Polish-Soviet Relations Research Articles

A Few Notes on Józef Piłsudski and the Treaty of Riga

Historical literature oflen suggests that Józef Piłsudski, the Commander-in-Chief, won the war with Soviet Russia, but lost the peace. He lost in many respects: he lost his Polish eastern policy, which ended in failure; he lost to the Sejm and politicians who were pushing for an armistice with the Bolsheviks and who took the matters of peace in Riga into their own hands. These politicians were also asked: did nothing in Riga actually depend on Piłsudski? What did he know about the pending talks, did he try to influence them somehow behind the scenes? Did he see any alternative to the decisions being made in the Latvian capital? And finally – how did he remark on and evaluate the provisions of the Riga peace? The purpose of this article is to analyze all these narratives, bring out their main themes and re-examine them. The main conclusion is that Piłsudski’s defeat in Riga was also a defeat for Poland: of its attempt to achieve independence as a superpower between Germany and Russia. The failure of Piłsudski’s eastern policy, of which Riga may be a symbol, determined not only further Polish–Soviet relations, but the fate of Poland in general in the interwar two decades, a fact of which Piłsudski was well aware.

Okoliczności zerwania przez Związek Sowiecki stosunków dyplomatycznych z Polską w kwietniu 1943 r.

The article focuses on the circumstances of the USSR’s breaking off diplomatic relations with Poland in April 1943. The main research problem is the sequence of events in the Polish-Soviet relations in the period from July 1941, i.e. from the signing of the Sikorski-Majski pact, to April 1943, which consequently led to their breaking. The theoretical basis is constituted by the source documents and the basic literature on the subject. The primary research method was a critical analysis of sources and literature. On the basis of the conducted research, the author argues that the matter of the graves of the Polish officers murdered in Smolensk was only a pretext to make a decision to break off the diplomatic relations with the government of General Władysław Sikorski by the USSR and to start cooperation with Polish communists gathered in the Union of Polish Patriots.

The Jewish Question in Polish-Soviet Relations in the First Half of the 20th Century (Based on the Materials of the Plenipotentiary Mission of the USSR in Warsaw)

A high level of anti-semitism in the newly revived Polish state had to be taken into account by the Soviet diplomacy in the first half of the 1920s. The disclosed documents from the correspondence between the Plenipotentiary representative of the USSR in Warsaw with the central office of the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs introduced into the scholarship for the first time testify to the existence of a Jewish problem in Polish-Soviet relations. Moscow had to keep track of the number of Jews in the diplomatic mission in Warsaw as well as to consider the request of Polish officials, including the Polish leader Jozef Pilsudski, about the desirability of appointing a person of Russian origin the head of the mission in Warsaw given the level of anti-semitism in the Polish society. The deputies of the Polish Sejm at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee attributed the shortcomings in the Polish-Soviet negotiations to the Jewish nationality of the representative of the USSR. Another problem in Polish-Soviet relations in 1923 was represented by the destiny of Jews who escaped through Poland from Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine to the United States. After the introduction of immigration quotas in the USA in 1921 about 6 to 8 thousand Jews were not able to receive entry visas in the United States in 1923. The Polish government required their urgent deportation. Other countries did not want to see them on their territory either. The Jewish organization “Joint” was forced to ask Moscow to approve of their repatriation to the USSR on condition it took charge of covering all expenses. After some hesitation, the USSR agreed with such repatriation. However, it was not organized in a civilized way. The Polish authorities simply ordered to drive Jews to the borders with the USSR. It meant the spontaneous transfer across the border which caused a new scandal in the already strained Polish-Soviet relations.

Аналіз української та зарубіжної історіографії нелегальних міграційних процесів під час Голодомору 1932–1933 років

