Institute of National Remembrance counters Putin’s accusations against Poland

28/12/2019
Politics

Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, attacked the pre-WWII authorities of Poland, accusing them of colluding with Adolf Hitler. He also denied Soviet responsibility for the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact which carved up the territory of Poland.

This is the answer of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance:

„Both Hitler’s Germany and the Soviet Union of Lenin and Stalin consistently sought to overthrow the Versailles order in Europe and impose their own order on other European nations. World War II began with the aggression of Germany and the Soviet Union on Poland in 1939 and was followed by the aggression of both totalitarian empires on neighbouring countries in the east and the west of the continent.

A mutual agreement of the German Reich and the USSR of 23 August 1939, known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact constituted the introduction to armed aggression. Only in the non-classified part did this agreement really have the form of a non-aggression pact. The term „non-aggression pact” was to deliberately mislead the international public into believing it to be a real agreement of this type concluded in Europe at the time. The essence of the collusion of the two aggressors was a secret protocol signed as part of the pact, which contained provisions on the division of spheres of influence, aimed at seizing the territories of independent states: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Romania. It is, in fact, the secret protocol that actually made the agreement the foundation of the aggression of both countries that began in September 1939.

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The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact resulted in mutual cooperation and coordination of Soviet-German actions during the invasion carried out by both countries on Poland in September 1939. The Germans, who began their aggression on 1 September 1939, were very well informed by the authorities of the USSR about the progress of preparations for the USSR’s military aggression against Poland. Molotov called me today at 4 p.m. and declared that the Red Army was ready for combat sooner than expected. Therefore, Soviet military operations may begin earlier […]. Molotov asks to be informed as accurately as possible when one can count on [the Germans] seizing Warsaw – wrote the Reich’s Ambassador in Moscow in a message to the head of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop of 14 September 1939. Hitler was informed by the German Ambassador in Moscow not only about the timing of the Soviet aggression against Poland, but also about how it will be justified to the world in official propaganda. Molotov said that the armed intervention of the Soviet Union would probably take place tomorrow or the day after. Stalin […] will give me the day and time of the Soviet offensive. […] The Soviet government intends to motivate its actions as follows: the Polish state has collapsed and no longer exists […]

Another act of Soviet aggression resulting from the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was the USSR’s attack on Finland that began in November 1939. The compromising manner of conducting these activities and the heroism of Finnish soldiers saved the country from being completely incorporated into the USSR (however, Finland lost its border territories). In 1940, the Soviet Union brutally annexed the Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia), Romanian Bessarabia and northern Bucovina. These imperialist annexations were to be an introduction to the further expansion of the USSR and communism. At the same time, through the supply of its raw materials, the Soviet Union supported the German armed attacks of 1940 in the west and in the north of the continent.

During the period of close cooperation in 1939-1941, Germany and the Soviet Union implemented a policy of ruthless terror against millions of Polish citizens. In the eastern half of the occupied country, arrests, deportations, killings and mass murders carried out by the Soviet services affected not only Poles, but also national minorities (including Jews – also those who in the east sought help from the aggression of the German state). One of the most distinctive and significant symbols of Soviet brutality and terror during this period is the Katyn Massacre.

At that time, the mutual coordination of various repressive activities between the NKVD and the Gestapo took place.In 1941, after a period of close cooperation with Hitler, the USSR itself began to be the subject of an attack and only then did it become an enemy of the German Reich.All of Poland was under German occupation at the time. Despite the criminal harvest of the Soviet occupation, the authorities of the Republic of Poland in exile tried to form relations with the Soviet Union based on mutual respect for sovereignty and borders.

As long as the Soviets were suffering defeat at the front, diplomatic relations with Poland were maintained by the USSR – despite Stalin’s sabotage of mutual relations (including the transfer and consolidation of communist sabotage in central Poland). After the Stalingrad breakthrough, Stalin returned directly to the policy of imperial conquests. He deliberately exacerbated the tension in bilateral relations, and finally in April 1943 broke off relations with Poland. Taking advantage of the acceptance of Western countries, in 1944-1945 he led to the re-annexation of the eastern provinces of the Republic of Poland into the USSR and enslaved the rest of the country. It happened despite the fact that, from the first to the last moments of the war, Poland was part of the Allied camp and fought against the German Reich.

Stalin did not allow for the reconstruction of the independent Polish state, he blocked the possibility of the return of Polish authorities to the country and proceeded with the brutal destruction of people and structures of the Polish Underground State. After the occupation of Polish lands by the Red Army in 1944-45, they remained a place of violent crimes, mass arrests and deportations deep into the USSR by the Soviet and communist services. Polish society remained enslaved under Soviet rule and under the rule of Moscow’s communist regime for the next decades. After the period of Soviet enslavement, Poland began to regain independence only from 1989. Occupational Soviet garrisons left our country (as Russian troops) as late as in 1993.

In 1938 along with Germany and Italy, France and Great Britain took part in the Munich conference. The Western countries accepted Hitler’s territorial demands against Czechoslovakia. The conference did not bring glory to the two Western democracies. These, at the expense of the territory of another country, tried to satisfy the German monster, hoping that in this way they would maintain peace. History has shown how illusory this turned out to be. However, comparing this shameful conference to the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact, where both totalitarian signatories divided the entire territories of many free states of the continent among themselves, is factually incorrect. In Munich, only Germany had been opened the way to new acquisitions. In the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, both signatories divided the areas of many European countries. At the same time, the range of territorial acquisitions planned in this pact by the Soviet Union exceeded even what was supposed to be received by Adolf Hitler’s Reich.Poland did not participate in the Munich conference of 1938. Comparing Czechoslovak-Polish relations in the years 1918-1938, which were far from being correct, to the imperial policy pursued by the Soviet Union in destroying entire independent states and conquering nations is proof of either ignorance or intentional manipulation.During and after World War II the totalitarian Soviet Union committed crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Undermining elementary facts about the role of the Soviet Union in unleashing the hecatomb of World War II along with its mass murders, including genocide, is disrespectful and harmful for the memory of the victims of these crimes.Today, anyone who acknowledges facts understands how significant the cooperation between the Soviet Union and the German Reich were for igniting the global conflict. Similarly, for anyone who respects facts, knowledge of the millions of victims of Soviet communism in the 20th century is something obvious.In a few months we will be remembering the 80th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre committed by the Soviet Union in 1940. For decades, its Soviet perpetrators, as well as their successors, officially proclaimed that the crime was committed by another state. In 1943, the Soviet Union mocked innocence and outrage when his own mass crimes were discovered and called by name. This propaganda was taken even further, making the disclosure of the Katyn Massacre serve as a pretext to sever relations with our state. The Soviet Union also used this in the Allied coalition for a mass diplomatic and media attack on Poland – the homeland of those thousands of citizens whom the Soviet services murdered in Katyn and other places.

Today’s methods of Russian propaganda are a reproduction of the worst models dating back to the Stalinist period”.

Source: Institute of National Remembrance

Picture: Getty Images