Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issues a correction to 10 of the lies Putin told Tucker Carlson’s audience during his interview
1. Poland cooperated with Hitler’s Germany.
Before World War II, Polish diplomacy tried to keep good neighbourly relations with Germany. Poland’s entering into any sort of military alliance with Hitler was out of question. In the period between the First and Second World Wars, Poland found itself between two aggressive neighbours: Germany and Russia, neither of which practically recognized Polish nation’s right to have an independent state. In 1934, in Berlin, the German–Polish declaration of non-aggression was signed, which was intended to guarantee the settling of disputes by peaceful means. Even before that, in 1932, a similar non-aggression pact was signed with the USSR.
2. Poles forced Hitler to start World War II against them. Why did Poland start the war on 1 September 1939? It was unwilling to cooperate. Hitler had nothing to do but start implementing his plans with Poland.
The Second Polish Republic rejected Hitler’s claims as well as his proposal to enter into a Polish-German alliance against the USSR. It was Hitler’s Germany and the Soviet authorities that signed an agreement against Poland on 23 August 1939 (so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), which allowed Germany to assault Poland on 1 September 1939. Soviet Russia and Hitler’s Germany cooperated in concert until June 1941.
3. Poland fell prey to the policies it had pursued against Czechoslovakia, as under the well-known Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, part of that territory, including western Ukraine, was to be given to Russia.
Poland did not participate in, nor was it a party to, the Munich Agreement (of 30 September 1938), which in fact heavily limited the sovereignty of Czechoslovakia. Polish claims regarding the Trans-Olza were made after the signing of the Munich Agreement.
4. Thus Russia, which was then named the USSR, regained its historical lands.
The USSR incorporated Poland’s eastern territory as the result of armed aggression (17 September 1939) while Poland was fending off the German invasion. It stabbed the Polish state in the back. So-called people’s referenda held by the Soviets on Poland’s eastern borderlands were accompanied by terror and rigs. Lviv and the then provinces of Lviv and Stanisławów (today’s Western Ukraine) have never been a part of the Russian Empire. Nor was the Vilnius region a historical part of Russia.
5. Ukraine is in fact an artificial state created by Lenin and Stalin.
Today’s Ukraine emerged as a state thanks to Ukrainian national movement. The Bolsheviks did not establish it but merely conquered its part to set up one of the Soviet republics. Ukraine emerged at the will of Ukrainians themselves.
6. The left bank of the Dnieper, including Kyiv, is a historical Russian land.
Kyiv was the historical capital of Ruthenia, and Moscow did not exist at the time. In 1991, Ukraine became an independent state with internationally recognized borders.
7. The idea of Ukrainians as a separate nation emerged in Poland.
The process of self-defining of Ukrainians as a separate ethnic group was paralleled by similar processes in 19th century Europe. Nobody “invented” the Ukrainian nation.
8. NATO bases have been set up on the territory of Ukraine.
There are no NATO bases on the territory of Ukraine.
9. Two coups d’etat were committed in Ukraine to artificially break its ties with Russia.
During the Orange Revolution, the Ukrainian nation opposed to rigged elections. Holding a next round of voting allowed President Viktor Yushchenko to actually win the majority of votes. After the Revolution of Dignity, President Petro Poroshenko democratically won the presidential election.
10. In 2014, Moscow was forced to defend Crimea because it was in jeopardy.
There was no threat to Crimea in 2014.
