I watched Tucker Carlson's interview with Vladimir Putin. The first part of the conversation was a kind of "historical lecture" by the President of Russia. However, his statements were bizarre. According to Vladimir Putin:
Poland already in the 13th century oppressed the people of Ukraine.
First question is, which Poland, since in XIII century it was divided into independent principalities (Fragmentation of the realm).
The second question is where these lands were. Poland in XIII century didn’t reach so far to the east. Some western parts of Red Ruthenia were conquered later - in the 14th century.
Putin claims that Poland in XIII century forced Orthodox priests in the lands of present-day Ukraine to convert to Catholicism which is false. He also claims that at that time Ruthenians were writing the letters requesting assistance in their difficult situation to “Warsaw”. But Warsaw wasn’t the capital of Poland at that time (apart from the fact that Poland wasn't unified state at that time). Warsaw was a small fortified town in that time, founded around 1262. Even after the end of period of fragmentation (XIV century) Cracow was the capital.
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was already Christian and Orthodox before the union with Poland
So why did Vytautas convert in 1383? It is the truth that many parts of the Duchy of Lithuania were (more or less) Orthodox since 988, but the rulers were pagan, so the state was also pagan.
The Bolsheviks during the war with Poland in 1919-1921 aimed at "rebuilding statehood".
The real reason for this war was the desire to bring the communist revolution to the west. Poland defended itself despite almost no support from the West and the enemy's enormous superiority, and defended Europe against communism.
In 1921, Poland, under the treaty ending the war with Soviet Russia (the Treaty of Riga) received Ukrainian lands up to the right bank of the Dnieper.
That's about 300 kilometers more to the east than Poland really had. Polish-Soviet border run before WWII on the river Vilia not on the Dnieper.
In 1939, Poland cooperated with Nazi Germany and formed an alliance with them. It was Hitler's ally, but defiant and uncompromising, so he had no choice but to attack his ally.
This is such an outrageously false claim that it makes me want to punch this gnome in the face. Poland has never been an ally of Germany. I think last time Poland had good relations with Germany was in the late X / early XI century, with the Otto III the Holy Roman Emperor and it lasted only 3 years.
During the years between WWI and WWII everybody in Poland knew that we have two potential enemies hungry for our land – Germany and USSR. Our government has concluded an alliance agreement with France and Great Britain. It was a response to the threat from Germany. The truth is that Germany and USSR were allies. They coordinated attack on Poland from two sides – Germany started the war on September 1, 1939, and the Soviets attacked from the east on September 17. Then they divided the Polish lands among themselves in accordance with their allied arrangements. They were allies, but each of them was preparing to attack their "friend" (Germany did it first in 1941). Between 1939 and 1941 official propaganda of both Germany and USSR was friendly to each other (for example Nazi Germany was portrayed as a brotherly workers' and socialist country in Soviet Russia). The things Putin says about "Poland's cooperation with Germany" fit perfectly into his own country.
It is true that Poland took back a piece of Czechoslovakia's territory in 1938 - but these were disputed lands, inhabited mostly by Poles, which Poland believed were unfairly given to Czechoslovakia in 1918. It had nothing to do with cooperation with Germany. Moreover, Czechoslovakia itself remained quite unfriendly to Poland, which made it impossible to achieve a common front with it against Germany.
As a result of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Russia regained its historical lands
Most of the lands USSR took from Poland in 1939 were historically Polish lands that Russia had taken from Poland as a result of the Partitions of Poland at the end of the 18th century. Poland regained these lands in 1918, when it regained independence after 123 years of partition by the Russian, Prussian and Austro-Hungarian empires. About half of these lands came back to Poland in 1945.
All the lands that the USSR acquired as a result of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact remained in the USSR after the war.
Did you know that Białystok was in the USSR since 1945? No it wasn’t. Like I said before – about half of these lands came back to Poland in 1945, other are now parts of Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania.
Gdańsk is a German city with a Polish name
(Vladimir Putin suggests that it is a fundamentally German city that was not Polish before, and the name Gdansk was artificially invented). However, the truth is that Gdańsk is fundamentally Slavic, annexed to Poland in the early 12th century after the conquest of the Pomorzan tribe by Polish king Boleslaw the Wrymouth. The oldest preserved name of the city is the Latinized inscription "urbe Gyddanyzc". The German subjugation of this city is a later and shorter episode.
Putin is not the first one who distorts historical facts about Poland. We see also Germany, Ukraine, Belarus, Israel doing this. Some of these lies are circulating around the world, like the one about "Polish death camps" (these was GERMAN death camps located in the lands conquered by Germany and under German management).
