The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - ELTE BTK Történelem Szakos Portál

intervention, and the fruitful German-Soviet cooperation. The infamous and
ignominious defeat of 1920/21, which was ratified by the Peace Treaty of Riga
was avenged by Bolsheviks. The Soviet aggression was mysterious for the
shaken western diplomats, who did not know the secret clauses of the Molotov-
Ribbentrop Pact. 19 The intervention and the alliance with Nazis undermined the
belief of Hungarian communists and social-democrats, too. After Hory left his
post, the German-Polish War continued for two weeks. The last Polish units
surrendered on 5 th October. In spite of the superior German tactics and
equipment, „the Polish campaign was no simple walk over. The Germans
suffered a total of 50, 000 casualties and lost 500 aircraft and over a thousand
armoured vehicles.” 20 It is remarkable, that the Polish army could resist more
than one month against the Germans, while the Soviets launched an
unpreventable offensive their hinterland. The Polish performance is more
valuable, if we take into consideration, that the army of France, the Low
Countries, and Great Britain could stop the German war machine for the same
time in 1940. Hory felt pity on the unfortunate fate of Poland, namely in the
First World War, here struggled the opposite sides for years, so the country
suffered many casualties. 21
In autumn of 1939 more than 100.000 refugees arrived to Hungary through
the common border. The Polish soldiers, who fled to Hungary, were able to
rejoin the allied forces later, and continue the war against the Nazism, and the
civil people could stay in security until March of 1944, when the Germans
occupied Hungary. During the Polish campaign the Hungarian Prime Minister,
count Pál Teleki „secretly organised a Hungarian legion, which was sent to
aid the desperately defending Polish army and subsequently after the fighting
was over, opened Hungary’s borders to a flood of refugees.” 22 Summarizing in
autumn of 1939 the allied Nazi-Bolshevik war machine crushed the
international system which was created by the Peace Treaty of Versailles. 23 The
annihilation of Poland was the first diabolic aftermath of the Molotov-
Ribbentrop pact. Finland hardly could stop the Soviet aggression in the Winter
War of 1939/1940, but, the country had to hand over 10% its former territory.
While the German forces occupied the Low Countries and France in June 1940,
the Baltic states had fallen victim to the Soviet offensive policy, and lost their
Press, Oxford, 1981. Vol. II. 444.
19
Churchill emphasized the situation: „Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an
enigma.” DAVIES: 439. The secret clauses of the pact revealed only in 1946, but denied by the
Soviets until 1989, „provided for the joint division of eastern-central Europe and the partition of
Poland”. Jerzy LUKOWSKI: A concise history of Poland. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 2001. 224.
20
LUKOWSKI: 225.
21
HORY/MS/II: 38.
22
ROMSICS: 200.
23 th
Molotov declared on 30 October 1939, that „the hideous creation of the Peace Treaty of
Versailles” [i. e. Poland] has been vanquished. LUKOWSKI: 226.
167