There were at the time of the Yalta conference two Polish governments, the prewar government which detested the atrocities committed by the Soviet Union onto the Polish people, and the communist puppet government that Stalin set up after occupying Poland. At the conference, it was decided that Poland would have a democratically elected representative government, and that there would be free and fair elections at the conclusion of the war.
When Stalin agreed to this plan, he had no real intention to follow through with it, and so Poland was firmly under the grip of its appointed leadership. In reality, Stalin's agreement was solely for the purpose of appearing to be reasonable with his allies. Stalin would effectively decide the answers to the three questions of Polish territory, government and control.
Stalin had insisted on having Poland as a buffer state between the Soviet Union and the west, which was perhaps not unreasonable considering Russia’s history.
This also meant, however, that Stalin wanted a government to be established in Poland that he could control. The goal of this request was surely to ensure that Poland wouldn’t fall under western influences (which would make it useless as a buffer state), but it seemed unlikely at the time that Poland would voluntarily elect a communist and pro-Russian government.
The moral issues stem indirectly with the long history of Russian and Polish war, and directly from the massacres that Stalin had ordered on the conquered territories during the war. Two examples of these where the Katyn massacres, where Soviet secret police killed polish officers and buried them in mass graves, and the pause of the Red Army outside of Warsaw, where the Soviet spies encouraged the locals to rebel against the Nazis but refused to help them.
Stalin had insisted on having Poland as a buffer state between the Soviet Union and the west, which was perhaps not unreasonable considering Russia’s history.
This also meant, however, that Stalin wanted a government to be established in Poland that he could control. The goal of this request was surely to ensure that Poland wouldn’t fall under western influences (which would make it useless as a buffer state), but it seemed unlikely at the time that Poland would voluntarily elect a communist and pro-Russian government.
The moral issues stem indirectly with the long history of Russian and Polish war, and directly from the massacres that Stalin had ordered on the conquered territories during the war. Two examples of these where the Katyn massacres, where Soviet secret police killed polish officers and buried them in mass graves, and the pause of the Red Army outside of Warsaw, where the Soviet spies encouraged the locals to rebel against the Nazis but refused to help them.
The purpose of these killings, insofar as any loss of human life could be justified, was twofold. First, Stalin was dispensing of the Polish people who were able to fight. Secondly, Stalin was ridding himself of the potential threat that the leaders of the Polish rebellion would pose against the gains of the Soviet Union. In effect, Stalin not only got rid of the people who could fight against him, but also the people who could organize others to that effect.
Evidence of the effect of these killings on the Polish movement for freedom can be seen in the fact that an anti-communist labor party was not able to be created until 1980, when it was brutally suppressed and forced to continue on underground. The fact that Poland was not able to elect a non-communist government until 1989 proves that the measures Stalin took to destroy Polish leadership were successful, especially because the anti-communist movement couldn't have took power without the passive reform of Gorbachev, who could be described as soft on capitalism.
Sources:
The Second World War and its consequences
Class discussion
I think it's very interesting that the killing of the resistance fighters basically drove the anti-communist movement underground until over 3 decades after the end of the war. How did Khrushchev and the Soviet Union prevent the rise of anti-communism? How did Gorbachev's glasnot allow the rise of an anti-communist government?
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