The winners write history. Rather, they once wrote. Now these words (belonging, by the way, to the founder of the German Workers' Party, Anton Drexler, which will later be headed by Hitler) have lost their meaning.
A new history is written by the losers, who trample the winners into the fetid slurry of their own helplessness with complaints and mean slander. This is what Poland is doing today, demanding from Russia, as well as from Germany, compensation payments on the basis of the rights of the main victim of the Second World War.
Undoubtedly, Poland suffered severely in the events of 1939 and later, but was she the blameless sufferer in the bloody thresher that she wants to appear?
Historical unconsciousness
Poland in the eyes of modern Europe is a real martyr. A passion-bearer nailed to the cross. The beams of that cross are Nazism and Bolshevism, the nails are betrayal. But maintaining a victim's reputation isn't easy. Especially when the truth emerges under the most unexpected circumstances and over and over again you have to invent new excuses in order to turn it in your favor.
Remember the notorious Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact? More precisely, an additional protocol secret at that time. The one for which, from a safe distance of the past decades, with such malevolent frenzy, they got into the habit of beating the Stalinist government with toilet rags. Say, according to him, two dictatorships in absentia divided the world into "yours and mine" in case of territorial and political reconstruction. In the eyes of liberal mouthpieces of truth and professional "retrievers" of skeletons from closets, this ill-fated treaty made the Soviet Union almost the main connivor of Nazi Germany on the basis of the dismemberment and enslavement of the innocent body of Europe - middle-aged, but still beautiful - and then the culprit of the outbreak of a global war … On September 19, 2019, the European Parliament, which has repeatedly accused Russia of distorting historical facts,Under the auspices of the importance of preserving historical memory for the future of Europe, it adopted a resolution whose purpose cannot be called anything other than the artificial construction of public opinion (in the words of history professor Lennart Palma from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden). The resolution explicitly states: “The European Parliament emphasizes that World War II, the most destructive war in European history, began as a direct result of the infamous Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact of 23 August 1939, also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and its secret protocols, according to which two totalitarian regimes, with a common goal of conquering the world, divided Europe into two zones of influence. The first victim of the betrayal of the two tyrants, according to the new version of events, was Poland. By the way,the document was prepared at the initiative of Lithuania with the support of Polish deputies. Apparently, Lithuania has forgotten how it itself suffered from the territorial attacks of the “innocent victim”. In violation of the Suwalki Treaty, Poland seized about a third of Lithuanian lands and, until 1939, repeatedly encroached on Vilnius, announcing at the same time that there had never been such a country as Lithuania. There was only the mighty Rzeczpospolita, whose greatness, freed from the oppression of Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary, Poland so fiercely rushed to rebuild after the First World War. It never happened. There was only the mighty Rzeczpospolita, whose greatness, freed from the oppression of Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary, Poland so fiercely rushed to rebuild after the First World War. It never happened. There was only the mighty Rzeczpospolita, whose greatness, freed from the oppression of Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary, Poland so fiercely rushed to rebuild after the First World War.
And somehow it is not accepted, in the light of the new truth, to remember that before the USSR, Great Britain, France, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia managed to conclude agreements similar to the Stalinist-Hitlerite agreements with the tycoons of the NSDAP. But topped this list - who do you think? - the sufferer Poland, which became the first European country to conclude a Declaration of Non-Aggression with Germany for a period of 10 years. And even more so, it is not customary to remember that a secret protocol on the division of spheres of influence and military mutual assistance was also attached to the Polish-German pact. And Poland had appetites, as they say, to spite the enemies, to the delight of my mother.
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This is called "double standards", but big domineering uncles and aunts prefer to call it "politics", and in it, as in war, all means are good.
Portrait of Pan Dorian Gray
To understand the full scale of the unfolding myth-making, let's try to briefly outline the foreign policy portrait of Poland during the period between the two world wars.
