DISINFO: Poland responsible for outbreak of WWII
SUMMARY
Poland may not be the co-author of the aggression which broke in 1939, but it played an important supporting role in unleashing it. Had it not been for for Poland’s actions in the run-up to the Second World War, particularly after the Munich conference, the war may well have been avoided.
RESPONSE
The claim fits in with the Kremlin's pseudohistorical messaging on the causes of the Second World War, particuarly on the responsibility which Poland supposedly bears for unleashing the conflict. The outbreak of the war, according to overwhelming academic consensus, is directly traceable to the Nazi-Soviet pact of August 1939. The agreement contained a secret protocol which entitled Nazi Germany and the USSR to their respective spheres of influence in Europe. Within weeks of concluding the pact, the Third Reich and the Soviet Union implemented its secret provisions by invading Poland. Read similar examples of Russian historical revisionism concerning Poland - Poland posed a military threat to the USSR in 1938-1939, Nazi Germany considered Poland its best ally, If Poland realised a rational policy in 1939, Moscow would have had a different approach towards it and Poland re-writes the history of the Warsaw uprising accusing the USSR of its failure.