Title:

W obliczu sowieckiego ekspansjonizmu : polityka Stanów Zjednoczonych i Wielkiej Brytanii wobec Polski i Czechosłowacji 1945-1948

Subtitle:

In the Face of Soviet Expansionism.The Policy of the United States and Great Britain towards Poland and Czechoslovakia during the 1945-1948 period

Creator:

Kamiński, Marek Kazimierz (1948–2020)

Contributor:

Instytut Historii Polskiej Akademii Nauk

Publisher:

Instytut Historii PAN ; Wydawnictwo Neriton

Place of publishing:

Warszawa

Date issued/created:

2005

Description:

Wyd. 1 pt.: Polska i Czechosłowacja w polityce Stanów Zjednoczonych i Wielkiej Brytanii 1945-1948 ; Bibliogr. s. 360-369. Indeks ; Wyd. 2. ; 375, [1] s. ; 25 cm ; Streszcz. ang.

Subject and Keywords:

Polska -- stosunki zagraniczne -- Wielka Brytania -- 1945-1970 [KABA] ; Polska -- stosunki zagraniczne -- Stany Zjednoczone -- 1945-1970 [KABA] ; Wielka Brytania -- stosunki zagraniczne -- Polska -- 1945-1970 [KABA] ; Stany Zjednoczone -- stosunki zagraniczne -- Polska -- 1945-1970 [KABA] ; Czechosłowacja -- stosunki zagraniczne -- Wielka Brytania -- 1945-1970 [KABA] ; Czechosłowacja -- stosunki zagraniczne -- Stany Zjednoczone -- 1945-1970 [KABA] ; Wielka Brytania -- stosunki zagraniczne -- Czechosłowacja -- 1945-1970 [KABA] ; Stany Zjednoczone -- stosunki zagraniczne -- Czechosłowacja -- 1945-1970 [KABA] ; Związek Radziecki -- stosunki zagraniczne -- 1945-1991 [KABA]

Abstract:

By the end of the Second World War, there began an era which had a decisive impact on the future of Poland and Czechoslovakia. Staying in London exile governments of both countries numbered among the members of victorious anti-Nazi coalition. Gradually, however, and as early as 1943, they began to lose their subjectivity, and became an object of manipulation on the international scene. The cause of this state of affairs was an increasingly important military role of the Soviet Union led by Stalin. The Soviet leader sought to subjugate the Central Eastern European countries by gradually installing in these countries communist-dominated regimes under Soviet influence. In fact, the tragedy of Poland and Czechoslovakia was that in the tandem of the Anglo-Saxon states the position of the United States was much stronger than that of the other partner. Great Britain was marginalized. Due to the lack of deeper interest on the part of the US in the problems of Central and Eastern Europe and conciliating attitude towards the USSR the weaker British partner was unable to drum up American support for its proposals. The future of Czechoslovakia could have been determined in favor of the Czechoslovak democratic forces as early as in May 1945 during the liberation of the country from Nazi occupation. The responsibility for not having used the armed forces to liquidate the German occupation in the territory of Bohemia and Moravia and for having enabled the Red Army to do so rests solely with the United States. As regards Poland, also in this sphere the Americans played a decisive role, in negative meaning for the Polish people, when they ejected at Yalta the possibility to establish the Emergency High Commission for Liberated Europe, one of the purposes of which was to supervise the elections in Poland. Only different distribution of forces between the United States and Great Britain would have offered a chance for effective opposition against the Soviet expansion in Central and Eastern Europe, since only the British understood the essence of the threat posed to Europe by the USSR. When the United States also comprehended, with a two-year delay, in what consisted the Soviet danger, the majority of Central and Eastern territories of the continent was already in the hands of Stalin. This state of affairs was caused not only by consistent long-term policy of Soviet expansionism, but also by lack of effective cooperation between the both Anglo-Saxon states. The underlying cause of uncoordinated actions by the United States and Great Britain was that the decisive voice was that of the United States, unable to correctly judge the importance of events taking place in Central and Eastern Europe for the future of international relations in global scale.

Resource type:

Tekst

Detailed Resource Type:

Książka

Format:

application/pdf

Resource Identifier:

ISBN 83-88909-40-1

Source:

IH PAN, sygn. II.11393 ; IH PAN, sygn. II.11392 Podr. ; click here to follow the link

Language:

pol

Language of abstract:

eng

Rights:

Licencja Creative Commons Uznanie autorstwa-Bez utworów zależnych 4.0

Terms of use:

Zasób chroniony prawem autorskim. [CC BY-ND 4.0 Międzynarodowe] Korzystanie dozwolone zgodnie z licencją Creative Commons Uznanie autorstwa-Bez utworów zależnych 4.0, której pełne postanowienia dostępne są pod adresem: ; -

Digitizing institution:

Instytut Historii Polskiej Akademii Nauk

Original in:

Biblioteka Instytutu Historii PAN

Access:

Otwarty