Chapter 161: Pre-War Poland

Germany deployed its strongest troops on the German-Polish border, which made the situation in the whole of Europe tense all of a sudden, and Britain, France, the United States and other major powers were afraid that Germany would once again set off a bloody storm, and they all dissuaded Germany from destroying the peace.

But Poland, as the main party of the incident, was undaunted, and they openly clamored that they could occupy the whole territory of Germany in three days, so that Germany could let it go.

Speaking of which, we have to talk about the grievances between Poland and Germany.

Poland was once a great power, they used to dominate the hussars in the Middle Ages, and during that time, the arrogant Poland bullied its neighbors everywhere, whether it was Germany that was not unified at that time, or the Russian Empire in the "Age of Chaos", especially the Russian Empire, whose capital Moscow was occupied.

However, Poland's arrogance did not last long, and after the weak Prussia became strong under the leadership of Frederick the Great and the Russian Empire returned to its peak at the hands of Catherine II, Poland, which had made enemies everywhere, tasted revenge.

In the second half of the 18th century, under the influence of the Enlightenment in Western Europe, the Polish small and medium-sized aristocracy and the emerging bourgeoisie launched a patriotic reform movement, but by the armed intervention of the Russian Empress Catherine II, in 1772, Russia, Prussia and Austria carried out the first partition of Poland, Poland lost about 35% of its territory and 33% of its population, and Poland became a protectorate of Russia, Prussia and Austria.

Under the influence of the French Revolution, the Polish people once again launched a reform movement, and on May 3, 1791, the Polish Parliament adopted the Konstytucja 3 Maja Constitution, which abolished the right of veto, which was also the earliest constitution in Europe.

However, Catherine II said: "You dare to carry out a reform movement without asking my opinion?" As a result, the Russian Empire again intervened in Poland with armed force.

In 1793, Russia and Prussia divided Poland for the second time, and Poland became a small country with a territory of only 200,000 square kilometers and a population of 4 million, and became a puppet state of Tsarist Russia.

In 1794, the Polish people staged an uprising under the leadership of the national hero Kościuszko, which was later suppressed by Russia.

In 1795, Russia, Prussia and Austria carried out the third partition of Poland, and this time the three countries were not polite and directly divided all the territories of Poland.

Among them, Russia annexed Lithuania, Kurland, Western Belarus and western Volyn, and pushed the border to the Neman-Bug River, with a total of 120,000 square kilometers and a population of 1.2 million.

Austria occupied all of Lesser Poland, including Krakow and Lublin, and part of the Masovia region, with a total of 47,500 square kilometers and a population of 1.5 million.

Prussia captured the rest of the western region, Warsaw, and the rest of the Masovia region, totaling 55,000 square kilometers and a population of 1 million.

At this point, the Polish state, which had existed for more than 800 years, perished. In the process of the three partitions of Poland, the territory seized by Tsarist Russia accounted for about 62% of the territory of the original Poland, with a total of more than 460,000 square kilometers; Prussia captured about 20 per cent, or about 141,100 square kilometers, and Austria took about 18 per cent, or about 121,800 square kilometers.

After these three partitions, Poland disappeared from the map of Europe for 123 years.

This situation was not until the end of the First World War, when Russia was worried about domestic and foreign troubles, and Polish nationalists saw a godsend and immediately established an independent state, while other countries recognized Poland's independence for various reasons.

However, Poland, which had endured 123 years of annihilation, did not learn its lesson, but fantasized about restoring the Polish dynasty that had straddled the Baltic and Black Seas before the 17th century.

As a result, the Polish army took advantage of the defeat of Germany to seize a large amount of land that originally belonged to Germany, and did a lot of beastly things in these lands inhabited by Germans (similar to what devils did), and Germany, which had just been defeated at that time, had no choice but to grit its teeth and swallow it in its stomach.

After the destruction of the Poles, their self-confidence swelled, and they thought that even a strong Germany could do nothing about me, and what could others do?

So, they set their sights on their old enemy, the Soviet Union, which was in trouble, and wanted to replicate the "feat" of the capture of Moscow in the 17th century.

Britain and France raised their hands in favor of Poland's idea, and they were worried about how to deal with this huge "red" country, and Poland jumped out stupidly, and it was simply sorry for Poland's poor IQ if they did not use him as a gunman.

As a result, at the instigation of Britain and France, Poland repeatedly rejected the proposal of the Soviet Russian government to settle the dispute between the two countries through peaceful negotiations and launched an attack on Soviet Russia.

On May 8 of the same year, Polish troops occupied Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.

The Soviet Red Army was strong in combat and although the equipment was backward and the country was in trouble, it still fought back, recaptured Kiev in mid-June, and advanced across the border to Warsaw.

Poland and the Entente countries saw that this script was not right, how could the backward Soviet Union beat Poland with the support of the Entente?! But everyone has come to the door, and if you don't believe it, you have to believe it.

In order to protect Poland's low-IQ gun, on July 12, British Foreign Secretary Curzon sent a note to the Soviet and Russian governments, suggesting that Russia and Poland make peace.

The Soviets were so angry when they heard this, where did you go when Poland attacked us? So they decisively rejected this suggestion and continued their march towards the Warsaw attack.

Seeing that things were not going well, the British hurriedly issued an ultimatum to the Soviet Union on August 20, saying that if the Soviet Union did not hold peace talks, they would declare war on the Soviet Union.

Surprisingly, however, instead of stopping the advance of the Soviet Red Army, this ultimatum aroused public indignation at home, and all the British unanimously said, "We will lose face if you don't want to be ashamed of the government."

Under domestic pressure, the British government, which had originally favored Poland, changed its attitude and began to persuade Poland to accede to the Soviet Union's demands and stop the war first.

However, the accident happened again, because of the differences of opinion among the senior commanders of the Red Army on the direction of the main attack, and because the Cossacks in the cavalry division of the Red Army passed everywhere, destroying Catholic churches, killing Catholic priests, robbing and raping women along the way, forcing the Polish workers, peasants, soldiers, and landlords and nobles to unite and unite with the outside world, resulting in a major setback for the Red Army in the Battle of Warsaw, with losses of more than 300,000 people.

On October 12, 1920, the Soviet Union and Poland signed an armistice agreement in Riga and concluded a peace treaty.

The peace treaty stipulated that the two parties recognized the independence of Ukraine and Belarus and demarcated the eastern border of Poland (the western part of Ukraine and Belarus was assigned to Poland), at which time the Polish-Russian border was about 150 miles east of the Curzon Line.

According to the treaty, Poland received part of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, as well as Lithuania, and Soviet Russia lost a large part of its territory in this war.

This result was laughable, but the Soviet Union was clearly not going to give in, which is why Lyon was able to agree with Stalin on the Polish question.