Russia has accused Poland of provoking the outbreak of the Second World War by refusing to accede to the “very modest” demands of Nazi Germany…. The lengthy diatribe, which is unlikely to be welcomed in Warsaw, also lashed out at Britain and France for giving the Poles “delusions of grandeur” by promising to intercede if the Nazis invaded.

Let’s talk a little bit about Poland in World War II.

Poland is in a bad spot, geographically — a place ripe for invasion. The land was devastated by World War I. When the state was reconstituted afterwards, it had a mere 21 years to rebuild before the next world war.

France and England swore to intercede if Hitler should invade. They didn’t. When the Panzers rumbled in on September 1, 1939, Poland resisted as well as it could. Sixteen days later, the Soviets invaded from the east.

The country had no chance. They had less than a million soldiers, 600 tanks, 400 aircraft.

On one side, the Nazis roared in with 1.85 million soldiers, 2800 tanks, 2000 aircraft. On the other, the Soviets invaded with 1.5 million soldiers, 6000 tanks, 1800 aircraft.

Germany annexed some areas and started shipping out the Polish citizens (both Jewish and gentile) to make room for the Master Race. In the German-held territories, Jews began to be rounded up and resettled in ghettos.Of course you know already what the Nazis did to the Jews of Poland, as to the ones of France, Germany, Holland, Czechoslovakia.

What you may not know is that the Nazis wanted to destroy the Poles as well. It began before the war: in August 1939, 2000 Polish expatriate intellectuals were arrested and murdered in Nazi-held regions. During September and October 1939, Operation Tannenberg targeted Polish intellectuals: priests, former officers, activists. In a mere two months, Einsatzkommandos rounded up 20,000 people and slaughtered them in as many as 760 mass executions. The Germans conscripted many other Polish citizens to work as slave laborers. The Germans carefully calculated the expenses of food and clothing and how long the prisoners could be expected to survive on such rations. Not long.

On the Eastern front, the Soviets were busy, too. Many Polish citizens were deported to work in the Soviet Union. And the Soviets agreed with the Nazis that the Polish intelligentsia were dangerous. About 22 thousand Polish intellectuals, policemen, and officers were murdered by the Soviets. This genocide has taken the name of the forest where many were buried. Have you heard of the Katyn Massacre?

By the end of the war, 6 million Polish citizens were dead. Half were Jews. Half were Gentiles. (Yes, a much larger percentage of the country’s Jews died — virtually all of them. It was much worse to be a Polish Jew than to be merely Polish. However, it was no picnic to be a Catholic Pole, either. Poland suffered by far the greatest percentage of fatalities of any country in the conflict.) In 1939 there were less than 30 million Poles. More than one out of 5 died by 1945. The equivalent death rate in the US would take out 60 million people. In addition to the loss of citizens, the Polish economic base was utterly destroyed.

My mother-in-law graduated from high school in 1939. By 1945 she was the only survivor of her class.

Why weren’t we taught these things in school? My guess is that nobody wanted to bother with teaching about Eastern Europe while it was still behind the Iron Curtain. Moreover, Poland never was liberated; it went from Nazi rule to Soviet rule. Some of the people who survived the Nazi regime were sent to the gulags afterwards. My husband’s great-aunt and great-uncle were among them. He spent two years in Siberia; she spent five and came home limping from having broken a leg. Speaking out about what had happened, what was happening, would be punished, and everyone knew it.

I have seen Nazi propaganda films about their intentions with regard to Poland. I have read the translated memos and speeches of Hans Frank. I spent two years researching Poland from 1920 to 1945. I know damned well what happened there.

And Poland didn’t cause it. Not because Poland lost the war. But because they were minding their own business when two vast states invaded. The current Russian argument is the exact equivalent of a bully telling his victim, “You made me hit you.” Or a rapist: “I wouldn’t have raped you if you’d cooperated to give me sex.”

Under planned legislation, backed by Mr Medvedev, any Russian or foreigner who claims that the Soviet Union occupied Poland or the Baltic States could face up to five years in prison.

This is a familiar chorus.

Nobody but the Nazis made the Nazis invade. Nobody but the Soviets was responsible for the Soviet invasion. Hitler and Stalin, Himmler and Beria. Blame them. Don’t blame the Poles.