That's an excellent article, Peter! Very worth the read. As you say, Poland's opportunistic move didn't cover the country in glory, but at that stage during the Munich Agreement, nobody did. You could argue that if that means Poland collaborated with the Nazis, then so did France and the UK. It's also important, as you noted, that Poland did not invade Czechoslovakia, but it was more a "shotgun wedding" of a treaty. I see this as the most likely off-ramp in Ukraine, a treaty turning the country into a federation of states, which Russia would certainly get the Eastern part to secede and incorporate into its own territory
Thanks! I agree, the characterisation of this as yet another "war for democracy," overlooking the corruption and manipulation on both sides, is naive. As for Ukrainian nationhood, even if the concept is recent (as I was reminded, the same is true for a good chunk of Europe, including Germany and Italy), historically, I think a "Kiev-based state" outside the control of Moscow is completely justified. Now, whether the USA taxpayer should be the sole guarantor of that is debatable...
Excellent insights!
Here is my observation about a specific quirk of Putin's retelling of Russian history.
https://petersbradley.substack.com/p/russian-history-from-the-russian
That's an excellent article, Peter! Very worth the read. As you say, Poland's opportunistic move didn't cover the country in glory, but at that stage during the Munich Agreement, nobody did. You could argue that if that means Poland collaborated with the Nazis, then so did France and the UK. It's also important, as you noted, that Poland did not invade Czechoslovakia, but it was more a "shotgun wedding" of a treaty. I see this as the most likely off-ramp in Ukraine, a treaty turning the country into a federation of states, which Russia would certainly get the Eastern part to secede and incorporate into its own territory
LOL
Thanks! I agree, the characterisation of this as yet another "war for democracy," overlooking the corruption and manipulation on both sides, is naive. As for Ukrainian nationhood, even if the concept is recent (as I was reminded, the same is true for a good chunk of Europe, including Germany and Italy), historically, I think a "Kiev-based state" outside the control of Moscow is completely justified. Now, whether the USA taxpayer should be the sole guarantor of that is debatable...