History of Poland

Historian Norman Davies observed Poland "has emerged from time to time through the mists of history – but never in the same place twice."

Poland's written history begins with the reign of Mieszko I, who accepted Christianity for himself and his kingdom in AD 966. The Polish state reached its zenith under the Jagiellonian dynasty in the years following the union with Lithuania in 1386 and the subsequent defeat of the Teutonic Knights at Grunwald in 1410. The Union of Lublin united the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania on July 1, 1569, in Lublin, Poland which created a single state known as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Polish Commonwealth was at one point the largest country in Europe, covering much of what is today Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, and Poland. The Polish experienced their Golden Age during the 16th century.

As a direct consequence of the three partitions of the Republic in 1772, 1793, and 1795, both the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania have been erased from the political map of Europe by the three European great powers – Russia, the Habsburg Monarchy, and Prussia.

The three great European powers resolved the Polish-Lithuanian question in Eastern Europe at the end of the 18th century. Such a solution was alive in practice until the end of World War I. In the interwar period, both Poland and Lithuania existed as separate national states quarreling over the Vilnius region. However, in 1939 the Fourth Partition of Poland occurred (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) in which four of Poland’s neighbors took participation: Germany, USSR, Slovakia, and Lithuania.

Partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at one time stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea. 21st century Ukrainian Nazis call the territory the 'Intermarium' ('Between the Seas').

Historical Poland (in fact, the Polish-Lithuanian Republic of Two Nations) became divided during the three partitions in 1772, 1793, and 1795 between the Kingdom of Prussia, the Habsburg Monarchy (later Austrian Empire and Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy), and the Russian Empire. At that time, the rulers of all these three states which divided Poland-Lithuania (the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) were of ethnic German origin – Frederick the Great of Prussia, Catherine the Great of Russia, and Joseph II of Austria. It means that the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (established in 1569 by the Union of Lublin), or the Republic of Two Nations was partitioned by the mutual agreement of the three ethnic German monarchs (one Roman Catholic, one Protestant and one originally Protestant, later Orthodox).

The Republic of Two Nations from the 1720s became extremely weakened from all points of view – political, military, social, geopolitical, and financial. As a direct result, the Republic’s inner political life became gradually dependent on the powerful neighboring Russian Empire. It became obvious during and after the 1733−1735 War of the Polish Succession when the last Republic’s rulers Augustus III (1734−1763) and Stanislaw Poniatowski (1764−1795) became to all intents and purposes dependent on Russia. In order to gain more independence from St. Petersburg, it was organized the Confederation of Bar in 1768 followed by the Polish revolt which was soon suppressed by the direct intervention of the Russian army.

In sum, the total territorial acquisitions by all these three neighbors of the Republic from 1772 to 1795 were as follows: the Russian Empire – 463,200 sq. kilometers (5,500,000 inhabitants); the Kingdom of Prussia – 141,400. sq. kilometers (2,600,000 inhabitants); and the Habsburg Monarchy – 128,900 sq. kilometers (4,150,000 inhabitants).

First Partition (1772)

The First Partition of the Republic in 1772 was a direct outcome of Russian geopolitical interests in the region on regaining Russian-populated territories occupied centuries earlier by the Polish-Lithuanian state (the first Polish-Lithuanian state-political union was in 1385 – the Union of Krevė/Krewo). In 1772, it was the Russian victory over the Ottoman Empire (Russo-Ottoman war 1768−1774) which alarmed the Habsburg Monarchy to such a degree that Vienna was even ready to go to war against Russia. As a mediator for the reason to avoid a new European military conflict between great powers, the Prussian king Frederick II (the Great) proposed to St. Petersburg and Vienna simply to annex parts of the Republic’s territory by their three countries in such a way that Russian territorial gain would not be objectionable to the Habsburg Monarchy. Nevertheless, as the result of the First Partition of the Republic in 1772, Russia annexed the easternmost regions of the Republic of Two Nations – Polish Livonia, Polatsk, Vitebsk, and Mohylew, having now the borders on Dnieper and Western Dvina (93,000 sq. kilometers with 1,300,000 inhabitants). The Kingdom of Prussia annexed 36,000 sq. kilometers with 580.000 people (West Prussia, Netze District, and Elbląg and the city-port of Danzig/Gdańsk). Finally, the Habsburg Monarchy received 81.000 sq. kilometers with 2,650,000 inhabitants (Galicia-Lodomeria with Lemberg/Lwów, Belz, parts of Podolia, Sandomierz, and Cracow district but without the city of Cracow itself on the north bank of the Vistula River). The new land annexed by Vienna became officially named the Kingdom of Galicia-Lodomeria (without West Galicia). That was, basically, the Palatinate of Rus. The new name was recalling the title in the old Hungarian crown (Hungary was ruled by the Habsburgs since 1526). Hungarian kings since the 12th century claimed this territory of the medieval Rus principalities of Galicia and Volhynia (Lodomeria).

