One of the main "stones" that the Fifth Column and the West throw at the Soviet Union, trying to denigrate our history, is the accusation of partitioning Poland. Allegedly, Stalin and Hitler signed some "secret protocols" to the Non-Aggression Pact between the USSR and Germany "(the originals of which no one ever provided!), And peaceful defenseless Poland was occupied in the autumn of 1939.
There is nothing less true than such statements.
Let's figure it out.
Poland was not at all an anti-Hitler country. On the contrary - on January 26, 1934, it was Poland that was the FIRST among European states to sign a non-aggression pact with Hitler. It is also called the Pilsudski-Hitler Pact.
- Poland was preparing TOGETHER with Germany for aggression against the USSR. That is why ALL the fortifications of Poland were built ... on the border with the Soviet Union. Nothing was built on the border with Hitler, except for rear depots. Which helped the Germans a lot in defeating the Polish armies in the fall of 1939.
- After the Munich Agreement, Poland, like the Third Reich, received a solid piece of the territory of Czechoslovakia. Hitler - Sudetenland, Poland - Teshinsky district.
- Hitler officially terminated the non-aggression pact with Poland on April 28, due to the so-called "guarantees" that Great Britain gave Poland. (That is, in fact, these two countries entered into an agreement directed against Berlin, which was regarded as unacceptable).
- Therefore, the destruction of Poland by Hitler for the USSR looked like this: one Russophobic regime destroyed another Russophobic regime. Stalin had no reason to help the Poles. Moreover, they OFFICIALLY forbade the USSR to provide any assistance, declaring a ban on entering Poland for the Red Army (this was during the visit of the Anglo-French delegation to Moscow in August 1939).
All accusations against the USSR and Stalin are based on one postulate: an agreement was signed, which means that the USSR helped Germany and even supposedly was its ally. So, following this logic of the Svanidze, the milky and Western media, Poland was 100% an ally of Hitler. Was there a non-aggression pact? Was. Moreover, during the Anschluss of Austria, the occupation of part of Czechoslovakia and Lithuania (Memel-Klaipeda), he acted. Poland itself occupied part of Czechoslovakia.
Therefore, liberal historians, either stop talking nonsense about “Stalin is an ally of Hitler”, or be consistent and attribute Poland to the allies of the Third Reich. And write that in September 1939, Hitler defeated his former ally, who six months before that had been a faithful ally of the possessed Fuhrer.
And now more facts.
First from modern history.
Here is a letter from my reader from Poland.
“Good afternoon, Nikolai Viktorovich! My name is Ruben, I am Armenian and currently live in Warsaw. I want to share my observations received in the museums of Warsaw dedicated to the events of the Second World War. I recently visited the Gestapo Museum in Warsaw and noticed how some historical facts are presented. For example, it was very strange to read that Germany annexed the Sudetenland in 1938, while Poland occupied Zaolzie (the eastern part of Cieszyn Silesia). Please note that the replacement of only one word already gives the actions of the Germans a clear aggressiveness, and the Poles, so
themselves, they just occupied the territory. As if this was an empty, useless territory, and they only occupied it. Do not waste good.
And the hatred for everything Russian, for the USSR and communism, is also very outrageous. In museums dedicated to the victims of the Germans, there is more hatred for Russians than for Germans. We stand on a par with the Nazis, and sometimes even worse. For example, in one room, Stalin’s words of regret and condolences are given to the victims of the premature (as Stalin believed) Warsaw Uprising, in another, Stalin is presented as a bloodthirsty executioner who strangles an SS man with one hand, and holding a sickle with the other, wants to cut off the head of a liberated Pole. And many such very offensive
cartoons on the subject.
It is surprising that they do not have the question that if the Russians committed the same atrocities, then why in Poland there are only German concentration camps Auschwitz, Majdanek, etc.? Where are the death camps built by the Russians? Where are the photos, films? After all, all this is about the Germans. But nothing about us. Only caricatures and selfless hysteria. It is a pity that people willingly believe this and hate the Russians more than the Germans.”
What can I say - sowing hatred for Russia and Russians, in general, is the center of the political line of the West EVERYWHERE. Doubt-look at Ukraine. In fact, after the terrible World War II, the USSR and Poland found mutual understanding and lived peacefully. Hatred is a thing of the past - it was reanimated. But Stalin tried for Poland no less than for his country. Today's Poland was created within today's borders by Stalin.
As for how Poland, taking advantage of the fact that England and France surrendered Czechoslovakia to Hitler, “pinched off” the Teszyn region from it, the material from one of the resources perfectly tells about this. Let's remember that the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938 was not only German, but also Polish.
The partition and destruction of Czechoslovakia as an independent state with the participation of Germany, Hungary and Poland in 1938-1939 are not included in the official history of the Second World War. How the “victim” of the “Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact” behaved a year before the “official” start of World War II.
Polish 7TR tanks enter the Czech city of Teshin (Cieszyn). October 1938
The Poles replace the Czech name of the city with the Polish one at the city railway station in Teszyn.
Polish troops enter Teszyn
Polish soldiers pose with the deposed Czechoslovak coat of arms at the telephone and telegraph building they captured during Operation Zaluzhye in the Czech village of Ligotka Kameralna (Polish, Komorní Lhotka-Czech), located near the city of Teszyn.
Polish tank 7TP from the 3rd armored battalion (tank of the 1st platoon) overcomes the Czechoslovak border fortifications in the area of the Polish-Czechoslovak border. The 3rd armored battalion had a tactical badge "Bison silhouette in a circle", which was applied to the tank turret. But in August 1939, all tactical signs on the towers were painted over as unmasking ones.
The Poles carry a Czechoslovak border post torn out of the ground with the Czechoslovak coat of arms destroyed. Teshin.
Handshake of Polish Marshal Edward Rydz-Smigly and German attache Colonel Bogislaw von Studnitz at the Independence Day parade in Warsaw on November 11, 1938. The photo is remarkable in that the Polish parade was especially attached to the capture of Cieszyn Selesia a month earlier.
The armored unit of the Polish troops occupies the Czech village of Yorgov during the operation to annex the Czechoslovak lands of Spis. In the foreground is a Polish wedge TK-3.
Polish troops occupy the Czech village of Yorgov during the operation to annex the Czechoslovak lands of Spis.
The further fate of these territories is interesting. After the collapse of Poland, Orava and Spis were transferred to Slovakia. After the end of the Second World War, the lands were again occupied by the Poles, the government of Czechoslovakia was forced to agree to this. To celebrate, the Poles staged ethnic cleansing against ethnic Slovaks and Germans. In 1958 the territories were returned to Czechoslovakia. Now part of Slovakia.
