From the partition of Europe to the partition of the world
The redivision of Europe began even before the Second World War struck it like a thunder in the middle of a clear sky. The USSR and Germany signed the famous non-aggression pact, also called the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which became infamous for its secret addition, the protocol on determining the spheres of influence of the two powers.
Russia, according to the protocol, "retreated" Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Bessarabia and the east of Poland, and Germany - Lithuania and the west of Poland. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Polish territories, initiating the Second World War and the great redistribution of lands.
However, after Germany was recognized as the only aggressor in World War II, the victorious countries had to agree on how to distribute between themselves and the defeated territories.
The most famous meeting, which influenced the further course of history and in many ways determined the peculiarities of modern geopolitics, was the Yalta Conference held in February 1945. The conference was a meeting of the heads of three countries anti-Hitler coalition - USSR, USA and Great Britain in the Livadia Palace. The USSR was represented by Joseph Stalin, the USA - by Franklin Roosevelt, and Great Britain - by Winston Churchill.
The conference was held during the war, but it was already obvious to everyone that Hitler must be defeated: the allied forces were already waging a war on enemy territory, advancing on all fronts. It was absolutely necessary to redraw the world in advance, since, on the one hand, the lands occupied by National Socialist Germany needed a new demarcation, and on the other hand, the alliance of the West with the USSR after the loss of the enemy was already outdated, and therefore a clear division of spheres of influence was a priority task.
The goals of all countries were, of course, completely different. If it was important for the United States to involve the USSR in the war with Japan in order to end it as soon as possible, then Stalin wanted the allies to recognize the USSR's right to the recently annexed Baltic states, Bessarabia and eastern Poland. In one way or another, everyone wanted to create their own spheres of influence: for the USSR, it was a kind of buffer from the controlled states, the GDR, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Yugoslavia.
Among other things, the USSR also demanded that former citizens who emigrated to Europe be returned to their state. It was important for Great Britain to maintain influence in Europe and prevent the penetration of the Soviet Union there.
Other goals of neatly partitioning the world were to maintain a steady state of calm, as well as to prevent destructive wars in the future. That is why the United States especially fostered the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating the United Nations.
Having received huge territories by the decision of the USSR, these countries call us occupiers.
On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Victory, "AiF" tried to imagine what the map of Europe would have become if the USSR had not given thousands of kilometers of territories to the very countries that now call us occupiers. And will they give up these lands?
Wroclaw is one of the most touristic cities in Poland. There are crowds of people with cameras everywhere, in expensive restaurants there is nowhere for an apple to fall, taxi drivers are charging godless prices. At the entrance to the Market Square, a banner "Wroclaw - real Polish charm!" Sways. Everything would be fine, but back in May 1945, Wroclaw was called Breslau and before that for 600 years (!) In a row did not belong to Poland. Victory Day, now referred to in Warsaw as "the beginning of communist tyranny", added German Silesia, Pomerania, and 80% of East Prussia to Poland. Now no one stutters about this: that is, tyranny is tyranny, and we will take the land for ourselves. The AIF observer decided to figure out what the map of Europe would look like now if our ex-brothers in the East were left without the help of the "occupiers"?
Cities as a gift
In 1945, Poland received the cities of Breslau, Gdansk, Zielona Gora, Legnica, Szczecin, says Maciej Wisniewski, a Polish freelance journalist. - The USSR also gave the territory of Bialystok, through the mediation of Stalin, we found the city of Klodzsko, disputed with Czechoslovakia.
Nevertheless, we believe that the partition of Poland under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, when the USSR took Western Belarus and Western Ukraine, was unjust, but the transfer of Silesia and Pomerania to the Poles by Stalin was just, it cannot be disputed. It is fashionable now to say that the Russians did not free us, but captured us. However, an interesting occupation turns out if Poland received a quarter of Germany for free: moreover, hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers shed blood for this land. Even the GDR resisted, not wanting to give Szczecin to the Poles - the issue with the city was finally resolved only in 1956 under the pressure of the USSR.
