The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - ELTE BTK Történelem Szakos Portál
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - ELTE BTK Történelem Szakos Portál
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - ELTE BTK Történelem Szakos Portál
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independence, Romania was forced to deliver up Bessarabia and North<br />
Bukovina. 24 In spite of the fact, that the OSCE 25 shared the responsibility for<br />
starting the Second World War between Germany and the Soviet Union, many<br />
historians denied the role of Soviet state. According to their opinion, the<br />
Soviets wanted only create a defensive zone on the western border to increase<br />
their safety. <strong>The</strong> left-wing historians state that the Soviet Union was not an<br />
aggressor, but they neglect the fact that the League of Nations excluded the<br />
Bolshevik state after the sneaky attack against Finland. the European Council<br />
With these conquests the Soviet Union almost restored the formerly western<br />
borders of the Russian Empire in 1914.<br />
Hory went on leave and choose to go home, to Budapest. He met also with<br />
Teleki, but he did not mention any interesting detail about the discussion. It is<br />
worth commenting on, that in his memoir Hory did not mention the raising of<br />
the Hungarian Legion, and the rejecting behaviour of Hungarian foreign policy<br />
in case of the cooperation with the Germans against Poland. When he finished<br />
his work in 1959, he wanted also publish it. This was the reason, that the retired<br />
diplomat did not criticize sharply the Soviet behaviour in 1939/40. Like his<br />
contemporaries, and the whole circle of Hungarian historians until 1989, Hory<br />
gloss over the unpleasant fact, that Germany and Soviet Union made an<br />
alliance, which resulted that the liberty in Eastern Europe ceased to exist.<br />
In October 1939, few weeks after the Polish Armageddon, Hory saw in<br />
Vienna a newsreel about the war, and he recognized that the building of the<br />
Hungarian embassy in Warsaw was completely destroyed by German bombs.<br />
Hory felt that the Nazi offensive smashed achievements of his life-work.<br />
Although he maintained his societal status and he retained his importance in the<br />
Hungarian foreign policy until his retirement in 1941, he was among the first<br />
Hungarians, who could envision the coming fate of Hungary in the mirror of<br />
the Polish collapse in 1939. For Hory himself the Polish catastrophe broke his<br />
diplomatic career and in Warsaw he lost many part of his properties. In 1962<br />
the elder diplomat could leave Hungary and settled in Vienna, where he died in<br />
1971. He could not live to publish his memoir.<br />
<strong>The</strong> worst consequence of the <strong>Molotov</strong>-<strong>Ribbentrop</strong> <strong>Pact</strong> for Eastern<br />
Europe was that the Soviet annexations of 1939-1940 were recognized by<br />
the western Allies, too 26 and Poland got the same Soviet occupation for<br />
reward which Hungary, and Romania for punishment. <strong>The</strong>refore the Soviet<br />
overwhelming political and military presence was unquestionable in Eastern<br />
Europe until 1990.<br />
24 In case of North Bukovina the Soviet revisionism turned into pure expansionism: this<br />
region belonged to Austria-Hungary before the First World War.<br />
25 Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe<br />
26 In 1945 „on the terriorial issues to the west Stalin’s minimal aid was to preserve the old<br />
Russian imperial frontiers which had stood before the German assault, and, indeed, were<br />
recognised in the 1939 <strong>Molotov</strong>-<strong>Ribbentrop</strong> pact.” ROMSICS: 221.<br />
168