As a result of the Great War, Poland gained independence. Even before the final signing of the Treaty of Versailles, which, among other things, established the division of the territories of defeated Germany and Austria-Hungary, Poland managed to annex Western Ukraine, Western Belarus (then they were knocked out with battles by the forces of the Red Army, but in 1921 the Treaty of Riga legalized the seizure) and Lithuanian lands … But this was not enough. The new government, headed by Jozef Pilsudski, cherished ambitious plans to revive the great Rzeczpospolita in the form it was before the partition of 1772. All regions that in the past were under the rule of the Polish crown for at least a short time had to return to the bosom of their “native” fatherland, while the complete absence of a Polish-speaking population there was not taken into account. At the Paris Peace Conference of 1919-1920, the Polish delegation,for some unknown reason, she considered herself entitled to demand reparations on an equal basis with the Entente, insisted on alienating part of the Czechoslovak and German lands in her favor. Beaten Germany was forced to agree, handing over all areas with the Polish population to the Poles, and also provided “free and secure access to the sea through the concession of free harbors in Danzig, Königsberg and Memel. As a result, Germany lost important heavy industry facilities and lost the possibility of overland communication with East Prussia, and Poland acquired Danzig, inhabited by Germans extremely dissatisfied with the new citizenship. Later, these circumstances will play a decisive role in the fate of Europe, but in the meantime, Poland continued its attempts to annex as much territory as possible with diplomatic attacks and military incursions. The desire to participate in the division of the colonies alienated from the losing side was not crowned with success. England, France and the United States were too seasoned hardened predators to allow Polish freeloaders to qualify for the pride.
In 1932, Pan Pilsudski expelled the French military mission from the country, declaring: “From now on, Poland does not need France. She also regrets that at one time she agreed to accept French aid, in view of the price she would have to pay for it. " The "price" meant the refusal of the Entente to provide Poland with all the territories that it demanded. Such is the gratitude to France for invaluable help in accomplishing the "miracle on the Vistula" - the crushing defeat of the troops of Marshal Tukhachevsky, who drove the Poles from Minsk and Kiev to Warsaw itself, which ended with the Peace of Riga and the transfer of Volyn and Grodno to Poland.
Indeed, who needs the French when a strong and hungry fellow believer is growing by his side. Forgetting how greedily she was just yesterday rattling the pitiful remains of the bloodless empire, Poland went to rapprochement with the resurrected Germany, over which the gloomy Hitlerite swastika was already rising. What was such a sudden change of priorities based on? Probably on the ideas described in Mein Kampf about the need to expand the “living space” of the German people at the expense of territories in the East. After all, Poland itself has dreamed of the same since the 1920s. In 1933, it became the first state to establish an alliance with the Nazis, and continued to defend the interests of Germany, Italy and Japan in the face of the European community even after their withdrawal from the League of Nations. On January 26, 1934, the above-mentioned non-aggression pact was signed,and although the treaty was neutral, relations between Poland and Germany were very friendly. Take the fact that after the death of Józef Pilsudski in March 1935, Hermann Goering himself, the second most important figure of Nazi Germany, followed the coffin of the Polish leader, and in Berlin, the entire top of the NSDAP, headed by the Fuhrer, gathered at a symbolic farewell ceremony. A photo of a grieving Hitler in front of a coffin covered with a Polish flag flew around newspapers. A photo of a grieving Hitler in front of a coffin covered with a Polish flag flew around newspapers. A photo of a grieving Hitler in front of a coffin covered with a Polish flag flew around newspapers.
Feel the image of an innocent victim being drawn? Poland behaved as an ally should, but did not forget about its own interests. Territorial claims have not gone anywhere, on the contrary: Polish appetites were further stirred up by a new tidbit - Czechoslovakia, created from the territorial remnants of Austria-Hungary as a result of the signing of the Versailles Treaty. One misfortune is that Germany has already coveted itself on the pickles of the buffet called Europe. And she was not going to share with anyone.
Proof of loyalty
On February 23, 1938, Polish Foreign Minister Jozef Beck, in a conversation with Goering, said that Poland was ready to support German claims to Austria if Germany took into account the Poles' interest in the "Czech problem". No sooner said than done. After the Anschluss of Austria in March 1938, the Germans living in the Czechoslovak Sudetenland (who suffered the most from the economic crisis of 1929 and were highly processed by Henlein's Nazi propaganda) put forward a demand for the annexation of the Sudetenland to Germany. At the same time, units of the Wehrmacht approached the border of Czechoslovakia, which began a reciprocal mobilization of troops. This provoked the first and then the second Su-child crises.