Second Partition (1793)

By 1789, the Polish Commonwealth had been partitioned between the Russian, Prussian, and Austrian Empires. Poland disappeared from the map for over 130 years until it was resurrected at the Versailles conference in 1919.

After the 1772 partition, Poland-Lithuania adopted a constitution on May 3rd, 1791 (the first constitution in Europe and the second in the world after the U.S. Constitution of 1787) which gave more political power to a hereditary monarchy in order to make the inner structure of the country stronger and viable to resist further partitions of the Republic. However, Polish opponents to such a design formed another military confederation drawn up in Russia – the Confederation of Targowica. This confederation meant cooperating with the Russian tsarist authorities to restore pre-1791 constitutional democratic liberties of the feudal aristocracy against the potential absolute power of the ruler (king/grand duke). The result of such a situation was the military invasion by Russia in 1792 (supporting the legitimate claims by the confederation based on its formal invitation to intervene) and which was followed by a Prussian military intervention which both of them ended with the Second Partition of the Republic in 1793. The Habsburg Monarchy did not participate in the second partition. On this occasion, the Russian Empire re-annexed parts of the territories of old Kievan Rus' from the left bank of Western Dvina including Minsk, Pinsk, and Zelentsi to the mid-Southern Bug with Podolia up to the mid-Dnieper (the right bank). In fact, Russia included some 250,200 sq. kilometers populated by 3,000,000 people. Those lands belonged in the 15th century to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania occupied since the second half of the 13th century onward. Prussia from its side included in 1793 around 57,100 sq. kilometers of territory from Poland-Lithuania populated by around one million people of South Prussia (Great Poland) and territory around Danzig. However, in addition, Russia was given the right to station its military troops in what was left at that time from Poland-Lithuania and to control its foreign relations. Actually, the remains of the Republic of Two Nations were supervised by St. Petersburg since 1793.

Third Partition (1795)

The Third Partition of the Republic in 1795 was an outcome of a last attempt to reverse the fortune of the Commonwealth which started in March 1794 with the beginning of the widespread uprising led by Tadeusz Kościuszko (a participant in the American War of Independence against Great Britain). However, the Polish-Lithuanian rebels finally were defeated by Russia in 1795. Consequently, the remains of the Republic of Two Nations were partitioned between victorious Russia and Prussia and the noncombatant Habsburg Monarchy for the sake to keep a geopolitical balance between these three European great powers. In other words, in 1795, Russia received the greatest portion of the Republic (120,000 sq. kilometers with 1,200,000 people) including Courland, Samogitia, Lithuania proper with Wilno/Vilnius and Troki/Trakai, and Volhynia. The Kingdom of Prussia annexed 48,000 sq. kilometers populated by 1,020,000 people (New East Prussia up to the Neman/Memel River including Mazovia and a small portion of land northwest of Cracow – New Silesia). The Habsburg Monarchy occupied West Galicia or the lands beyond the Vistula River up to the Western Bug with 1,500,000 inhabitants (18,200 square miles) including the rest of Cracow (on the right bank of Vistula).

Second Polish Republic

See also: Republic of Poland

Post-1945 Poland (darkened) overlaid with inter-war borders 1921-1939.

After the First World War, Poland regained independence after 123 years of partitions. While the victorious Western allies proclaimed their support for an independent Poland, they primarily wanted to weaken Germany and the Soviet Union. As a result, their actual support was limited. One instance was the affair of Silesia. Many French and British politicians desired the industrial region of Silesia to remain part of Germany, so that Germany would have an easier time paying the Great War reparations to France and its allies. Britain provided no aid to Poland during the 1921 Silesian Uprisings. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, a plebiscite was to be held to determine which areas of ethnically mixed Silesia were to be ceded to Poland and which were to remain with Germany. In some districts of Upper Silesia, the majority of the people were Polish and opted for Poland; the majority in the rest of Upper Silesia opted for Germany. After the plebiscite, the Germans balked at handing over any part of Upper Silesia, claiming that the Versailles treaty did not call for partitioning Silesia by districts. The German interpretation was that the majority of people in Silesia had chosen Germany and so all of Silesia should remain with Germany. The German view was supported by Britain. In fact, Versailles did clearly state that Upper Silesia was to be partitioned by districts after the plebiscite.

