Russia rewriting WWII history

It wasn't us that started WWII, it was them!

WW2 was Poland's fault, a Russian military historian says, because (get this!) Poland did not give in to German demands for the Danzig corridor.

The report the historian wrote was posted on a Russian Ministry of Defence site, thus prompting a please explain by Poland to the Russian Ambassador in Warsaw. But apparently, the report does not reflect the position of the Russian Government.

The paper, titled "Fictions and Falsifications in Evaluating the USSR's Role On the Eve of World War II," recounts how in the run-up to Germany's invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Hitler demanded that Poland turn over control of the city of Danzig as well as a land corridor between Germany and the territory now known as Kaliningrad.

"Everyone who has studied the history of World War II without bias knows that the war began because of Poland's refusal to satisfy Germany's claims," he writes.

Kovalyov called the demands "quite reasonable." He observed: "The overwhelming majority of residents of Danzig, cut off from Germany by the Treaty of Versailles, were Germans who sincerely wished for reunification with their historical homeland."

Kovalyov, who works in St. Petersburg, could not be immediately located for comment.

Arseny Roginsky, a historian with the rights group Memorial, said Kovalyov was entitled to his opinion "and he shouldn't be thrown in prison for that."

"But if this indeed reflects the position of the government — in as much that it appeared on the Web site of the Ministry of Defense — then this is indeed dangerous and shameful," he said.

Poland contacted the Russian ambassador in Warsaw for an explanation.

"This sort of exotic interpretation of historical facts appears in various marginal Russian language periodicals from time to time," Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Piotr Paszkowski told The Associated Press. "For obvious reasons we don't react. This time, however, we asked the Russian ambassador in Warsaw for an explanation because the materials were posted on an official Web site of the Russian Defense Ministry, which could imply that it is the ministry's official stance."

Paszkowski said a deputy minister in Poland's Foreign Ministry spoke with the Russian ambassador, and soon after the Russian Defense Ministry posted a statement that the analytical material on the ministry's Web site was not the ministry's official position.

Related Link: Russian military historian blames Poland for WWII ~ AP