Poland marked its appearance on the map of Europe in modern times with an attack in March 1919 on Russia, which lay in the ruins of civil war and intervention. Despite the almost lightning-fast seizure of Kiev, Vilno and Minsk, in order to solve the task set by Pilsudski "to reach Moscow and write on the Kremlin wall: it is forbidden to speak Russian!" the strength was not enough. Therefore, in June of the same year, a 70,000-strong army, formed in France - mainly from Americans of Polish origin, arrived in Poland. By the spring of 1920, the French had sent their generals and ensured supplies to Poland of 1,494 guns, 2,800 machine guns, 385,500 rifles, 42,000 revolvers, about 700 aircraft, 10 million shells, 4,500 carts, 3 million sets of uniforms, 4 million pairs of shoes, communications equipment, medicines.
Immediately after that, Poland, together with the Petliura gangs, again moved to the East, intending to include Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania in its composition. Half of it succeeded. Western Ukraine and Belarus, Vilna and Vilna region were occupied. In Polish concentration camps, tens of thousands of captured Red Army soldiers found painful death.
However, the Poles did not confine themselves to the gifts of the Versailles Treaty and the seizures in the East. The Piłsudski regime, having organized riots in Upper Silesia with the help of sent saboteurs and terrorists, occupied this region (together with Katowice). It should be noted that a large number of Germans lived in these territories, some of whom ended up in Polish concentration camps. This did not end there. In addition to the above, Poland captured Galicia from Austria.
With the coming of Hitler to power, an active Polish-German rapprochement began. Poland voluntarily assumed the protection of German interests in the League of Nations after the demonstrative withdrawal of Nazi Germany from there on October 14, 1933. But even then the words of Hitler, written in the early 1920s, began to be put into practice: “We start where we left off six centuries ago. We will put an end to the eternal German aspiration to the south and west of Europe and direct our gaze towards the lands in the east … But when we talk today about new lands in Europe, we can mean, first of all, Russia and the border states subordinate to it”.
An important milestone in the formation of Nazi Germany was the conclusion on January 26, 1934 of the 10-year German-Polish treaty "On friendship and non-aggression." The document was supplemented by an agreement on trade and navigation, separate agreements on the press, radio broadcasting, cinema, theater, etc. It was envisaged that the pact would remain in force in the event that one of the contracting parties entered the war with third states.
From the rostrum of the League of Nations, Polish diplomats justified Hitler's violations of the Versailles and Locarno Treaties, whether it was the introduction of universal conscription in Germany, the lifting of military restrictions, or the entry of Nazi troops into the demilitarized Rhineland in 1936.
The "special relations" of Poland with another member of the fascist tripartite alliance, Japan, were also preserved, which were established during the Russo-Japanese War, when the Polish revolutionary Pilsudski collaborated with Japanese intelligence. When, in the fall of 1938, the League of Nations adopted a resolution imposing sanctions against Japan in connection with the expansion of Japanese aggression against China, the Polish ambassador to Tokyo, Count Romer, was the first foreign representative to inform the Japanese government on October 4 that Poland would not comply with the resolution.
In the fall of 1938, Poland, together with Hungary and under the patronage of Germany, actively participated in the occupation of Czechoslovakia (Berlin needed the assistance of Poland and Hungary - this gave the aggression the wrapper of a peacekeeping action - in the spirit of how the United States and NATO bombed Yugoslavia, "saving" the Kosovar Albanians). This is despite the fact that the Poles themselves had serious problems with the German territories, illegally seized and forcibly held. As a result of all these wars and conflicts, Poland by 1939 had territorial problems with all its neighbors.
But what about neighboring countries! Poland, imagining itself a great power, dreamed of African colonies! There was not enough "living space". From the beginning of 1937, the Poles began to exaggerate on a large scale the topic of their dissatisfaction with the solution of colonial issues. On April 18, 1938, Poland widely celebrated Colonies Day. The pompous action was accompanied by chauvinistic demonstrations demanding more overseas colonies for the great Polish nation. On this occasion, solemn services were sent in churches. Films on a colonial theme were shown in cinemas. On March 11, 1939, a whole program on the colonial question was published …
By this time, Poland had its own internal colonies - Western Ukraine and Belarus. In relation to the occupied territories, a tough policy of polonization was carried out. The Polish regime was engaged in cleansing the so-called Eastern Kres from foreigners, which were considered Jews, Ukrainians, Belarusians. In the field of anti-Bolshevism, zoological anti-Semitism flourished. In the cities, the authorities instigated Jewish pogroms; after the German occupation of Poland, joint German-Polish patrols will catch Jews.
In view of the hostile attitude of the local population towards the Polish occupiers, the latter began to create the so-called. detachments of civil self-defense, which shot, burned people in houses, carved stars on the bodies of prisoners and wounded. The Nazis will do the same here a little later.
After the murder of Polish Interior Minister Peratsky by Ukrainian nationalists on June 17, 1934, by order of Pilsudski, a concentration camp for political prisoners was opened near the then border with the USSR, in Bereza-Kartuzskaya. It was not an ordinary death camp, but a place where a person was broken morally and physically in a relatively short time, subtly mocking, constantly beating, sometimes beating to death.
"Kresy vskhodnie", as the Poles called the Belarusian and Ukrainian lands, were an agrarian and raw material appendage of their country, and also served as a source of cannon fodder. Moreover, the brave lords planned to use it not only in the East, but also in the West. On August 18, 1939, the Polish ambassador to Paris, Y. Lukasiewicz, in a conversation with French Foreign Minister Jean Bonnet, courageously declared: "Not the Germans, but the Poles will break into the depths of Germany in the very first days of the war!" "… Dressed in steel and armor, led by Rydz-Smigly, we will march to the Rhine …" - chanted in those days in Warsaw …
In general, the Polish lancers were already in full swing preparing to take pikes and sabers "in the palm" (in the palm). However, for some reason, after a few days, these courageous cavalrymen (the best in Europe!) Got tired of "chopping into cabbage" German tanks. And as soon as we were finally convinced that they were not made of plywood, they handed over the land “from sea to sea” to the “true Aryans” in two days and two weeks.
On the very first day of the war, Polish President Moscicki fled from Warsaw. On September 4, they began to pack their bags, and on the 5th the entire government fled. Polish officers were a match for their "bardzo prentko" escaped high command … What happened next is well known. Poland fell victim to its own exorbitant ambitions.
An unbiased understanding of the past would undoubtedly greatly help today's Polish elite, which proudly draws its roots from that interwar period, at the same time pasting newly written pages into historical chronicles and plugging their ears so as not to hear bitter questions about repentance and retribution to descendants for the suffering of their fathers and grandfathers.
