Re: USSR decree regarding citizenship
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Hello Roman,
?
I would?never want Poland to be as cowardly as France and Czechoslovakia were during WWII.? Terms of surrender were not in the cards for Poland since Germany and Russia wanted most of us?dead with some of us possibly russified/germanized: they wanted our land. ?I would rather fight.
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Russian law is meaningless when it flies in the face of international law.? International law trumps internal law.? I believe that it was the Hague IV Convention: Laws and Customs of War on Land of October 18, 1907, that was?internationally recognized at the time in regard to?to laws and customs of war.? It specifically prohibited Russia (one of the contracting states) from conscripting you, changing your citizenship, etc.? In fact, it does not matter what fig leaves=internal laws?a country?subsequently sets up?to cover its crimes,? internationally recognized laws?prevail over?such attempts.? It must also be remembered that Poland had a peace treaty with Russia at the time, any international treaty would prevail over self-serving and illegal internal laws.
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Cordially,
?
Halina
Los Angeles
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romed46 wrote:
Hello Halina,
Thank you for giving me your reasons? why you consider the USSR
decree of Nov. 29,1939 illegal.
I am not a lawyer and I am not familiar with the international law as
it existed in 1939.
We must remember, however, that we talking about the events that
occurred in the thirties of the last century.
At that time Japan occupied China and Korea, Italy occupied Ethiopia,
Germany Saar District, Czechoslovakia and Austria, Poland occupied
Cieszyn District, Hungary Trans- Carpathian Russ , etc.
I looked at the sequence of events leading up to this USSR
decree, and I see the following :
1.? Sept. 01/39? Germany attacks Poland
2.? Sept. 09/39 Warszawa under direct German attack
3.? Sept. 13/39 Warszawa under German siege - Polish Government
abandons Warszawa
4.? Sept. 16/39 President
Moscicki in Kosov, 8 miles from the
Rumanian border, - press reports that Ukrainian nationalists are
murdering Polish refugees and? proclaiming Ukrainian Republic.
5.? Sept. 17/39? 3a.m.USSR Deputy Commissar for Foreign Affairs,
Potemkin ,advises Polish? Ambassador Grzybowski that the Polish State
ceased to exist and that the Red Army has received orders to cross
the Polish frontier to protect the inhabitants. President Moscicki in
the town of Kuty, on the Rumanian border, signs? an act appointing
Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz ,who is in Paris, as his successor
6.? Oct. 29-30/39? Soviet occupying? power carries out a plebiscite
in the occupied territory asking the population one question, do they
want to join the Soviet Union,? yes or no.
7.? Nov. 1 - 2 /39? The Soviet authorities announce the results of
the plebiscite stating that? 99 % voted yes,and that the occupied
territory
is now part of the Soviet Union
8. Nov. 16/39????? USSR and Germany agree to repatriate willing persons.
To expedite repatriation they create a bilateral repatriation
commission
9. Nov. 29/39 ????? The Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR
issues decree regarding citizenship
It appears to me that the Russians, by carrying out the plebiscite on
Oct. 29-30 ,? made their decree of? Nov.29/39 regarding citizenship?
legal.
I was also present in Lwow at the time and voted against joining
Soviet Union, but to no avail. In April 1941 I was conscripted into
the Red Army.
I often wonder what? would have happened if President Moscicki?
stayed in Warszawa and? tried to arrange? terms of surrender, like
the Czechs and French did.
On my visit to Prague in the nineties one of the tourists asked our
Czechoslovakian guide why there were no
ruins like in Warszawa, and
without hesitation she said " because we were under German
protection".
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