British Policy Towards Poland, 1944–1956

British Policy Towards Poland, 1944–1956
Author: Andrea Mason
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2018-11-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 3319942417

This book examines the outcome of the British commitment to reconstitute a sovereign Polish state and establish a democratic Polish government after the Second World War. It analyses the wartime origins of Churchill’s commitment to Poland, and assesses the reasons for the collapse of British efforts to support the leader of the Polish opposition, Stanisław Mikołajczyk, in countering the attempt by the Polish communist party to establish one-party rule after the war. This examination of Anglo-Polish relations is set within the broader context of emerging early Cold War tensions. It addresses the shift in British foreign policy after 1945 towards the US, the Soviet Union and Europe, as British leaders and policymakers adjusted both to the new post-war international circumstances, and to the domestic constraints which increasingly limited British policy options. This work analyses the reasons for Ernest Bevin’s decision to disengage from Poland, helping to advance the debate on the larger question of Bevin’s vision of Britain’s place within the newly reconfigured international system. The final chapter surveys British policy towards Poland from the period of Sovietisation in the late 1940s up to the October 1956 revolution, arguing that Poland’s process of liberalisation in the mid-1950s served as the catalyst for limited British reengagement in Eastern Europe.

Britain and Poland 1939-1943

Britain and Poland 1939-1943
Author: Anita Prazmowska
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 1995-03-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521483858

Poland was a problematic issue for the Big Powers throughout the Second World War. For Britain, Poland was a major stumbling block in British-Soviet relations as Polish-Soviet territorial disputes clashed with the needs of the British-Soviet-United States alliance. As the Polish government-in-exile attempted to obtain a guarantee of British support, and many thousands of Polish troops fought for the British cause, the perception grew that the Churchill government had a debt to pay. Ultimately, however, it was a debt which Britain could not discharge because of its dependence on Soviet participation in the war. In this book Anita Prazmowska looks at British policies from the point of view of wartime strategy, relating this to Polish government expectations and policies. She describes a tragic situation where Polish soldiers were trapped between the grandiose and unrealistic plans of their government and the harsh realities of a war which they fought with no prospect of a satisfactory outcome for them or their country.

On the Edges of Whiteness

On the Edges of Whiteness
Author: Jochen Lingelbach
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2020-05-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 178920447X

From 1942 to 1950, nearly twenty thousand Poles found refuge from the horrors of war-torn Europe in camps within Britain’s African colonies, including Uganda, Tanganyika, Kenya and Northern and Southern Rhodesia. On the Edges of Whiteness tells their improbable story, tracing the manifold, complex relationships that developed among refugees, their British administrators, and their African neighbors. While intervening in key historical debates across academic disciplines, this book also gives an accessible and memorable account of survival and dramatic cultural dislocation against the backdrop of global conflict.

Great Britain, The Soviet Union and the Polish Government in Exile (1939–1945)

Great Britain, The Soviet Union and the Polish Government in Exile (1939–1945)
Author: G.V. Kacewicz
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 9400992726

In this book I have attempted to analyze the dilemmas confronting the Polish government-in-exile in London during the Second World War. My main objective has beeen to investigate the actual operation of the Polish govern ment and the overall policies of the British government vis-a-vis the Soviet Union insofar as they had a direct bearing on Anglo-Polish relations. Since the outstanding conflicts over territorial claims, and, ultimately, sovereignty, were between Poland and the Soviet Union, considerable attention has been devoted to the relationship between the Polish and Soviet governments during a most trying and difficult period of inter-Allied diplomacy. This work covers the period of operation of the Polish government on British soil until the resignation of Prime Minister Stanislaw Mikolajczyk in November 1944. Although Great Britain did not withdraw diplomatic recognition from the Polish government until July 1945, the Arciszewski government, formed after Mikolajczyk's resignation, was generally ignored by Great Britain. As with all subsequent governments, including that which exists today, Arciszewski's government functioned primarily as the voice of Poland in the West - a government of protest.

Poland and the Origins of the Second World War

Poland and the Origins of the Second World War
Author: Marek Kornat
Publisher: Peter Lang Gmbh, Internationaler Verlag Der Wissenschaften
Total Pages: 558
Release: 2021-03-11
Genre: World War, 1939-1945
ISBN: 9783631836477

This monograph deals with Polish foreign policy shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. In tracing the diplomatic activity of foreign minister Józef Beck, it discusses six general problems: (1) the Polish political situation under the pressure of appeasement; (2) the project of Intermarium and efforts to implement it; (3) the action against Czechoslovakia and the conflict with the Soviet Union; (4) the Polish attitude towards the German concept of Gesamtlosung in Germany's relations with Poland; (5) the genesis of the Polish alliance with Great Britain; (6) the Allies' military inaction after Nazi Germany's aggression. In these conditions, Poland made four key decisions: it stood against Czechoslovakia, it rejected German demands, it allied itself with the United Kingdom, and it rejected the Soviet Union's claim for the Red Army to march across Polish lands.