Russia presents 'evidence' of pro-Nazi Poland

[marinata 9]

Early this summer OSCE declared Soviet Union 'as guilty as the Nazis for World War II'

 

The organisation based its conclusion on the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of 1939 which it said was the precursor to the conflagration. The resolution called for a day of remembrance for victims of both Stalinism and Nazism to be marked every August 23, the date in 1939 when Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact dividing Eastern Europe between their spheres of influence.

 

 

Fury as Russia presents 'evidence' Poland sided with Nazis before war

 

Luke Harding in Moscow guardian.co.uk,

 

Tuesday 1 September 2009

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/01/russia-poland-nazis-secret-documents

 

 

Russia today released secret documents from the archives of its foreign intelligence service that it said showed how Poland sided with the Nazis before the second world war and tried to destroy the Soviet Union.

 

Russia published 400 pages of documents gathered by undercover Soviet agents between 1935 and 1945, including telegrams, letters and reports intercepted from Polish missions abroad. Their release coincided with the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of war.

 

The declassified files from Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service allegedly show that Poland was plotting against the Soviet Union in the years preceding the war, which began when Hitler invaded western Poland on 1 September 1939.

 

Seventeen days later, the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland. But according to the SVR, Poland was not simply a victim of Soviet aggression, but had been actively pursuing an anti-Soviet foreign policy from the mid-1930s. This included supporting anti-Soviet national groups in Ukraine, the Caucasus and central Asia.

 

Possible copyright infringement removed by admin. See guidelines.

 

[kthy 405]

Would it be very hard to just post the link instead of quoting the entire article in flagrant disregard of intellectual property legislation?

[perdido 6,083]

No big surprise but another surprise is you may have a copy right infringement there. maybe not.

[Dr. Love 63]

It is good that Russia is releasing its archives to the public now and I wish the British and Americans would also do this and release their archives too (some are still classified till around 2030).

IMO certain parts of history would have to be rewritten/revised or seen in a different angle then if they become public.

Time will tell.

 

As far as Poland not been a victim of WW2 I agree and as the following quotes from Polish politicians at the time reflects the atmosphere you can see how aggressive the tone was.

 

 

"Poland wants war with Germany and Germany will not be able to avoid it even if she wants to." - Marshall Rydz-Smigly, Poland

 

"In 1410 we defeated the Germans at Tannenberg, now we are going to lick them at Berlin. The Polish-German frontier is now about 1,000 miles long. After the victory of Berlin, the crowning feature of the unavoidable war with Germany, it will amount to about 270 miles only." - University of Posen, May 4th, 1939

 

"A struggle between Poland and Germany is inevitable. We must prepare ourselves for it systematically. Our goal is a new Grunewald (The Battle of Tannenberg in July 15th, 1410 when the Teutonic Knights were defeated). However, this time a Grunewald in the suburbs of Berlin. That is to say, the defeat of Germany must be produced by Polish troops in the centre of the territory in order to strike Germany to the heart. Our ideal is a Poland with the Oder and the Neisse as a border in the West. Prussia must be reconquered for Poland, and indeed, Prussia as far as the Spree. In a war with Germany there will be no prisoners and there will be room neither for human feelings nor cultural sentiments. The world will tremble before the German-Polish War. We must evoke in our soldiers a superhuman mood of sacrifice and a spirit of merciless revenge and cruelty."

 

"Let us be quite clear about the fact that Poland can hear of no peace before she has reached the Oder." - M. Mikolajczyk, President, Agricultural Assoc.' of Greater Poland, June 21st, 1939

[HerrDinksbumps 134]

Politically, Russia is scum central...

[Joe 466]

 

It is good that Russia is releasing its archives to the public now and I wish the British and Americans would also do this and release their archives too (some are still classified till around 2030).

IMO certain parts of history would have to be rewritten/revised or seen in a different angle then if they become public.

Time will tell.

 

 

How? Are you going to move on to saying it was not all Germany's fault (there is a valid argument along those lines but this ain't it)?

[parnell 68]

 

It is good that Russia is releasing its archives to the public now and I wish the British and Americans would also do this and release their archives too (some are still classified till around 2030).

IMO certain parts of history would have to be rewritten/revised or seen in a different angle then if they become public.

Time will tell.

 

As far as Poland not been a victim of WW2 I agree and as the following quotes from Polish politicians at the time reflects the atmosphere you can see how aggressive the tone was.

