On September 1, 2019, the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, Poland invited officials from 40 countries (including Germany) to the ceremony, but did not invite Russia.
Poland, located in the middle of the European continent, dates back to the Slavs of the Stone Age around 700 BC.
In 1025, Bolesław I was crowned King of Poland, and Poland became a unified state.
In the 14th century, Poland and Lithuania were attacked by the Teutonic Knights, and in 1385, in order to jointly resist the attack of the Teutonic Knights, the Lithuanian king Jogaila married the 11-year-old queen of Poland, and Poland and Lithuania became a commonwealth.
Poland thus began a "golden age", and the United Kingdom of Poland became the largest country in Europe by area, with an area of 1 million square kilometers at its peak, much larger than contemporary Poland.
Most of Poland is located in the low-lying Bode Plain, with an average altitude of only 173 meters above sea level, and lacks geopolitical barriers. Living in close proximity to Russia, its unique geographical location, its unsurpassed geomorphological features, and the meeting place of the two major civilizations of East and West Europe have become the main reasons for the catastrophe in Poland's history.
In the 16th century, Poland waged a series of wars with Russia over hegemony in Eastern Europe, and once occupied the Russian capital Moscow. These wars did little good for Poland, but brought it into a turbulent era of prosperity and decline.
After entering the 17th century, Russia gradually rose. In 1648, with the support of Russia, the Ukrainian Cossacks united with the local peasants in an uprising, and Poland immediately lost control of Ukraine. In 1654, Tsarist Russia chose Poland, and in 1657 annexed Ukraine east of the Dnieper River.
From 1648 to 1720, Poland was almost at war, the country's economy nearly collapsed, and the people lived in poverty. The War of the Polish Succession, which broke out in 1733, seriously damaged Polish sovereignty and the national economy.
First subjugation: divided three times
At the height of Poland's weakness, Tsarist Russia was determined to "erase" this "thorn in the eye, a thorn in the flesh" from the map.
The first partition: in August 1772, Tsarist Russia united Prussia and Austria, and the three countries divided Poland. Poland lost 35% of its territory and 33% of its population and became a protectorate of Russia, Prussia and Austria.
The second partition: in 1793, Russia and Prussia divided Poland again, after which Poland became a small country with a territory of only 200,000 square kilometers and a population of 4 million, and also became a puppet state of Tsarist Russia.
Third partition (first subjugation): In 1795, Russia, Austria, and Prussia signed an agreement on the third partition of Poland, and polish territory was completely divided. At this point, Poland, which had existed for more than 800 years, was extinct and disappeared from the map of Europe for 123 years.
The Second Subjugation: The Hope Given by Napoleon
After the French Revolution, Napoleon suddenly swept through Europe, and the Poles did not hesitate to stand under the Flag of The French Tricolor and became a brave Polish cavalry regiment. After defeating Prussia, Napoleon established the Principality of Warsaw in central Poland.
After that, Napoleon died a huge sacrifice in the war against Russia, and the Principality of Warsaw was once divided between Russia, Prussia and Austria. Russia took most of Poland's territory and suppressed Polish uprisings several times.
This was the second subjugation of Poland.
Third Fall: Russia and Germany carved up Poland in World War II
In World War I, Poland became a battlefield of repeated tug-of-war between the Russian army and the German and Austro-Hungarian armies, and in 1917, the October Revolution broke out in Russia, and the new Soviet power withdrew from the war. In October 1918, near the end of World War I, Austria-Hungary and Germany were on the verge of disintegration, and Warsaw formed the Polish government.
At the post-war Paris Peace Conference, the Entente adopted a resolution agreeing to rebuild the Polish state and proposing a temporary demarcation line between Russia and Poland, but Poland intended to restore the Russian-Polish border of 1772. Thus, the new Poland launched a war against the new Soviet Russia, known in history as the Soviet-Polish War.
In March 1921, Poland and Soviet Russia formally signed the Peace Treaty, in which Russia lost a large amount of territory. At the same time, the Polish Parliament adopted the Constitution and the Second Polish Republic was established.
In 1938, Hitler raised the question of the Polish Corridor to Poland and threatened war with Poland; in 1939, after the signing of the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact, Germany raided Poland with Blitzkrieg, and the Polish Campaign marked the full-scale outbreak of World War II.
After that, the Red Army also invaded Poland from the Eastern Front, and although the Polish soldiers and civilians resisted heroically, they ultimately failed. Under the Soviet-German Treaty, Poland was again divided.
"If the invasion of Poland is the starting point of The Outbreak of World War II, then the Russians are also starting the war."
The Katyn Massacre
In 1940, in order to facilitate the rule of Poland, the Soviet Union, with the approval of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, carried out organized massacres of captured Polish prisoners of war, intellectuals, police, and public officials.
In the spring of 1940, some 22,000 Polish soldiers and citizens were collectively killed in the Katyn Forest west of the Soviet Oblast of Smolensk. In April 1943, Nazi Germany, which invaded the Soviet Union, announced the discovery of a large number of Polish soldiers' bodies in the Katyn Forest, and called the massacre the work of the Soviet Union, which the Soviet Union immediately denied.
It was not until 1992, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, that Russian President Boris Yeltsin decided to forward a copy of the secret document documenting the time to the Polish government. Since then, the whole truth about the killing of Polish prisoners by Soviet troops in the Katyn Forest in Poland in the spring of 1940 and the imposition of the charges on Nazi Germany was revealed, causing great shock throughout Poland.
Watch from the wall
In addition to the tragic "Katyn Forest Incident", the Soviet Union's observation of the Warsaw Uprising in World War II also planted hatred in the hearts of Poles.
In 1944, when Nazi Germany was on the verge of extinction, an anti-German uprising led by the Polish Resistance broke out in Warsaw. As an anti-fascist Ally, the Soviets were supposed to do their allies' duty to provide full support, but in reality they watched from the sidelines, allowing the Polish rebels to be brutally suppressed by the Germans. It wasn't until the Poles were finished that the Soviets began to attack Warsaw.
After World War II, Poland was indisputably reduced to a satellite state of the Soviet Union and forced to embark on a Soviet-style development path, but the hatred of the Poles against Russia was not eliminated.
So, immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Poland began to move closer to the West.
A monument to the Soviet Red Army was spray-painted with polish words such as "murderer" and "shame."
Although they are of the same race and the same race, they are resolutely anti-Russian
Although Poland and Russia belong to the same Slavic lineage and belong to the same Eastern European plate, and their geographical relations are relatively closer, due to the above historical reasons, Poland has always been on the front line of anti-Russianism.
Russia's Orthodox civilization system is much inferior to that of Western Europe's Catholic civilization. Although Russia repeatedly occupied Poland, poles had a stronger sense of identification with the developed civilization system of Western Europe and were more willing to integrate into Western Europe.
Therefore, whether it is Tsarist Russia, later the Soviet Union or now Russia, the control of Poland is only at the political level, and it cannot win the hearts and minds of the Poles. As soon as political influence waned, Poland was bound to integrate into the West.
This also led to the tragedy in Poland, which is closer to Russia than to the West. Poland, at the crossroads of two great civilizations in East and West Europe, will never be able to escape russia's shadow.
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