Russian historian blames Poland for World War II

MOSCOW — As the Kremlin presses a campaign to recast Russia's 20th-century history in a more favorable light, a research paper published Thursday on the Defense Ministry's Web site blamed Poland for starting World War II.

The unorthodox reading of history appears to be the latest effort by Russian historians to defend the Soviet Union and its leaders, especially their role in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War. Poland condemned the research paper.

Russia has rejected claims that a Stalin-era famine in Ukraine amounted to genocide, and Russia's Supreme Court recently turned down an appeal to reopen an investigation into the massacre by Soviet secret police of Polish military officers and intellectuals in Russia's Katyn Forest during World War II.

The generally accepted view is that Poland was a victim in the conflict, and that Adolf Hitler's 1939 invasion of Poland started the war.

Many Western historians think Hitler was encouraged to invade by the treaty of nonaggression, the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, signed by Russia and Germany, that secretly divided eastern and western Europe into spheres of influence.

Hitler's pact with Soviet dictator Josef Stalin was signed on Aug. 24, 1939. Germany invaded Poland Sept. 1.

The paper posted on Russia's Defense Ministry Web site is not an official government statement. The author is listed as Col. Sergei Kovalyov, director of the scientific-research department of military history, part of the Institute of Military History of the Ministry of Defense.

Ministry spokesman Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky told the Interfax news agency that analytical articles posted on the ministry's Web site do not necessarily reflect the ministry's official position.

The paper recounts how in the approach to Germany's invasion of Poland, Hitler demanded that Poland turn over control of the city of Danzig and a land corridor between Germany and the territory now known as Kaliningrad.

"... The war began because of Poland's refusal to satisfy Germany's claims," he writes.

Poland contacted the Russian ambassador in Warsaw for an explanation.

"This sort of exotic interpretation of historical facts appears in various marginal Russian language periodicals from time to time," Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Piotr Paszkowski said. "For obvious reasons we don't react."