Another "history lesson" from Putin: Is it true that Poland provoked Hitler to start World War II

In an interview with Taer Karlson, Vladimir Putin said Poland itself provoked the fighting of Nazi Germany's leader Hitler, who seemed to want to solve everything peacefully. So Putin hinted at the wine of Warsaw in lighting the Second World War. The focus was understood in the vicissitudes of the pre -war years to give a qualified answer about the role of Poland in the deployment of the largest humanitarian tragedy of the XX century.

The interwar Poland or the second thing of the Commonwealth was one of the states born Versailles. That is, it was formed as a result of the First World War on the wreckage of the defeated Austria-Hungary and Germany, as well as Russia, which was self-escaped from the war as a result of the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. It was planned that a number of nation -states in the ethnic borders of their peoples would be formed as a result of the collapse of the defeated empires.

It should have been a response to the national movements of many peoples of Europe, which took place during the nineteenth century against the continental empires, which were enslaved by many European peoples, mostly Slavs, including Poles and Ukrainians. Since the First World War began empires, such a course had to become one of the factors that would protect humanity from a new bloody war.

After all, a self -sufficient nation, which lives within its natural area - its ethnic territories, where its language is widespread and people live ethnically proper, should not be aggressively against other free nations. Unlike empires, the nature of which is the enslavement of new and new peoples. However, the idyll did not happen and everything went wrong from the very beginning.

First, only the victorious empires were collapsed (Russia, as already mentioned after the Bolshevik coup came out of the war, so its history took place in a different context). The argument that the victorious states were continental empires and enslaved of the European peoples was not convincing for all. And it was this half that later used Adolf Hitler in his appeals to the current Versailles world order.

Even more discredited by the intersection (unfortunately, the history of the interwar) world system was unjust division of borders and the fact that statehood was not received by all enslaved peoples. Among the victims were, in particular, Ukrainians whose ethnic territories were divided between virtually new empires (albeit small) - Romania, Czechoslovakia and Poland.

The second thing of the Commonwealth put her hand to the destruction of the statehood of Ukrainians and Belarusians, and also seized part of the ethnic territory of the Lithuanians together with their ancient capital Vilnius, which became the Polish provincial city of Vilna. Part of the Polish ethnic territory, instead, was part of Czechoslovakia (Teshinskaya Silesia), which by its colorful population began to resemble the destroyed Habsburg empire in miniature.

This state of affairs was to some extent due to the fact that for hundreds of years of existence of the empires of the population of enslaved peoples it was moved (sometimes it was done specifically by the imperial center itself), and therefore the territory of real compact residence of people of a certain ethnicity was often not corresponded to the historical habitat of a certain people.

Thus, the Ukrainian lands have been part of Poland since the 15th century, so when the first division of the Commonwealth took place in the XVIII century, a two -tier occupation took place - the conquest of previously conquered lands. Instead, Prussia, which then received northern Poland, began to populate massively in the new territories of her people. Therefore, as of 1918, a considerable number of Germans have lived on the Baltic coast of historical Poland.

In the end, the League of Nations, contrary to its principles, recognized the territory of Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania occupied by Poland, but historically the Polish city of Gdansk under the German version of the name Danzig received the status of a "free city", that is, the territory under the international administration - the League of Nations Mandate.

It should be noted that the successor to the League of Nations of the United Nations, tried to make a similar trick with Jerusalem (to know him under international administration) and this also ended with war. Therefore, part of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea returned to Poland again. Warsaw received access to the sea, and the defeated Germany received an excaslav in the form of East Prussia.

Therefore, the new old Polish territories in Germany were called the Danzig corridor - the land path to their eastern lands. So we sum up. In the mid-1920s, the map of Eastern Europe was substantially overwhelmed.

However, at the exit of the world, he saw not a number of new nation-states in their historical and ethnographic borders, which should be the key to further peace (no one would need to share something), and a set of new states formed on an incomprehensible principle (in fact, each of them had its own Unique bloody history) and more like miniature empires rather than new nation -states.