Background. The topic of the border in today's conditions is gaining special interest. However, during the period of existence of the Polish-Soviet border (1921–1939), which was repeatedly exposed to the active activity of illegals and subversive intelligence groups, especially during the Holodomor of 1932–1933, the declared problem of studying illegal migration processes was particularly acute. The issue of the role of the border, its development and functional features in the period 1921–1939, on the one hand as a containment line, and on the other hand as an activator of international tension, requires detailed study and assessment. Methods. The analysis of the historiography of illegal migration processes, in particular during the Holodomor of 1932-1933, required the involvement of a number of principles, including the principle of objectivity, which, above all, makes it possible to avoid false statements, involvement or bias, as well as methods, in particular: historiographic analysis and historiographic synthesis, generalization, systematization. Results. The proposed article makes an attempt to analyze the Ukrainian and world historiography of illegal migration processes, on the "Riga border", during the Holodomor of 1932-1933. The study draws attention to the current achievements of the national historical bibliography, mainly from the period of the 1990s – 2010s. from the study of the limological and historical features of the "Zbruch Border", in particular during the Holodomor period of 1932-1933. Characteristic features of the scientific works of foreign scientists, in particular historians of the USA, the Republic of Poland, Austria and the Republic of France, are highlighted, as well as their methodological and factual features. The article is designed to acquaint readers with current trends in historical and limological research and microhistorical studies. Сonclusion. Based on the analysis of Ukrainian and foreign historiography of illegal migration processes during the Holodomor of 1932–1933, it not only provides an opportunity to understand the historical processes of the declared period, but also to follow the dynamics, features of crossing the border and its place in Polish-Soviet relations and the reflection of these relations on the processes , which took place on Ukrainian lands.

Katyn – Golgotha of the East

Poland has experienced two cruel systems. One of them was fascism, symbolized by the German Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The second one was Stalinism, Katyn will remain its symbol forever. For over 50 years, no other issue in Polish-Soviet relations was as concealed as the Katyn massacre. In this essay, I will talk about the genocide in 1940 on 22,000 Poles (soldiers and civilians), investigations in this matter, and the fight for the truth. Everyone knew that any public statement about this crime could have significant consequences, such as dismissal from work or school expulsion. The Katyn genocide was a war crime that was first concealed and then distorted for the longest time. It can be said that it was a crime against the Polish nation.For many years, the press, radio, and television did not talk about it. On April 13, 2020, Polish people celebrated the Katyn Massacre Remembrance Day. In the spring of the year 1940, during two months in and around Katyn (currently in Russia), executioners from the NKVD, ordered by the Soviet authorities, murdered 21,857 prisoners of war with a shot in the back of the head. NKVD-People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. This enormously evil deed of the Bolsheviks is called the Golgotha of the East. Golgotha is a place near Jerusalem where convicts were executed. Christians believe that Jesus Christ was crucified in this place. Similarly, innocent Polish officers were killed at this place of execution. The name of the crime comes from the village of Katyń near Smolensk, where victims were murdered and buried.

Wincenty Witos wobec Rosji i ZSRR

The article deals with the concepts formulated by Wincenty Witos (1874–45) regarding Russia, its policy towards the Polish nation from the partitions times and throughout the period of Soviet Russia and the USSR, as well as the political thought regarding the security of state borders against its eastern neighbour. According to Witos, the biggest obstacles in Polish-Soviet relations were of political nature, such as the state system, but were also influenced by all problems, prejudices, and issues that arose in over a century of Russian rule in Poland after the partitions. In his opinion, these difficulties should be overcome in the name of the most vital interest: the good of the state and the maintenance of peaceful relations with its neighbours.

Problems of the Polish-Soviet war of 1919–1920 and the Riga Treaty in reflection of the RCP(b) Central Committee Politburo minutes of meetings

The role of the problems of the Polish-Soviet war and the Riga Treaty in the activities of the Politburo of the RCP(b) Central Committee is revealed. It is established that in 1919 this problem occupied an insignificant place in the work of the Politburo, the Polish-Soviet confrontation was given a secondary role against the background of the struggle of the Bolsheviks with the White Movement. The protocols of the Politburo of 1920 reflect the growing importance of the Polish front for Soviet Russia. But even in these circumstances, the issues of the Polish-Soviet war did not become dominant in the activities of the Politburo. It paid the greatest attention to the issues of propaganda work and the preparation and progress of peace negotiations with Poland in the summer and autumn of 1920. The materials of the Politburo meetings confirm that it was this party body that made decisions on key issues of Polish-Soviet relations, which were then implemented by Soviet diplomacy. The Belarusian question during the Polish-Soviet war was considered by the Politburo very rarely and only in the context of Soviet Russia’s achievement of its foreign policy goals.

