyone had listened to the Soviets about "collective security" in which the rest of Europe, U.S. and the Soviet Union would promise to immediately attack Germany if Hitler tried to attack ANY other country, there probably would not have been a World War II. As horrible of a man that he was, Hiter could do math. Germany against EVERYONE ELSE would be a really bad idea, even for him.
Just food for thought. ^^;
EDIT: Btw, since I don't know much about WWI, what the hell was Japan doing at the Treaty of Versailles? :/ It was like, all European countries there, and then BOOM, Japan. What.
Moving on to my infinitely depressing but very interesting Soviet Union in WWII class.
Today we went over the crazy, extremely complex period between WWI and WWII where socialist and facist governments were rising in every country in Europe after the Treaty of Versailles dissolved the Austro-Hungarian, German (WWI era) and Ottoman empires and redrew the European/Middle Eastern map. Germany, the loser, was obviously not invited to the Treaty, and neither was Russia, whom had pulled out of WWI and was currently going through the Russian Revolution. <--Not having these two at the Treaty will come back and bite everyone in the ass during WWII.
During the 1930's, things were basically shot to hell. There was the worldwide depression, many countries' (including Germany's) inclination to favor either facism or socialism (extreme forms of government), and a ton of new, little countries that were trying to figure out how to be independent (namely away from either Russia or Germany).
One particularly interesting thing we learned about (the POV that that Westerners do NOT learn about) is the Soviet Union's early reactions to the Nazi party's rise of power.
Very early in the 1930's, the S.U. saw that the Nazi party had gained the majority of the seats on the German parliament and began ringing alarm bells all throughout Europe. They called on for the European countries (and the U.S.) to adopt something called "collective security" in which they ("they" being at least the "four big ones", a.k.a. U.S., U.K., France and Russia) would come to the aid of any country attacked by Hitler's Germany.
Obviously, this didn't go over so well with other European countries. U.K. and France specifically adopted "appeasement" policies instead, mainly due to the fact that no one wanted another world war and that they (unfortunately mistakenly) thought that what the Nazis wanted were "simple" goals like to right the wrongs of the Treaty of Versailles. By the way, the U.S. was kind of in the worst Depression of its life so it wasn't really going to help in this decision.
ANYWAYS, after Germany invaded Austria and occupied Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union became even more alarmed and attempted many times to invoke "collective security". (They were repeatedly ignored.) The Soviets were terrified for the safety of the Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) and Poland, because those were the only countries standing between itself and Nazi Germany. In response, Poland, whom despised the Soviets for historical reasons and feared an incoming Soviet occupation, announced that no Soviet soldier was allowed to step foot on Polish soil.
And then Nazi Germany invaded it. Not a good idea, Poland.
By that point, Stalin was fed up with Western indifference and was beside himself about what to do. To secure the safety of his own country (since the Nazis were slaughtering any Communists they find in Europe), he metaphorically gave the West the finger and then signed the infamous Stain-Hitler pact of nonaggression, which stated that Nazi Germany would not attack the S.U. as long as the S.U. did not fight against it. (Looking back on this time, this pact --even though it didn't last for more than a few years-- probably saved the S.U.'s life, since they were still industrializing and would not be ready for war until after the 40's.)
And then the famous part comes in about how the Stalin-Hitler pact partitioned Poland into two halves, the west for Germany and the east for the Soviets. So at least they got something out of the deal, even if the U.K., U.S., and French were all "DAMN IT ALL!!!" about not having the Soviets on their side (initially) when Germany turned to them in the war.
Also, another "what-if" scenerio: if everyone had listened to the Soviets about "collective security" in which the rest of Europe, U.S. and the Soviet Union would promise to immediately attack Germany if Hitler tried to attack ANY other country, there probably would not have been a World War II. As horrible of a man that he was, Hiter could do math. Germany against EVERYONE ELSE would be a really bad idea, even for him.
Just food for thought. ^^;
EDIT: Btw, since I don't know much about WWI, what the hell was Japan doing at the Treaty of Versailles? :/ It was like, all European countries there, and then BOOM, Japan. What.