Батыс елдерінің сатқындығы: Екінші дүниежүзілік соғыс және одан кейінгі кезеңдегі орталық және шығыс Еуропаны тастап кетуі

Concept in international relations among European countries

Western betrayal is the view that the United Kingdom, France, and sometimes the United States failed to meet their legal, diplomatic, military, and moral obligations with respect to the Czechoslovak and Polish states during the prelude to and aftermath of World War II. It also sometimes refers to the treatment of other Central and Eastern European states at the time. The term refers to several events, including the treatment of Czechoslovakia during the Munich Agreement and the resulting occupation by Germany, as well as the failure of France and the UK to aid Poland when the country was invaded by Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939. The same concept also refers to concessions made by the United States and the United Kingdom to the Soviet Union during the Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam conferences and to their passive stance during the Warsaw Uprising against Nazi occupation, and post war events, which allocated the region to the Soviet sphere of influence and created the communist Eastern Bloc. Historically, such views were intertwined with some of the most significant geopolitical events of the 20th century, including the rise and empowerment of Nazi Germany, the rise of the Soviet Union as a dominant superpower with control of large parts of Europe, and various treaties, alliances, and positions taken during and after World War II and continuing on into the Cold War.

"Notions of western betrayal" is a reference to "a sense of historical and moral responsibility" for the West's "abandonment of Central and Eastern Europe at the end of the Second World War," according to professors Charlotte Bretherton and John Vogler. Czech politicians joined the newspapers in regularly using the term Western betrayal and it, along with the associated feelings, became a stereotype among Czechs. The Czech terms Mnichov (Munich), Mnichovská zrada (Munich betrayal), Mnichovský diktát (Munich Dictate), and zrada spojenců (betrayal of the allies) were coined at the same time and have the same meaning. Poet František Halas published a poem with verse about "ringing bell of betrayal".

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, a complex set of alliances was established among the nations of Europe, in the hope of preventing future wars (either with Germany or the Soviet Union). With the rise of Nazism in Germany, this system of alliances was strengthened by the signing of a series of "mutual assistance" alliances between France, Britain, and Poland (Franco Polish Alliance). This agreement with France stated that in the event of war the other allies were to fully mobilise and carry out a "ground intervention within two weeks" in support of the ally being attacked. According to Krzysztof Źwikliński, additionally representatives of the Western powers made several military promises to Poland, including such fantastic designs as those made by British General William Edmund Ironside in his July 1939 talks with Marshall Rydz Śmigły who promised an attack from the direction of Black Sea, or placing a British aircraft carrier in the Baltic.

On the eve of the Second World War, the Polish government tried to buy as much armaments as it could and was asking for arms loans from Britain and France. As a result of that in the summer of 1939 Poland placed orders for 160 French Morane Saulnier M. S.406 fighters, and for 111 British airplanes (100 light bombers Fairey Battle, 10 Hurricanes, and 1 Spitfire). Although some of these planes had been shipped to Poland before 1 September 1939, none took part in combat. Shipments were interrupted due to the outbreak of war. The total amount of the loan from British government was also much smaller than asked for. Britain agreed to lend 8 million pounds, but Poland was asking for 60 million. Upon the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in September 1939, after giving Germany an ultimatum on 1 September, Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September, and a British naval blockade of Germany was initiated. General Gort was appointed commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), and placed under the command of French General Gamelin of the North eastern Theatre of Operations, as agreed before the war. On 4 September, an RAF raid against German warships in harbour was conducted, and the BEF began its shipment to France. The German forces reached Warsaw on 8 September, and on 14 September, Marshal Rydz Śmigły ordered Polish forces to withdraw to the Romanian Bridgehead. On 17 September, the Soviet Union invaded Poland, and Polish Army in the field was effectively defeated before the divisions of the BEF could arrive in France. The first two BEF divisions, which took their place in the French line and change of command, on 3 October, and two further BEF divisions took their place in the French line on 12 October. France had committed to undertaking a ground offensive within two weeks of the outbreak of war. The French initiated full mobilisation and began the limited Saar Offensive on 7 September, sending 40 divisions into the region. The French assault was slowed down by out dated doctrines, minefields, and the French lacked mine detectors. When the French reached artillery range of the Siegfried Line, they found that their shells could not penetrate the German defences. The French decided to regroup an attack on 20 September, but when Poland was invaded by the Soviet Union on 17 September, any further assault was called off. Around 13 September, the Polish military envoy to France, general Stanisław Burhardt Bukacki, upon receiving the text of the message sent by Gamelin, alerted marshal Śmigły: "I received the message by general Gamelin. Please don't believe a single word in the dispatch". This theme would continue in subsequent Anglo French Supreme War Council meetings. Afterwards, French military leader Maurice Gamelin issued orders prohibiting Polish military envoys Lieutenant Wojciech Fyda and General Stanisław Burhardt Bukacki from contacting him. On 17 September 1939 the Soviet Union invaded Poland, as agreed in advance with Germany following the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Britain and France did not take any significant action in response to the Soviet invasion. However, the terms of the Anglo Polish military alliance specifically applied to invasion from Germany only. France and Britain were unable to launch a successful land attack on Germany in September 1939, and Poland was overcome by both the Germans and Soviets on 6 October, with the last Polish units capitulating that day following the battle of Kock. However, even by the end of October, the still forming British Expeditionary Force totaled only 4 divisions compared to the 25 German divisions in Western Germany, making a British invasion of Germany unlikely to succeed.