THE QUESTION OF UKRAINIAN STATEHOOD ON THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE (1919–1923): THE STUDY AND INTERPRETATION OF POLISH HISTORIANS

Summary. The purpose of this study is to show the achievements of Polish historiography in the study of international aspects of the Ukrainian question during 1919–1923. Research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, systemicity, and objectivity. In solving specific problems, methods of historiographical analysis and synthesis were applied. The scientific novelty is that the qualitative completeness of historical information of historiographical sources, the personal contribution of Polish scholars to the study of Ukrainian statehood in the international arena during 1919–1923 is highlighted. Conclusions. The analyzed problem began to be studied in Poland at the scientific level in 1960–1980’s. The historians tried to show the place of the Ukrainian question in the system of international relations after the end of the First World War; the attitude of the Entente countries to Ukrainian statehood; Polish-Ukrainian military and diplomatic confrontation for Eastern Galicia; transformation of the political status of Eastern Galicia; actualization of the Ukrainian question in the League of Nations and its place in Polish-Soviet relations, etc. After 1989, an important event in the Polish-Ukrainian studies became the emergence of special monographic studies. The authors deepened the work of historians period of people’s Poland, especially in such areas as Pilsudski’s federal program, Polish-Ukrainian military-political union of 1920, the Treaty of Riga and the Ukrainian question. In fact, modern researchers were the first to violate the problem of state and legal status Carpathian Ruthenia and Northern Bukovyna. However, despite significant scientific advances, the following aspects need in-depth study: miscalculations and inconsistent actions of Ukrainian governments, that influenced the policies of the victorious states concerning the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic; Anglo-French controversy over the problem of Eastern Galicia; activities of special Entente missions in order to reach a truce between Poland and the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic. Polish historians have mostly covered the Ukrainian question through the prism of the foreign policy of the reborn Republic of Poland and Polish national interests. Therefore, it would be good if in the Polish historiography the diplomacy of the UPR and ZUNR in the period of the Ukrainian revolution became a separate topic of research in the future.

From the History of Soviet-Polish Relations in the Early 1920s: the Problem of “Transit to Persia”

For the first time in Russian historiography, the discussion that flared up soon after the conclusion of the Riga Peace Treaty in the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs and the People’s Commissariat of Trade on the possibility of granting Poland the right to transit trade with Persia and other countries of the East. It is noted that the head of the People’s Commissariat of Trade L.B. Krasin criticized the position of the plenipotentiary representative of the RSFSR in Warsaw L.L. Obolensky, who considered it possible to grant Poland the right of transit to the East and the most favored nation treatment in trade on reciprocity terms in order to strengthen Moscow’s position in the Polish-Soviet negotiations. It is shown that the People’s Commissariat for Trade did not consider such cooperation to be equivalent, since, according to L.B. Krasin, Poland needed more transit through the Soviet republics than the Soviet state needed transit through Poland. In the course of the study, it was found that the People’s Commissariat of Trade allowed such a situation only if Poland would additionally make political concessions, the nature of which had not yet been clear at that time. It is traced in the article how, as a result of the discussion, the line of the People’s Commissariat for Trade won and in fact the Soviet leadership adhered to it until mid-1923. The relevance and novelty of the research is due to the introduction into scientific circulation of archival materials declassified in the post-Soviet era and for the first time introduced into scientific circulation, which allow discovering new vicissitudes of Polish-Soviet relations, including the organization of transit trade.

Belarus in the Polish-Soviet relations, 1921–1922

The article considers the role of Belarus in the Polish Soviet relations from the moment of the Riga Treaty signing until the formation of the USSR. The peculiarity of the study period is that at that time there was formally independent Belarusian state in the form of the BSSR, recognized by Soviet Russia and Poland. It is established that after the end of the Polish-Soviet war, Soviet Russia and Poland continued the struggle for dominance in Eastern Europe, having changed the forms and methods of this struggle. The article shows that the Polish-Soviet confrontation in a number of aspects directly affected Belarus. The territory of both the BSSR and Western Belarus became the scene of activities of irregular armed formations, directed, respectively, against the Soviet and Polish authorities. With their help, each side sought to weaken the opponent’s position in these areas. The same goal the RSFSR’s performances as a defender of the rights of Belarusians in Poland served. The high level of tension in Polish-Soviet relations threatened the emergence of a new war between Poland and Soviet Russia. Both these States sought to use the Belarusian national movement, which opposed the Riga agreement, to achieve their international political goals. The article proves that the policy of Poland in relation to Western Belarus and Soviet Russia in relation to the BSSR was largely determined by the struggle between the two countries in the international arena. Belarus was given only the role of the object of this struggle.

