A Soviet West: nationhood, regionalism, and empire in the annexed western borderlands

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Risch
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Guerrilla Warfare ◽  
World War ◽  
The West ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Western Ukraine ◽  
Capitalist World ◽  
The Baltic

This article considers the role the Soviet Union's western borderlands annexed during World War II played in the evolution of Soviet politics of empire. Using the Baltic Republics and Western Ukraine as case studies, it argues that Sovietization had a profound impact on these borderlands, integrating them into a larger Soviet polity. However, guerrilla warfare and Soviet policy-making indirectly led to these regions becoming perceived as more Western and nationalist than other parts of the Soviet Union. The Baltic Republics and Western Ukraine differed in their engagement with the Western capitalist world. Different experiences of World War II and late Stalinism and contacts with the West ultimately led to this region becoming Soviet, yet different from the rest of the Soviet Union. While the Soviet West was far from uniform, perceived differences between it and the rest of the Soviet Union justified claims at the end of the 1980s that the Soviet Union was an empire rather than a family of nations.

Choice in the West

1953 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-167
Author(s):  
S. Bernard
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
World War ◽  
The West ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Working Out

The advent of a new administration in the United States and the passage of seven years since the end of World War II make it appropriate to review the political situation which has developed in Europe during that period and to ask what choices now are open to the West in its relations with the Soviet Union.The end of World War II found Europe torn between conflicting conceptions of international politics and of the goals that its members should seek. The democratic powers, led by the United States, viewed the world in traditional, Western, terms. The major problem, as they saw it, was one of working out a moral and legal order to which all powers could subscribe, and in which they would live. Quite independently of the environment, they assumed that one political order was both more practicable and more desirable than some other, and that their policies should be directed toward its attainment.

State as Transgressor: Šilingas versus the State—A Case Study

2008 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-150
Author(s):  
Svaja Vansauskas Worthington
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The State ◽  
Soviet Rule ◽  
World War ◽  
Baltic States ◽  
Travel Guide ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Baltic

The usually cheerful Insight Travel Guide to the Baltic States offers this synopsis of the Baltic situation:Their independence was sentenced to death by the Nazi–Soviet Pact [the secret 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact] just before World War II. The pact envisaged the Baltic States would be parceled out between them, but it was overtaken by events with Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union. The three states were incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940 … Among few other people did the Soviet mill grind finer than in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania … The final injustice was the permanent imposition of Soviet rule and Stalinist terror. Anyone a visitor meets today in the Baltics is likely to have a relation who was sent to Siberia or simply shot.

PROBLEM OF SECURITY IN NORTHERN POLAND FOLLOWING WORLD WAR II

2011 ◽  
Vol 161 (3) ◽  
pp. 258-274
Author(s):  
Wiesław ŁACH
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
World War ◽  
Northern Area ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Northern Border ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Baltic

This article focuses predominantly on analysing the role of the northern area of Poland in the security system of Poland following World War II. The separation of the area from the national defence system of the country resulted from the specific nature of incorporating a part of the former Eastern Prussia into Poland and its neighbourhood with the Soviet Union.In view of the Polish national administration, the area included the Olsztyn Voivodeship and part of the Gdansk Voivodeship east of the Vistula and the Bialystok Voivodeship bordering the Kaliningrad District. According to the military division of the country, the area was part of the Warsaw Military District and the Pomeranian Military District.The time frame was determined by the establishment and ultimate designation of the northern border in 1957, when Poland and the Soviet Union signed a treaty regarding the marking of the existing national border between Poland and the Soviet Union adhering to the Baltic Sea (5 March 1957).The article examines the political and military circumstances in which Poland’s northern border was determined, it assesses it operationally and determines the status of the northern area of Poland in the country’s security system.The subject has not been widely examined and literary sources are scarce. Most of the materials can be found in the Central Military Archives and the Border Guard Archives in Kętrzyn.Northern Poland has always been a key operational area, yet its defensive weakness, in the former political arrangement, was greatly affected by the proximity of the Soviet Union. The problem of defending Poland’s northern border was a dilemma that was increasingly growing in difficulty over the years. There were a large number of factors causing it, and it was in the sphere of defence that they manifested themselves most visibly.

