Op Ed - The lessons of World War II |27 August 2019
Reichstag after the attack of the Soviet Army
With the approach of the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, it is absolutely important to commemorate all those who gave their lives in the fight against German Nazism and all their supporters, who shared this unhuman ideology, remember the lessons that this greatest tragedy of the XX century taught us and make everything possible to ensure that the history of the humanitarian catastrophe of this scale will never be repeated.
It is known from the historical sources that the Republic of Seychelles, being even a smaller nation at that time and part of the British Empire, made its own contribution to the Great Victory in the WWII – over 2000 Seychellois soldiers mainly served in Egypt, Palestine and Italy. The British military simultaneously established a vital base in the harbour of Victoria for refuelling of naval vessels.
As next year the world community will mark the 75thanniversary since the end of the Second World War, different media polls in numerous countries of the world demonstrate that the younger generations do not know much about this devastating conflict, nor do they understand who unleashed it, what were the sides of the war, who won it and at what cost.
Today, unfortunately, the leadership and media of certain countries try to rewrite and distort history and even make significant attempts to whitewash Nazism and justify its horrendous crimes. The aim of this propaganda campaign is to divide the responsibility for that war between the Hitler’s Germany and the Soviet Union, while casting a shadow on modern Russia, which is absolutely inappropriate and contradicts common sense.
Very often, some Western media refer to the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, officially known as the Treaty of Non-aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, signed in Moscow on August 23, 1939, claiming that according to this document the Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to divide Europe that gave “green light” to Hitler’s aggression towards Poland.
However, in doing so, they want to hide or ignore historical facts. To analyse the true reasons of the war it is necessary to take into account the context of the international situation on its eve.
First, the “Great Depression” economic crisis that hit the world brought Hitler and National Socialist Party to power in Germany. Second, Hitler exploited dissatisfaction, widely expressed by Germans with the “humiliating and unfair” conditions for their country of the Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919 (that put an end to World War I) and started to build up the country’s military potential to gain revenge. Third, the leading European countries being aware of that policy were unwilling to create a system of security in Europe (1933-1939) with the Soviet Union, deciding instead to conduct the “appeasement policy” towards Germany. That ended with the Munich Agreement (or Munich Betrayal), which let Germany to annex a part of Czechoslovakia (with the German-speaking population rich with resources and industrial potential). It is to be noted that the Munich Agreement was signed between Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the French Third Republic and the Kingdom of Italy in September 1938; followed by non-aggression pacts between Germany and Britain on September 30, Germany and France on December 6 that same year.
The USSR was ready to render military assistance to Czechoslovakia in accordance with the Franco-Soviet-Czech agreement, but it was not supported by France. At the same time, Poland and Hungary (which also benefited territorially at the Czechoslovakian expense from the Munich Agreement) denied the passage of the Soviet troops via their territories.
In this context, understanding that Britain and France tried to use the Soviet Union as a trump card in their negotiations with Hitler and had no real intentions and interest to create security mechanism in Europe, the Soviet government had no alternative but to ensure the security of its borders and to buy some time to prepare the country for the growing threat of war with Germany. That led to the talks with Germans that finally finished with the Treaty of Non-aggression with it. Therefore, this agreement was a severe necessity, forced and extremely hard decision for the Soviet Union leadership.
In the situation when we had a series of military clashes with militaristic Japan on the Far East of the USSR, the leadership could not allow the war on two fronts, in the East and the West. The reasons why the Soviet government signed this pact and the secret protocol were the following – prevent the USSR from being drawn into the war; disrupt the emerging Anglo-German deal ("second Munich"); preserve the freedom of military-strategic and political maneuver; prevent Nazi occupation of the whole territory of Poland, including its Eastern part, which would significantly worsen the military-strategic position of the USSR.
The necessity for such decision was clear, when on September 1, 1939, the war started and Hitler occupied Poland, while Britain and France decided to abstain from active steps. Then, when the government of Poland was forced to flee from the country, the Soviet Union sent its troops to the Eastern part of Poland to provide the reunion of Ukrainian and Belorussian people in the new Soviet borders. It is important that the USSR was not at war with Poland, that was recognised by the Polish leadership and the Polish government in exile.
Hence, the reasons that led to the outbreak of the WWII are very profound and should be considered in a global context of the international situation in the first half of the XX century.
The WWII was unleashed by Nazi Germany that had been humiliated by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 that brought WWI to an end. The countries that supported Germany were Japan, Italy, Hungary, Finland, Romania, Bulgaria, Thailand and Iraq. The anti-Hitler coalition comprised Great Britain, USA, USSR, China, France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Luxembourg, Greece, Yugoslavia, Philippines, Mexico and Brazil. This devastating war lasted for 7 years, 62 countries (80% of the world’s population at that time) took part in it, and combat actions affected 40 countries with 110 million people mobilised to serve in the army.
The highest price for the Great Victory was paid by the Soviet Union and particularly by the Soviet people who lost their lives in combat, in concentration camps, died in hospitals and were executed in occupied territories. Though the official number of losses of the Soviet Union in the Second World War is 27 million, many facts (including the data from the State Planning Committee of the USSR) indicate that the real loss amounts to 41 million 979 thousand. In addition to this, the USSR suffered tremendous material losses – nearly all European parts of its territory (practically equal to the size of all other European countries combined) were destroyed.
The Soviet Union played a crucial role in the defeat of Nazi Germany. The Red Army, in spite of heavy losses, managed to stop Hitler’s invasion, went on the offensive, liberated European countries from fascism and captured the German’s capital Berlin. The Soviet Union, together with the allies, who contributed with supplies of different kind and opened the Second Front in June 1944, signed the Act of Germany’s Military Surrender on May 8, 1945, followed by the actual end of the Second World War by signing the same Act with Japan on September 2, 1945.
As a result, a new system of international relations – Yalta-Potsdam – was created instead of the previous Versailles-Washington system that cracked and led to the WWII. The Yalta-Potsdam system shaped the world in the post-war borders and was famous for creation of international institutions – the United Nations, for example, established at the end of the war in 1945. It led to more productive cooperation of countries in different fields and to creation of norms and principles of international law that still stay relevant. Despite the fact that in present time the international community is heading towards the multipolar order, the basis of the international system itself was created after WWII.
The lessons of World War II are sad, mournful and tragic. Let us not forget them, for the sake of the future generations, let us always remember the heroes from all allied countries, who gave their lives for our peaceful world and all human losses and let us do all in our power to prevent the devastating tragedies of such scale from happening in the future.
Contributed
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this Op Ed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Seychelles NATION newspaper.
