Warsaw Uprising holds lessons for Ukraine war says Polish historian The coming 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising provides an opportunity to reflect on history and draw conclusions that can be applied to today’s geopolitics in Europe, renowned Polish historian Adam Zamoyski has said.
Zamoyski said the tragedy of the Uprising is symbolic of Polish history as the country had long been a natural ally of Western powers against Prussian and Russian expansionism, and that this resistance to domination continued throughout Germany’s occupation of Poland.
He argued that in this context, the Uprising “epitomizes the awful fact that… Poland’s natural allies in the West, principally Britain and France, recognized the danger too late and either failed to act or found they could not act because they had left it too late.”
He said that this tardiness cost Western powers the military initiative and “so they had to let their natural ally down.”
He went on to say that history is currently repeating itself in Ukraine and that “had the West reacted quicker two years ago, the war in Ukraine might well have been over by now.”
On the subject of the Uprising’s coming 80th anniversary, the historian observed that to fully appreciate the events of 1944, “you need to be both a historian and a sociologist.”
He said in addition to the cold historical facts, the uprising “has a human side” as Varsovians at the time “really didn’t have a choice.”
“After four years of Nazi occupation , young people particularly in Poland were just determined to have a go at the Nazis,” he said.