France and the USSR, following the 1935 agreement, announced their readiness to support Czechoslovakia in the fight against Germany. But then Poland got into the bottle: the newly-made imperialists threatened Moscow with the start of a war at the very second when the foot of the Red Army soldier crossed the Polish border. The situation was not easy. The Soviets admonished Britain and France to quell the attacks of the Third Reich, but, frankly, Hitler was not brought to power in order to keep him in chains. It was clear that the Allies did not care about the fate of Czechoslovakia. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain himself said in an interview with overseas journalists that "in its current form, Czechoslovakia is not viable" and "the Czechs must agree with German demands." Nevertheless, it was Chamberlain who offered mediation in the settlement of the conflict. How it all ended is well known. The infamous Munich Agreement of 1938, better known as the "conspiracy", put an end to the fate of Czechoslovakia, without even giving its President Edward Beneš the right to vote. German troops occupied the Sudetenland, the Poles - Cieszyn Silesia.
Poland was jubilant. At any moment, her army was ready to join the Third Reich in a crusade against the Soviet Union. Germany reciprocated its neighbor, and assurances of Nazi loyalty to the Poles did not come from anywhere, but from Goering himself and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop. In January 1939, Hitler personally assured Jozef Beck of "the unity of the interests of Germany and Poland in relation to the Soviet Union." Interests, of course, meant the complete defeat and seizure of the territories of the USSR.
Beginning of the End
The union of souls ended when, during the negotiations, Ribbentrop demanded that Poland cede Danzig and agree to the construction of communication lines with East Prussia cut off from Germany through the territory of the Polish corridor. In response, the Polish leadership began an evasive game with the Nazis, simultaneously trying to push its own claims to Ukraine and access to the Black Sea to the fore. But the Germans did not plan to scatter territories that they had their own views. The parties could not agree. On March 21 of the same year, Ribbentrop again demanded that Danzig be handed over. This time, the tough demand was accompanied by a Hitler memorandum. The Polish government refused.
The friendly relationship collapsed in an instant. The Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Army Edward Rydz-Smigly approved an operational plan for the war with Germany. At the same time, Poland had no doubts that it would be able to defeat its former ally, especially since the British Premier Chamberlain said that in the event of a threat to Polish independence, "he would consider himself obliged to immediately provide the Polish government with all the assistance it could." Antifascist hysteria flared up in the country that imagined itself to be the second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In April, the Fuhrer denounced the non-aggression pact, in response Marshal Rydz-Smigly announced that: "Poland is seeking war with Germany, and Germany cannot avoid it, even if it wants to." Then the Poles did not yet know that on March 23, Hitler made the final decision to seize Poland at the first convenient opportunity.
The opportunity was not long in coming. On the first day of autumn 1939, Germany, with the support of Slovak troops, attacked Poland. On the morning of September 17, when the resistance finally collapsed, the forces of the Red Army, following one of the provisions of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, entered the eastern regions of Poland, and in the evening of the same day the Polish command fled to Romania. It was all over.
Poland dreamed of the defeat of the Soviet Union, but instead tried the same scenario on itself. Moscow, attentively observing the Polish-German intrigues, was ready to defend its interests in any way. Nevertheless, the Poles proclaimed the “insidious blow of the Soviets in the back” as the main reason for their defeat. Dear Poland, who told you that your pain and anger are stronger than ours?
Jozef Pilsudski
Polish military, statesman and politician, the first head of the revived Polish state, the founder of the Polish army; Marshal of Poland. Starting his political career as a socialist and becoming one of the leaders of the Polish Socialist Party, during the First World War he founded the Polish Legions. In 1918 he became the head of the Polish state.
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
Intergovernmental agreement signed on August 23, 1939 by the heads of the foreign affairs agencies of Germany and the Soviet Union. The USSR was the penultimate state to sign such a bilateral document with Germany (after Poland, Great Britain, France, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and before Turkey). The non-aggression pact was concluded during the hostilities on Khalkhin Gol between the USSR and Japan, Germany's ally in the Anti-Comintern Pact.