In addition to the Poles, the Baltic states are also strongly outraged by the "occupation". Well, it is worth remembering: the present capital - Vilnius - was also "presented" to Lithuania by the USSR; by the way, the Lithuanian population of Vilnius was then ... barely 1%, and the Polish - the majority. The USSR returned to the republic the city of Klaipeda - the Prussian Memel, which belonged to the Lithuanians in 1923-1939. and annexed by the Third Reich. Back in 1991, the Lithuanian leadership condemned the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, but no one returned both Vilnius to Poland and Klaipeda to the FRG.
Ukraine, through the mouth of Prime Minister Yatsenyuk, declaring itself “a victim of Soviet aggression on a par with Germany,” is unlikely to give the Poles its western part with Lvov, Ivano-Frankovsk and Ternopil (these cities were included by the “aggressors” into the Ukrainian SSR in 1939), Romania - the Chernivtsi region (ceded to the Ukrainian SSR on August 2, 1940), and Hungary or Slovakia - Transcarpathia, received on June 29, 1945 Romanian politicians do not stop discussions about the fairness of the "annexation" of Moldova by the Soviet Union in 1940. Of course, a long time ago forgotten: after the war, it was thanks to the USSR that the Romanians got back the province of Transylvania, which Hitler took in favor of Hungary. Bulgaria, through Stalin's mediation, retained Southern Dobrudja (formerly the possession of that very Romania), which was confirmed by the agreement of 1947. But now not a single word is said about this in the Romanian and Bulgarian newspapers.
Wroclaw, Lower Silesia, Poland.
Thank you don't say
Prague winter. How do Czechs feel about the upcoming 70th anniversary of Victory?
Prague residents enthusiastically welcome soviet tank crews... “After 1991, the Czech Republic removed the monuments to Soviet soldiers, and also announced that Victory Day marks the replacement of one dictatorship with another,” says Alexander Zeman, a Czech historian. - However, it was at the insistence of the USSR that Czechoslovakia returned the Sudetenland with the cities of Karlovy Vary and Liberec, where 92% of the population were Germans. Recall that the Western powers at the Munich conference in 1938 supported the annexation of the Sudetenland by Germany - only protested Soviet Union... At the same time, the Poles seized the Teshin region from Czechoslovakia and after the war did not want to give it away, insisting on a referendum. After the USSR put pressure on Poland and support for the Czechoslovak position, an agreement was signed - Teshin was returned to the Czechs, securing it with a treaty of 1958. Nobody says thank you for helping the Soviet Union - apparently, the Russians owe us only one fact of their existence.
In general, we have given away lands to everyone, we have not forgotten anyone - and now they spit in our faces for this. In addition, few people know about the pogrom that the new authorities committed in the "returned territories" - 14 million Germans were expelled from Pomerania and the Sudetenland. If the inhabitants of Koenigsberg (which became Soviet Kaliningrad) moved to the GDR for 6 years (until 1951), then in Poland and Czechoslovakia - 2-3 months, and many Germans were given only 24 hours to get ready, being allowed to take only a suitcase of things, and hundreds of kilometers were forced to walk. “You know, it’s not worth mentioning this,” the Szczecin mayor shyly remarks to me. - Such things spoil our good relationship with Germany ". Well, yes, they poke us with any trifle in the face, but it is a sin to offend the Germans.
How Europe was divided after 1945
Personally, I am interested in justice in this matter. It has already reached schizophrenia: when a person in Eastern Europe says that the victory of the USSR over Nazism is liberation, he is considered either a fool or a traitor. Guys, let's be honest. If the consequences of May 9, 1945 are so bad, illegal and terrible, then all the other actions of the USSR during that period are no better. Could the decisions of those who brought tyranny to your land be good? Therefore, Poland should give Silesia, Pomerania and Prussia back to the Germans, Ukraine should return its western part to the Poles, Chernivtsi to the Romanians, Transcarpathia to the Hungarians, Lithuania to abandon Vilnius and Klaipeda, Romania - from Transylvania, the Czech Republic - from the Sudetenland and Teshin, Bulgaria - from Dobrudja ... And then everything will be absolutely honest. But where there. We are covered for what the world is worth, accused of all mortal sins, but they grabbed hold of Stalin's "gifts". Sometimes you just want to imagine: I wonder what would have happened if Hitler's USSR had been thrown exactly to its borders and did not look further into Europe? What would now be left of the territories of those countries that call their liberation before the 70th anniversary of Victory soviet troops "Occupation"? The answer, however, is extremely simple - horns and legs. 
