Yalta agreement deprived Poland of independence - expert
The Yalta agreement did not force Poland into slavery, but neither did it offer means to gain independence, such as free elections, Prof. Marek Kornat of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS) told PAP on the 72nd anniversary of the Yalta Conference.
Seventy-two years ago, on February 4, 1945, a conference of the Big Three started in the Crimean resort of Yalta that was to determine the post-war global order. It was attended by the Soviet, US and British leaders: Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.
"If Yalta was literally implemented, that is if Yalta resolutions were executed, Poland would have received a status somewhat similar to Finland (...). However, Stalin was signing the declaration about the liberated Europe being aware that it was 'only paper'", said Prof. Kornat, who works at PAS Institute of History.
"From the very beginning, Stalin was acting in bad faith and was not going to allow unfettered elections to take place in Poland because he knew that unfettered elections, that is free elections, would have brought about a landslide victory for non-communist forces, even if not all right-wing parties were admitted to take part in the ballot", Prof. Kornat noted.
Prof. Kornat stressed that the Yalta agreement "envisaged free elections of sorts, but entrusted a communist-dominated government with their organisation". He noted that the Yalta agreement was still "trampled and violated" by Stalin.
The decisions made at the Yalta Conference of February 4-11, 1945, determined the world's post-war order.
One of the key problems discussed at the conference was the issue of Poland's future borders and the scope of the country's independence. The conference approved the loss of Poland's eastern territories to the Soviet Union, which made up about 50 percent of the territory of pre-war Poland. "Roosevelt made a modest attempt to keep Lvov within Poland, but backed down as soon as Stalin showed his strong resistance," Prof. Tadeusz Rutkowski of the Institute of History at the University of Warsaw told PAP.
Poland's compensation was the so-called Regained Territories in the west as well as the coastal city of Gdansk and a part of East Prussia.
The authority of the three superpowers was of key importance for the arrangements made in Yalta. In talks of the three leaders, Joseph Stalin held the most valuable assets as his troops already controlled a vast stretch of Eastern Europe, including Warsaw and East Prussia. This way the USSR dictator determined the creation of dependent puppet governments, such as the Polish Committee of National Liberation that existed since July 1944. Western allies decided to make a certain compromise with disregard for the interests of Poland's legal government.
The decisions of the Yalta Conference envisaged the establishment of the Provisional Government of National Unity (TRJN), headquartered in Warsaw and comprising both representatives of the Polish emigration and Stalin's nominees. Its main task was to carry out free parliamentary elections. Thus the arrangements on TRJN heralded the withdrawal of the support for the Polish government in London and imminent recognition of the new government. This ultimately took place in July 1945. The elections conducted in 1947 were rigged amid communist terror against the Polish People's Party that opposed Stalin's nominees.
Yalta also determined the fate of other European countries and divided Germany into four occupation zones controlled by the United States, Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union. An important part of the arrangements affecting Germany was the decision to resettle the German population from the lands that Poland acquired. Resettlement also affected the population of Poland and other countries living in territories lost to the Soviet Union.
Stalin's declaration of war against Japan in return for territorial gains in the Far East was crucial for further development of the war efforts.
The decisions of February 1945 still trigger debates among historians. Some of them claim that Poland's post-war enslavement by the USSR did not in fact stem from the Yalta Conference agreement, but from the violation of the deal by Stalin in 1945-1947.
The February 1945 agreements are also seen as solely political confirmation of Soviet domination east of the River Elbe in the aftermath of taking over the region by the Red Army. Undoubtedly, however, the post-war order that emerged from the Big Three talks shaped international politics for nearly half a century and its consequences are still evidenced in contemporary conflicts and political divisions, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe.
The Yalta arrangements were not accepted by the Polish government led by Prime Minister Tomasz Arciszewski. On February 13, 1945, the Polish government-in-exile issued a statement which said that the Yalta decisions concerning Poland could not be recognised by the Polish government and were not binding for the Polish nation. The government stressed that taking over the eastern half of Poland's territory by the USSR would be interpreted by the Polish nation as a partition, this time conducted by Poland's allies. (PAP)
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