Bibliographic Article: Baltic Émigré Publishing and Scholarship in the Western World

1988 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-241
Author(s):  
David Crowe
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Western World ◽  
Ethnic Communities ◽  
World War ◽  
The West ◽  
Academic Field ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
To Come

The Soviet absorption of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania during World War II caused hundreds of thousands of Baltic immigrants to come to the West, where they established strong, viable ethnic communities, often in league with groups that had left the region earlier. At first, Baltic publishing and publications centered almost exclusively on nationalistic themes that decried the loss of Baltic independence and attacked the Soviet Union for its role in this matter. In time, however, serious scholarship began to replace some of the passionate outpourings, and a strong, academic field of Baltic scholarship emerged in the West that dealt with all aspects of Baltic history, politics, culture, language, and other matters, regardless of its political or nationalistic implications. Over the past sixteen years, these efforts have produced a new body of Baltic publishing that has revived a strong interest in Baltic studies and has insured that regardless of the continued Soviet-domination of the region, the study of the culture and history of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania will remain a set fixture in Western scholarship on Eastern Europe.

scholarly journals Federalist Plans in Central and Eastern Europe and the Question of the Baltic States in the Context of Polish Politics During World War II

2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-33
Author(s):  
Tadeusz Kisielewski
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
European Federation ◽  
World War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Polish Government

This paper deals with federalist plans of Central and Eastern Europe during World War II. The Polish government in exile and its Czechoslovak counterpart actively participated in the implementation of such plans. A Central- and Eastern European federation was to be an eventual alternative to Stalin’s plans of Europe’s Sovietization and to Hitler’s ‘New Europe’. For some time these federalist plans were supported by Great Britain and the United States. Besides, in British and American circles there were also other models for creating a European regional union. On 11 November 1940 Poland and Czechoslovakia managed to sign a declaration on the formation of a federation. However, soon disagreements concerning attitudes towards the Soviet Union as well as over Lithuania’s place in the federation arose.

2. World War II begins

2014 ◽  
pp. 20-32
Author(s):  
Gerard L. Weinberg
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
World War ◽  
The West ◽  
The Soviet Union

The German attack on Poland began on September 1 1939, and triggered the declaration of war on Germany by Britain, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa. Germany and the Soviet Union were agreed on a dual attack on Poland from the West and East, which left Poland unable to defend itself. An important aspect of the war between Germany and the Allies was the war of the oceans. The battles between warships, targets on merchant ships, and the use of submarines in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans continued from 1939 up until Germany's surrender in May 1945 and drew in many Baltic and Scandinavian countries.

scholarly journals When the West is far away: Romanian attempts to withdraw from World War II (1943-1944), Finnish views

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-205
Author(s):  
Silviu-Marian Miloiu
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Security Threat ◽  
World War ◽  
The West ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Source Of Information

This article approaches the Romanian foreign policy stakes in the aftermath of the Stalingrad Battle as seen from the perspective of a comrade-in-arms country, Finland, which shared with Romania many of the assumptions, fears and anxieties with regard to the outcome of the war. The article is shaped in Stephen M. Walt’s understanding of balancing and bandwagoning, Romania and Finland choosing Germany over the Soviet Union mainly for the reason that the latter was perceived as the biggest security threat and the former as the only possible deterrent and support. The material focuses on the analysis of Eduard Hjalmar Palin’s diplomatic dispatches from Bucharest. On one hand, they were the main source of information for the Finnish decision-makers with regard to the Romanian international situation and its foreign and domestic policies. On other hand, Palin was an experienced diplomat, with excellent connections in the Romanian society and enjoyed access to confidential information in the governmental circles due to a Romanian-Finnish agreement of summer of 1941. We can see, for instances, cases when Ion and Mihai Antonescu confided to the Finnish envoy Führer Adolf Hitler’s statements which could affect the situation in Finland or help its leaders to take decisions. The article shows how divided Romanian governmental and opposition circles were, not only between but also among themselves. By reading these diplomatic reports, we could also acknowledge the widening split between the views of the two most prominent Romanian governmental leaders, Ion and Mihai Antonescu, thus complementing other sources of information already published. We can also learn about some peace plans of Romanian opposition groups, some of whom are little known from other documentary sources.