However, France and the French military in Silesia generally took a pro-Polish stance during the 1921 Polish uprising. In the years immediately after World War I, it was French policy to weaken Germany as much as possible, and though the French did not champion the border that the Poles wanted in Silesia, the French attitude to the Polish cause in regard to the Silesian dispute was markedly pro-Polish and anti-German. Indeed, it was a ultimatum from Paris that compelled the Germans to withdraw their forces from Silesia in June 1921.

Ostensibly, the British view that all of Silesia ought to remain with Germany was based on the belief that it would allow Germany to more easily pay reparations to France; by 1921, London had largely abandoned any claims against Germany and was strongly pressuring both France and Belgium to lower their reparations claims against the Germans as much as possible. The British argument about reparations was mostly a bid to influence French public opinion; the real reason for London's pro-German stance was the belief that if Germany were to lose too much territory, this could undermine the fragile Weimar Republic and lead to extremists taking power in Germany. Thus, British policy towards Silesia in 1921 was largely motivated by the desire to consolidate German democracy. Though the British were prepared to support an interpretation of Versailles that violated both its letter and its spirit, and though the Poles were understandably angry with London’s pro-German view in this matter, it is very hard to refer to British refusal to support the Polish rebels in Silesia as a “betrayal” as Britain had never made any commitments to do so.

In 1926, Józef Piłsudski seized power in a coup d'etat.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, a complicated set of alliances was established amongst the nations of Europe, in the hope of preventing future wars (either with Germany or Soviet Russia). With the rise of Nazism in Germany, this system of alliances was strengthened by the signing of a series of "mutual assistance" alliances between France, Britain, and Poland (Franco-Polish Alliance and Anglo-Polish Alliance). This agreement stated that in the event of war the other allies were to fully mobilize and carry out a "ground intervention within two weeks" in support of the ally being attacked

Polish-Ukrainian war

The former Austrian Galicia depicted across a map of Poland's post-1945 borders.

The political transformation of the Eastern Europe after 1918 was a direct result of the collapse of the German Second Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the last months of 1918, as well as due to the unsettled western borders of the ex-Russian Empire which collapsed in 1917 and which was the midst of revolution and civil war. Most of the boundary changes in Eastern Europe after World War I resulted from decisions reached by the Triple Entente powers (Western Allied and Associated Powers during WWI) at the Paris Peace Conference that began in early 1919 resulting in five peace treaties, which were named after the castles outside Paris where they were finalized and signed.

On November 1, 1918, when the rule of Austria-Hungary collapsed in the region of East Galicia, Ukrainian political workers from West Galicia opposed Polish ambitions to unite the whole region of Galicia (Western and Eastern) into a new Second Polish Republic, and organized a coup. Local Ukrainian nationalist leaders proclaimed the independence of the West Ukrainian National People’s Republic. Helped by Ukrainian national units, they succeeded in occupying Lvov and other cities in East Galicia. This new state claimed the whole of East Galicia (eastward from the San River with Lwów) to be Ukrainian followed by North Bukovina and Carpathian Rus' (Ruthenia). However, these territorial claims immediately were challenged by local Poles who fought to unite Galicia with the newly resurrected Polish state. Consequently, the result was a Polish-Ukrainian War that lasted from November 1918 until the summer of 1919, when the Galician-West Ukrainian military detachments were expelled from East Galicia which finally became a part of the interwar (1919-1939) Polish Second Republic.

National workers of several ethnic groups within the Danube Monarchy had been preparing plans for the creation or re-establishment of their own (united) national states after the war. Polish politicians in Galicia wanted to include the whole of Galicia (Western and Eastern) into the united national state of the Polish people. However, the Ukrainian political workers from West Galicia opposed the Polish idea. On the night of November 1, 1918 the Ukrainians organized a coup. As a result, helped by Ukrainian national units, they succeeded in occupying Lvov and other cities in East Galicia. At the same time, they proclaimed the West Ukrainian People’s Republic as an independent Ukrainian state. The Poles of Lvov, being a majority of the city, were taken by surprise and organized a military defense (including schoolchildren) and soon expelled Ukrainian forces from the biggest part of the city. Nevertheless, in other cities of East Galicia, the Ukrainians had the greatest success, except in the city of Przemyśl/Peremyshl. Polish troops made advances in other cities in the western portions of East Galicia but failed in several attempts to resolve this Polish-Ukrainian conflict by arbitration. Before Poland proclaimed its own independence on November 11, 1918, the war between Polish and Ukrainian forces already was going on over East Galicia and its most important city – Lvov.

The Polish armed forces expelled the Ukrainian military from Lvov on November 22, 1918. However, Lvov was under siege by the Ukrainian military until April 1919 (five months). Nonetheless, immediately after the Ukrainian forces were driven away from Lvov, the pogroms against the Jews occurred in which up to 80 people died. The local Poles accused the Jews of supporting the Ukrainian side regarding the destiny of Lvov. Especially, the Jewish paramilitary units being armed by the Ukrainian side were accused by the Poles of anti-Polish policy in the city.