Polish soldiers at the captured Czech checkpoint near the Czechoslovak-German border, near the pedestrian bridge built in honor of the anniversary of Emperor Franz Joseph in the Czech city of Bohumin. The not yet demolished Czechoslovak border pillar is visible.
Polish troops occupy the Czech city of Karvin during Operation Zaluzhye. The Polish part of the population meets the troops with flowers. October 1938.
The Czechoslovak city of Karvin was the center of Czechoslovakia's heavy industry, coke production, and one of the most important centers of coal mining in the Ostrava-Karvinsky coal basin. Thanks to the Zaluzhye operation carried out by the Poles, the former Czechoslovak enterprises already at the end of 1938 gave Poland almost 41% of the pig iron smelted in Poland and almost 47% of the steel.
Bunker of the Czechoslovak line of fortifications in the Sudetes ("Benesh Line").
Sudeten Germans break down the Czechoslovak border post during the German occupation of the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia in late September-early October 1938.
Parts of the Polish 10th Cavalry Rifle Regiment of the 10th Mechanized Brigade are preparing for a solemn parade in front of the regiment commander on the occasion of the end of Operation Zaluzhye (occupation of Czechoslovak territories).
Handshake of the Polish Marshal Edward Rydz-Smigly and the German attaché Major General Bogislaw von Studnitz at the Independence Day parade in Warsaw on November 11, 1938. The photo is remarkable in that the Polish parade was especially attached to the capture of Cieszyn Selesia a month earlier. A column of Teszyn Poles specially passed at the parade, and in Germany on the eve of November 9-10, 1938, the so-called “Kristallnacht” took place, the first mass action of direct physical violence against Jews in the territory of the Third Reich.
Fraternization of soldiers of the Hungarian and Polish occupation forces in the occupied Czechoslovakia.
German officers at the Czechoslovak-German border are watching the capture of the city of Bohumin by Polish troops. The Germans stand on a footbridge built in honor of the jubilee of Emperor Franz Josef.
The Munich Agreement (Munich Agreement) on the accession of the border lands of Czechoslovakia, inhabited by Germans, to Nazi Germany, was signed on September 30, 1938 by representatives of Great Britain (Neville Chamberlain), France (Edouard Daladier), Germany (Adolf Hitler) and Italy (Benito Mussolini). It was the result of the aggressive policy of Hitler, who proclaimed a revision of the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919 with the aim of restoring the German Reich, on the one hand, and the Anglo-French policy of "appeasement" supported by the United States, on the other.
The British and French leadership was interested in maintaining the status quo that had developed in Europe as a result of the First World War of 1914-1918, and considered the policy of the Soviet Union and the world communist movement as the main danger to their countries. The leaders of Great Britain and France sought to satisfy the expansionist claims of Germany and Italy through political and territorial concessions at the expense of the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe, to reach a "broad" agreement with them and thereby ensure their own security, pushing the German-Italian aggression in an easterly direction.
(Military Encyclopedia. Military Publishing. Moscow. In 8 volumes, 2004)
The Sudetenland belonged to the most industrialized regions of Czechoslovakia. In the region, 3.3 million people were densely residing ethnic, the so-called Sudeten Germans. From the very beginning of his political activity, Hitler demanded their reunification with Germany, and repeatedly made attempts to fulfill this demand.
In March 1938, without any opposition from the Western powers, Germany carried out the forcible seizure (Anschluss) of Austria. After that, German pressure on Czechoslovakia intensified sharply. On April 24, 1938, the fascist Sudeto German Party (SNP) of Konrad Henlein, at the direction of Hitler, put forward a demand for autonomy for the Sudetenland.
The government of the USSR declared its readiness to fulfill its obligations under the Soviet-Czechoslovak treaty of 1935, which provided for the provision of assistance by the Soviet Union to Czechoslovakia in the event of aggression against it, subject to the simultaneous provision of such assistance by France.
On September 13, the Nazi leadership inspired a revolt of the Sudeten fascists, and after it was suppressed by the Czechoslovak government, they began to openly threaten Czechoslovakia with an armed invasion. On September 15, at a meeting with Hitler in Berchtesgaden, British Prime Minister Chamberlain agreed to Germany's demand to transfer part of Czechoslovak territory to her. Two days later, the British government approved the "principle of self-determination," as the German annexation of the Sudetenland was called.
On September 19, 1938, the Czechoslovak government transmitted to the Soviet government a request to give an answer as soon as possible to the following questions: a) will the USSR, according to the treaty, provide immediate real assistance if France remains loyal and also provides assistance; b) whether the USSR will help Czechoslovakia as a member of the League of Nations.
Having discussed this request on September 20, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks considered it possible to give positive answers to both of these questions. On September 21, the Soviet ambassador in Prague confirmed the readiness of the Soviet Union to provide such assistance. However, submitting to Anglo-French pressure, the Czechoslovak government capitulated, agreeing to satisfy Hitler's Berchtesgaden demands.
On September 22-23, Chamberlain again met with Hitler, who further tightened the requirements for Czechoslovakia and the deadlines for their implementation.
Taking advantage of the moment, Poland and Hungary expressed their territorial claims. This allowed Hitler to justify the annexation of the Sudetenland by the "international" nature of the demands on Czechoslovakia. In this situation, on the initiative of Mussolini, on September 29-30, 1938, a meeting of representatives of England, France, Germany and Italy was held in Munich, at which the Munich Agreement was signed on September 30 without the participation of representatives of Czechoslovakia (dated September 29).
According to this agreement, Czechoslovakia was supposed to clear the Sudetenland from October 1 to October 10 with all fortifications, structures, communication routes, factories, stocks of weapons, etc. Prague also pledged to satisfy the territorial claims of Hungary and Poland within three months. Additionally, a declaration was adopted in which Great Britain and France gave guarantees to the new borders of Czechoslovakia.
The government of Czechoslovakia obeyed the agreement adopted in Munich, and on October 1, 1938, units of the Wehrmacht occupied the Sudetenland. As a result, Czechoslovakia lost about 1/5 of its territory, about 5 million people (including 1.25 million Czechs and Slovaks), as well as 33% of industrial enterprises. The accession of the Sudetenland was a decisive step towards the final liquidation of the state independence of Czechoslovakia, which followed in March 1939, when Germany seized the entire territory of the country.
The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Czechoslovak state were restored as a result of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. According to the Treaty on Mutual Relations of 1973, Czechoslovakia and the Federal Republic of Germany recognized the Munich Agreement, "meaning their mutual relations in accordance with this Treaty, void".