And their borders did not correspond to historical and ethnographic realities, because they were formed in accordance with the conditions caused by hostilities. If you translate into a clear language, everyone got as much as it was able to win.

So the Poles who were oppressed by the people in the Habsburg empire (Habsburg themselves did not consider it), in the German and Russian empires as a result of the wars of 1918-1921, they could not take control of all 100% of their ethnic territories, instead conquered some of the ethnic lands of Ukrainians, Belarusians and Lithuanians. They took as much as they were able to win. The military principle was not decisive here, but simply one.

More about the history of Ukrainian lands is now being studied in history lessons at school in grade 10. Instead, in the north, Poland received from the states of the territory that belonged to it in the XVIII century (before its seizure by Russian, Austrian empires and Prussia, which they called the diplomatic word "Podil"). Historical justice was restored. However, for over a hundred years, Prussia's occupation has settled these territories with their people.

Therefore, at the domestic level and ethnographically, these lands were already German. In this situation, the international community made a "Solomon Solution" with Danzig under the mandate of the League of Nations. A similar situation concerned almost all of Eastern Europe. It was an inoran field for the Nazi government, which came to power in Germany in 1933 to destroy the current world order. The new German Chancellor Adolf Hitler was really where to go.

Such a controversial and haphazard post -war division of borders gave the Nazis fair arguments almost against every aspect. And the worst part is that everyone around the sense of reality and the instinct of self -preservation and in every possible way indulged by revenge on issues where they saw their own benefits. So, when Hitler began to dismember Czechoslovakia under the pretext of protecting the rights of the Sudeten Germans, the second thing took part in it.

She also introduced troops on the territory of the Czechoslovakia, abolished the territory of compact residence of the Polish ethnic population, for which they lost the war in 1918 - the same Teshin Silesia. At that time, the greedy Polish top did not suspect that the meter was launched to destroy their own statehood. A year after that, the "happy reunification" of the Polish state did not exist.

Even before these events, the important step of Warsaw to the abyss was the coercion of Lithuania to recognize the existing borders, that is, the Polish occupation of their lands. The fact is that since 1923, when the annexation of the Vilnius region has recognized the League of Nations, Lithuania has severed diplomatic relations and any connection with the second thing.

Warsaw believed that the growth of international tension was playing them in their hand - the United Kingdom and France were regarded by Poland as an ally and a restraining factor for Germany, who would again have to fight for two fronts in such geopolitical realities. The Commonwealth also divided the Nazi Germany and the USSR geographically.

Understanding its geopolitical weight in the conditions of such realities, Poland in March 1938 put forward Lithuania an ultimatum, in which the latter had to immediately recognize the existing borders between the states. The support of Poland in the United Kingdom and France led to the actual betrayal of Lithuania by the Allies on the Baltic Antanta - Latvia and Estonia, which joined international pressure on it.

Left one against the world, Lithuania agreed to fulfill the conditions of the Polish ultimatum. Warsaw was at the zenith of glory and power, at least in the interpretation of the Polish establishment. However, in his next "History lesson" Putin was not about it. The Kremlin Head himself fully imitates Hitler in his effort to find a variety of shortcomings in the current world order and then "get out of the elephant fly", as much as possible by hypertrophining.

He also imitates it in the use of "Minority Rights" in neighboring countries. Hitler "defended" ethnic Germans, respectively, Putin - Russians. Another question is that the modern aggressor dictator has less accomplices in the desire to eat the territories of their neighbors and there are none in Europe at all (at least no action in this direction has done).

Back in October 1938, after the "resolution of the Sudeten Question" in favor of Germany, Adolf Hitler switched to another place of compact residence of the German population - the Danzig corridor. In Warsaw, it was assumed that the Nazi dictator would not stop, but there was hoped that the next purpose would be a memoir - the territory of compact residence of the Germans in Lithuania.

