The War Loser Demands Reparations: how Poland Waged the War in 1939

Abstract

The preparations taken in the connection with the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War have markedly triggered activities of the ruling Polish elite, different communities and groups whose overwhelming majority’s aim is to rewrite the history, to camouflage the military-political authorities’ miscalculations and mistakes, and shift the responsibility for the overthrow of the Polish state and military onto the Soviet government and the Red Army (RKKA). The authors analyze the course and outcome of the war between Germany and Poland and come to the conclusion that unsuccessful outcome of combat for the Polish military was predetermined because of the strategic mistakes of political and military character. The article focuses on the Polish military punitive operations against the revolted Western Belarus population and on that time world powers leaders’ estimate of the Red Army liberation campaigns to retake the territories annexed by Poland as a result of the Polish-Soviet war in 1920. Conclusions concerning the attempts of those eager to rewrite the history of the World War II as well as concerning the place and the role of anti-Soviet and anti-Russian policy of the Polish authorities during the pre-war period and nowadays are made.