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources.
On September 30, 1938, the famous Munich Agreement was signed, better known in Russian historical literature as the Munich Agreement. In fact, it was this agreement that became the first step towards the start of World War II. British Prime Ministers Neville Chamberlain and French Prime Ministers Edouard Daladier, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini signed a document according to which the Sudetenland, formerly part of Czechoslovakia, was transferred to Germany.
The interest of the German Nazis in the Sudetenland was explained by the fact that a significant German community (by 1938 - 2.8 million people) lived on its territory. These were the so-called Sudeten Germans, who are the descendants of the German colonists who settled the Czech lands in the Middle Ages. In addition to the Sudetenland, a large number of Germans lived in Prague and some other large cities in Bohemia and Moravia. As a rule, they did not define themselves as Sudeten Germans. The very term "Sudet Germans" appeared only in 1902 - with the light hand of the writer Franz Jesser. This is how the rural population of the Sudetenland called themselves, and only then did the urban Germans from Brno and Prague join them.
After the First World War and the creation of an independent Czechoslovakia, the Sudeten Germans did not want to be part of the Slavic state. Nationalist organizations appeared among them, including the National Socialist Workers' Party of R. Jung, the Sudeten German Party of K. Henlein. Nutrient environment for the activities of the Sudeten nationalists was the student environment of the university, where the division into Czech and German departments was preserved. The students tried to communicate in their own language environment, and subsequently even in parliament, German deputies had the opportunity to speak in their native language. Nationalist sentiments among the Sudeten Germans were especially intensified after the National Socialist Workers' Party came to power in Germany. The Sudeten Germans demanded that they secede from Czechoslovakia and join Germany, explaining their demand by the need to free themselves from the discrimination that allegedly took place in the Czechoslovak state.
In fact, the Czechoslovak government, which did not want to quarrel with Germany, did not discriminate against the Sudeten Germans. It supported local self-government and education in German, but these measures did not suit the Sudeten separatists. Of course, Adolf Hitler also drew attention to the situation in the Sudetenland. For the Fuhrer, Czechoslovakia, which was the most economically developed country in Eastern Europe, was of great interest. He had long looked at the developed Czechoslovak industry, including military factories that produced a large amount of weapons and military equipment. In addition, Hitler and his comrades in the Nazi Party believed that the Czechs could be easily assimilated and subjected to German influence. The Czech Republic was seen as a historical sphere of influence of the German state, control over which should be returned to Germany. At the same time, Hitler relied on the disunity of the Czechs and Slovaks, supporting Slovak separatism and national conservative forces, which were very popular in Slovakia.
When the Anschluss of Austria took place in 1938, the Sudeten nationalists set about trying to carry out a similar operation with the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia. The head of the Sudeten German Party, Henlein, arrived in Berlin on a visit and met with the leadership of the NSDAP. He received instructions on how to proceed and, returning to Czechoslovakia, immediately set about developing a new party program, which already contained a demand for autonomy for the Sudeten Germans. The next step was to put forward a demand for a referendum on the accession of the Sudetenland to Germany. In May 1938, units of the Wehrmacht advanced to the border with Czechoslovakia. At the same time, the Sudeten German Party was preparing a speech with the aim of separating the Sudetenland. The authorities of Czechoslovakia were forced to conduct a partial mobilization in the country, send troops to the Sudetenland and enlist the support of the Soviet Union and France. Then, in May 1938, even fascist Italy, which at that time already had allied relations with Germany, criticized the aggressive intentions of Berlin. Thus, the first Sudeten crisis ended for Germany and the Sudeten separatists in the fiasco of their plans to tear away the Sudetenland. After that, German diplomacy began active negotiations with Czechoslovak representatives. Poland played its role in supporting the aggressive plans of Germany, which threatened the Soviet Union with war if the USSR sent units of the Red Army to help Czechoslovakia through Polish territory. The position of Poland was explained by the fact that Warsaw also claimed part of the Czechoslovak territory, like Hungary, neighboring Czechoslovakia.
The time for a new provocation came at the beginning of September 1938. Then in the Sudetenland there were riots organized by the Sudeten Germans. The Czechoslovak government deployed troops and police to suppress them. At this time, fears arose again that Germany would send parts of the Wehrmacht to help the Sudeten nationalists. Then the leaders of Great Britain and France confirmed their readiness to help Czechoslovakia and declare war on Germany if she attacked a neighboring country. At the same time, Paris and London promised Berlin that if Germany did not start a war, she would be able to claim any concessions. Hitler realized that he was close enough to his goal - the Anschluss of the Sudetenland. He stated that he did not want war, but he needed to support the Sudeten Germans as fellow tribesmen persecuted by the Czechoslovak authorities.
Meanwhile, provocations in the Sudetenland continued. On September 13, Sudeten nationalists again began riots. The Czechoslovak government was forced to impose martial law on the territory of German-populated areas and to strengthen the presence of its armed forces and police. In response, the Sudeten German leader Henlein demanded that martial law be lifted and that Czechoslovak troops be withdrawn from the Sudetenland. Germany announced that if the government of Czechoslovakia did not comply with the demands of the leaders of the Sudeten Germans, it would declare war on Czechoslovakia. On September 15, British Prime Minister Chamberlain arrived in Germany. This meeting, in many ways, was decisive for the future fate of Czechoslovakia. Hitler managed to convince Chamberlain that Germany did not want war, but if Czechoslovakia did not give up the Sudetenland to Germany, thereby realizing the right of the Sudeten Germans, like any other nation, to self-determination, then Berlin would be forced to stand up for fellow tribesmen. On September 18, representatives of Great Britain and France met in London, who came to a compromise solution, according to which the areas inhabited by more than 50% Germans were to go to Germany - in accordance with the right of nations to self-determination. At the same time, Great Britain and France undertook to become guarantors of the inviolability of the new borders of Czechoslovakia, which were established in connection with this decision. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union confirmed its readiness to provide military assistance to Czechoslovakia even if France did not fulfill its obligations under the alliance treaty with Czechoslovakia, concluded in 1935. However, Poland also reaffirmed its old position - that it would immediately attack Soviet troops if they tried to pass through its territory into Czechoslovakia. Great Britain and France blocked the proposal of the Soviet Union to consider the Czechoslovak situation in the League of Nations. So the conspiracy of the capitalist countries of the West took place.