During the war between the Polish and Ukrainian forces over East Galicia in 1918−1919, the Polish side was gradually winning over the peasantry.

Polish-Soviet war

See also: Polish-Soviet war

During the Polish-Soviet War (1918-1921), there was a debate among western politicians which side they should support: the White Russians monarchists (representing the former Imperial Russia loyalists), the new Bolshevik revolutionaries, or newly independent countries trying to expand their territory at the expense of the powers that lost the First World War. Eventually, France and Britain decided to support the White Russians and Poland; however, their support to Poland was limited to the few hundred soldiers of the French military mission. Further, when it seemed likely in early 1920 that Poland would lose the war (which did not happen), Western diplomats encouraged Poland to surrender and settle for large territorial losses (the Curzon line).

In July 1920, Britain announced it would send huge quantities of World War One surplus military supplies to Poland, but a threatened general strike by the Trades Union Congress who objected to British support of "White Poland" ensured that none of the weapons that were supposed to go to Poland went any further than British ports. The British Prime Minister David Lloyd George had never been enthusiastic about supporting the Poles, and had been pressured by his more right-wing Cabinet members such as Lord Curzon and Winston Churchill into offering the supplies. The threatened general strike was for Lloyd George a convenient excuse for backing out of his commitments. The French were hampered in their efforts to supply Poland by the refusal of Danzig (modern Gdańsk, Poland) dockworkers to unload supplies for Poland. Likewise, French efforts to supply Poland via land were hindered by the refusal of Czechoslovakia and Germany (both which had border disputes with Poland) to allow arms for Poland to cross their frontiers.

Up to 1939

A powerful underground Ukrainian nationalist movement rose in Poland in the 1920s and 1930s, led by the Ukrainian Military Organization and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). The movement attracted a militant following among students and harassed the Polish authorities. Legal Ukrainian parties, the Ukrainian Catholic Church, an active press, and a business sector also flourished in Poland. Economic conditions improved in the 1920s, but the region suffered from the Great Depression in the 1930s. In 1939, as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact when Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland, Galicia and Volhynia were annexed to Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

World War II

See also: Polish People's Army and Polish Home Army

Diplomacy

See also: Western betrayal

In the years following the end of World War I and the Polish-Soviet War, Poland had signed alliances with many European powers. The most important were the military alliance with France signed on February 19, 1921 and the defensive alliance with Romania of March 3, 1921. The alliance with France was a major factor in Polish inter-war foreign relations, and was seen as the main warrant of peace in Central Europe; Poland's military doctrine was heavily influenced by this alliance as well.

As World War II was nearing, both governments started to look for a renewal of the bilateral promises. This was accomplished in May 1939, when general Tadeusz Kasprzycki signed a secret protocol (later ratified by both governments) to the Franco-Polish Military Alliance with general Maurice Gamelin. It was agreed that France would grant her eastern ally a military credit as soon as possible. In case of war with Germany, France promised to start minor land and air military operations at once, and to start a major offensive (with the majority of its forces) not later than 15 days after the declaration of war.

On March 30, 1939, the government of the United Kingdom pledged to defend Poland, in the event of a German attack, and Romania in case of other threats. The reason for the British-issued “guarantee” of Romania and Poland was a panic-stricken ad hoc reaction to rumours (later proven to be false) of an imminent German descent on Romania in late March 1939. A German seizure of oil-rich Romania would ensure that in any future Anglo-German war, a British naval blockade would not starve Germany of oil. From London’s point of view, it was imperative to keep the oil wells of Romania out of German hands. The British “guarantee” was primarily intended to block a German move against Romania; Poland was added to the “guarantee” almost as an after-thought. Only in April 1939 did it become evident that the next German target was Poland.

The British “guarantee” of Poland was only of Polish independence, and pointly excluded Polish territorial integrity. “The reasons for the guarantee policy are nowhere more clearly stated than in a memorandum by the Foreign Office, composed in the summer of 1939, which submitted that it was essential to prevent Hitler from “expanding easterwards, and obtaining control of the resources of Central and Eastern Europe,” which would enable him “to turn upon the Western countries with overwhelming force. ””. The basic goal of British foreign policy between 1919-1939 was to prevent another world war by a mixture of “carrot and stick”. The “stick” in this case was the “guarantee” of March 1939, which was intended to prevent Germany from attacking either Poland or Romania. At the same time, the Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and his Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax hoped to offer a “carrot” to Adolf Hitler in the form of another Munich type deal that would see the Free City of Danzig (modern Gdańsk, Poland) and the Polish Corridor returned to Germany in exchange for a promise by Hitler to leave the rest of Poland alone.