Czy byliśmy w wojnie z Sowietami?!

At the time of the agreement with the German Third Reich on Soviet aggression on Poland on September 17, 1939, the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Moscow was given a diplomatic note declaring that in the face of the “break-up of the Polish state” the USSR “is defending the Belarusian and Ukrainian population” in eastern Poland. This eceptive version was “bought” by the Allies of Poland in the West who pretended that Moscow was not a co-hostile against allied Poland. They explained that they didn’t want to deepen but to overthrow the German-Soviet alliance. The highest authorities of the Republic of Poland were charged that they were not consistent and did not declare a state of war between Poland and the USSR from September 17, 1939. This was a game of slander and the author documented the will of the parties to bring such charges. In the period of the Polish People’s Republic, the myth of the so-justified Soviet intervention in 1939 was promulgated. Also, today, this issue for many politicians, historians and journalists remains not entirely clear. This text is an analysis of the formation of the basis of this myth, showing its political ground for various propaganda and proclamation of Western states, and ambiguous attitudes of Polish politicians, especially focused on the very naive and politically dependent General Sikorski, the chief of war and prime minister, with greater responsibility – than the ruling party of the Second Polish Republic – for establishing false opinions about Polish-Soviet relations in September 1939.

History of Russian emigrants in Poland in 1919-1939: new sources and modern historiography

The article considers the main problems of the history of the Russian emigrants on the basis of studying the Russian and Polish archives in the context of the contemporary Russian and Polish historiography. There are identified and critically comprehended the materials of the key assets in the Polish archives. The article sums up the intermediate results of the study of the history of Russian emigrants in the Russian Federation and the Republic of Poland. The purpose of the article is to identify the weak points of this section of the Russian historiography, as well as the characteristic of the basic directions of the Polish historiography in the section “Emigrantology”. The comparison of the directions of the development of the first-wave emigre history in both countries based on the comparative analysis of the main researches of the modern Russian and Polish historiography allows outlining a number of underexplored questions. The authors faced the challenge of giving a sampling, but the most representative picture of the comparative studies in this section of the Russian and Polish historiography. The authors’ attention was primarily paid to the historical and historical-cultural works, rather than to the researches on legal issues. As a result of the comparative review, there are a number of conclusions. In particular, it was noted that the Russian historiography is not able to conduct comprehensive studies due to the sheer lack of trained personnel (knowledge of the history of the Republic of Poland, Polish-Soviet relations and the Polish language). At the same time, the Polish historiography has reached a qualitatively new level of research, as evidenced by the establishing of the new educational and scientific specialty (Emigrantology), a part of which is the academic module on the history of the Russian emigrants in Poland.

Materialne ślady minionej zależności i ich współczesne odczytanie w przestrzeni miejskiej Szczecina

The article deals with the question of Polish-German and Polish-Soviet relations from the colonial and postcolonial perspective in the context of the urban space of Szczecin. The application of theoretical categories provided by the postcolonial studies helps to perceive the cultural landscape of the city in a different way and enables to bring out its specificity and border condition. Decisions concerning what was to be rebuilt and the way it was to be rebuilt in the city after World War II, which became Polish but situated in the area of the soviet influence, were multidimensional. The reconstruction of the city had to be defined some-where between the German heritage and the ballast of the soviet domination. In consequence this situation caused many difficulties both in the process of growing accustomed to the city and in enabling the identification with its material, architectural texture by its new, Polish inhabitants.

