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Originally Posted by Egorka
This pact is not a real secret (even the secret part, though USSR denied it's existence). I have a history of WW2 book from 1946 printed in Stokholm, Sweden and this pact is printed there.
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Yes, after the documents were recovered from German archives no doubt.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Egorka
Secondly, this was the only possible agrement USSR could realisticly get in 1939. Neither UK nor France would sign one with USSR. In essence it was the reaction on the apeacemnt policy of western allies trying to redirect Hitler's agression to the east.
Remember USSR had no allies at that point. So you can blame Chemberlain and Deladier for pushing Stalin to allie with Hitler.
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You can blame them if you like, but neither was holding a gun to Stalin's head. I'm not certain it was their intent to redirect attention to the east, as when Hitler went east on September 1, 1939, Britain and France went to war with Germany. USSR, on the other hand, used it as an opportunity for expansion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Egorka
And finaly about Baltic countries and Poland. Again, the part that USSR anexed from poland was anexed by poland from Soviet Russia in 1920. This terriory was ethnicaly not polish.
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Actually the area was ethnically mixed. The Poles who were present in those territories were forced out later. For instance, Lviv had a majority Polish population even in 1910 and certainly in 1939 when only about 10% was Ukrainian. The majority at that time was Roman Catholic (Polish) and there were many more Jews than there were Greek Catholics (Ukrainians). Most of the Jews perished during the Nazi occupation and the Poles who survived fled or were forcibly expelled. Ethnic Ukrainians (and Russians) then moved into the city to fill the void.
As for those territories annexed by Poland in 1920, one must also consider the fact that virtually all of what became Poland in 1918-1920 had been annexed by Russia, Prussia, and Austria 120-130 years prior to that. So when do land claims end? When is a matter settled? I'm not arguing one way or another, but to look at historical "ownership" of lands, one must look at all of the "facts", not just those that are convenient to one's argument.
The problem with using ethnicity to divide nations is that there is a great amount of overlap, as you know. Often there are no neat dividing lines in Europe. There were many Ukrainians in Poland before 1939 and at that time many lived in portions that remained Polish after 1947.