>"Regardless of Orwell's fuming about freedom of the press, pro-Soviet English intellectual fashions, and such - for the WWII-era British government, not "rocking the boat" with Stalin, when "his" USSR was still critical to winning the war with a less-horrific British body count, would be a "d'oh, obviously" policy."
On the other hand, we shouldn't forget that Stalin's USSR was also critical to starting the war as well.
In the smaller details, yes. But if the USSR of 1939 had been magically replaced with a idyllic nation of unarmed pacifists, Hitler's Germany would just as certainly have started the war.
On the other hand, we shouldn't forget that Stalin's USSR was also critical to starting the war as well.