French representatives told the Czechoslovak leadership that if they did not agree to the transfer of the Sudetenland to Germany, then France would refuse to fulfill its allied obligations to Czechoslovakia. At the same time, French and British representatives warned the Czechoslovak leadership that if they used the military assistance of the Soviet Union, the situation could get out of control and Western countries would have to fight against the USSR. The Soviet Union, meanwhile, was trying to make one last attempt to protect the territorial integrity of Czechoslovakia. The military units stationed in the western regions of the USSR were put on alert.
At a meeting between Chamberlain and Hitler on September 22, the Fuhrer demanded that the Sudetenland be transferred to Germany within a week, as well as those lands claimed by Poland and Hungary. Polish troops began to concentrate on the border with Czechoslovakia. In Czechoslovakia itself, turbulent events also took place. Milan Goggia's government, determined to capitulate to German demands, fell in a general strike. A new provisional government was formed under the leadership of General Yan Syrov. On September 23, the leadership of Czechoslovakia gave the order to start a general mobilization. At the same time, the USSR warned Poland that the non-aggression pact could be terminated if the latter attacked Czechoslovak territory.
But Hitler's position remained unchanged. On September 27, he warned that the next day, September 28, the Wehrmacht would come to the aid of the Sudeten Germans. The only concession he could make was to hold new negotiations on the Sudeten question. On September 29, the heads of governments of Great Britain, France and Italy arrived in Munich. It is noteworthy that representatives of the Soviet Union were not invited to the meeting. They also refused to invite representatives of Czechoslovakia - although the issue under discussion was the most concerned with it. Thus, the leaders of four Western European countries decided the fate of a small state in Eastern Europe.
At one in the morning on September 30, 1938, the Munich Agreement was signed. The partition of Czechoslovakia took place, after which representatives of Czechoslovakia itself were admitted into the hall. They, of course, expressed their protest against the actions of the participants in the agreement, but after a while they yielded to the pressure of the British and French representatives and signed the agreement. The Sudetenland was ceded to Germany. The President of Czechoslovakia Beneš, afraid of the war, on the morning of September 30 signed the agreement adopted in Munich. Despite the fact that in the Soviet historical literature this agreement was considered as a criminal conspiracy, in the end one can speak of its twofold nature.
On the one hand, Germany at first sought to protect the right of the Sudeten Germans to self-determination. Indeed, after the First World War, the German people found themselves divided. The Germans, like any other people in the world, had the right to self-determination and to live in a single state. That is, the movement of the Sudeten Germans could be considered as a national liberation movement. But the whole problem is that Hitler was not going to stop at the Sudetenland and limit himself to protecting the rights of the Sudeten Germans. He needed the whole of Czechoslovakia, and the Sudetenland issue became only an excuse for further aggression against this state.
Thus, the other side of the Munich agreements is that they became the starting point for the destruction of Czechoslovakia as a single and independent state and for the occupation of the Czech Republic by German troops. The ease with which the Western powers allowed Hitler to carry out this cunning maneuver inspired him with self-confidence and allowed him to act more aggressively already in relation to other states. A year later, Poland received a reward for its position in relation to Czechoslovakia, which itself was occupied by the troops of Nazi Germany.
The criminal behavior of Great Britain and France was not that they allowed the Germans of the Sudetenland to reunite with Germany, but that Paris and London turned a blind eye to Hitler's further aggressive policy towards Czechoslovakia. The next step was the secession of Slovakia, also carried out with the support of Nazi Germany and with the complete silence of the Western states, although they understood that the new Slovak state would actually become a satellite of Berlin. On October 7, autonomy was granted to Slovakia, on October 8 - to Subcarpathian Rus, on November 2, Hungary received the southern regions of Slovakia and part of Subcarpathian Rus (now this part is part of Ukraine). On March 14, 1939, the parliament of the autonomy of Slovakia supported the secession of the autonomy from Czechoslovakia. The conflict between the government of Czechoslovakia and the Slovak leaders was once again exploited by Hitler. The Western powers habitually remained silent. On March 15, Germany sent its troops into the territory of the Czech Republic. The well-armed Czech army did not offer fierce resistance to the Wehrmacht.
Having occupied the Czech Republic, Hitler proclaimed it the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. So the Czech state ceased to exist with the tacit consent of Great Britain and France. The “peace-loving” policy of the powers, which, by the way, guaranteed the inviolability of the new borders of the Czechoslovak state by the same Munich Agreement, led to the destruction of the Czech Republic as a state and, in the long term, significantly brought the tragedy of the Second World War closer. After all, Hitler received what he had achieved even before the “solution of the Sudeten question” - control over the military industry of Czechoslovakia and a new ally - Slovakia, which, in which case, could support the Nazi troops with further advance to the east.
Sources - https://topwar.ru/
Eighty years have passed since the Munich Conference, and the Poles have not decided how to relate to the participation of their own state in the pre-war redistribution of the world. In the heading " » analytical portal site decided to publish a translation of an article from the oldest Polish weeklyMysl Polska(published since 1941) "Józef Beck's biggest mistake". The author of the material, historian and publicist Bohdan Pentka, notes that Poland's policy towards Czechoslovakia in 1938 suggests the catastrophic mistakes that the Polish authorities are making in relations with Ukraine today. But first things first.
The 80th anniversary of the Munich conference (September 29–30, 1938) gives occasion to recall the policy of Polish Foreign Minister Jozef Beck* towards Czechoslovakia during the Sudeten Crisis. This policy is now usually justified by the sanitation epigones**, although Lech Kaczynski said on September 1, 2009 at Westerplatte that we must admit our mistakes and apologized to the Czechs for taking Zaolzie*** in 1938.
However, at that time this did not cause a deep reflection in the political camp of the reconstructive sanitation group, that is, “Right and Justice” and its entourage. Moreover, there were even voices of criticism regarding President Kaczynski's statement coming from this camp and reminiscent of all theses defending Beck's policy.
Namely, that only Czechoslovakia was allegedly responsible for the bad Polish-Czechoslovak relations in the twenty-year interwar period. That Poland had legal rights to Zaolzie, which the Czechs treacherously took away from Poland - first by aggression in 1919, and then by winning an international arbitration favorable to them in a situation when the Red Army was approaching Warsaw in the summer of 1920. That Prague treacherously carried out the Czechization of the Poles of Zaolzye by administrative methods. And that the occupation of Zaolzie saved the local population - mostly Polish - from an earlier German occupation.
These arguments are false, because in 1938 Beck did not care at all about Zaolsie and the local Poles. He consistently pursued a pro-German and anti-Czech policy, not because of Zaolzie, but because he viewed Czechoslovakia as an enemy of Poland.
