So there was unity in good and in bad. Mentally and culturally, Central and Eastern Europe was a normal part of Europe. Unfortunately, the political divisions did not respect the region’s cultural roots. During the Second World War, Europe was cut to pieces and divided for the next half century.
Between two evils: Central and Eastern Europe during the Second World War
One of the tragedies of the modern world is that after the First World War, European democracies were in poor shape to meet the challenges presented by two totalitarian systems: Communism and Nazism. Although these two systems differed in some ways, their ideologies were similar and, crucially, they had a common enemy – Western democracies.12 Both Nazism and Communism lacked any semblance of ethics and morality, as was evident in the unscrupulous tactics employed in their attempts to destroy democratic governments in the West. Unfortunately, the European states were absorbed with their own affairs after the First World War, thus providing dictators with the time and space to expand their influence. This laid the groundwork for the policy of appeasement that began in the 1920s and accelerated with each new concession to the dictators. The 1938 Munich agreement was the culmination of this policy. To achieve ‘peace for our time’, the democratic state of Czechoslovakia was urged to disarm and cede a part of its territory, the Sudetenland, to Nazi Germany. At this time, the European democracies could have stood their ground against Hitler’s territorial demands and negotiated iron-clad agreements for Czechoslovakia’s security. Instead, they bowed to the Nazis’ claims on a free country. Furthermore, the Czechoslovakian President, Eduard Beneš, had no right to compromise his country’s territorial integrity, yet he did so. One year later, Czechoslovakia had ceased to exist.13
Line dividing Central and Eastern Europe with the signatures of Stalin and Ribbentrop on 28 September 1939
Even though at this time the Soviet dictator, Josef Stalin, appeared to be Hitler’s main opponent, the Munich Treaty convinced him that the West could not stand strong against aggressive behaviour. If Stalin and Hitler joined forces, the West would be powerless to stop them. Throughout the spring and summer of 1939, Stalin carefully signalled that he was ready to entertain a German proposal for more extensive cooperation.14 Stalin was convinced that a Communist revolution in Europe would not succeed as long as there was peace. To ignite worldwide revolution Stalin needed a war and Hitler was just the man to start such a war. It is not surprising, then, that Stalin named Hitler ‘the icebreaker’ of the world revolution. To mask his intentions, Stalin negotiated with British and French delegations thereby decreasing their interest in fashioning a peace agreement with Hitler. Because Stalin wanted Europe to be enveloped in war, he used all of his guile and influence to undermine peace initiatives. In the end, Hitler cast aside his suspicions and agreed to Stalin’s proposals. After secret negotiations, the Foreign Minister of Nazi Germany, Joachim von Ribbentrop, was invited to visit Moscow on 23 August 1939, at which time he signed a non-aggression pact with Vyacheslav Molotov, Stalin’s Foreign Minister.15 The treaty was supplemented by a secret protocol containing an agreement between Hitler and Stalin to carve up Eastern Europe into spheres of influence. Finland, Estonia and Latvia (and later Lithuania) were incorporated into the Soviet sphere, Poland was divided between Hitler and Stalin and the Soviet interest in Bessarabia was recognised.
The so-called ‘pact of non-aggression’, or the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, was a perfect blueprint for aggression that constituted a license for Hitler and Stalin’s war against much of Europe. Each of the signatories was now free to assault its neighbours without hindrance from the other. In his speech to the Politburo on 19 August 1939, Stalin admitted that without a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, Hitler would be reluctant to begin a war in Europe. According to Stalin, a war in Europe was in the Soviets’ interests, especially since at its conclusion, both sides would be exhausted and the Soviet Union could intervene at the opportune moment to pursue its own territorial ambitions. This was the best route to world revolution. In retrospect, it is clear from the outset of his dealings with Hitler that Stalin intended to outmanoeuvre his new partner, preparing the way for a complete Communist takeover of Europe.16
Polish victims of the Katyn Forest Massacre in 1940
On 1 September 1939, Hitler invaded Poland and the Second World War began. The German army advanced rapidly and destroyed the main forces of the Polish army. On 17 September, Red Army troops poured across the Polish border and completed the conquest. Poland capitulated on 4 October 1939 and was divided between the two aggressors. Looking at footage from the common ‘victory’ parade arranged in Lvov, we see the satisfied faces of Soviet and Nazi officers – their common historical enemy, Poland, had been wiped from the map. The occupation of Poland by both the Nazis and the Soviets provided the rest of the world with stark evidence of the terror that totalitarian powers were capable of inflicting. Between 1939 and 1941, the Gestapo and the Russian secret police (NKVD) cooperated with each other, actively exchanging information and arresting suspects wanted by their partner in crime. The Nazis commenced the Holocaust that killed millions of Jews. Other Poles were murdered in order to suppress the remainder of the population controlled by the Nazis. The brutality of the Soviets matched that of the Nazis. In 1939, the Soviet Union took control of over 52.1 % of the territory of Poland, with over 13.7 million people. Initially, the Soviet occupation gained support among some members of the non-Polish population, but their enthusiasm quickly faded as it became clear that Soviet repression was aimed at all national groups equally. There were four major waves of deportations from the conquered territories between 1939 and 1941. Older Polish sources estimate that altogether as many as 2 million people were lost due to deportations, conscription and arrests. According to Soviet documents, the number of people deported is lower – 320,000 – to which 43,000 interned POWs can be added. The Soviets arrested and imprisoned 107,140 Poles between 1939 and 1941, including former officials, officers and natural ‘enemies of the people’, such as the clergy, executing about 65,000 Poles during two years of occupation.17 During the early stages of the war the Soviets killed thousands of Polish prisoners of war. In 1940, the NKVD systematically executed 21,768 former Polish officers, political leaders, government officials and intellectuals who had been imprisoned during the 1939 war. Some 4,254 of them were discovered in 1943 in mass graves in Katyn Forest.18 The Soviets’ intention was to kill as many members of Poland’s intelligentsia as possible in order to weaken any future Polish state. The fact that most of the imprisoned officers were from all these professional groups is a consequence of the fact that they were reservists. Even today, Russia’s leaders do not want to acknowledge this crime, attacking the Polish director Andrzej Wajda’s film about the Katyn massacre and claiming it to be ‘anti-Russian’ propaganda. Wajda’s father was also killed in Katyn and throughout the entire Soviet period, he was unable to talk publicly about what had really happened to him.19
In late September 1939, the Soviet Union began exercising the liberties it had been granted by Hitler in the Baltics. First, it issued an ultimatum to Estonia to sign a treaty allowing the deployment of Soviet military troops on Estonian soil. Although most of the population wanted to reject the Soviet demands, Estonian political leaders decided in favour of a peaceful solution. After signing the treaty, the Red Army marched into Estonia in October 1939, occupying the bases allotted to it and promising not to violate Estonia’s independence. In the following months, the Soviet Union signed similar pacts with Lithuania and Latvia. Finland, however, rebuffed Soviet demands and heroically defended its decision in the Winter War of 1939–1940. Despite heavy territorial and human losses, Finland succeeded in retaining its most cherished treasure – its national independence. Finland thereby avoided the fate of the Baltic States and kept its place
Geyer and Fitzpatrick 2008.
Ferguson 2006, pp. 312–385.
Nazi-Soviet relations. The Department of State 1948.
Read and Fisher 1988.
Weeks 2002.
Gross 2002, pp. 144–225.
Sanford 2005.
Wajda 2007.
