Posted on 02/14/2005 8:16:21 AM PST by Lukasz
Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka has said it would be inappropriate to comment on all ‘strange’ statements coming from Russia, such as the latest one on Yalta released by the Russian Foreign Ministry two days ago. The statement says that at the Yalta Conference 60 years ago the allied powers reiterated their support for a strong, free, sovereign and democratic Poland, whose security was guaranteed not only by the United States and Britain but also by the Soviet Union. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, by criticizing the outcome of Yalta Poles are re-writing World War Two history and are taking historical events out of their context in an ‘unhonest’ way. Prime minister Belka stressed that the presence of Polish politicians at the Moscow celebrations of the end of the Second World War does not mean that Poland changes its assessment of Yalta and the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. The Mayor of Warsaw Lech Kaczyñski, who is also a leader of the opposition Law and Justice Party, has said that president Aleksander Kwaœniewski should not go to Moscow for the May celebrations. Mr Kaczyñski stressed that the liberation of Central Europe from fascism was inseparably linked with the imposition of Moscow’s rule over this part of the continent. According to the Mayor of Warsaw, the anniversary of the victory over fascist Germany is surely worth celebrating, but not as an anniversary of the liberation of Central Europe. For Poland, the end of World War Two meant the beginning of the period of the far-reaching dependance on Soviet Russia and a wave of terror aimed at the most patriotic groups of Polish society. The Polish Foreign Ministry has said it will not issue any official communique on the Russian Ministry’s statement.
Painful memories
After hesitating for almost five months, President Vaira Vike-Freiberga of Latvia broke ranks this week to say she would go. Presidents Arnold Ruutel of Estonia and Valdas Adamkus of Lithuania said they would think a bit more, and sounded miffed by the Latvian move. Conservatives will accuse Mrs Vike-Freiberga of naively agreeing to celebrate not so much the defeat of Hitler as the triumph of Soviet power under Stalin. But she has calculated that the diplomatic cost of staying away would be higher. A no-show would let Russia claim that Latvia and the other Baltic countries were “Russophobes” who upset east-west relations and stood apart from European values.
The Baltics know that Russia will seize any chance to drive wedges between them and the rest of Europe. It resents their independence, almost 15 years after they escaped from the Soviet Union. It thinks that they and the other ex-communist countries that joined the European Union in May are scheming to make the EU more anti-Russian.
Mrs Vike-Freiberga is snubbing Russia's offer to sign a border treaty as a reward for her attendance. The important thing, she says, is that the Baltic side of history should be heard. She has published a declaration in which she blames Stalin equally with Hitler for causing the 1939-45 war, by agreeing secretly to divide Europe. And she calls on Russia to “express its regret” for the Soviet “subjugation” of central and eastern Europe.
Some hope. Russia insists that the Soviet Union was a law-abiding state that the Baltics joined by choice. Besides, Russia dodges responsibility for Soviet history—except, now you come to mention it, for the victory over Hitler.
Do you think Putin got the idea about re-writing history from the Clinton Library?
I don't have time to read all of this, but will try to later today. But for the Russians to say that Poland acquiesed to Communism by popular choice is as false today as it was back in the 1940's.
Stalin had plans to start the war in 1943, had Hitler not beaten him to the punch. Stalin was trying to buy time, that's why he signed the non-aggression pact with Germany.
I think that Putin could be Clinton’s teacher, he has great experience.
The most sad thing is what Putin administration doing with history, such primitive lies. Why they always defending Soviet policy ? Probably because they see themselves as a heirs and continuators of this imperial history. They are really dangerous if they thinks so.
It's not like the Czars weren't imperialistic either. Russia has always been imperialist, Stalin was just a continuance of that policy.
I don’t know what Poles should expect from Putin. Maybe you heard that Russians abolish communist revolution holidays some time ago and now they celebrating liberation of Moscow from Polish occupation! This is strange why they don’t celebrate liberation of Moscow from Napoleon’s occupation?
I know Poles occupied Kiev, but I didn't know they ever occupied Moscow, when was this?
They're celebrating that?!?
"Stalin had plans to start the war in 1943, had Hitler not beaten him to the punch. Stalin was trying to buy time, that's why he signed the non-aggression pact with Germany."NO"dfwgator"Hitler atack Russia 22 June 1941 Hitler want war with Russia he do not want to atack my country with no Stalin help if Stalin 17 September 1939 do not atack my country Hitler will not win Thank you
I am sorry this is 21 June 1941
In the book "Icebreaker" (sadly, it's reputation tarred by having been embraced by holocaust deniers, but nonetheless a thought provoking and spectacular book) the case is made quite well that WW2 was, overall, a project hatched by Stalin specifically to disrupt Western Europe. Into the void, the USSR was set to stride. In spite of Hitler understanding at the 11th hour that he was being used, and turning on Stalin, I would have to say that Stalin met at least some of his objectives. Consider also that, even after the fall of the USSR, Russia still enjoys unprecidented influence into areas of Europe that were off limits to Russia prior to WW2.
All you had to do is read Mein Kampf to know what Hitler's ambitions in the East were. He wrote that book, just as Stalin was consolidating his power in the Soviet Union. Hitler was not fooled by Stalin, he knew what he wanted all along. Stalin was fooled into thinking the Germans wouldn't attack him before 1943. He didn't even believe the early reports of the Germans invading the Soviet Union.
If you are referring to the attack on Poland, Germany would have crushed her regardless of the russians' actions.
"They're celebrating that?!?"
What ? It was Russian golden age :-)
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