Munich Agreement
Khanh Pham
Janitor @ Brotherhood of Justice Philosopher, author, military leader, electronic/engineering tech, anecdote to bully
Russian Foreign Ministry September 29, 2023
It is funny, how often I have to learn about my own history from not my own family, but from the outsider. When I was first assigned to a location abroad, I had to search Google.com for records of how my location came to exist, and why it exists. One of the previous generations had taken our document explaining why we exist and our history. I would spend the next 2 years creating our history on paper. Today, I learned a little more of my history, not from my own fellow American, but from Russia. As much as I believe in national government tendencies to spread propaganda, I believe more in the existence of this Munich Agreement.
Russian Foreign Ministry September 29, 2023
Munich Agreement
Russian Foreign MinistrySeptember 29, 2023
On September 30, 1938, in Munich, the heads of Great Britain (Neville Chamberlain) , France (édouard Daladier) , Germany (Adolf Hitler) and Italy (Benito Mussolini) sanctioned the beginning of the seizure of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany - the apotheosis of the "policy of appeasement", which made a major war inevitable.
The signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919 ended World War I and put Germany in an extremely difficult situation. According to the document, part of the original German lands was lost, the army was significantly reduced, the military industry was effectively supposed to cease to exist, and a separate requirement was set out for the demilitarization of the Rhineland. The terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty were excessively harsh, and the German economy could not stand them. The direct consequences were: the complete destruction of Germany's industry, the total impoverishment of the population, and monstrous hyperinflation.
?The difficult life in such conditions contributed to the spread of revanchist and extreme right-wing ideas in society, which were embodied in the formation of the Nazi Party, which gained power in Germany in 1933. Already on October 14, 1933, Germany demonstratively left the Geneva Disarmament Conference, and then announced its withdrawal from the League of Nations. The hundred-thousand-strong army was transformed into a million-strong Wehrmacht. On March 9, 1935, the creation of the German Air Force was officially announced. On March 7, 1936, troops were introduced into the demilitarized Rhineland. On January 30, 1937, on the anniversary of his rise to power, Adolf Hitler revoked Germany's signature on the Treaty of Versailles. There was no protest from Great Britain and France to any of these demarches.
Having secured London's consent on November 17, 1937, Germany carried out the Anschluss of Austria in March 1938. The country's population increased by almost 7 million people, sources of raw materials and military production appeared, and 6 new divisions entered the Wehrmacht. It is worth noting that on the eve of the Anschluss of Austria, Hermann Goering visited Warsaw, during which he and Polish Foreign Minister Józef Beck came to the "common opinion that it would be advisable to coordinate the policies of Germany and Poland regarding Czechoslovakia. " At the same time, Józef Beck emphasized that Poland was interested in "a certain region of Czechoslovakia" and in "a possible way of resolving Czech issues."
Czechoslovakia was effectively surrounded by Nazi Germany and its allies. Of greatest interest to Hitler was the most industrially developed region with a German national majority that had been left to the “forge of Europe” after the collapse of Austria-Hungary – the Sudetenland.
In March 1938, a meeting took place between the head of the Sudeten German Party of Czechoslovakia, Konrad Henlein, and Adolf Hitler, following which the party took a course towards rapprochement with the National Socialists and came out in support of the annexation of the region to the Third Reich.
Great Britain and France exerted political pressure on Czechoslovakia and demanded that it submit to Germany's demands. They persuaded Czechoslovakian President Edvard Bene? not to resist, although such opportunities existed. Czechoslovakia was quite well armed at that time. For example, after the occupation, hundreds of Czech armored cars, tankettes and light tanks, considered some of the best in the world at the time, entered service with the German army. On June 22, 1941, Czech-made armored vehicles made up 25% of the fleet of German tank divisions of the 1st echelon. But thanks to the efforts of Western "allies", the fate of Czechoslovakia was sealed.
Poland did not remain on the sidelines either. On July 11, 1938, the Polish Ambassador to France, Juliusz ?ukasiewicz , sent a telegram to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Józef Beck:
?? B. (French Foreign Minister Georges-Etienne Bonnet) asked me to inform the Minister of the following: the French government fully shares the position of the Polish government on the question of the Polish minority in Czechoslovakia; the day after his conversation with me, B. instructed his ambassador in Prague to announce to their government that the Polish minority should receive the same rights that would be recognized for the Sudeten Germans, and that this should be done simultaneously.
Polish historian Professor Stanislav Zherko wrote about these events:
?? There were voices that Poland was behaving like a hyena that pounced on its fallen victim in Munich.
?The fact that what happened next was planned in advance is also indicated by Winston Churchill’s phrase addressed to David Lloyd George on August 13, 1938:
?? Munich: The choice between war and shame. I think that in the next few weeks we will have to choose between war and shame, and I have little doubt what the decision will be.