This declaration was further amended in April, when Poland's minister of foreign affairs Colonel Józef Beck met with Neville Chamberlain and Lord Halifax. In the aftermath of the talks, a mutual assistance treaty was signed. On August 25 the Polish-British Common Defence Pact was signed as an annex to Polish-French alliance. Like the “guarantee” of March 30, the Anglo-Polish alliance committed Britain only to the defense of Polish independence. It was clearly aimed against German aggression. In case of war, United Kingdom was to start hostilities as soon as possible; initially helping Poland with air raids against the German war industry, and joining the struggle on land as soon as the British Expeditionary Corps arrived in France. In addition, a military credit was granted and armament was to reach Polish or Romanian ports in early autumn.

A Nazi German and Soviet Communist officer shake hands after their successful invasion of Poland in September 1939.

However, both British and French governments had other plans than fulfilling the treaties with Poland. On May 4, 1939, a meeting was held in Paris, at which it was decided that the fate of Poland depends on the final outcome of the war, which will depend on our ability to defeat Germany rather than to aid Poland at the beginning. Poland's government was not notified of this decision, and the Polish–British talks in London were continued. A full military alliance treaty was ready to be signed on August 22, but His Majesty's Government postponed the signing until August 25, 1939.

At the same time secret German-Soviet talks were held in Moscow which resulted in signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on August 22. The full text of the treaty, including the secret protocol assuming a partition of Poland and Soviet military help to Germany in case of war, was known to the British government thanks to Hans von Herwarth, an American informer in the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Yet, Poland's government was not informed of this fact either.

The Phony War

For a more detailed treatment, see Phony War.

Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany after ultimatums to withdraw expired on September 3. However, some other items of the March 30 guarantee pledge were violated; most notably the failure to respond with an overland invasion from the West. The pledge would not have obliged France and Great Britain to declare war on the Soviet Union due to the actual wording of the pact that specifically named Germany as the potential aggressor. This was kept secret for diplomatic reasons. Great Britain and France enforced a naval blockade on Germany and seized German ships starting with the declaration of war.

According to the Franco-Polish military convention, the French Army was to start preparations for the major offensive three days after the mobilization started. The French forces were to effectively gain control over the area between the French border and the German lines and to probe the German defences. On the 15th day of the mobilisation (that is on September 16), the French Army was to start a full scale assault on Germany. The pre-emptive mobilisation was started in France on August 26, and on September 1, the full mobilization was declared. A French offensive in the Rhine river valley area (Saar Offensive) started on September 7. Eleven French divisions (out of 102 being mobilized) advanced along a 32 km line near Saarbrücken with negligible German opposition. However, the half-hearted offensive was halted after France seized the Warndt Forest, three square miles of heavily-mined German territory. At the same time Great Britain, who promised to start air-raids on German industry as soon as possible, conducted a number of air raids against the German Kriegsmarine on September 4 1939, losing 2 Wellington and 5 Blenheim bombers in the action. During those first days of the war RAF Whitley night bombers also dropped propaganda leaflets on German cities, taking great care to ensure that the leaflets were not dropped tied together so that they would cause no casualties on the ground. On September 11, the leaflet raids were halted.

Both the pre-war reports of the Polish intelligence and the post-war testimonies of German generals (most notably of Wilhelm Keitel and Alfred Jodl) reported that there was an equivalent of less than 20 divisions facing France in 1939, as compared to roughly 90 French divisions. Eleven of them were under-manned infantry divisions, mostly stripped of all heavy equipment, while the rest was composed mainly of second-line troops, march battalions and border guards. Similarly, most of the Luftwaffe and all armoured units were then in Poland while the Siegfried Line was severely under-manned and far from completed. Knowing all of the above, the Allied commanders expected that the French offensive would quickly break the German lines and force the OKW to withdraw a large part of its forces fighting on Polish soil back to German western frontier. This would force Germany to fight a costly two-front war.

The French assault was to be carried out by roughly 40 divisions, including one armoured division, three mechanized divisions, 78 artillery regiments and 40 tank battalions. All the necessary forces were mobilized in the first week of September. On September 12, the Anglo-French Supreme War Council gathered for the first time at Abbeville in France. It was decided that all offensive actions were to be halted immediately. By then, the French divisions have advanced approximately eight kilometres into Germany on a 24 kilometres long strip of the frontier in the Saarland area. Maurice Gamelin ordered his troops to stop not closer than 1 kilometre from the German positions along the Siegfried Line. Poland was not notified of this decision. Instead, Gamelin informed marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły that half of his divisions are in contact with the enemy, and that French advances have forced the Wehrmacht to withdraw at least six divisions from Poland. The following day, the commander of the French Military Mission to Poland, General Louis Faury, informed the Polish Chief of Staff, General Wacław Stachiewicz, that the planned major offensive on the western front had to be postponed from September 17 to September 20. At the same time, French divisions were ordered to retreat to their barracks along the Maginot Line. The Phony war started.