Zmienność czy konsekwencja? Problem relacji Polski ze Związkiem Sowieckim w publicystycznej refleksji Aleksandra Bocheńskiego od lat trzydziestych XX wieku do 1952 roku

The purpose of the article is to analyze the transformations of the relations betweenPolandand theSoviet Unionin Aleksander Bochenski’s journalism since the 1930s to 1952. The author also tries to establish if they were an effect of international situation or maybe stemmed from the journalist’s ideological views. The analysis of historical sources has proven the existence of two stages in Bochenki’s writings about the Soviet Unionin this period. Before 1939, he called for the liquidation of this state by Polandthrough military aggression, the liberation of bordering nations and the creation of a “sanitary cordon” between Polandand Russia, which was in Polish interest. The publicist perceived the Soviet Union as another form of imperial Russia. He disregarded ideological issues. Thus, in the years 1939–1945, he sought the possibility of agreement with Germany. However, at the end of the war, when the Soviets occupied Poland, Bochenski referred to 19 th century positivism and he thought about a compromise with communists. As a result, he become involved in the creation of the progressive Catholics movement. He claimed that the Soviet Union was the only guarantor ofPoland’s western border and thatPoland should become a credible ally of Moscow. The analysis of Bochenski’s narrative about the Polish-Soviet relations allowed to perceive him as a political realist. His attitude to theSoviet Uniondepended on the correlation between geopolitical situation and national interests, which could justify both the strive to liquidate this state and to agree with it.

Uwagi o kontekstach znaczeniowych pojęcia „repatriacja” z ZSRR oraz o nabywaniu z jej tytułu obywatelstwa polskiego

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Tajna notatka Wydziału Zagranicznego KC PPR o problemach repatriacyjnych Polaków z ZSRR z 5 grudnia 1947 roku

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Украинский Брестский мир: Путь выхода России из первой мировой войны и анатомия конфликта между Совнаркомом РСФСР и правительством Украинской Центральной рады by Ирина Михутина (review)

Reviewed by: Украинский Брестский мир: Путь выхода России из первой мировой войны и анатомия конфликта между Совнаркомом РСФСР и правительством Украинской Центральной рады by Ирина Михутина Borislav Chernev (bio) Ирина Михутина . Украинский Брестский мир: Путь выхода России из первой мировой войны и анатомия конфликта между Совнаркомом РСФСР и правительством Украинской Центральной рады. Москва: Издательство Европа, 2007. 288 с. ISBN: 978-5-9739-0090-8. Irina Mikhutina has been member of the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1969 and a historian of Polish–Soviet relations and modern Ukraine. In Ukraine's Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: Russia's Way out of World War I and the Anatomy of Conflict between the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR and the Government of the Central Rada of Ukraine, she explores a topic that has received relatively scant attention in Russian- and Ukrainian-language historiography: the origins of the first peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk, between the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire), and its implications for Russia's withdrawal from World War I. Prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Soviet scholars were forced to write within the narrow constraints of the official Communist Party line, which portrayed the Ukrainian Central Rada (Council − Ukraine's government between March 1917 and April 1918) as a bourgeois-nationalist, counterrevolutionary, illegitimate government that quickly became a tool of Austro-German imperialism. 1 Since 1991, Russian historians have understandably been much more interested in reevaluating the second treaty of Brest-Litovsk, between Bolshevik Russia and the Central Powers. Mikhutina's monograph is the first major effort to address this gap in the historiography of the Brest-Litovsk peace conference. The aim of Mikhutina's study is to explore the "preparation and conclusion of the Ukrainian treaty in the context of the creation of the Ukrainian Republic, the formation of its foreign policy priorities, and their refutation in practice" (Pp. 3-4). Setting aside the somewhat problematic point about the refutation of Ukrainian foreign policy for the moment, we have to emphasize the author's dual approach of analyzing the political origins of Ukrainian statehood in 1917−1918 as well as the diplomatic interactions in Brest-Litovsk. Since the former is closely linked to the ongoing imperial collapse [End Page 470] in Russia, such an approach necessitates an all-Russian context. The first three chapters in the book, which deal, respectively, with the armistice negotiations between the Bolsheviks and the representatives of the Central Powers, the proclamation of the Ukrainian People's Republic and its initial foreign policy objectives, and the development of the conflict between Petrograd and Kiev, provide this context. Chapters four through seven focus on the actual course of negotiations in Brest-Litovsk between the Central Powers, Ukraine, and Russia. Ukraine's Treaty of Brest-Litovsk is based primarily on research in Ukrainian and Russian archives. The author utilizes four main types of records, some of which have not been used in previous scholarship: (1) Government records from the State Archives of the Russian Federation (GARF) and the Russian State Archives of Socio-Political History (RGASPI); (2) Documents on Russian–Ukrainian relations from the Central State Archives of Higher Organs of the Government of Ukraine (TsDAVOU); (3) Diplomatic records on peace negotiations from the Foreign Policy Archives of the Russian Federation (AVP RF) and TsDAVOU; and (4) Military records from the Russian State Military History Archive (RGVIA), RGASPI, AVP RF, and GARF. In addition to archival records, Mikhutina also relies on published primary sources, among the most important of which are multivolume collections of the records of the Ukrainian Central Rada and on Soviet–German relations, and the papers and memoirs of the principal German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ukrainian statesmen and diplomats involved directly or indirectly with the Brest-Litovsk peace conference. Chapter one of Ukraine's Treaty of Brest-Litovsk presents the first in-depth overview of the armistice negotiations between the delegations of Russia and the Central Powers in the first two weeks of December 1917, which is based exclusively on Russian archival sources rather than German and/or Austrian ones. 2 Mikhutina explores the initial doubts and differences of opinion within the Bolshevik leadership on the question of opening negotiations with the Central Powers. Could these actually lead to the desired general peace "without annexations and indemnities," or should they merely be the prelude to a revolutionary war, which would spread the proletarian...

