Stalin’s bloody gift. Return of West Pomerania to …
Another book of the well -known Polish historian Marek A. Koprowski published by the Replica Publishing House appeared on the publishing market. This time, readers will learn the extremely interesting, but also full of stormy and dramatic events of the return of West Pomerania to Poland in 1945. The author not only reminds about the former relationships of Poland with this region, but above all he focuses on Polish-German relations in the interwar period, i.e. between 1918 and 1939 and the situation of Poles living in Western Pomerania during World War II. Koprowski also undertakes a difficult topic of Polish-German and Polish-Soviet relations after the Red Army seized these lands. As the author notes in his book, although it was Stalin’s gift for communist Poland for taken areas in the East, even after this area was covered by Polish administration, soldiers of the Red Army still treated it as a war cap, making rapes, murders, robberies and countless crimes. This is the story of West Pomerania …
Marek A. Koprowski, when undertaking the subject of West Pomerania, began his work by reminding the relationship between the region and Poland in the Middle Ages. The author also refers to the Napoleonic times and the participation of Poles under the leadership of Antoni Paweł Sułkowski, who as the commander of the 1st Infantry Regiment took part in the fighting during the Napoleonic Wars, including in Tczew and Kołobrzeg, as well as the siege of Gdańsk. An important thread raised by the author is also the issue of the partitions and the fight of Poles with Germanization. However, the Polish historian devoted the most place to the interwar period and the situation of Poles from Pomerania and Kashubia during World War II and just at 1945.
The well -known names of great Poles fighting to join these lands to the reviving Poland after 1918, but also ordinary residents, who fought for Polish language, education, culture, culture and preservation of Polish history, appear in Koprowski’s publication. In subsequent chapters, the author focuses on attempts to merge these lands after their reborn Poland, their economic development, as exemplified by the construction of the port in Gdynia, but also the disputes and differences that occurred between the local population and attempts to consolidate the entire Polish society by Polish governments, whose goal was to draw attention to the role of Pomerania in the history and economy of Poland.
However, Marek A. Koprowski devotes the most space to the period of World War II and the situation of West Pomerania after 1945. There are plenty of bloody descriptions of German crimes against the Polish population in Pomerania, as in the Piaśnicki Forest, where – as Koprowski writes – according to historians, even from 12 to 14 thousand could have been murdered. people. In the book, the author describes the persecution of the inhabitants of Polish Pomerania, but also those places that remained on the German side until 1939, but were also inhabited by Poles. The publication also included the issue of national policy conducted by the Germans in Polish Pomerania after 1939.
The author also presented the events of 1944 and 1945 quite well, when the Red Army first approached, and then after bloody fights took Pomerania. Koprowski also took the participation of Poles in these fights. There were also descriptions of fights involving the Red Army players they committed robbers, rapes and murders. Marek Koprowski devoted quite a lot of space to this topic, often describing the bestiality of the Red Army soldiers in detail, for whom there was no difference whether the busy areas had previously belonged to Poland or the Third Reich. Importantly, the author also raises the difficult topic of Polish branches in the underground, which also characterized committed crimes. Koprowski, as an example, gives troops of the 5th Brigade of Zygmunt Szendzielarz “Łupaszka”, whose soldiers, apart from ordinary robberies, also committed murders.
The book “Bloody Dar Stalin – the return of West Pomerania to Poland” by Marek A. Koprowski was written in an accessible language, as well as it is based on a solid bibliography, including numerous memories and documents, and contains many curiosities from the history of Pomerania. The publication restores the memory of turbulent, marked with dramas and paid by many victims of the history of this important region for Poland both before and after World War II.
Marek A. Koprowski – writer, journalist, historian dealing with eastern themes and the fate of Poles in the east. For the Wołyń series. The epic of the Polish fate of 1939–2013 received the award Oskar Halecki in the category “The best popular science book dedicated to the history of Poland in the 20th century”. He is also a laureate of the “Polcul – Jerzy Bonicki Foundation” award for activities for maintaining Polish culture in the East. For many years he has been cooperating with the Replica Publishing House, where his publications devoted to Poles in the east during World War II most often appear.
Author: Marek A. Koprowski;
Title: “Blood Dar Stalin – Return of West Pomerania to Poland”;
Publisher: Replika Publishing House;
Place and year of release: Poznań 2024;
Number of pages: 509;
Price: PLN 48.93;
The book can be purchased from Replica Publishing House
Photos:
Construction of the seaport in Gdynia, general view of the sea port in Gdynia, date of the event: 1925-08, reference number: 1-g-4683, source: National Digital Archives;
Entering Polish troops into Toruń, army and city residents in front of the town hall-from above, date of the event: 1920-01-18, author: Spychalski H., reference number: 1-H-344-1, source: National Digital Archives;
Entering Polish troops to Puck-Polish marriage with the sea, date of the event: February 10, 1920, reference number: 1-H-347-2, source: National Digital Archives;
Visit of Marshal Józef Piłsudski to Gdynia, welcome to Marshal Józef Piłsudski at the Gdynia station. Visible, among others Cdr Józef Unrug (1. On the right), date of the event: 1928-06-30, reference number: 22-329-1, source: National Digital Archives.
