With Open Eyes
Polish Foreign Policy before the Hitler-Stalin Pact
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
In spring 1939, it was becoming clear that Poland could fall victim to the expansionist impulses of two dictatorships. Poland, however, did not meet Hitler’s demands, nor did it allow the Red Army to enter its territory, as its Western allies insisted. However, the widespread claim that Poland bore a part of the blame for the Hitler-Stalin pact is untenable. Warsaw’s distrust vis-à-vis Stalin proved instead to be justified. That the allied Western powers would leave Poland in the lurch and thus give not only Hitler but also Stalin a free hand in Poland lay outside the imagination of Polish diplomacy.
(Osteuropa 7-8/2009, pp. 47–74)