The Allied attitude towards Poland in 1939 has been a subject of an ongoing dispute among historians ever since. Some historians argue that if only France had pursued the offensive agreed on in the treaties, it would have definitely been able to break through the unfinished Siegfried Line and force Germany to fight a costly two-front war that it was in no position to win. At the same time, others argue that France and Britain had promised more than they would deliver — especially when confronted with the option to declare war on the Soviet Union for violating Poland's territory on September 17, 1939 the way they had on Germany on September 3, 1939 — and that the French army was superior to the Wehrmacht in numbers only. It lacked the offensive doctrines, mobilization schemes, and offensive spirit necessary to attack Germany. Also, while the bulk of Luftwaffe was engaged in Poland, neither the French airforce nor the British Royal Air Force engaged in any operations against Germany beyond the leaflet droppings.

It is unlikely, given Soviet strategic doctrine of opportunistic war that they would have carried on with invasion of Poland fulfilling their promises given to Germans. Through Germans asked Russians to invade Poland on September 3 no such action took place till September 17, 1939. This is partly due to Soviet Union waiting for a proof of Poland's collapse as well as lack of military involvement on the part of the Allies.

The problem with Polish expectations was that the French and British commitments greatly exaggerated their capabilities. Although France promptly declared war, the French mobilization was not complete until early October, by which time Poland had fallen. In Britain where mobilization was more rapid, only 1 in 40 men were mobilized (compared to 1 in 10 in France, and 1 in 20 in Poland), thus providing only a token force against Germany's forces of several million. The presumption that "something could have been done but wasn't" overlooks the basic fact that the West, just like Poland, was ill-equipped to fight Germany even with the majority of German forces engaged in the east. After the war, General Alfred Jodl commented that the Germans survived 1939 "only because approximately 110 French and English divisions in the West, which during the campaign on Poland were facing 25 German divisions, remained completely inactive."

In the end, many Poles believe that although Poland held out for five weeks, three weeks longer than was planned, it received no military aid from its allies, the United Kingdom and France. Additionally Poland never surrendered to either the Germans or Russians. The agreed upon "two week ground response" never materialized, and it is contended that Poland fell to the Nazis and the Soviets as a result. It is uncertain whether the British or French had any real capacity to launch a successful offensive on the German-French border before mid-October 1939. Nevertheless, many Poles believe that an offensive within a two week timeframe was what they had promised the Polish government.

Aftermath of German and Soviet invasions

After the hostilities ended, German propaganda tried to win Poles and ensure collaboration by underlining that Poland was abandoned by her allies, and that the only world order that could ensure peaceful and prosperous life for the Poles was the German Reich.^{[Citation Needed]} These claims were even strengthened by the French cease-fire signed in 1940 which was a clear violation of the alliance (both parties agreed not to sign any unilateral agreements with Germany).

Similar slogans were expressed by the Soviet Union propaganda until 1989. The official propaganda in all Eastern Bloc countries stated that Poland was betrayed and the only ally Poland could rely on was the Kremlin.

Katyn massacre

The Katyń Massacre was the mass murder of 21,768 Polish army officers and members of the intelligentsia and middle classes by Soviet NKVD killers at the Katyn Forest in western Russia and other locations in Poland, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. The killings were directly ordered by Stalin, on the suggestion of his secret police chief Lavrenty Beria, following the Soviet annexation of eastern Poland in 1939. The crime was discovered and announced to the world by the invading German forces in 1943, and led to the breaking-off of diplomatic relations between the London-based Polish Government-in-exile and the Soviet Government. The leadership of one Allied country fighting the Nazis had essentially liquidated the political and military leadership of another Allied country.

The executions carried out in Katyn were ruthless and efficient. Most prisoners had their hands bound and were either led to a mass grave, where the were subsequently shot in the back of the head or neck. In some cases, especially high-ranking officers were led into a nearby slaughterhouse where their identity could be firmly established with identity cards and files. They were then led into an adjoining room where they were also shot in the back of the head. The bodies were dumped in large trucks and driven to mass grave sites.

Among those murdered at Katyn were an admiral, two generals, 24 colonels, 79 lieutenant colonels, 258 majors, 654 captains, 17 naval captains, 3,420 Non-Commissioned officers, seven chaplains, three landowners, a prince, 43 officials, 85 privates, and 131 refugees.

