Grabs “with the devil” *
It was thirteenth time of Moscow time, when at the airport in the capital of the Soviet Union, Among the great turmoil and flashes of Fleszów, He sat softly on the airport plate, elegant Immelman, carrying a German minister for foreign affairs, Joachima von Ribbentropa. The airport was extremely decorated for such a special occasion, red flags with the USSR emblem were, as a sign of friendship between the two countries, It is intended with flags depicting German swastikas. Ribbentrop dressed in a light coat and a dark hat, Among the sounding sounds of the German anthem and the International, He went with his team to the big one, Black Ziła, prepared for him by Stalin.
The car stopped at the mint, where in the apartments at the sixth number the German minister was to live during his stay in Moscow. After a hastily eaten dinner, the German team got into the black Ziła again. The car took the Germans to the Kremlin, where Ribbentrop and his companions met with Stalin and Molotov.
After a short greeting, Ribbentrop presented the Soviet side of the Pact project, developed during a stop in Königsberg. In fact, it was his almost unchanged form, which Wiaczesław Molotov proposed to the German government a few days ago. The only major change introduced by the German minister was to write to him a pitched preface, which Stalin did not like and had to be thrown out of the project anyway.
The proposal was accepted, followed by short -term discussions about the secret protocol, which also went without any obstacles. At 8pm, the finished pact was rewritten on the machine and comparison of translations, And the German team could finally go to the embassy for a short rest.
After eating dinner, Ribbentrop appeared back in the building of the Council of People's Commissioners, where, immediately after his arrival, vodka was brought to the room. The drunkard began, during which Stalin, drinking from his private carafe (about which there were suspicions, that there was water in it), He did not fail to erect toasts behind the head of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler.
Finally at the second in the morning, day 24 August, Documents ready for signing were brought to the room that resounded from various toasts. After signing the pact by Ribbentrop and Molotov, highly intoxicated., To their satisfaction, Alcohol was brought to the room once again. This time it was not vodka, but a champagne incesting its percentage, But despite this, two politicians kept a smile on their faces.
The content of the non -aggression agreement itself is not unusual, So it's not worth quoting all its content here. The content of the secret protocol deserves great attention, which is an integral part of the pact (translation of the author):
“Art. And. In the event of political and territorial changes in areas belonging to the Baltic states (Finlandia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), The northern border of Lithuania will be the border of the influence zones of Germany and the USSR. Both sides recognize the interests of Lithuania to Vilnius.
Art. II. In the event of political and territorial changes in areas belonging to the Polish state, The zones of influence of Germany and the USSR will be demolished more or less along the Line of the River Narew, Vistula and San. Issue, Do the interests of the parties do the desirable presence of an independent Polish state and within what limits should such a pasto be located, may be finally resolved in the course of further political events. In any case, both governments will resolve this case in the way.
Art. III. As for southeastern Europe, The Soviet website draws attention to its interest in Besarabia. The German side declares a complete lack of interest in those areas.
Art. IV. This protocol should be treated by both parties as a top secret.”
When discussing the secret protocol, Mention should be mentioned, that after Ribbentrop from Moscow, The Soviet government realized, that a great mistake was made: When discussing the secret protocol project, erroneous maps were used. As you know, The Narew River did not touch the then Polish-German border, which could lead to numerous misunderstandings. The amendment to article second was finally approved: “Pis, Narew, Vistula and San”, and not “Narew, Vistula and San”. However, this was not the last change in the established demarcation line. Still 28 September, After the victory parade in Brest, The Soviet government exchanged the Lublin region with Germany in exchange for Lithuania.
The cited fragments of the pact speak by themselves: in Moscow at night with 23 already 24 August 1939 unofficial partition of Poland was made (The official place took place 28 September in Brest on the Bug). The document was a prejudice about the outbreak of the war – wars, in which the Soviet Union would fight alongside Germany.
There is still a question, Why did Poles not notice the possibilities of the Soviet-German covenant? Analyzing the situation then, It was impossible not to see the growing threat from the Soviet Union. The Polish government has been deluding itself all the time, that in the event of a possible war Poland will become the subject of aggression only the Third Reich. How he could not be aware of the Soviet threat, Since everything indicated this, that the Germans will not attack Poland alone.
The first fact that could worry Poles was the report of the newly appointed Polish ambassador in Moscow, Wacław Grzybowski, which he submitted the day 4 November 1936 year to the deputy minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jan Szembek, in which he emphasized, that “basic conclusion, which comes to him after a few months in Russia, is to constate a huge dynamism characterized by the Soviet state. This dynamism undoubtedly strives for aggression. (…) The Soviet industry is completely focused on the future war. (…) In sum: the raison d'etre of the Soviets is expansion. (…) In the Soviets (…) hatred of Poland is strongly cared for, and Soviet strength is actually directed against us”.
What's better, The Poles did not notice the tendency to bring the USSR to the Third Reich at all, trusting Stalin's lid, that his goal was an alliance with England and France (Look 1.4.). The situation did not change even after the conclusion of the pact described in this chapter.
However, nothing could withdraw it, What happened. After signing the pact, Germany and the USSR began to implement the plans of joint aggression in peace, and the outbreak of war was already a matter of only a few days.
*
The title of the chapter is an allusion to the words of the German general Karl Bodenschatz, which in May 1939 year he spoke to the Polish military attache in Berlin, Lieutenant. Antoni Szamański, The following sentence: “[If] Hitler will be convinced, that Germany can be encircled from the east by Poland, it does not hesitate to connect with the devil itself!”