Rebellious satellite: Poland 1956

Rebellious Satellite: Poland 1956 offers a social history of the mass movements that prompted political change and altered Polish-Soviet relations in 1956 but avoided a Soviet armed response. Pawel Machcewicz focuses on the people's expression of grievances, and even riots-as opposed to top-level activities such as internal Communist Party struggles. He carefully depicts the protests that took place in Poznan in June 1956 and across Poland the following October and November. The manuscript is based largely on new archival materials (mainly Party and security apparatus documents) that were originally prepared to provide detailed information to the Party leadership about what was happening on the ground. The book includes a selection of photographs from Poznan in June 1956 taken secretly by the police.

The Katyn Massacre and Polish-Soviet Relations, 1941-43

Polish-Soviet relations went through three periods during the second world war. Between 1939 and 1941, the nazi-Soviet allies destroyed the Polish state while the Soviets extinguished Polish influence in the Eastern Territories which they had occupied in September 1939. After April 1943 Stalin marginalized the ‘London’ Poles and asserted his favoured eastern frontier while his pro-Soviet forces took over Poland. In the middle period of formal Polish-Soviet relations between the nazi invasion of the USSR in June 1941 and Stalin’s breaking-off of diplomatic relations as a result of the German revelation of Katyn in April 1943, Sikorski’s government-in-exile and the Western Allies attempted to establish a genuine London Polish-Soviet understanding. Post-communist documentation now allows a full appreciation of the role played by Stalin’s massacre of 14,700 Polish PoWs (aka Katyn), mainly officers and policemen, held in three NKVD-run special camps and executed in three separate execution locales in April-May 1940. Admitting responsibility for the massacre was not an option for Stalin as it would have weakened his regime’s legitimacy and bargaining position and alerted Western élites and public opinion to its totalitarian character. Why the Western Allies went along with this remains highly controversial, as it involves revised judgments about both the morality and effectiveness of their warfighting strategy during the second world war and its consequences for the postwar settlement.

Polish-Soviet Relations 1944-1989: the Limits of a Utonomy

Any attempt at presenting the relations between two neighboring countries over the course of almost half a century in a brief paper is a highly hazardous undertaking, and could even be recognized as blatant impudence. In this case, however, the titular relations between Poland the USSR were highly composite, remaining under the extremely strong impact of a centuriesold tradition of animosity and armed conflict. In contrast to the extensive studies of the interwar period and World War II, the postwar years have rarely been the subject of thorough research in Polish historiography, as only pre1989 propaganda and quasi-scientific literature provided accounts of this period until this time. Indeed, not a single monographic study has dealt with the period as a whole, and those works which pertain to particular fragments of time or components of Polish-Soviet relations for all practical purposes limit their scope to the years before 1956. Naturally, the authors of numerous monographs or publications that focused on other problems either presented select facts or formulated opinions, sometimes outrightly categorical in nature. They could not have based their arguments on detailed research. The same can be said about the state of investigations into Soviet policy towards the region, since the only reliable monographic study by Henryk Bartoszewicz deals with a short stretch of time.