SOVIET & POLAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 December 1942, Page 4

SOVIET & POLAND

BROAD POLICY DEFINED CLEARLY BUT FRONTIER PROBLEM MAY BE DIFFICULT. IMPLICATIONS IN STALIN’S MAY DAY SPEECH. (By Professor Wassily Leohtieff, Sent., in the “Christian Science Monitor.”) Looking at Joseph Stalin's May Day order of the day in retrospect, two points stand out: — First, the Soviet leader is supremely confident of the outcome of the war.

Second, Russia’s peace aims in regard to her postwar western boundary remain the same as before.

Stalin’s forthright language left no doubt of his conviction, that the Red Army was gaining in power while Germany was growing weaker and that 1942 could be the year of decision. The second point can be traced to these two paragraphs from his speech: “More than ten months have passed since the day when the German fascist aggressor treacherously attacked oui country, robbing and destroying # our towns and villages, killing and wounding the civil population of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,' White Russia, the Ukraine and Moldavia. “Comrades, we are fighting the war for our country! For justice and freedom! We have no aim of seizing foreign territory or conquering foreign peoples. Our aim is clear and honourable. We want to free our Soviet land from the German fascist beasts. .We want to free our brother Ukrainians, Moldavians, White Russians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians and Karelians from the insults to which they have been subjected.” _ ( In some interpretations of Stalin s May Day speech, surprise was expressed at the omission of reference to the Poles from these two paragraphs. But there was nothing surprising about it. The Soviet leader was alluding specifically to the territories and peoples formerly included in Russian territory and by omitting mention of the'Poles in this connection he was reaffirming Moscow's previously announced support of an independent Poland. Earlier in the speech he acknowledged Poland’s right to freedom when he said:

“Comrades, more than two years have passed since the day when the German fascist aggressors dragged Europe into war, conquered the free-dom-loving peoples of the European Continent: France, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Poland, Yugoslavia and Greece, sucking the blood out of them so as to enrich German bankers.” Stalin has obligated himself to liberate the peoples of the three Baltic States which, at least formally by their votes, voluntarily joined the Soviet Union prior to Germany’s invasion of Russian territory, and the Karelians who live in the Lake Ladoga section between Russia and Finland. Most of the Karelians were Russian citizens prior to the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939. The Moldavians are residents of the former Russian Province of Bessarabia, which Rumania ceded to Moscow.

Stalin has repeatedly made clear his intention to restore these peoples to the Soviet family. In his speech commemorating the twenty-fourth anniversary of the Russian Revolution on November 6, 1941, he said: Germany has taken “a large part of the Ukraine, White Russia, Moldavia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and a number of other parts of our country.” It cannot be denied, however, that in arranging the peace, fixing of boundaries between Russia, Poland, and Germany will constitute a serious and complicated problem. This question of a frontier between Russia and Poland was the most difficult point in the discussions between Moscow and the Polish Government-iri-exile, before the agreement of July 30, 1941. The problem was left in abeyance “until victory over Hitlerism.” When Russia occupied Eastern Poland/ the territory was populated mostly by Russians, White Russians and Ukrainians, not by Poles. It was a district which during the discussion leading lip to the Treaty of Versailles, Lord Curzon had advocated ceding to Russia. But after the Russian-Polish war of 1922 the Treaty of Riga gave it to Poland. A Polish army, comprising mainly Polish prisoners in Russia, is fighting against Hitler. Moscow is said to have agreed to let this Polish army enter Poland first when the Germans are driven back across the border. If one agrees with the viewpoint that the existence of very small countries is not desirable for political and economic reasons, the three Baltic countries, which were independent between the two wars, may have to choose between Russia and ■ Germany. Most of the people of these countries would prefer the former, in spite of the difficulties which Soviet rule might bring. The German minorities were removed to Germany by Hitler himself before Russian occupation. But there is also the possibility of federation among email independent nations.