This happened for four reasons:
1) he personally hated the Czechs and President Edvard Beneš;
2) Czechoslovakia was an ally of the USSR, with which it signed an alliance treaty in 1935, and the Communist Party legally operated in it;
3) Czechoslovakia granted asylum to Polish opposition politicians persecuted by sanation (Vincenty Witos, Wojciech Korfanty and others);
4) because of point number 2, Czechoslovakia prevented the creation of an alliance of Central European countries under the auspices of Poland, also known today as the Intermarium.
Beck, however, did not know that Berlin knew about his plans for the so-called Intermarium and effectively counteracted them. Already during the Czechoslovak crisis, the Germans lured Hungary and Romania to their side, making them - then still imperceptibly - their future satellites.
Hitler easily understood that Beck was pursuing a pro-German and anti-Czech policy to implement an anti-German plan, about which he did not inform his German partner.
Even then, the leader of the Third Reich came to the conclusion that sanation Poland would not be a reliable partner for him, which is very important in the context of the phantasmagories that sound today about the alleged need for the “Ribbentrop-Beck Pact” and the alleged benefits that Poland could bring the position of a satellite of the Third Reich.
Beck's pro-German policy had a significant impact on the course of the entire Czechoslovak (Sudet) crisis, which began shortly after the annexation of Austria by the Third Reich in March 1938. First of all, it influenced the position of France, where, for all the hostility that Paris had for Jozef Beck, they initially counted on a positive attitude of Poland towards Czechoslovakia.
France, whose new Prime Minister Edouard Daladier was influenced by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and his policy of appeasement (meeting Hitler's demands), hesitated from the very beginning to provide armed assistance to Czechoslovakia. But the indecision of Paris on this issue, in addition to British policy, was undoubtedly influenced by the position of Warsaw.
The Daladier government understood that any French assistance to Czechoslovakia would meet not only with a negative attitude, but even with opposition from Poland, which was pursuing an anti-Czech and pro-German policy.
The Soviet-Czechoslovak allied treaty of 1935 contained a clause that the USSR would provide military assistance to Prague only if France, with which Czechoslovakia was also connected by a political union, did so. In addition, possible Soviet assistance to Czechoslovakia was impossible for the reason that both countries did not have a common border, and Poland and Romania did not agree to the passage of the Red Army through their territory.
Bringing Munich to shame was the work of British Prime Minister Chamberlain. His main concern was the distance of Hitler's aggression from Western Europe and the prevention of the outbreak of war in Europe. Most of all, he feared that the USSR would provide military assistance to Czechoslovakia and the war in Europe would still begin.
To prevent this, he sacrificed Czechoslovakia in Munich.
The curiosity of the Munich Conference lay not only in the fact that the four powers were deciding the question of the territories and sovereignty of another European state. It also consisted in the fact that Hitler and Mussolini had previously agreed that the Italian dictator would present the German demands as "Italian compromise proposals."
Chamberlain and Daladier were so afraid of the failure of the conference that they accepted these "Italian compromise proposals" after midnight on September 30, 1938. Czechoslovakia lost about 40% of its territory and border fortifications in the Sudetenland. Against Germany, she was already defenseless, and her future fate was sealed.
The way was opened not to peace in Europe, but to the Second World War.
When Nazi Germany annexed the Czech Republic and Moravia in March 1939, its military potential was significantly strengthened due to the capture of modern weapons from the Czechoslovak army and the production capacities of a well-developed Czech industry, primarily defense. Without this strengthening of its own military potential, the Third Reich would not have been able to start a war with Poland on September 1, 1939. However, this was not understood a year earlier, neither in London, nor in Paris, nor in Warsaw.
The President of Czechoslovakia, Edvard Beneš, and his entourage considered that the struggle without allies was pointless, and therefore adopted the Munich Diktat at noon on September 30, 1938.
A different opinion was shared by the Czechoslovak generals, headed by the commander-in-chief of the army, General Ludwig Kreichi (1890-1972). The Czechoslovak army mobilized very well at the end of September 1938. Despite the fact that the Slovak nationalists had already announced a month earlier that they would not fight for Czechoslovakia, the chances of an effective defense were not negligible. General Krejci and his staff believed in the strength of the Czech fortifications in the Sudetes.
If at that time (September 29-30, 1938) Poland had declared that it would provide armed assistance to Czechoslovakia, history would probably have gone in a completely different scenario.
It is not difficult to imagine that then the Czech generals would simply have carried out a coup d'état and removed Beneš's team from power. The Wehrmacht was not yet ready for war in September 1938. The very concentration of the Polish army near the border of German Silesia could have had a chilling effect on Germany, not to mention a possible Polish-Czech attack on Wroclaw (in 1938 German Breslau, now Polish Wroclaw - approx. site). If at that time France had come out against Germany militarily, the fate of the Third Reich would have been sealed in the autumn of 1938.
The Polish army indeed concentrated its forces at the end of September 1938 on the southwestern border, but not in order to help Czechoslovakia. The goals of the 35,000 Silesia Task Force were completely different.
The conference in Munich hurt Józef Beck's great-power ambitions, as it was decided there that the Polish claims regarding Saolzie would be the subject of a separate international conference.
Therefore, sanation Poland had to immediately demonstrate to the world its great power. A letter from President Beneš to his Polish colleague Ignatius Mosticki dated September 22, 1938, containing a proposal to settle the Zaolzier dispute in exchange for Poland's neutrality regarding the Czechoslovak-German conflict, remained unanswered as a result of Beck's intrigues.
By midnight on September 30, the government in Prague received a Polish ultimatum on the Zaolzie issue, with a deadline for a response within 12 hours. Lack of response, like refusal, meant war.
The Czechoslovak government accepted the Polish ultimatum on October 1, 1938. The next day, Polish soldiers crossed the Olza. Sanitation propaganda hit the pathos and moods of complete patriotic exaltation. The Polish society, disoriented because of it, allowed itself to be captured by these moods. The Czechs remained deeply traumatized in relation to Poland and the Poles.
This enthusiasm was shared only in Poland. The annexation of Zaolzie caused very critical sentiments and reactions towards Warsaw throughout Europe, except for Nazi Germany, which supported it and presented it in propaganda terms as Polish complicity against Czechoslovakia. The Polish action was most critically assessed in Paris and Moscow.
Beck did not yet know what gave Stalin the template of action that he would use against Poland on September 17, 1939.
The head of Polish diplomacy, however, did not notice then the most key issues. In a strange way, he did not pay attention to the fact that an additional article of the Munich Agreement called for the convening of a new international conference to resolve not only the issue of Zaolzie, but also the issue of the state ownership of the free city of Gdansk.