Among the civilian victims were 20 university professors, 300 physicians, several hundred lawyers, engineers, and teachers; and more than 100 writers and journalists as well as about 200 pilots.

From the very beginning of Polish-Soviet talks in 1941, the government of Poland was searching for approximately 20,000 Polish officers missing in Russia. Stalin always replied that they either must have fled to Mongolia or are somewhere in Russia, which is a big country and it's easy to get lost here. In April 1943 German news agencies reported finding mass graves of Polish soldiers in Katyn. The Polish government requested the Soviet Union examine the case and at the same time asked the International Red Cross for help in verifying the German reports.

On April 24, 1943, Sikorski met with Anthony Eden and demanded Allied help in releasing Polish prisoners in the gulags and Soviet prisons. Sikorski also declined the Soviet demand that Poland withdraw their plea to have the Red Cross investigate Katyn. Eden refused to help and the Soviet Union broke diplomatic relations with Poland on the following day, arguing that the Polish government-in-exile was collaborating with Nazi Germany. Despite Polish pleas for help, the United States and the United Kingdom decided not to pursue the matter the USSR.

After the Soviets stopped the German advance on the Eastern Front, Poland lost its significance as the main Eastern ally. This was made obvious by the German defeat at Stalingrad.

While a wartime International Red Cross investigation established the murders occurred in Soviet-occupied Poland before the German advance into those territories where they discovered the mass graves, the Supreme Allied prosecutors and judges at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal assented to Soviet demands that this war crime be included in the indictment against top Nazis, for which the defendants were convicted, along with all the other charges of genocide.

The Soviet Union denied responsibility for the murders until 1990. In 2010, the Duma of the Russian Federation officially condemned the crime and apologized to Poland.

Atlantic Charter

Soon after the Third Reich had invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, the Polish government in exile signed a pact with Joseph Stalin. Although the Poles wanted a declaration that all pacts the USSR had signed with the Nazis were null and void, Stalin refused to consider any suggestion that he surrender the territory he seized consequent to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. It was to uphold security guarantees given to Poland at the Treaty of Versailles that the British Empire entered the war in the first place and empire was sympathetic to Polish interests. The british Empire nonetheless pressured the Poles to withdraw this demand, since, in Churchill's words, "We could not force our new and sorely threatened [Soviet] ally to abandon, even on paper, regions on her frontier which she regarded for generations as vital to her security." The London Poles conceded but only after the British Empire agreed to state in writing that all agreements that adjusted Poland's pre-war borders were null and void. The Soviet-Polish agreement was signed on July 30, 1941, and Anthony Eden formally notified the UK House of Commons of the arrangements that same day. In response to a parliamentary question about Britain's commitment, however, Eden stated that "The exchange of notes which I have just read to the House does not involve any guarantee of frontiers by His Majesty's Government."

The Poles were more successful in obtaining Soviet agreement to the creation of the Polish Army in the East, and obtaining the release of Polish citizens from the Soviet labor camps. Despite the difficulties the Soviet government made, many were freed from confinement and permitted to join the Polish Army formed formally on August 12, 1941. However, after the troops were withdrawn to the Middle East in March 1942, Stalin revoked the amnesty and in June and July arrested all Polish diplomats in the USSR.

Meanwhile, on September 24, 1941, Poland and the Soviet Union signed the Atlantic Charter. It underlined that no territorial changes should be made that would not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned. It was viewed by the Polish government as a warrant of Poland's borders, although it became apparent that some concessions would have to be made.

In December 1941, a Conference was held in Moscow between the USSR and Great Britain. Stalin proposed to base post-war Polish western borders on the Oder-Neisse Line and demanded that the United Kingdom accept the pre-war western borders of the Soviet Union. Anthony Eden accepted the demand as he assumed that the border in question was the 1939 line. However, Stalin apparently meant the 1941 border with Germany. It was soon discovered, but British government decided not to change the document. On March 11, 1942, Winston Churchill notified Prime Minister Władysław Sikorski that the borders of the Baltic States and Romania were guaranteed, and that no decision was made regarding the borders of Poland.

Warsaw ghetto uprising

See also: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Beginning at 3 am on April 19, 1943, Nazi tanks and SS troops began assaulting a Jewish ghetto in Poland. Jewish resistance fighters, totaling 700 to 750, opposed 2000 heavily armed Germans. The Jewish resistance fighters had some weapons, but no more than three light machine guns.

Waffen SS soldiers and elements of the Sicherheitsdienst sought to clear the ghetto of 60,000 Jewish residents in only three days. But the resistance fighters held off the Nazis for nearly a month, marking the first time in World War II that there was an uprising against Nazis in territory under German control. Eventually, SS forces destroyed the ghetto and its synagogue.