Residents of Polish Lublin and fighters Soviet army on one of the city streets. July 1944. Great Patriotic War 1941-1945. Photo: RIA Novosti / Alexander Kapustyansky
http://www.aif.ru/society/history/1479592
Read if you're interested .... Six questions to the historian about the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact
Pafter World War II, the geopolitical map of the world was completely changed.
For the first time in 1000 years, continental Europe found itself dependent on the will of two superpowers - the USSR and the USA. Modern Europe has forgotten about it, its memory is short. AND former countries the socialist camps have forgotten how and who cut off large enough territories for which the blood was shed not by them, but by the Soviet soldier. I propose to remember how it was and who and what received from the USSR, from the bounty of the broad Soviet soul ...
Poland likes to remember the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which became important because of the secret addition about the definition of the spheres of influence of the two powers.
According to the protocol, the USSR "retreated" Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Bessarabia and the east of Poland, and Germany - Lithuania and the west of Poland.
The fact that the USSR took Western Belarus and Western Ukraine is considered unfair in Poland, but they have no complaints about the transfer of the USSR to the Poles of Silesia and Pomerania. The division of Poland under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is bad. But nothing that before that Poland itself took part in such a section?
Polish Marshal Edward Rydz-Smigly (right) and German Major General Bogislav von Studnitz
On September 5, 1938, the Polish ambassador ukasiewicz offered Hitler a military alliance with Poland in the fight against the USSR. Poland was not only a victim, she herself, together with Hungary in October 1938, supported the Nazis in territorial claims against Czechoslovakia and occupied part of the Czech and Slovak lands, including the areas of Cieszyn Silesia, Orava and Spis.
On September 29, 1938, the Munich Agreement took place between British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier, German Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini. The agreement concerned the transfer of the Sudetenland by Czechoslovakia to Germany.
Poland even threatened to declare war on the USSR if it tried to send troops across Polish territory to help Czechoslovakia. And the Soviet government made a statement to the Polish government that any attempt by Poland to occupy part of Czechoslovakia would annul the non-aggression pact. They occupied. So what did the Poles want from the USSR? Receive, sign!
Poland liked to divide up neighboring countries. The report of the 2nd department (intelligence department) of the main headquarters of the Polish Army in December 1938 said literally the following: “The dismemberment of Russia is at the heart of Polish politics in the East. Therefore, our possible position will be reduced to the following formula: who will take part in the section. Poland should not remain passive at this wonderful historical moment. " the main task Poles is to prepare well in advance for this. Poland's main goal is "weakening and routing Russia" .
On January 26, 1939, Jozef Beck told the head of the German Foreign Ministry that Poland would lay claim to Soviet Ukraine and access to the Black Sea. On March 4, 1939, the Polish military command prepared a plan for a war with the USSR "Vostok" ("Wskhud"). But somehow it did not work out ... the Polish lip curled up after half a year thanks to the Wehrmacht, which began to lay claim to the whole of Poland. The Germans themselves needed black soil and access to the Black Sea. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Polish territories, initiating the Second World War and the great redistribution of lands.
And then there was a difficult and bloody war ... and it was clear to all peoples that, as a result of it, the world would face great changes.
The most famous meeting, which influenced the further course of history and in many ways determined the peculiarities of modern geopolitics, was the Yalta Conference held in February 1945. The conference was a meeting of the heads of the three countries of the anti-Hitler coalition - the USSR, the USA and Great Britain in the Livadia Palace.