The consequences of Beck's anti-Czech and pro-German policy turned against Poland very quickly. As soon as the soldiers of General Wladyslaw Bortnovsky occupied Zaolsie, and already on October 24, 1938, Nazi Germany formulated the first demands against Poland regarding the annexation of the free city of Gdansk to the Third Reich and the "corridor" in the Polish Pomerania.
It became obvious that Poland would be the next victim of Hitler's aggression.
Since March 1939 (after the annexation of Bohemia and Moravia by the Third Reich, as well as the creation of a satellite Slovak state), she found herself surrounded by Germany from three sides, without a chance for effective defense, and just like Czechoslovakia, she was first deceived and then betrayed by France and Great Britain. Beck's policy ended in disaster not in September 1939, but already in October 1938.
The French ambassador in Warsaw, Léon Noël, commented on the Polish policy towards Czechoslovakia in 1938: “Since Czechoslovakia has officially committed itself to recognizing for the Poles the status of another most privileged minority, I urged the Polish government to maintain at least strict neutrality in the German-Czech dispute and in a possible war. Everything was in vain. The semi-official press, or indeed almost all the daily newspapers, was no less partisan, no less offensive than the press of the Reich. She waged a stormy campaign against a small Slavic country threatened by German power. No reasoning, no arguments worked on Beck and those who followed his instructions. It was obvious that official Poland wanted the collapse of Czechoslovakia, hoping to benefit from this.
On September 28, 1938, Ambassador Noel told the chief of Polish diplomacy: "If you enter the war against Czechoslovakia, you will soon see trains with the German army passing through the Warsaw station from west to east, and your country will become a battlefield (…)".
So, unfortunately, that's what happened.
When I think of the disastrous Polish policy toward Czechoslovakia in 1938, I think of the current disastrous Polish policy toward Ukraine and wonder what far-reaching catastrophe for Polish statehood it will lead to in the future.
Notes:
* Jozef Beck - Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland in 1932-1939.
** Sanation - (Polish Sanacja from Latin sanatio "health") - the common name of the camp that ruled Poland in 1926-1939. The name of the political movement that arose in connection with the proclamation by Jozef Pilsudski of the slogan "moral sanitation" of public life in Poland, put forward during the preparations for and during the May 1926 coup. Parliament during this period played a minor role, and political opposition was suppressed.
***Zaolzie is the eastern part of Cieszyn Silesia. In the first half of the 20th century, Zaolzie was a disputed region between Czechoslovakia and Poland, and is currently part of the Czech Republic.Subscribe to Baltology on Telegram and join us on
Wars don't start so easily - there must be reasons for war. In addition to reasons, there must be pretexts: you must explain why you are forced to fight.
Every big war begins with the fact that the aggressor checks whether he can go unpunished? It's one thing to talk about "living space" and demand the unification of the Germans in Greater Germany, it's another thing to try in practice. For "practice" you can get on the head. From the very beginning, Hitler's national revolution clashed with the policies of the victors in the First World War.
After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Austria began the life of an independent national state. Willy-nilly. The Austrian Germans did not want to be separated from Germany. On October 30, 1918 in Vienna, the Provisional National Assembly decided to annex Austria to the rest of Germany. But the victorious powers banned reunification - "Anschluss". They did not want the strengthening of Germany.
On September 10, 1919, Austria signed the Saint-Germain Peace Treaty with the British Empire, France, the USA, Japan and Italy. Article 88 of the treaty expressly forbade the Anschluss.
In Austria, there was the same sluggish civil war as in Germany. Even sharper, because there were more political forces: communists, social democrats, fascists, national socialists. The Social Democrats, fascists and Nazis had armed organizations, no worse than the Rot Front, and fought each other. Losses are called different - from 2-3 thousand people to 50 thousand.
Chancellor of Austria Engelbert Dollfuss
In 1933, the new chancellor of Austria, Engelbert Dollfuss, a Catholic and pro-fascist, banned the communist and Nazi parties, disbanded the Schutzbund armed formations of the Social Democrats. He increased the number of fascist militias, the Heimwehr, to 100,000, dissolved parliament, and proclaimed an "authoritarian system of management modeled after Mussolini's Italy. He crushed the Communists and Social Democrats with an armed hand, and at the same time signed the Rome Protocols, declaring the creation of the Italy-Austria-Hungary axis.
On July 25, 1934, Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss is assassinated by the Nazis. In a number of cities, armed detachments of the Nazis act, demanding the "Anschluss".
And lean Mussolini hastily mobilizes four divisions, orders them to approach the border, to the Brenner Pass. The Italians are ready to go to the aid of the Austrian government. Mussolini is counting on the support of Great Britain and France - but just these powers have done absolutely nothing.
Mussolini speaks to the press: “The German Chancellor has repeatedly promised to respect the independence of Austria. But the events of recent days have clearly shown whether Hitler intends to respect his rights before Europe. It is impossible to approach with the usual moral standards a person who, with such cynicism, tramples on the elementary laws of decency.
Tellingly, the prospect of a war with Italy was enough for Hitler to retreat and not send troops into Austria. Without German support, the coup failed.
Everything changed when, in October 1935, Italy launched a war against Ethiopia. The West protests: since November 1935, all members of the League of Nations (except the United States) undertake to boycott Italian goods, refuse loans to the Italian government, and prohibit the import of strategic materials into Italy. And Germany supports Italy.
On May 8, 1936, in connection with the victory in Ethiopia, Mussolini proclaimed the rebirth of the Roman Empire. King Victor Emmanuel III assumed the title of Emperor of Ethiopia. The West does not recognize these seizures. You never know that India is ruled by the viceroy as a possession of Britain! It is possible for Britain, but for some Italy it is impossible. Hitler supports the idea of a second Roman Empire and sends congratulations.
Mussolini absolutely does not want the communists to win the civil war in Spain. He sends serious help to General Franco - people, planes, money, equipment. Hitler is also fighting in Spain. Since 1936, the rapprochement between Mussolini and Hitler begins.
True, even after that, Mussolini had to persuade for a long time. January 4, 1937 Mussolini in negotiations with Goering refuses to recognize the Anschluss. He declares that he will not tolerate any change in the Austrian question.
Applause to Hitler in the Reichstag after the announcement of the Anschluss of Germany with Austria. By annexing Austria, Hitler received a strategic base for the capture of Czechoslovakia and a further offensive in South-Eastern Europe and the Balkans, sources of raw materials, human resources and military production. As a result of the Anschluss, the territory of Germany increased by 17%, the population - by 10% (by 6.7 million people). The Wehrmacht included 6 divisions formed in Austria. Berlin, March 1938.