 

 

"Poland wants war with Germany and Germany will not be able to avoid it even if she wants to." - Marshall Rydz-Smigly, Poland

 

"In 1410 we defeated the Germans at Tannenberg, now we are going to lick them at Berlin. The Polish-German frontier is now about 1,000 miles long. After the victory of Berlin, the crowning feature of the unavoidable war with Germany, it will amount to about 270 miles only." - University of Posen, May 4th, 1939

 

"A struggle between Poland and Germany is inevitable. We must prepare ourselves for it systematically. Our goal is a new Grunewald (The Battle of Tannenberg in July 15th, 1410 when the Teutonic Knights were defeated). However, this time a Grunewald in the suburbs of Berlin. That is to say, the defeat of Germany must be produced by Polish troops in the centre of the territory in order to strike Germany to the heart. Our ideal is a Poland with the Oder and the Neisse as a border in the West. Prussia must be reconquered for Poland, and indeed, Prussia as far as the Spree. In a war with Germany there will be no prisoners and there will be room neither for human feelings nor cultural sentiments. The world will tremble before the German-Polish War. We must evoke in our soldiers a superhuman mood of sacrifice and a spirit of merciless revenge and cruelty."

 

"Let us be quite clear about the fact that Poland can hear of no peace before she has reached the Oder." - M. Mikolajczyk, President, Agricultural Assoc.' of Greater Poland, June 21st, 1939

 

Umm haven't you directly contradicted the OP however?

[Owain Glyndwr 888]

I read it as his quotes backing up what was said in the linked article from the Guardian.

[parnell 68]

His quotes support an idea that Poland was keen on a war against Nazi Germany - whereas the Guardian article proclaims that Poland sided with the Nazis...

[Owain Glyndwr 888]

sorry, you are right, dunno why i was thinking that.

[marinata 9]

 

His quotes support an idea that Poland was keen on a war against Nazi Germany - whereas the Guardian article proclaims that Poland sided with the Nazis...

 

 

 

Russia trys to convince the world that Poland is blamed for WWII

 

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/special_reports/50483057.html

 

Russian military historian blames Poland for WWII

 

 

Associated Press -

MOSCOW -- As the Kremlin presses a campaign to recast Russia's 20th century history in a more favorable light, a research paper published on the Defense Ministry's Web site blamed Poland for starting World War II.

 

The unorthodox reading of history appears to be the latest effort by Russian historians to defend the Soviet Union and its leaders, especially their role in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War. Poland condemned the research paper.

 

The generally accepted view is that Poland was a victim rather than the aggressor in the conflict, and that Adolf Hitler's 1939 invasion of Poland marked the start of the war.

 

Many Western historians believe Hitler was encouraged to invade by the treaty of nonaggression signed by Moscow and Berlin, called the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, which secretly divided eastern and western Europe into spheres of influence.

 

Hitler's pact with the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin was signed on Aug. 24, 1939. Germany invaded Poland Sept. 1.

 

Blaming Poland would deny Russia played a role in starting the war by sealing the secret accord.

 

The research paper posted on Russia's Defense Ministry Web site is not an official government statement. But the author is listed as Col. Sergei Kovalyov, director of the scientific-research department of military history, part of the Institute of Military History of the Ministry of Defense.

 

Ministry spokesman Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky told the Interfax news agency that analytical articles posted on the ministry's Web site do not necessarily reflect the ministry's official position.

 

The paper, titled "Fictions and Falsifications in Evaluating the USSR's Role On the Eve of World War II," recounts how in the run-up to Germany's invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Hitler demanded that Poland turn over control of the city of Danzig as well as a land corridor between Germany and the territory now known as Kaliningrad.

 

"Everyone who has studied the history of World War II without bias knows that the war began because of Poland's refusal to satisfy Germany's claims," he writes.

 

Kovalyov called the demands "quite reasonable." He observed: "The overwhelming majority of residents of Danzig, cut off from Germany by the Treaty of Versailles, were Germans who sincerely wished for reunification with their historical homeland."

[miwild 160]

The Free City of Danzig had a population of 357,000 (1919), 95% of whom were Germans, with the rest mainly either Kashubians or Poles.

 

The Treaty of Versailles, which had separated Danzig and surrounding villages from Germany, now required that the newly-formed state had its own citizenship, based on residency. German inhabitants lost their German Citizenship with the creation of the Free City, but were given the right within the first two years of the state's existence to re-obtain it; however, if they did so they were required to leave their property and make their residence outside of the Free State of Danzig area in the remaining part of Germany ...

[marinata 9]

What Poland did to Soviet Russia was comparable to what the Soviet Union did to Poland in 1939 and thereafter - a cynical land grab accompanied by political repression.

[MonksTown 104]

The emergence of Poland as a state and the struggles it was involved in between the wars are more complicated than you are trying to piant here.

 

Was Molotov simply playing for time signing the secret pact?

Was Chaimberlain simply playing for time when he sold Czechoslovakia out?

[BadBob 1,853]

The Poles and Russians should just get together and have a beer and work things out.