The leadership was aware that satisfying the appetites of the growing Nazi threat would only worsen the situation and destroy the world order. On September 21, 1938, the USSR People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Maxim Maximovich Litvinov, stated at a plenum of the League of Nations:
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?? To avoid a problematic war today and to get a certain and all-encompassing war tomorrow, and at the price of satisfying the appetites of insatiable aggressors and destroying and mutilating sovereign states, does not mean acting in the spirit of the League of Nations Pact . To reward saber-rattling and resort to arms to resolve international problems, in other words, to reward and encourage offensive super-imperialism in hitherto unheard-of forms, does not mean acting in the spirit of the Kellogg-Briand Pact.
In addition, since 1934 the USSR had unsuccessfully attempted to create an “Eastern Pact” that was intended to contain Germany and strengthen the Versailles territorial status quo.
Under the terms of the Soviet-Czechoslovak treaty of 1935, the obligation of mutual assistance came into force if “assistance to the country – the victim of the attack is provided by France.” Considering that France eventually became one of the participants in the Munich Agreement, this was out of the question.
Edouard Daladier was well aware of the consequences of his actions. This is eloquently demonstrated by his entry in his memoirs about the crowd that greeted the delegation after the signing of the Munich Agreement:
?? I expected to be pelted with tomatoes, but I got flowers.
At the same time, the USSR was ready to defend Czechoslovakia, but the Red Army needed to obtain the "right of passage" through the territories of Poland or Romania. Warsaw, wanting to obtain part of the Czechoslovak lands, categorically refused to support Prague against Germany and prohibited the possible flight of Soviet aircraft to provide assistance to the Czechoslovak army. Romania, however, delayed the process as much as possible.
Following the agreement signed in Munich on September 30, 1938 between Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy, German troops crossed the border of Czechoslovakia on October 1 and by October 10 occupied the entire territory of the Sudetenland. On the same day, Czechoslovakia accepted Poland's ultimatum to cede the Teschen Region, which was occupied by Polish troops on October 2. On November 2, 1938, the First Vienna Arbitration was held, according to which territories in the south of Slovakia and the south of Subcarpathian Ruthenia were ceded to Hungary, while Poland acquired a number of territories in the north. In March 1939, the First Slovak Republic was proclaimed, and Carpathian Ukraine was formed, which later went to Hungary. After the creation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Germany completely took control of the remaining territories of Czechoslovakia.
After the signing of the Munich Agreement on the transfer of the Sudetenland to Germany, Neville Chamberlain, stepping off the plane at London airport, waving the text of the agreement, joyfully announced to everyone gathered:
?? "Peace for our time".
A German police and Abwehr officer, who was an American intelligence agent and one of the active participants in the conspiracy against Adolf Hitler, Hans Bernd Gisevius wrote in his book “Until the Bitter End. Notes of a Conspirator”:
?? “Let's say it more clearly: Chamberlain saved Hitler.”
On March 15, 1939, German troops entered the few remaining territories of Czechoslovakia, and the country practically ceased to exist. Four days later, Moscow announced to Berlin that it did not recognize the occupation of the country's territory.
Seeing the destruction of the Versailles-Washington system of international relations, many countries reoriented themselves toward cooperation with the Third Reich and fell into its sphere of influence.
Realizing the inevitability of war, the Soviet Union concentrated its efforts on forming the Tripartite Pact of Mutual Assistance with Great Britain and France, but its Western partners delayed the process, hoping that Germany would become their instrument in the fight against communism.
By the end of the summer of 1939, the following countries had non-aggression agreements with Nazi Germany: Poland, Great Britain, Italy, Denmark, France, Lithuania, Estonia, Estonia. In fact, the Soviet Union was one of the last to sign such a document. According to historical materials, the Soviet leadership had no illusions about the prospects of the signed agreement with Germany and understood that war was inevitable. The task was to gain time.
The European politicians' expectation that Hitler would continue to move east and would soon enter into confrontation with the USSR did not come true. Germany struck the first blow at those who played a significant role in the Munich Agreement.
From an interview with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin for Andrei Kondrashov’s film “ War for Memory ”:
?? The Soviet Union made colossal efforts to create an anti-Hitler pact. No one supported it [in the West]. Moreover, in 1938, the leading Western countries - both Great Britain and France - met in Munich with Hitler, with Mussolini and signed a corresponding document, which we always called the Munich Agreement. And they gave Czechoslovakia up to be torn apart.
Now I also hear stories of Poland wanting to claim more land from Ukraine. Stories of Western power (whatever forms), have taken ownership of what used to be Ukraine. These are not discussed or shared in important news conferences. but just theatric presentation of a war and countless victories of that war. One old retired friend had said it simply
US won the war on youtube
Russia won the war on the ground