Russia accuses Poland of starting WW2

Kyt · Jun 5, 2009

Ok, now I've heard it all!!!! Even the Communists didn't write such revisionist rubbish

Russia accuses Poland of starting Second World War - Telegraph

Russia has accused Poland of provoking the outbreak of the Second World War by refusing to accede to the "very modest" demands of Nazi Germany.

The Russian defence ministry posted a potentially inflammatory essay on its website which claimed Poland resisted Germany's ultimatums in 1939 only because it "wanted to obtain the status of a great power".

The lengthy diatribe, which is unlikely to be welcomed in Warsaw, also lashed out at Britain and France for giving the Poles "delusions of grandeur" by promising to intercede if the Nazis invaded.

"Anyone who has been minded to study the history of the Second World War knows it started because of Poland's refusal to meet Germany's requests," the statement read. "The German demands were very modest. You could hardly call them unfounded."

Appearing to take Germany's demands at face value, the defence ministry insisted that the Nazis were interested only in building transport links across the Polish Corridor to East Prussia and assuming control of Gdansk, which had been designated as a free city at the time.

Western historians largely recognise that Poland would have lost its independence had it acceded to the demands, pointing to Hitler's policies of Lebensbraum and the creation of a Greater Germany as evidence.

Germany invaded Poland on Sept 1, 1939, prompting the British Empire and France to declare war over the next two days. Germany and the Soviet Union then carved up Poland under the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

The statement, written by Col Sergei Kovalev, a senior researcher at the defence ministry, appears to be part of a new Kremlin campaign to push its view of Soviet era history.

Poland’s foreign ministry said it would summon Russia’s ambassador to Warsaw to demand an explanation, as the allegations showed signs of triggering a major row between the two countries.

Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, last month created a commission to identify foreign "revisionists" who disparage the country's prestige and "falsify" its history.

Col Kovalev's paper, which appears under a section titled History: Lies and Falsifications, claims that British support for Warsaw caused Poland to "lose all sense of reality."

It also attacked the Western press for suggesting that the Soviet Union carried some blame for the War by its alliance with Hitler under the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, which carved up Europe into two spheres of influence to be headed by Hitler and Stalin.

"No representative of a Western democracy has the right to discuss any treaty between the Soviet Union and Germany," given that Neville Chamberlain signed the Munich Agreement of 1938 giving Germany control of the Sudetenland.

As for the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, Col Kovalev wrote, it was merely a time-buying mechanism after Britain refused to sign a mutual defence treaty with the Soviet Union.

Under the pact the Soviet Union took control of two-thirds of Poland as well as the Baltic states, but only, he wrote, in order to create a buffer zone that would allow Moscow to marshal its defences ahead of an inevitable war with the Third Reich.

Under planned legislation, backed by Mr Medvedev, any Russian or foreigner who claims that the Soviet Union occupied Poland or the Baltic States could face up to five years in prison.
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Kyt · Jun 5, 2009

Unfortunately, the paper has been removed from the website - it would have been interesting to read (albeit via google translation)

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1010/42/378052.htm

Poland demanded an explanation from Russia on Thursday after an article blaming Warsaw for starting World War II was published on the Defense Ministry's web site, setting back attempts to improve strained ties.

The 4,000-word article by a military academic said Poland had triggered the war by refusing to meet Adolf Hitler's demands.

"Germany's demands were pretty modest -- to include the free city of Danzig (Gdansk) in the Third Reich and to allow the construction of an extraterritorial motorway and a railway, which would connect East Prussia with the main part of Germany," wrote Colonel Sergei Kovalyov of the Defense Ministry's Institute of Military History.

"One can hardly call the first two demands ungrounded," he said.

The Defense Ministry declined to comment on the article, titled, "Fabrications and Falsifications About the Soviet Union in the Run-up to and Start of World War II."

Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Piotr Paszkowski said exotic interpretations of history sometimes appear in Russia. "But this time, it resurfaced on the official web page of Russia's Ministry of Defense, and we will ask the Russian ambassador to Poland for explanations," the spokesman said.