Was There a Soviet Policy for Evacuating the Jews?: The Case of the Annexed Territories

Slavic Review ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben-Cion Pinchuk
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Large Population ◽  
World War ◽  
Soviet Government ◽  
Soviet Policy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
The Baltic

As a result of the Soviet annexation of the Baltic States, eastern Poland, Bessarabia, and Northern Bucovina in 1939-40, the Soviet Union was left with the largest Jewish population in Europe. Given this large population, the fact that the Soviet Union had the greatest number of Jews who survived World War II has aroused the interest of researchers and drawn attention to the role of Soviet policy in the rescue of Jews during the Holocaust. Some of the reasons for the survival of Jews in Soviet-annexed territories seem obvious. In contrast to other European countries, only part of the USSR was occupiéd by German armies. Therefore, Jews could find refuge in the unoccupied regions. This simple and generally sufficient explanation is not the only one which has been offered, however. Some Western scholars have argued that the Soviet government had a specific policy designed to rescue Jews from the danger of annihilation. Soviet propaganda, particularly that aimed at Western audiences, maintained that millions of Jews owed their lives to Soviet rescue operations during the Holocaust.

scholarly journals Польские граждане на Северном Кавказе в 30–40-е годы ХХ в: статус, расселение, социальное обеспечение

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (XXIV) ◽  
pp. 197-208
Author(s):  
Сергей Линец
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Rural Settlements ◽  
World War ◽  
Interstate Relations ◽  
Soviet Government ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Western Ukraine

This article examines the complex political interrelations between the USSR and Poland just before and during World War II. The innocent hostages of these interstate relations proved to be thousands of Polish citizens. With the beginning of World War II from the territory of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, refugees were displaced to different regions of the Soviet Union and they were later settled there as temporary residents. Some of Poles found themselves in the North-West Caucasus where, as ordered by the Soviet government, they were settled in towns and rural settlements. As the archive documents attest, the local administrations created quite acceptable (given the wartime conditions) circumstances of life for the Polish arrivals. They had the opportunity of getting a job and their families were provided with food, fuel, clothes and footwear. With the end of the war, the Polish citizens received the opportunity to return to their home country at their own free will.

Anti-Westernism on the European Periphery: The Meaning of Soviet-Turkish Convergence in the 1930s

Slavic Review ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel J. Hirst
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Order ◽  
World War ◽  
The West ◽  
Turkish Republic ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Ideological Conflict ◽  
European Periphery

A number of recent comparative works have drawn attention to parallels and similarities between the Soviet Union and the early Turkish Republic. In this article, Samuel J. Hirst takes a firmly transnational approach to Soviet-Turkish interactions in the 1930s to demonstrate that the similarities were not merely circumstantial. The manifest ideological conflict between nationalist Turks and internationalist Bolsheviks has led many historians to dismiss Soviet- Turkish cooperation as a necessary response to geopolitics, a pragmatic alliance against the west. Hirst argues that opposition to the western-dictated international order was a coherent element in Soviet-Turkish exchanges that stretched beyond diplomacy into the economic and cultural spheres. The antiwestern elements of Soviet-Turkish relations suggest that convergence was more than a case of homologous responses to similar conditions; it was part of a broader narrative that, in the Soviet case at least, continued to shape international relations beyond World War II.

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