The policy of the Second Republic’s citizens extermination by the Third Reich and the Soviet Union in the years 1939–1945. Part II: Policy of the Soviet Union Cover Image

Polityka eksterminacji obywateli Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej przez Trzecią Rzeszę i Związek Sowiecki w latach 1939–1945 Część II: Polityka Związku Sowieckiego
The policy of the Second Republic’s citizens extermination by the Third Reich and the Soviet Union in the years 1939–1945. Part II: Policy of the Soviet Union

Author(s): Dariusz Matelski
Subject(s): Recent History (1900 till today), Special Historiographies:
Published by: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek
Keywords: Poles; Jews; Ukrainians; Belarusians; Soviet occupation; extermination; genocide

Summary/Abstract: One of the basic instruments in the implementation of an anti-Polish nation policy was an unprecedented on such a scale forced displacement of population. In the case of Moscow, it was a reference to the tsarist policy of mixing the peoples of the empire. It has been systematically implemented since the days of Tsar Ivan the Terrible (1530–1584), and under Joseph Stalin’s rule, it has grown into the official ethnicity policy of the Soviet state. The extermination policy of the Soviet Union was aimed at full unification of the looted territories with the rest of the Soviet empire. It was realized through physical liquidation of Polish intelligentsia, officials of Polish state administration, police and army. Already on September 18th, right after the invasion of Poland, several thousand Poles were shot by Soviet soldiers and military police; without a trial. Forced deportations, public executions, mass murders and concentration camps are a common feature of both murderous systems: Nazism and Stalinism. Except for the gas chambers, all methods of destroying humans were already earlier applied in the East (since November 1917), and later in Nazi Germany (since January 1933). The only difference was that from June 22, 1941, Stalin was counting on emergence of a territorially unspecified Polish state, which Hitler had never planned.Poland as the only member of the Allied side in World War II was shifted territorial (and reduced by 100 thousand sq. Km compared to August 31, 1939) and forced to exchange population, and became a satellite of the Soviet Union for 45- year – all at the request of Moscow.

  • Issue Year: 15/2017
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 205-226
  • Page Count: 22
  • Language: Polish