Modern Russian, Belarusian and Polish historiography on the geopolitical situation of Poland before September 1, 1939 (comparative analysis)

The article provides a comparative analysis of the points of view of Polish, Russian and Belarusian researchers on the events of the pre-war crisis in Europe. According to the author, the studies of historians do not trace the features of the traditional methodological advantages characteristic of modern historiography of Poland and Russia. The points of view of historians do not represent conceptual contradictions of a national nature, even at the level of interpretation of individual events. Historians focus on the foreign policy of a particular country, delving into the analysis of the causes and results of the actions of opponents or allies. According to the author, this approach gives their research a subjective, and sometimes biased and contradictory character. This is manifested in the fact that historians retell equally well-known facts, on the basis of which each author. The author notes that in the early 2000s, Belarusian historians, in particular, V. Ladysev, G. Lazko, N. Mezga, V. Snapkovsky, V. Astroga and others focused on topics that were still "white spots" in Polish-Soviet-German relations in 1939. This concerns the fact of secret agreements between Hitler and Stalin in August 1939 on the delimitation of the spheres of interests of the USSR and Germany in the Baltic States and Poland; mass arrests, repressions and deportations among the local population hostile to the "totalitarian policy of Sovietization", etc. The issue of reunification or annexation of the territories of Western Belarus to the BSSR after the liberation campaign of the Red Army in September 1939 is debatable, which was discussed at international scientific conferences dedicated to the anniversaries of these events. At the present stage, a significant contribution to the development and analysis of the complex foreign policy situation in pre-war Europe is represented by a collective monograph published as a result of joint Russian-Polish scientific cooperation between the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and the Polish Institute of International Affairs of the PAN, which reflects the approaches of both Polish and Russian historians to various problematic issues of the international crisis of 1938-1939. This allows us to simultaneously analyze the common and distinctive approaches of researchers to the events under consideration. Interestingly, Polish and Russian historians alike consider the aggressive actions of Nazi Germany to be the reason for the outbreak of World War II.