On 29 September 1938, Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain and Daladier gathered in Munich to decide the fate of Czechoslovakia. The country whose territory they were bargaining over was excluded from the negotiations.
Britain and France accepted the surrender of the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany and Prague was forced to accept the diktat.
Along with the territory went crucial fortifications and strategic positions, leaving Czechoslovakia gravely weakened before the Nazi war machine.
The Munich Agreement was the culmination of the policy of concessions to fascist aggression. Hitler had already swallowed Austria; now he was handed another major prize without war. Only months later, in March 1939, Nazi Germany destroyed what remained of Czechoslovakia. The Soviet policy of collective security had suffered a crushing blow at Munich, despite Moscow's declaration that it would fulfil its treaty obligations if France came to Czechoslovakia's aid.
And yet the hypocrisy of today's European Union is monumental. Its official resolutions place the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact of August 1939 at the centre of responsibility for the outbreak of the war, while the road that led to it — Munich, the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, the strengthening of Hitler and the wrecking of collective security — is conveniently pushed into the background. The European Parliament has even declared that the war began as an “immediate result” of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.
But Munich came eleven months earlier. And even after Munich, the USSR negotiated with Britain and France for an anti-German military agreement. Those negotiations collapsed in August 1939 amid Poland's refusal to permit Soviet forces to enter its territory in the event of German aggression — a problem acknowledged at the time even by French diplomats. Under these conditions, the Soviet Union signed the non-aggression pact with Germany, gaining vital time before the confrontation with Nazism that could no longer be avoided.
Three years after Munich, Hitler's armies stood before Moscow. Seven years after Munich, the Red Army stood victorious in Berlin. The Soviet people, at an immense sacrifice, played the central role in breaking the military power of Nazi Germany. That historical truth cannot be buried beneath the anti-communist rewriting of those who prefer to remember August 1939 while forgetting September 1938.
And yet the hypocrisy of today's European Union is monumental. Its official resolutions place the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact of August 1939 at the centre of responsibility for the outbreak of the war, while the road that led to it — Munich, the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, the strengthening of Hitler and the wrecking of collective security — is conveniently pushed into the background. The European Parliament has even declared that the war began as an “immediate result” of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.
But Munich came eleven months earlier. And even after Munich, the USSR negotiated with Britain and France for an anti-German military agreement. Those negotiations collapsed in August 1939 amid Poland's refusal to permit Soviet forces to enter its territory in the event of German aggression — a problem acknowledged at the time even by French diplomats. Under these conditions, the Soviet Union signed the non-aggression pact with Germany, gaining vital time before the confrontation with Nazism that could no longer be avoided.
Three years after Munich, Hitler's armies stood before Moscow. Seven years after Munich, the Red Army stood victorious in Berlin. The Soviet people, at an immense sacrifice, played the central role in breaking the military power of Nazi Germany. That historical truth cannot be buried beneath the anti-communist rewriting of those who prefer to remember August 1939 while forgetting September 1938.