Volhynia massacre

See also: Volhynia massacre

In the Polish village of Parosle near Sarny, a gang of Ukrainian nationalists posing as Soviet partisans deceived the villagers who had hosted the gang during the day. In the evening, the bandits surrounded all the houses and killed the Polish population. 173 people were killed. Only three people survived. Two were able to hide under the corpses and one boy turned himself in. A later investigation of the murdered revealed the extreme cruelty of the executioners. Infants had been nailed to tables with kitchen knives. Several people were skinned. Women were raped, some had their breasts cut off, many had their ears and noses cut off, their eyes cut out, their heads cut off. After the massacre, there was a drinking feast in the house of the local village school. After the executioners left, among the scattered bottles of homemade liquor and leftovers, a one-year-old child was found nailed to the table with a bayonet and had a piece of sour cucumber in his mouth that one of the bandits had not eaten."

Tehran conference

In November 1943, the Big Three (USSR, USA, and UK) met at the Tehran Conference. Both Roosevelt and Churchill officially agreed that the eastern borders of Poland would roughly follow the Curzon Line. The Polish government was not notified of this decision and the only information given was the press release claiming that We await the day, when all nations of the world will live peacefully, free of tyranny, according to their national needs and conscience. The resulting loss of the "eastern territories," approximately 48% of Poland's pre-war territory, to the Soviet Union is seen by Poles as another "betrayal" by their Western "Allies".

Oder-Neisse Line

According to many historians, Churchill and Roosevelt promised Stalin to settle the issue with the Poles, however they never sincerely informed the Polish side. When the Polish Prime Minister visited Moscow, he was convinced he was coming to discuss borders that were still disputed, while Stalin believed everything had already been settled. This was the principal reason for the failure of Polish Prime Minister's mission to Moscow.

Potsdam conference

All prewar German territories east of the Oder–Neisse line and within the 1937 German boundaries – comprising nearly one quarter (23.8 percent) of the Weimar Republic – were ceded under the changes decided at the Potsdam Conference, with the majority ceded to Poland. The remainder, consisting of northern East Prussia including the German city of Königsberg (renamed Kaliningrad), was allocated to the Soviet Union, as the Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR) (today Russian Federation). Much of the German population in these territories – estimated at around 12 million in autumn 1944 – had fled in the wake of the Soviet Red Army's advance. The remainder were deported to Germany west of the Oder-Neisse line.

Polish People's Republic

In 1945, Poland was forced by the Big Three powers at the Potsdam conference to give up its eastern territories to Ukraine and Lithuania, in exchange for Germany's eastern territories of Pomerania and Silesia. Poland's former territories, including the cities of Lvov and Vilnius were incorporated and annexed under an agreement by the Communist rulers of Poland, Ukraine, and Lithuania. Poland ended up losing its eastern territories which comprised half of the country and a sizable portion of the population.

The former Austrian Galicia province.

In October 1956, after the 20th ("De-Stalinization") Soviet Party Congress in Moscow and riots by workers in Poznan, there was a shakeup in the communist regime. While retaining most traditional communist economic and social aims, the regime of First Secretary Wladyslaw Gomulka liberalized Polish internal life.

In 1968, the trend reversed when student demonstrations were suppressed and an "anti-Zionist" campaign initially directed against Gomulka supporters within the party eventually led to the emigration of much of Poland's remaining Jewish population. In December 1970, disturbances and strikes in the port cities of Gdańsk, Gdynia, and Szczecin, triggered by a price increase for essential consumer goods, reflected deep dissatisfaction with living and working conditions in the country. Edward Gierek replaced Gomulka as First Secretary.

Fueled by large infusions of Western credit, Poland's economic growth rate was one of the world's highest during the first half of the 1970s. But much of the borrowed capital was misspent, and the centrally planned economy was unable to use the new resources effectively. The growing debt burden became insupportable in the late 1970s, and economic growth had become negative by 1979.

In October 1978, the Bishop of Kraków, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, became Pope John Paul II, head of the Roman Catholic Church. Polish Catholics rejoiced at the elevation of a Pole to the papacy and greeted his June 1979 papal visit to Poland with an outpouring of emotion.

In July 1980, with the Polish foreign debt at more than $20 billion, the government made another attempt to increase meat prices. A chain reaction of strikes virtually paralyzed the Baltic coast by the end of August and, for the first time, closed most coalmines in Silesia. Poland was entering into an extended crisis that would change the course of its future development.

External link

• VOLHYNIA. NO STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS - DOCUMENTARY DISCUSSING UKRAINIAN MASSACRE OF POLES (ENG SUBS)
• Russia vs Poland. 1000-Year Duel. Part 2 | RT Documentary
• Russia vs Poland. 1000-Year Duel. Part 3 | RT Documentary