Hitler really often mentioned Memel in his speeches, and this became one of the arguments of pressure on Lithuania in history with an ultimatum (which was afraid to remain one against such a mighty enemy), but he quickly achieved his tiny, weak and abandoned Lithuania, which allowed Nazis focus your efforts on Danzig. The Danzig corridor was critical for both sides in geopolitical terms.

First, Danzig himself was a large port city, secondly, the accession of these territories to connect Germany with Eastern Prussia and at the same time cut Poland from the Baltic Sea-its only connection with its Western allies. In this case, Warsaw was in a hostile environment and its sovereignty would remain simple formality. Therefore, the case of the Danzig corridor was not only a matter of territorial integrity of the Second Commonwealth, but also a condition for its strategic survival.

It was the city of Danzig, which was inhabited mainly by the Germans and with the arrival of power in Germany, the Nazis was governed by local national socialists at a weak position of the League of Nations. In the end, it became a reference point of the Reich special services and the place of collection of anti -Polish forces of different directions. As of the winter of 1938-1939, the city authorities were completely loyal to the Reich.

It remains only to establish actual control over the city and to punch the land path, occupying directly Polish territories. On August 23, 1939, on the day of the Nonpad Pact on Germany and the USSR, Gaulayter Danziga Albert Fortern proclaimed himself the head of state, the free city of Danzig. Yes, it came from the jurisdiction of the League of Nations. The international legal system of Versailles has ceased to operate.

The next few days, the United Kingdom tried to organize direct negotiations between the Third Reich and the second thing in the Commonwealth, bringing their armed forces in parallel to combat readiness. Instead, the Germans accused the British and Poles of aggressive politics and brought their troops into alert. On August 30, a meeting of the Polish Foreign Minister with a German delegation fell.

On the evening of August 31, the Nazi government put forward an ultimatum of 16 points, the essence of which was that Danzig "returned" to the Third Reich, and Poland should guarantee the rights of German minorities. A few hours later, the invasion of German and Slovak troops into the Polish territory began. No one was going to expect an answer to an ultimatum.

In his speech in the Reichstasis on September 1, 1939, where Hitler came in a gray shirt - the military uniform of the "First Soldier of the Reich", he stated that above all he wanted a peaceful resolution ". The German dictator also assured that above all he puts the life of a civilian population and has already ordered the Wehrmacht to carry out hostilities, taking into account the preservation of civilians. The cost of all these words has already been appreciated.

In fact, the analogies between the current situation and the Second World War are present. However, they do not apply to the victim of aggression, which finally became the second thing, but the hypocrisy of the aggressor, who tried to play the role of a peacekeeper and a restorative of justice in "unfairly arranged under the western dictate of the world.

" The second thing was indeed introduced by the Lept into inciting international tension, behaving as a true hyena, which feeds on malnutrition, which leaves a larger predator after its "bloody banquet". But it, like other states, including Western countries that have taken an extremely indecisive position on the aggressor, can be accused of creating a basis for aggression. The devil, Hitler and Putin always come to the harvested soil.

And it was before his preparation, in particular, put his hand and the Commonwealth. However, the Kremlin dictator thinks in a completely different channel. He would be glad now if the same Poland did the same. Russian propagandists have repeatedly expressed their pink dreams that Poland was about to "take away" Western Ukraine, and Hungary (by the way, a real ally of Hitler)-Transcarpathia. However, some conclusions seem not only in Warsaw but also in Budapest.

Instead, the Russian aggressor considers the victim of the victim the very fact of resistance; The victims of the dawn of contrary to the will of a strong state, which decided to overcome the borders of the weaker under any reason. For the President of the Russian Federation, the provocation of war is not the annexation of the territories of the neighbors, but the refusal to give their own. Therefore, Putin's views on history and so diametrically diverge with the views of the civilized world.