"We understand that such views in no way represent the mainstream of Russia's historical thinking," he said.

Relations between Poland and Russia have been frayed since the former communist bloc country left Moscow's orbit at the end of the Cold War, although as recently as last month both countries restated their desire to become better neighbors.

President Dmitry Medvedev on May 19 announced plans for a history commission to review what it perceives as an anti-Russian view of 20th-century history, raising fears among some historians that criticism of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's rule will be censored.

Kovalyov's article argues that in the buildup to World War II Western powers "created unfounded illusions" in Warsaw of their support for Poland.
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http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1328/42/378061.htm

The Defense Ministry said today that an article put on its site a few days ago that has sparked outrage with its suggestion that Poland was to blame for the start of World War II “must not be considered the official point of view of the Defense Ministry.”

In a statement to journalists, the ministry’s press service said that the article, “Inventions and Falsifications in the Assessment of the Role of the USSR on the Eve and at the Start of World War II” by Col. Sergei Kovalyov of the ministry’s Institute of Military History, was only for discussion.

Kovalyov's article appears to have been taken down. (It was posted here.) At the very least, it is not currently listed in the section where it was posted, nor could it be retrieved as of Thursday morning.

(An effort to find a cached copy on Yandex Thursday afternoon was also unsuccessful. What appears to be an earlier version of that article — it bears the same title and has the same author but is dated October 25, 2008 — is available, however, on the Russian Orthodox nationalist site, “Yedinovye Otechestvo.”)

The key passage in Kovalev’s article is the following: World War II “was begun as a result of the refusal of Poland to satisfy … extremely moderate demands such as including the free city of Danzig in the Third Reich [and] permission for the construction of extra-territorial highways and railroad, which would connect East Prussia with the rest of Germany.”

Not surprisingly, especially given President Dmitry Medvedev’s call for beginning “a struggle with falsifications of history that harm the interests of Russia,” several Russian commentators jumped on Kovalyov’s article as an indication of just how much of a threat to historical accuracy such a campaign will likely be.

One of the most thoughtful reactions to the article was provided by Ivan Sukhov in Thursday's issue of Russian daily Vremya Novostei in which he points out that Kovalyov not only misuses sources in order to distort the past but seeks to justify what Hitler did in ways that the German Administration for the Defense of the Constitution would see as a violation of the law. “That should not be an occasion for laughter,” Sukhov notes, “especially if one keeps in mind that [Russians] live in a country that has never assessed the crimes committed by bolshevism from a legal point of view.”

"The administration for the defense of the constitution works in Germany," he continues, "[while] in Russia now there is a government commission for preventing the falsification of history,” at least if those "falsifications" harm the Russian state.

While complaining about Western writers who talk about “a new Cold War,” Kovalyov himself writes in a spirit of precisely that kind of conflict without appearing to recognize he is doing so, the Vremya Novostei commentator continues. Although if he doesn’t recognize this, many Russians and those living in neighboring countries certainly do.

Indeed, Sukhov says, Kovalyov’s argument fits into the pattern of “hysteria” in certain Russian quarters about the removal of the Soviet war memorial from the center of Tallinn, even as Russian companies move similar monuments within Russia in order to make profits from the real estate beneath them.

The military writer’s argument also fits with the notion, now enshrined in a Russian history textbook, that “Joseph Stalin was ‘an effective manager.’” According to Sukhov, texts like Kovalev’s suggest that the time may come when some in Russia will decide to describe Adolf Hitler as “’an effective manager’” too.

But even before that happens, Sukhov suggests, the countries of Eastern Europe that experienced both “Soviet and Nazi ‘effective management’” will be declared “guilty” of everything that happened to them, especially if others extend the argument of people like Colonel Kovalyov.

(Unfortunately, there are many Russian historians who are prepared to do just that. For an example, see the comment by St. Petersburg political scientist Sergey Lebedev who came out in support of Kovalyov Thursday and argued that “Poland had conducted itself like a lion among hyenas.”)

