By Denis Korkodinov
On July 18, 2019, Polish Deputy Prime Minister Jacek Sasin declared, on the air of the Polish radio station Polskie Radio 24, that the Polish authorities consider inappropriate the participation of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the commemorative events on the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II, which will be held in Warsaw in September 2019. Jacek Sasin said “I think it would be inappropriate to mark the anniversary of the beginning of the armed aggression against Poland with the participation of a leader who today treats his neighbors using the same methods”.
It is worth noting that Vladimir Putin, holding the post of Prime Minister of Russia in 2009, visited Warsaw to participate in celebrations dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II. And then Poland did not express any complaints and, moreover, did not consider the participation of the Russian delegation “inappropriate”.
With the decision to exclude Russia from the celebration, because of its annexation of Crimea and activities in eastern Ukraine, the current Polish government is also basically questioning the Soviet Union’s contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany. Poles say Soviet Union also bears direct responsibility for the outbreak of war, with the signature of non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany that paved the way for the invasion of Poland and world war.
But ignoring the contribution of the Soviet Union in the fight against Nazi Germany is falsify history. This, at least, looks strange, given that from 1934 to 1939 Warsaw purposefully rejected the proposals of the Soviet leadership to create a collective security system and actively collaborated with the Nazis.
In January 1934, Poland was one of the first to sign a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany, while the USSR practically at the same time made efforts to create an anti-Hitler coalition. Such an act of Warsaw turned out to be a real manifestation of betrayal, despite the fact that the head of the Soviet Foreign Ministry Maxim Litvinov tried to establish good neighborly relations with the Polish government. Litvinov has repeatedly stated to his Polish counterpart Jozef Beck that the desire to please the Third Reich could adversely affect the sovereignty of Poland. Among other things, French Foreign Minister Louis Bartoux publicly expressed concern over such a dangerous game of the Polish leadership with Germany. However, Jozef Beck was adamant, trying to justify his policy by the fact that Russia in relation to it acts as an implacable enemy.
Replaced by Joseph Beck as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Pierre Laval continued the policy of his predecessor. Subsequently, it was he who recognized the supreme power of Germany over Warsaw, thus becoming on the path of collaboration.
During the Czechoslovak crisis in 1938, Poland officially announced that it would not prevent Adolf Hitler from occupying the countries of Eastern Europe. Moreover, the Polish Field Marshal Edward Rydz-Smigly confirmed to France that Warsaw under no circumstances would allow the Soviet forces to assist in the liberation of Czechoslovakia. In his official communications, the Polish military leader wrote: “even if a German remains an adversary, he is in any case a European and a decent person. For the Poles, a Russian is a barbarian, Asian, corrupt and poisonous element with whom any contact is dangerous, and any compromise is fatal.”
To indicate to Poland the mistakes made, the Soviet leadership launched a large-scale information campaign in the print press, talking about the destructive alliance with Germany. However, this did not bring any results, as Warsaw did not want to listen to anyone. In response to this, even the Prime Minister of France, Eduard Daladier, was forced to state that the world community cannot “count on Polish support.”
Poland’s interest in Germany occupying Czechoslovakia was primarily due to territorial claims. So, Warsaw hoped that Adolf Hitler would give her the Czechoslovak city of Tesen, populated mainly by Poles. Similar plans were confirmed by the French ambassador in Berlin in a conversation with his Soviet counterpart, indicating that Poland “helps Germany” to seize Czechoslovakia.
In addition to this, in March 1939, the Polish leadership categorically rejected the USSR’s initiative to create a collective security system, thereby putting itself in a very vulnerable position before Germany. So, if Warsaw became a party to the collective defense and defense treaty, the subsequent occupation of Poland by the Third Reich would be difficult.
The Polish failure served as a reason for Joseph Stalin to replace Maxim Litvinov, who served as head of the Soviet Foreign Ministry, with Vyacheslav Molotov. The Soviet Union still proceeded from the opinion that Poland would eventually come to its senses.
In August 1939, during the Munich negotiations, the USSR offered Warsaw military assistance in exchange for the possibility of the Soviet army passing through Polish territory in order to repel aggression from Nazi Germany. However, the Polish leadership strongly opposed the proposed initiative. Thus, Poland took a position that absolutely excluded the possibility of creating a collective security system against the backdrop of increasing military activity of the Third Reich.
During the official visits of the Reichsmarshal of the Great German Reich German Goering to Warsaw in 1935 and 1937, Poland agreed to support Germany’s idea of anschluss of Austria and the subsequent attack on the Soviet Union. As a result of the agreements reached, on August 31, 1937, the General Staff of Poland issued directive 2304/2/37, which explicitly states that the main goal of Polish politics is “the destruction of Russia.” One of the main methods of destroying Russia, the Polish military leadership officially called the incitement of separatist tendencies in the Caucasus, Ukraine and Central Asia.
When the Second World War began, to the kindling of which Poland is directly related, the Polish government did not come to its senses and still considered the Soviet Union its only enemy. Thus, the intelligence unit of General Anders, operating on Soviet territory, in its activity pursued the goal of not only collecting military information about the movements of the Soviet army, but also preparing the Polish resistance.
Guided by the instructions of General Anders, Warsaw systematically organized terrorist acts against the Soviet troops in order to prevent them from reaching the borders of Germany. In the end, Joseph Stalin himself was forced to intervene in the matter, who in his letter to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt on December 20, 1944 wrote that Poland’s destructive actions against the USSR made her “an accomplice of the Nazis.”
Given the above facts, an attempt by the modern Polish government to falsify history looks at least strange and, at the very least, unfair. The memory of the thousands of Soviet soldiers who died liberating Poland from the Nazis is forgotten to please the political ideology of a number of Warsaw politicians. However, history remembers everything.
(The views expressed in this article belong only to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of World Geostrategic Insights)
Image Credit: AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski