Russian intelligence says Poland shares blame for World War (Extra)

Sep 1, 2009, 13:26 GMT

Moscow - Russia's SVR foreign intelligence agency charged Tuesday that the pre-war government of Poland was partly to blame for the Second World War, a report by the Ria Novosti news agency said

The analysis, made public on the 70th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Poland, which began the war, could add to friction over interpretations of what happened in 1939. Russia said the finding was based on documents in its own secret archives.

'The destruction of Poland as a sovereign nation by the Nazis was the payback for the short-sightedness of some Polish politicians,' the report quoted Lev Sozkov, a major general of the SVR, as saying in Moscow.

Sozkov said that during visits to Warsaw by Hermann Goering, dictator Adolf Hitler's envoy, the Polish leaders had in principle supported the Anschluss, the absorption of Austria into Hitler's Third Reich.

That support had made it impossible to assemble an international front of nations to resist Nazi Germany, Sozkov said.

The SVR officer also charged that the pre-War Polish government had supported separatist movements in the Caucasus and Ukraine, with the aim of undermining the Soviet Union.

'Nowadays, people are trying to distort the facts to make it look as if the Soviet Union was just as much to blame for the War as fascist Germany. But Poland certainly shares some of the blame. That's an historical fact,' he said.

The SVR released 400 pages of secret documents from the era.

'It's the first time they have been declassified,' said Sozkov, adding that Warsaw did not have such papers, as the Nazis had looted the Polish government archives. 'From that point of view, I think the Poles ought to be pleased at their publication.'

Analysts said the statement appeared to be part of the Kremlin's campaign against those it says want to revise history. The campaign was initiated in May by President Dmitry Medvedev. Moscow has accused some neighbours of telling history with an anti-Russian bias.