80 Years Later

On August 23, 1939, the Soviet Union and Germany signed the Non-aggression Pact. The Soviet Union was compelled to do so by severe necessity, and the difficult decision was made under duress. It had to be made in a very limited time, when the failure of the Anglo-Franco-Soviet trilateral negotiations became obvious, and the possibility of rapprochement between Britain and France with Germany was becoming ever more real. It was necessary to take into account the Japanese factor – the ongoing hostilities at Khalkhin Gol and the military tension in relations with Tokyo that set in for an indefinite time. The Soviet Union could not wage war on two fronts, in the East and the West.
 
By signing the Pact and the secret protocol, the Soviet leadership pursued the following goals:
- prevent being drawn into the war;
- disrupt the emerging Anglo-German deal (second Munich pact);
- retain room for military-strategic and political manoeuvre;
- prevent Nazi occupation of the entire territory of Poland, which would significantly worsen the military-strategic position of the Soviet Union.
 
While the Munich Pact gave the Nazis an entire European country and its population to ravage, including Jews who were subject to mass destruction, the August 23 deal removed vast areas of Western Ukraine and Belarussia from the German sphere of influence, saving them from the “new order” and a Holocaust.

The Nazi occupation of Poland confirmed that the decision adopted by the Soviet leadership was correct. Great Britain and France left the Poles to their fate and, without losing hope of a confrontation between Germany and the Soviet Union, made a choice in favour of the so-called Phoney War, which was waged for more than eight months and significantly facilitated Hitler's aggression against European countries and the Soviet Union.(1)

Lets us not forget that by signing the Munich Agreement of 1938, Poland, Hungary, and Great Britain directly took part in the dismemberment of the Czech Republic. After this happened, the Czechs uttered an ominous warning to Poland that they will be Hitler's next victims; a warning that proved all too true.

Poles to this day whine and cry over the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact of 1939 which dismembered their country, yet conveniently forget about Poland's part in dismembering the Czech Republic. 

Although Poland's interest in the Munich Pact was driven by the recovery of the Teschen district-which the Czechs took away in an unfair manner by going back on an earlier deal they made with Poland some years earlier-it was still in very poor taste for Poland to exploit the Hitlerian dismantling of a European state to get that territory back. Poland paid for this scummy deed a year later.

And as for blaming the Soviet Union for invading Poland on September 17, 1939, the Soviets paid for this a year or so later during Operation Barbarossa, and redeemed themselves by the great sacrifice they made to the victory over Nazism.

Poles need to seriously reflect on what would have been the fate of Poland-as well as the rest of Europe-if Nazi Germany succeeded in marching into Moscow and taking control over Russia in 1941. The natural resources of a defeated Russia would multiply Germany's strength, and neither Great Britain and the US would have any appetite for confronting it at that point.

So Poles should consider themselves lucky. They got the least worse option out of the two. Because what Hitler had planned for the Poles, Russians, and other Slav 'subhumans' made Stalinist abuses pale in comparison.

Poland has an unhealthy and fatalistic tendency to view historical events selectively. It cherry-picks German and Soviet crimes and points them out, sometimes to the point of morbid paranoid obsession, but conveniently forgets its own shortcomings. This is most evident when it comes to WW2.


Poland also added fuel to the fire it found itself in on September 1, 1939 when it repeatedly refused to enter into any anti-German pact which included the Soviet Union. Poland's rabid Russophobia proved to be its ultimate undoing. If Poland did join in a pact with the Soviets and other nations, perhaps Hitler would've been too scared to launch any wars and there would be no Molotov-Ribbentrop treaty or a WW2.

And lastly, Poles need to keep in mind the extreme devastation and death visited upon them between 1939-1945, learn from it, and help ensure that this never happens again. 

Poles can do this by shunning confrontation and animosity (along with anyone who promotes it) and work for the peaceful resolution of differences and problems with every country-especially with Russia-instead of taunting, provoking, and insulting it at every turn for shallow political ends at the behest of the US regime and the NATO rabble.

This is the only sane, sensible, and responsible way to go, and is in Poland's best interest. 

The other path could very well lead to a future that will make Poland's WW2 losses look like a paper cut; and that's only if there is even anything left of Poland after the radioactive dust settles.

Sources:

1. https://sputniknews.com/world/201909011076696900-moscow-reminds-europe-ussr-saved-it-from-nazis-as-poland-snubs-russia-in-wwii-commemoration/