Only on November 6, 1937, Benito Mussolini declared that he was "tired of defending the independence of Austria." But even after that, Mussolini is trying to prevent the creation of a "Greater Germany". Again, no specific statements were made by the UK or France. Italy again alone confronts Germany ... But the international situation has changed.
Now Hitler is sure that Italy will not go to war over Austria. On March 12, 1938, the 200,000-strong army of the Third Reich crosses the Austrian border. The West was silent again. The USSR proposes to "discuss the Austrian question" in the League of Nations. The answer is silence. Do not want.
Sudetenland problem
According to the Treaty of Saint-Germain, Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia were recognized as parts of a new country - Czechoslovakia. But Czechoslovakia is not one, but three countries: the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Carpatho-Russia. In addition, many Poles live in the Tenishev region in the north of Czechoslovakia. There are many Germans in the Sudetenland. Many Hungarians live in Carpatho-Russia. In the era of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, this did not matter, but now it really does.
The Hungarians wanted to join Hungary. Poles - to Poland. The Slovaks wanted to have their own state. It was calmest in Carpatho-Russia, but even there there were many supporters of leaving under Hungary: Hungary has long-standing ties with Transcarpathian Rus, since the times of Galician Rus.
In fact, Czechoslovakia is the empire of the Czechs. There were fewer street fights than in Germany and Austria, but even in this country there was a sluggish civil war.
Since 1622, the Czech lands were part of the Austrian Empire. In the Sudetenland, the Germans predominate. They want to enter Germany, and Hitler supports them.
Czechoslovak authorities ban the National Socialist Party (NSDAP). But then the Sudeten German Party appears. At its congress in Carloni Vari in April 1938, this party demands the widest possible autonomy, including the right to secede from Czechoslovakia and join Germany.
The Nazis cannot refuse to annex the Sudetenland: they will not be understood either in Germany or in the Sudetenland. Millions of Germans are closely watching their policies. They want a national revolution.
But as soon as the Nazis enter Czechoslovakia, Britain and France will start a war with it. After all, these countries guarantors independence of Czechoslovakia.
... And suddenly an amazing thing happens: the Western countries themselves persuade Czechoslovakia to capitulate. In April 1918, at a Franco-British conference, Chamberlain said that if Germany wanted to occupy Czechoslovakia, he saw no means of preventing her from doing so.
In August 1938, the special commissioner of Britain, Lord Runciman, and the US ambassador to Germany, G. Wilson, came to Prague. They persuade the government of Czechoslovakia to agree to the transfer of the Sudetenland to the Third Reich.
At a meeting with Hitler in Bertechshaden in September, Chamberlain agreed to Hitler's demands. Together with French Prime Minister Daladier, they persuade Prime Minister Benes to agree to the dismemberment of the country.
In September 1938, the French government declared that it was unable to fulfill allied obligations to Czechoslovakia. Hitler, on September 26, declares that the Third Reich will destroy Czechoslovakia if it does not accept him conditions.
All this against the backdrop of the German uprising in the Sudetenland, which had already begun on September 13, 1938, and the uprisings of the Slovaks.
The Sudeten woman, unable to hide her emotions, dutifully greets the victorious Hitler, who is a serious tragedy for millions of people who are forcibly forced to "Hitlerism" and while maintaining "submissive silence"
The Munich Agreement of September 29-30, 1938 only crowns these efforts of the Western countries.
During these two days in Munich, Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler and Mussolini agreed on everything. Without the participation of the Czechoslovak government, they signed an agreement on the transfer of Germany to the Sudetenland, the Teszyn region to Poland and Transcarpathian Rus to Hungary. They obliged the Czechoslovak state to satisfy claims against it within three months. France and Britain acted guarantors"new borders of the Czechoslovak state".
The consequences are obvious. Already on October 1, the Third Reich sends troops to Czechoslovakia. Slovakia instantly secedes. On October 2, Poland sends troops to the Teszyn region, and the Hungarians begin the occupation of Transcarpathia. Since then, the National District of the Carpatho-Russians has been part of Hungary.
Soon the Nazis take over the rest of the Czech Republic, proclaiming the creation of the "Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia." They are trying to return to the times of the Austrian-German occupation of the country and begin its systematic Germanization. Hitler declares that part of the Czechs are Aryans, they need to be Germanized, and the rest destroyed. On what basis to Germanize and destroy, he does not specify. Goebbels suggests that blondes should be Germanized, and brunettes should be destroyed ... Fortunately for the Czechs, this strong idea remains a theory, it is not used in practice.
On March 13, an independent Slovak state arises in Slovakia under the leadership of Tiso. It declares itself an ally of the Third Reich.
The Beneš government is fleeing abroad. Until the end of the war, it is in London.
Why?!
In the USSR, the Munich agreement was explained very simply: the Anglo-American and French bourgeoisie conspired with Hitler in order to incite him against the USSR.
In France, the Munich shame was explained by the lack of strength.
In Britain - the unwillingness to shed the blood of the British because of the Czechs.
There is some truth in the latter: after the incredible, monstrous losses of the First World War, Western countries are trying to avoid any military clashes. The idea of "pacifying the aggressor" even at the cost of "surrendering" the allies in Eastern Europe seems to them more attractive than war.
English! I brought you peace! yells Chamberlain as he walks down the steps of the plane on his return to Britain.
Churchill on this occasion said that Chamberlain wanted to avoid war at the cost of shame, but received both shame and war. Fair enough, because the Munich Treaty of 1938 became a kind of mandate for the redivision of the world. It could not have taken place if not for the psychological consequences of the First World War and its incredible losses.
But there are two more simple, quite rational reasons.
In the story of the division of Czechoslovakia, everything is completely different from what we were taught. The Third Reich does not act at all as an aggressor, but as a fighter for justice. Hitler wants to unite all Germans... He is performing the same task that Garibaldi and Bismarck performed. Hitler rescues the Germans who do not want to live in a foreign state, in Czechoslovakia.
But Czechoslovakia is an empire! The Czechs in it impose their language and their customs on the Slovaks, Germans, Poles, Carpatho-Russians. This strange state has no long tradition. It has a very distant relation to the Bohemian Kingdom of the Middle Ages. It arose only in 1918, on the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, on the money of another empire - the Russian.
The Bolsheviks took the gold reserves of the Russian Empire to Kazan, fearing a German offensive in 1918. There, the gold reserve was captured by officers of the B.O. Kappel. Admiral A.V. was in charge of this gold. Kolchak as Supreme Ruler. But the Czechs guarded him ... And when it smelled of fried, they easily “grabbed” the gold and handed over the admiral to the Bolsheviks.
