White Spots—Black Spots: Difficult Matters in Polish-Russian Relations, 1918–2008 PDF
Preview White Spots—Black Spots: Difficult Matters in Polish-Russian Relations, 1918–2008
WHITE SPOTS BLACK SPOTS PITT SERIES IN RUSSIAN AND EAST EUROPEAN STUDIES Jonathan Harris, Editor WHITE SPOTS BLACK SPOTS DIFFICULT MATTERS IN POLISH-RUSSIAN RELATIONS, 1918–2008 EDITED BY ADAM DANIEL ROTFELD & ANATOLY V. TORKUNOV UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH PRESS Published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15260 Copyright © 2015, University of Pittsburgh Press All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on acid-free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ISBN 10: 0-8229-4440-5 ISBN 13: 978-0-8229-4440-9 Cataloging-in-Publication data is available from the Library of Congress. Originally published in Polish as Białe plamy—Czarne plamy: Sprawy trudne w relacjach polsko-rosyjskich (1918–2008) © 2010 Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych and Autorzy, Warsaw Originally published in Russian as Belye piatna—chernye piatna: Slozhnye voprosy v rosskiisko- polskikh otnosheniyakh © 2010 Aspekt Press, Moscow In memory of contributors Andrzej Przewoźnik and Nikolai I. Bukharin CONTENTS Preface ix Introduction. In Search of the Truth: A Brief History of the Polish-Russian Group on Difficult Matters 1 Adam Daniel Rotfeld and Anatoly V. Torkunov 1. The Beginnings: Polish-Soviet Relations, 1917–1921 Daria Nałęcz and Tomasz Nałęcz (Poland) 17 Gennady F. Matveyev (Russia) 30 2. The Interwar Period: Poland and the Soviet Union in the Late 1920s and Early 1930s Wojciech Materski (Poland) 61 Aleksandr V. Revyakin (Russia) 79 3. The Causes of World War II: Poland, the Soviet Union, and the Crisis of the Versailles System Sławomir Dębski (Poland) 105 Mikhail M. Narinsky (Russia) 125 4. Poland between the Soviet Union and Germany, 1939–1941: The Red Army Invasion and the Fourth Partition of Poland Albin Głowacki (Poland) 161 Natalia S. Lebedeva (Russia) 182 5. The Katyn Massacre: The Process of Revealing the Truth and Commemorating the Victims Andrzej Przewoźnik (Poland) 211 Natalia S. Lebedeva (Russia) 246 6. World War II, 1941–1945: Politics and Its Consequences Wojciech Materski (Poland) 271 Valentina S. Parsadanova (Russia) 290 7. The Postwar Decade, 1945–1955: Victory and Enslavement Włodzimierz Borodziej (Poland) 317 Albina F. Noskova (Russia) 333 vii 8. The Thaw: The Twentieth Congress of the Soviet Communist Party, the Polish October, and the Struggle for Autonomy Andrzej Paczkowski (Poland) 371 Nikolai I. Bukharin (Russia) 382 9. The Dissident Movement: The Way to Freedom in Culture Jerzy Pomianowski (Poland) 403 Andrei V. Vorobyov and Aleksandr V. Shubin (Russia) 417 10. The Soviets and the Polish Crisis: The Road to Martial Law, 1980–1981 Andrzej Paczkowski (Poland) 431 Inessa S. Yazhborovskaya (Russia) 441 11. Regained Freedom and Sovereignty: Transformation Processes in Poland and Russia Włodzimierz Marciniak (Poland) 469 Vladimir G. Baranovsky and Boris A. Shmelyov (Russia) 487 12. Assistance or Exploitation? Economic Relations between Poland and the Soviet Union Janusz Kaliński (Poland) 509 Leonid B. Vardomsky (Russia) 521 13. Russia versus Sovereign Poland: Political Relations between Poland and Russia since 1990 Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz (Poland) 539 Artem V. Malgin (Russia) 557 14. Continuity and Change: The Mutual Perceptions of Poles and Russians Andrzej Grajewski (Poland) 589 Nikolai I. Bukharin (Russia) 601 15. Heritage in Archives: Displaced Collections and Access to Archives Władysław Stępniak (Poland) 619 Vladimir P. Kozlov (Russia) 630 Appendix A. Reports on Sessions of the Group on Difficult Matters 641 Appendix B. The Letter of the Co-Chairs of the Group on Difficult Matters to the Foreign Ministers of Poland and Russia 659 Index 661 viii PREFACE We offer our American readers a unique volume. It is the result of the col- laboration of thirty-one Polish and Russian scholars—historians, polit- ical scientists, and economists. The work came into being at the initiative of the Polish-Russian Group for Difficult Matters, which was revived in 2008 by a decision of the governments of Poland and Russia (an earlier group had previously suspended its activity). In essence, the book is an at- tempt to present relations between Poland and Russia over the last ninety years, with particular reference to the most complex and controversial is- sues. A distinctive feature of the methodology incorporated herein consists in presenting the same problems from the viewpoints of the Polish and Russian researchers. The authors did not seek to uncover new, unknown facts and documents pertaining to the latest history of Polish-Russian re- lations but rather to achieve—from two different perspectives—a synthesis and assessment of facts, events, and processes that were known and un- questioned. Thus, the Polish and Russian scholars describe in fifteen parts the place in the memory of the two nations occupied by issues that often evoke emotional disputes and hinder the development of normal, future- oriented relations between Poland and Russia. Disputes and divergent interpretations of the same facts and processes are natural and normal among academics. They occur not only due to different national memories and the different mentalities and cultures of the respec- tive societies but also because of different schools of methodology in histor- ical research. Thus, opinions depend not so much on the nationality of their authors as on their professional training and competence, though also on the time factor—generational change and access to new archival resources. Im- portantly, these opinions are the function of changes in the systems of values that guide societies in their mutual relations at different stages of the histor- ical process. In our work on this collection we did not strive to gloss over differences— and neither were we guided by any “political correctness.” On the contrary: the authors had full freedom to present their points of view; at times the po- ix
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