"Poland is the hyena of Europe." (C) Churchill. This is a quote from his book "The Second world War". If literally:" ... Poland only six months ago with the greed of a hyena took part in the robbery and destruction of the Czechoslovak state ... "
Following the results of the Second World War, the communist tyrant Stalin added German Silesia, Pomerania, and also 80% of East Prussia to Poland. Poland received the cities of Breslau, Gdansk, Zielona Gora, Legnica, Szczecin. The USSR also gave the territory of Bialystok and the city of Klodzsko, disputed with Czechoslovakia. Stalin also had to pacify the leadership of the GDR, which did not want to give Szczecin to the Poles. The issue was finally resolved only in 1956.
The Baltic states are also strongly outraged by the occupation. But the capital of Lithuania, Vilnius, was donated to the republic under the USSR. This is a Polish city and the Lithuanian population of Vilnius was then 1%, and the Polish - the majority. The USSR also gave them the city of Klaipeda (Prussian Memel), previously annexed by the Third Reich. In 1991, the Lithuanian leadership condemned the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, but for some reason nobody returned Vilnius to Poland or Klaipeda in the FRG.
The Romanians fought against the USSR, but thanks to the USSR they managed to get back the province of Transylvania, which Hitler took in favor of Hungary.
Thanks to Stalin, Bulgaria retained Southern Dobrudja (formerly Romania).
If the inhabitants of Koenigsberg (which became Soviet Kaliningrad) moved to the GDR for 6 years (until 1951), then Poland and Czechoslovakia did not stand on ceremony with the Germans - 2-3 months and go home. And some Germans were given 24 hours to get ready, they were allowed to take only a suitcase of things, and they forced them to walk hundreds of kilometers.
Ukraine, in general, is a country - a candy that receives more and more lands with each Russian occupation))
Maybe it will give the Poles its western part with Lvov, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil (these cities were included by the aggressors in the Ukrainian SSR in 1939), Romania - the Chernivtsi region (withdrew to the Ukrainian SSR on August 2, 1940), and Hungary or Slovakia - Transcarpathia, received on June 29, 1945?
After the war, the world was under the protection of the Yalta-Potsdam system, and Europe was artificially divided into two camps, one of which was under the control of the USSR until 1990-1991 ...
The first picture shows a map from the American Look magazine dated March 14, 1937. rno pictures and photos from the Internet.
Information source: Wiki, sites
Today marks exactly three years after the Crimean referendum on joining Russia. As we know, its results (96.77% voted for disconnection from Ukraine) were put into effect. Borders have changed in Europe once again, and this fact, frankly, frightened many. Some called it "an unprecedented case in post-war Europe" and reminded of the principle of the territorial integrity of states.
In fact, there is nothing unusual and "unprecedented" in the disconnection of Crimea. Borders are constantly changing and changing. Even after the Second World War. Even in Europe. Let's remember how the map of the Old World was redrawn after 1945.
Let's start with the fact that immediately after the war, the victors (USA, USSR, and Great Britain) signed two important treaties - Yalta (February 13, 1945) and Potsdam (August 2, 1945). These documents laid down the boundaries of the new, post-war Europe.
Three decades later, in the 1970s, the principle of the inviolability of the post-war borders was consolidated by the adoption of another multilateral document - the Final Act of the Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in the system of principles of relations between the states participating in the Conference, in which the following was enshrined: consider both the inviolable borders of each other and the borders of all states in Europe, and therefore they will refrain now and in the future from any encroachment on these borders. They will accordingly refrain from any demands or actions aimed at seizing and usurping a part or throughout the territory of any participating State. "
True, the provisions of the above agreements remained only on paper. In reality, politicians have never paid attention to them.
Already in 1957, they began to slowly change the borders: then the Saar region became part of the Federal Republic of Germany. After World War II, this small territory was endowed with the status of a separate buffer state, like Luxembourg, but France ruled it. The United States and Great Britain sought to give the Saar region completely under the rule of Paris, but then President Charles de Gaulle was in no hurry to accept its composition as his republic. In the course of a stormy public discussion and scandals, it was decided to give up this territory. But not France, but Germany.
In 1964 Malta seceded from Great Britain. A new state appeared on the map of Europe.
In 1990, the GDR (East, socialist Germany) joined the FRG (West, capitalist).
