Interesting omission for the writer to describe the attack in 1939 as solely German. The Soviet half was in some ways even more devastating since they were the ones who liquidated the country’s military and intellectual leadership in the Katyn Forest. Strange also because it should have been the prime example of one of the article’s theses, that Poland has no chance if it’s attacked by more than one of its neighbors. The writer is either ignorant (unlikely) or has an agenda that includes overlooking Communist barbarism.
“also because it should have been the prime example of one of the article’s theses, that Poland has no chance if it’s attacked by more than one of its neighbors.”
More than once he makes that sort of point. I suggest you reread it.
As for his leaving the Soviet Union out with respect to 1939, and the German invasion (which did kick off Poland’s loss off independence and did come before the Russian invasion) he preceded that point by mentioning that Poland had to fight for it’s existence against the Soviets beginning in 1919 (it was also not as one-sided as many Polish supporters would like to suggest), and followed by mentioning in the comments after 1939, that Poland was then occupied by the Soviets from 1945 until 1989.
So, I don’t think he was “favoring” the Soviet’s. It’s more likely that editing, to reach a word/paragraph/page limit, requires brevity that sometimes appears like “missing facts” but often is just trying to select what the writer feels is important to get to the point they are trying to make; which in his case was:
- geopgraphy and history makes answering Poland’s security questions complicated, and likely requires a bi-lateral alliance with a powerful ally that does not share borders with it. (the summation of what he said)
That’s what he could have said - and that’s all that many writers might have written, and then you could have complained about all kinds of facts he left out in reaching that point. Instead, he provided, as briefly as possible, the relevant parts of Polish geography and history from which that point can be understood.
I challenge you to write it better than he did.
Odd as it may sound,Poland might have been better off as a reluctant ally of the Germans,ala Italy,than being savaged by two socialist dictators; armies.Some writers of speculative fiction have made money with this idea.
Hitler was apparently certain that Russia must be attacked and much aggravated by Poland being an obstacle. What if Poland had granted unrestricted access to the eastern border via a defined corridor ? The Communist regime and Red Army were certainly no friends of Poland.
The question is would Hitler and the Nazis have tried the mass murder of the Jews in Poland if the German Army was committed in the Russian Front AND the Polish Army still existed?
Also would the West have declared war if the conflict was Germany versus Russia ? I ‘d doubt the British or French administrations would have,based on their reluctance to confront Hitler up to then.Was there any treaty obligating support of Russia by the West?
Not completely. To the south it does have a natural boundary. To the west there is the new boundary of the Oder-Neisse. The east is open, however and the best boundary would be the Niemem-Dnieper border but that would mean getting Białorus and Western Ukraine into a Polish commonwealth.