Nicholas Bethell, The War Hitler Won: The Fall of Poland, September 1939, New York, 1972. Mieczyslaw B. Biskupski The History of Poland. Westport, CT; London: Greenwood Press, 2000. Russell D. Buhite Decisions at Yalta: an appraisal of summit diplomacy, Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources Inc, 1986. Anna M. Cienciala "Poland in British and French policy in 1939: determination to fight — or avoid war?" pages 413–433 from The Origins of The Second World War edited by Patrick Finney, Arnold, London, 1997. Anna M. Cienciala and From Versailles to Locarno: keys to Polish foreign policy, 1919–25, Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1984. Richard Crampton Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century — and After. London; New York: Routledge, 1997. Norman Davies, Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw. Viking Books, 2004. Norman Davies, God's Playground and (two volumes). David Dutton Neville Chamberlain, London: Arnold; New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Sean Greenwood "The Phantom Crisis: Danzig, 1939" pages 247–272 from The Origins of the Second World War Reconsidered: A. J. P. Taylor and the Historians edited by Gordon Martel Routledge Inc, London, United Kingdom, 1999. Robert Kee, Munich: The Eleventh Hour, London: Hamilton, 1988. Arthur Bliss Lane, I Saw Poland Betrayed: An American Ambassador Reports to the American People. The Bobbs Merrill Company, Indianapolis, 1948. Igor Lukes & Erik Goldstein (ed.) The Munich Crisis, 1938: Prelude to World War II, London; Portland, OR: Frank Cass Inc, 1999. Margaret Olwen Macmillan Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World. New York: Random House, 2003, 2002, 2001. David Martin, Ally Betrayed. Prentice Hall, New York, 1946. David Martin, Patriot or Traitor: The Case of General Mihailovich. Hoover Institution, Stanford, California, 1978. David Martin, The Web of Disinformation: Churchill's Yugoslav Blunder. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, San Diego & New York, 1990. Lynne Olson, Stanley Cloud, A Question of Honor: The Kosciuszko Squadron: Forgotten Heroes of World War II. Knopf, 2003. Anita Prażmowska, Poland: The Betrayed Ally. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995. Edward Rozek, Allied Wartime Diplomacy: A Pattern in Poland, New York, 1958, reprint Boulder, CO, 1989. Henry L. Roberts "The Diplomacy of Colonel Beck" pages 579–614 from The Diplomats 1919–1939 edited by Gordon A. Craig & Felix Gilbert, Princeton University Press: Princeton, New Jersey, USA, 1953. Robert Young France and the origins of the Second World War, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996. Piotr Stefan Wandycz The twilight of French eastern alliances, 1926–1936: French Czechoslovak Polish relations from Locarno to the remilitarisation of the Rhineland, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988. Piotr Wandycz France and her eastern allies, 1919–1925: French Czechoslovak Polish relations from the Paris Peace Conference to Locarno, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1962. Gerhard Weinberg A world at arms: a global history of World War II, Cambridge, United Kingdom; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994. John Wheeler Bennett Munich: Prologue to Tragedy, New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1948. Paul E. Zinner "Czechoslovakia: The Diplomacy of Eduard Benes". In Gordon A. Craig & Felix Gilbert (ed.). The Diplomats 1919–1939. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1953. pp. 100–122. Republic of Poland, The Polish White Book: Official Documents concerning Polish German and Polish Soviet Relations 1933–1939; Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland, New York, 1940. Daniel Johnson, "Betrayed by the Big Three". Daily Telegraph, London, November 8, 2003
Diana Kuprel, "How the Allies Betrayed Warsaw". The Globe and Mail, Toronto, February 7, 2004
Ari Shaltiel, "The Great Betrayal". Haaretz, Tel Aviv, February 23, 2004
Piotr Zychowicz, Pakt Ribbentrop Beck. Dom Wydawniczy Rebis, Poznań 2012.