In December 1919, the Bolsheviks put condition command of the Czechoslovak Corps: they will release the Czechs with all the gold of the Russian Empire, with all the loot ...
Such a state did not command much respect and was deprived of legitimacy in the eyes of the West.
The second reason is that the Nazis are revolutionaries and socialists. This was greatly appreciated in France - a country with a long tradition of the socialist movement. In the same 1919, the French Corps had to be withdrawn from the south of Russia, because the Bolsheviks were very actively agitating it.
Let me remind you that the Munich Agreement was signed by the same Edouard Daladier, who personally presented the gold medal to Leni Riefenstahl. For the documentary film Triumph of the Will.
In general, the position of the Third Reich and Hitler seemed to the West both more attractive and even nobler than the position of Czechoslovakia and Beneš.
The position of the USSR
The USSR is on the side of poor Czechoslovakia. On September 21, he raises the "Czechoslovak question" in the League of Nations. The League of Nations is silent.
Then, on behalf of the Soviet government, the head of the Czech Communists, K. Gottwald, conveyed to President Benesch: if Czechoslovakia begins to defend itself and asks for help, then the USSR will come to its aid.
Noble? Beautiful? Probably... But how could the USSR imagine such "help"? The USSR did not then have a common border with Czechoslovakia. In this case, Gottwald clarifies: the USSR will come to the rescue even if Poland and Romania refuse to let the Soviet troops through.
If Benes agreed, it could be like this ...
The Third Reich strikes, brings in troops. The Czechoslovak army is trying to stop the aggressor. Naturally, Poland and Romania are not allowed by Soviet troops. Soviet troops enter Poland and Romania ... If they do not even reach Czechoslovakia, but get bogged down in a war with these countries, a hotbed of war arises. Moreover, as the future has shown, the Western world is ready to stand up for the freedom of Poland.
Done: World War II has begun, with the West acting together with the Third Reich against the USSR.
The second option: Soviet troops instantly crushed the Polish units, reached the borders of Czechoslovakia ... Yes, just in time for the Slovak state, which is not at all eager to become one of the Soviet republics. And the Nazi tankers are already pulling the levers, pointing the gun barrels ...
And in this case, the West is on the side of Hitler.
In general, the most disastrous variant of the beginning of the war. Two hypotheses are possible:
1) Stalin understood from the very beginning that he would be refused. A noble gesture will remain in the memory of peoples as a noble gesture.
2) Stalin expected that at first all the participants in the events would get bogged down in the war and bleed each other. After all, it is not at all necessary to fulfill the allied duty right now ... For the time being, diplomatic showdowns will continue, while the noble position of the USSR will be brought to the whole world ...
Czechoslovakia will begin to resist, and a war with the Third Reich, and with Poland, and with Hungary “shines” for it ... And the communists in all these countries immediately begin to fight both with an external enemy and with their own governments.
Here's what it looked like:
Tanks of the Hungarian occupation troops enter the streets of the Czechoslovak city of Khust (now part of the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine).
Handshakes of Polish and Hungarian officers at the train in occupied Czechoslovakia.
Hungarian residents of Slovakia greet Hungarian soldiers with flowers.
The ruler (regent) of the Kingdom of Hungary, Admiral Miklos Horthy (on a white horse) at the head of the parade of Hungarian troops in the occupied Czechoslovak city of Kosice.
Polish troops enter the Czechoslovak city of Teshin.
Bunker of the Czechoslovak line of fortifications in the Sudetenland, known as the Beneš line.
Residents of the Czech city of Ash welcome the German troops.
The ruler (regent) of the Kingdom of Hungary, Admiral Miklos Horthy (on a white horse) at the head of the parade of Hungarian troops in the occupied Czechoslovak city of Kosice after its occupation on November 2, 1938.
Fraternization of soldiers of the Hungarian and Polish occupation forces in the occupied Czechoslovakia.
Admiral Miklos Horthy visits soldiers wounded in battles with the defenders of the Carpathian Ukraine in the hospital.
The funeral of the Carpathian Sich and soldiers of the Czechoslovak troops who died in battle with the Hungarian troops who invaded Czechoslovakia.
On October 25, 1938, the Prague government decided to dissolve the political parties. Dissolving all political parties, the Prime Minister of Autonomous Carpatho-Ukraine Avgustin Voloshin gave permission "to establish a political party called the Ukrainian National Association (UNO)" in violation of the decision of the Prague authorities.
Czechoslovak soldier, leaving to fight, kisses his daughter.
American restaurateur Fred Horak, an ethnic Czech and a native of Prague, at the window of his dining room with an anti-Hitler ad ("Germans are not served. Let Hitler (bandit) return Czechoslovakia and everything he stole from her").
A column of captured Czechoslovak tanks LT vz. 35 before shipping to Germany.
Bridge across the Odra (Oder) river, over which German troops enter the Czech city of Ostrava on March 15, 1939
Polish armored forces occupy the Czechoslovak village of Yorgov.
Polish soldiers at the captured Czech checkpoint in the town of Bohumin.
German officers watch the capture of the city of Bohumin by Polish troops.
The monument to the first president of Czechoslovakia, Tomas Masaryk, in the city of Bohumin, was broken during Operation Zaluzhye.
Polish troops occupy the Czech city of Karvin.
Polish troops replace the Czech name of the city with the Polish one at the city's railway station in Teszyn.
Residents of Teshin carry a Czechoslovak border post torn from the ground.
Polish soldiers at the post office they captured in the Czech village of Ligotka Cameralna.
Polish 7TP tanks enter the Czech city of Tesin. October 1938.
Handshake of the Polish Marshal Edward Rydz-Smigly and the German attaché Major General Bogislaw von Studnitz at the Independence Day parade in Warsaw on November 11, 1938.
Polish tank 7TP overcomes the Czechoslovak border fortifications.
Parts of the Polish 10th Cavalry Rifle Regiment of the 10th Mechanized Brigade are preparing for a solemn parade in front of the regiment commander on the occasion of the end of Operation Zaluzhye.
Fighters of the Czechoslovak border detachment "State Defense Detachments" (Stráž obrany státu, SOS) from battalion No. 24 (New Castles, Nitra) on the Maria Valeria bridge across the Danube in Parkano (present-day Šturovo) in southern Slovakia are preparing to repel the Hungarian aggression.
Burned during the fighting on the night of September 21-22, 1938, the customs building in the Czechoslovak village of Gnanice.
Sudeten Germans break out the Czechoslovak border post.
Colonel-General von Brauchitsch takes a parade in honor of the accession of the Sudetenland to Germany.