In 1991 the Soviet Union ceased to exist and split into 15 independent states. This was the most ambitious redrawing of the map of not only Europe, but the whole world in recent decades. Independent Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan appeared in the Old World. IN Central Asia a number of new states also emerged between Russia and Afghanistan - Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan.
In 1992, four more new states appeared on the map of Europe: Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Macedonia. They seceded from Yugoslavia, in which only Serbia and Montenegro remained.
On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia ceased to exist. Since then, two new states have appeared in Europe - the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
In 1994, were separated from Georgia South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
In 1999, NATO troops made every effort to ensure that the remnants of Yugoslavia were destroyed. Their bombing overthrew the regime of Slobodan Milosevic, who became one of the central figures in the ethnic conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s. Historians and politicians still argue about its role. Someone criticizes and blames for all troubles, others consider it a hero of the Serbian people, protector and peacemaker.
Be that as it may, in 2000 he resigned, and a year later he was detained and secretly transferred to the International War Crimes Tribunal in the former Yugoslavia, which outraged a large part of the Serbian public and President Kostunica.
The above-described political crisis led to the fact that the remnants of Yugoslavia in 2002 began to be called the Republic of Serbia and Montenegro, and in 2006 finally disintegrated into two new states - Serbia and Montenegro.
Only two years later, little Serbia was further fragmented, giving the Republic of Kosovo a chance for self-determination. Moreover, the Serbian leadership was categorically against this, but the Western states reminded Belgrade of the "right to self-determination", while Russia did not recognize the emergence of a new state.
Now Kosovo is a partially recognized state, de facto independent. But under the Serbian Constitution, it is still obliged to obey Belgrade.
In 2014, Crimea seceded from Ukraine, and following a referendum became part of Russia.
As you can see, the illusion that border changes are in the distant past is a myth. Even in our time when international relationships are regulated by many declarations and treaties, and politicians are increasingly talking about global projects and common human brotherhood, the emergence of new states on the map of civilized Europe is a common thing. It's only the beginning...
Kirill Ozimko
Correspondent of "AiF" Georgy Zotov: “If the consequences of May 9, 1945 are so bad, illegal and terrible, then all other actions of the USSR during that period are no better. Could the decisions of those who brought tyranny to your land be good? Therefore, Poland should give Silesia, Pomerania and Prussia back to the Germans, Ukraine should return its western part to the Poles, Chernivtsi to the Romanians, Transcarpathia to the Hungarians, Lithuania to abandon Vilnius and Klaipeda, Romania - from Transylvania, the Czech Republic - from the Sudetenland and Teshin, Bulgaria - from Dobrudja ... And then everything will be absolutely honest ... "
Expert opinion
Rudolph Pikhoya, historian:
- There is a semi-legendary story that during a visit Churchillto Moscow in 1944 he and Stalinat dinner, they drew a map of the division of post-war Europe on an ordinary napkin. Eyewitnesses claimed that the "document" contained a number of figures that (in percent) reflected the degree of the future influence of the USSR and the West in different regions: Bulgaria and Romania - 90 to 10, Greece - 10 to 90, Yugoslavia - equally ...
That napkin has not survived, but in principle the issue of changing borders in Europe was decided by the "big three" - Stalin, Rooseveltand Churchill - during the Tehran and Yalta conferences. The USSR adhered to the concept that it had developed back in 1944 Deputy Commissar for Foreign Affairs I. Maisky... It consisted in the fact that the USSR should create for itself such a configuration of borders that would ensure the country's security for at least 25, and better for 50 years.
In accordance with Maisky's concept, the USSR annexed the former German Memel, which became the Lithuanian Klaipeda. Konigsberg (Kaliningrad), Pillau (Baltiysk) and Tilsit (Sovetsk), which now make up the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation, became Soviet. Also, the USSR secured a part of the territory of Finland, annexed as a result of the "winter war". In general, Soviet policy of those years was distinguished by an amazing consistency in solving territorial issues. The only thing that could not be done was to seize the Black Sea straits, although this issue was discussed both in Tehran and in Yalta. But Port Arthur again, as at the beginning of the twentieth century, became an outpost of the country on Far East, not to mention the southern part of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, lost by Russia as a result of the Russo-Japanese War.