Many in Moscow are now talking about how Russia must use “soft power” to influence others, especially among its neighbors, Sukhov notes. But articles like the one authored by Kovalyov are not going to help anyone except in one respect: They show that “the struggle with the falsification of history at the expense of Russia will take place again at the expense of Russia.”
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spidge · Jun 5, 2009

Modest demands indeed. And what would have been next?

Kyt · Jun 27, 2009

It appears that the article was not just an isolated stance by a renegade officer

Poland accuses Russian TV channel of rewriting history | Top Stories from 2009-06-26 | RT

Poland’s Foreign Ministry has issued an official protest to their Russian counterparts over a history documentary, part of which was aired last Sunday. They say the film puts part of the blame for World War II on Warsaw.

The film produced and shown by the national Channel Rossiya tells the story of the treaty between Nazi Germany and Soviet Union signed in 1939, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. The non-aggression agreement had a secret protocol dividing Eastern Europe between German and Soviet spheres of influence. This later led to Germany and the Soviet Union annexing the corresponding territories.

The documentary claims that Warsaw was trying to sink down Germany’s plans to secure Moscow’s neutrality and invade Poland by convincing Japan to attack Soviet Union in the Far East.

Read more

“Poland has reasons to see Hitler as an ally, namely the 1934 treaty. In its secret part Berlin and Warsaw promised each other military help,” says in the film its author, journalist Ilya Kanavin.

Warsaw believes this documentary puts part of the blame for the beginning of World War II on Poland, reports on Friday Kommersant daily. A note of protest published by the Polish embassy in Moscow brands the documentary as “a vivid attempt to falsify history” and “a clumsy attempt to review the work of both Polish and Russian historians.” It also lashes at the authors for failing to mention that the Soviet Union violated a non-aggression agreement with Poland when it invaded the country in 1939.

The embassy suggests that the film should be considered by the presidential commission formed recently to fight against revisionism.

Channel officials so far have not commented the accusations, while the foreign ministry said it was confused about why this issue was addressed to it.

“Opinions voiced by TV channels should not be subject of consideration of official agencies. What times exactly is it suggested that we return to? There’s freedom of speech,” the response of the European department of the ministry says.

Speaking unofficially, a source in the ministry said Poland was using double standards.

“If we drew attention to everything said on Polish national channels about Russia and Soviet history, it would have been another case,” the diplomat told the newspaper.

Poland and Russia have quite a number of past and present grudges, which the countries find difficult to overcome. On Wednesday, Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper reported that at least one of them – the dispute over the Katyn massacre – may soon be closed. The mass killing of Polish prisoner soldiers and officers by Soviet secret police has been marring bilateral relations between Moscow and Warsaw for years, but thanks to the work of a commission for settlement of the issue it may be taken away from the political agenda soon.

The settlement, which entails Russia giving Poland access to classified material on the case in exchange for shelving it, is expected before September this year, when Prime Minister Putin is to visit Poland to take part in commemorations dedicated to the beginning of World War II, the newspaper says.
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Alexander · Jan 9, 2015

Von Ribbentrop December 1939 - 'The blame is with Britain':

https://archive.org/stream/GERMANFO...HE_WAR_(EN_1939_254_S._SCAN)#page/n1/mode/2up

British War Blue Book:

https://archive.org/stream/britishwarbluebo002673mbp#page/n7/mode/2up

https://archive.org/stream/Document...bfp361939-06-08Bis1939-08-14#page/n0/mode/2up

Banjo · Jan 10, 2015

George Orwell wrote, 'He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past." Putin admires Russia's Stalinist past and is employing many of the same techniques to mold the country into was before it succumbed to the sclerotic bureaucracy spawned by the five-year plans. Mao's solution in the Cultural Revolution was mobilizing young people to physically attack the bureaucrats and put them in the corner with dunce hats. Then they were sent off to the countryside to learn the joys of physical toil and the peasant's diet. Like Putin, the Chinese government has clamped down on the recent attempt to study and write about that past because they can. They control the present.
http://www.amazon.com/Great-Liars-T...=1420916755&sr=8-1&keywords=jerry jay carroll

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Russia accuses Poland of starting WW2

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