Аннотация: To the question of the beginning of World War II. The historical essay.
To the question of the beginning of World War II. The historical essay.
The question can be researched a deeply into a history.
But if we go in a past not so deeply, we can draw attention to the final partition of the Rzeczpospolita - Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795 and the disappearance of this state (as a Union of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) from the political map of the world. As a symbol of the Eastern Republican state, Rzeczpospolita was restored at the end of the First World War.
The Russian Empire and Prussia were historically interconnected by the events of 1795. This historical interconnection in historical perspective has not brought anything good to those two States.
Prussia left its marks in the provocation, the unsuccessful course and the unhappy finish (for the Russian Empire) of the Crimean war of 1853-1856. For the leadership of the Empire a "tradition of defeats" began to develop - a one of (several) reasons for the end of the monarchy and the Romanov dynasty.
The Russian Empire was defeated in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871 - de facto. It seemed that France had been defeated, and that was all. The consequences came later.
Prussia (German Empire) left its mark in provoking of unprepared (from side of Russia) the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905.
In the First World war, already not only Prussia opposed the Russian Empire, but the whole German Empire - with Prussia at the head.
The peace Treaty of Portsmouth (1905) and the peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918) continued the "tradition of defeats".
It turned out that the unpreparedness for a war actions, an insufficiently effective strategic leadership, an absurd, sometimes, personnel policy had to be compensated by the heroism of soldiers and officers.
Strangely enough, after the peace Treaty of Versailles (1919), the "old games"continued.
Who started the policy of "separate" relations with the defeated Germany?
Who signed the Treaty of Rapallo (1922) with Germany?
Who helped to the defeated in World war I Germany to restore the army that in 1941 attacked the USSR?
It is difficult to say to what extent was personally to blame Mikhail Tukhachevsky. One thing is clear - for some time it was a state policy. Perhaps Tukhachevsky was one of its performers. The "Soviet diplomats" were faced with the fact of the Hitler's coming to power and the risk of an imminent attack on the USSR by Nazi Germany. It was logical to search and find the perpetrators.
Already during the First World war it became clear that the geostrategic position of Europe has changed - by this time began to operate transcontinental Railways in the United States and in Russia.
In the new diplomatic and geostrategic environment, Europe tried to minimize the consequences of a new military confrontation. Perhaps the avoidance of military action (Czechoslovakia, for example) was a way of implementing such a policy of minimization.
Did the actions of Czechoslovakia, France and a number of other countries not be influenced by the fact of the conclusion of the peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918? ("You may keep fighting, and we - a bayonets into a ground!". A very attractive position to build a common front against Germany.)
As for respect or not respect for the memory of the fallen in the struggle against Nazi Germany - it is an independent question.
There is historical accuracy - it is on the side of the victorious powers (Allied Powers). There are historical emotions. There is historical appeal.
When the migration flow (motivated by attractiveness) will be directed not from Russia to Western Europe, but, on the contrary, from Western Europe to Russia, then the historical appeal and emotions will be changed. In General, it is useful to remember the history and 1795 - and only then to ask: "what kind of people are those?".
December 21, 2019 12:31
Translation from Russian into English: December 21, 2019 13:34.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'К вопросу о начале Второй Мировой войны. Исторический очерк'.