Republic of Korea in Yeokcheon - Chapter 366



Only Krnovel

#366. Don’t do that!

“It would be especially good for Poland to issue a proper and sincere apology for the Katyn Forest massacre.”

“Oh, that’s a bit… … .”

“Why? I don’t think the secretary is directly involved.”

“The US and the UK won’t like it either. To be frank, you know that even Roosevelt and Churchill have their issues.”

“I’ll take care of that. The Secretary-General won’t be criticized by either country for that.”

“You said you were sorry last time, right? Can’t we just brush it off with that?”

“Should we change our positions? If you were the secretary, would you forgive me if I said in passing, ‘I’m sorry’?”

“Hey, it wasn’t that bad. But I did apologize sincerely, didn’t I?”

“An apology is only an apology if the person who was hit accepts it.”

“Hah, it’s really rotten.

“… … .”

The Katyn Forest Massacre, which Khrushchev found so embarrassing.

If the Soviet Union does not properly apologize for this, the restoration of relations between Poland and the Soviet Union may never be possible.

Because it was an incident that deeply resented the Polish people.

And the key figures in this incident were Lavrenty Beria and Stalin.

To be exact, it was an incident led by Beria and approved by Stalin.

But why is Khrushchev hesitant to offer a proper apology, even mentioning Roosevelt and Churchill?

Also, what did Roosevelt and Churchill have to do with each other, and why did Khrushchev say that the US and UK would not like it?

If we look closely at this incident, it actually makes sense.

On August 23, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact.

This was the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, and Germany launched a surprise invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, while the Soviet Union advanced into Poland later, on September 17.

Accordingly, Poland asked Britain and France for help.

It was a demand to beat up Germany from the other side, in accordance with the military alliance treaties concluded with Britain and France in advance, which included an automatic entry into the war clause.

But not only Britain, but even France did not step forward properly.

I just hung around near the border between Germany and France and then turned back.

In short, Poland was completely betrayed and abandoned by the West it had trusted, and it was obvious that the West was behaving hypocritically, to the point that the then US Senator William Borah called it a “phony war.”

Anyway, Poland ended up being divided between Germany and the Soviet Union, but the problem was the Polish prisoners of war captured by the Soviet Union.

The number of Polish prisoners taken by the Soviets was estimated at between 250,000 and 450,000. The reason so many prisoners were taken in such a short war was because the Polish high command had issued an order not to resist the Soviets.

By September 17, when the Soviet Union invaded, the main defensive line in the west had already collapsed, and with 800,000 Soviet troops pushing in from the east, the Polish government sensed defeat.

Common sense would suggest that Poland could not possibly survive against two military powers, Germany and the Soviet Union, in the west and east.

Of the Polish prisoners captured in this way, most of them were ordinary soldiers, and many escaped due to the poor management of the overcrowding, so the number of prisoners held by the Soviet Army reached 125,000, and they were treated like animals by Beria’s People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD).

Beria thoroughly reclassified them, excluding the Ukrainians and the Russian Whites who lived in the annexed territories, and handing over those from western Poland that the Germans had occupied to the Germans.

The problem was that of the 22,000 prisoners who were judged to be uncooperative and a future threat to the Soviet Union.

Beria defined them as enemies of Soviet security and proposed to Stalin that they all be killed. How could Stalin refuse Beria’s proposal to massacre them?

Does a shit dog stop shitting?

Eventually, they were shot en masse in the Katyn Forest, Minsk, Kharkov, and other places from April to May of the following year, 1940, and buried in pits dug in advance by the NKVD.

What makes the massacre even more painful for Poland is that these people were the ones who would lead Poland.

Most of the soldiers were officers, with 14 of them being of the rank of general, and they were classified as the highest elite of the Second Polish Republic at the time.

The rest were made up of intelligentsia, including police, landowners, factory owners, lawyers, and civil servants, whom the Soviet Union had defined as enemies of the people.

It was not until much later, in 1943, that this massacre was discovered.

As if to confirm the truth of the saying that there are no eternal enemies or allies, in 1941 Germany attacked the Soviet Union, which became part of the Allied Forces.

Yesterday’s enemy has become today’s ally.

Accordingly, the Polish government-in-exile demanded that the Soviet Union release Polish prisoners of war, saying that it would fight against the Germans if they were released, but there was no way to free them since they had already been massacred and buried in the ground.

However, we cannot honestly say that we killed them, because Beria and Stalin themselves clearly recognized from the time they killed them that this massacre was a war crime.

So, since they had nothing to say to the Polish government-in-exile’s repeated demands for the release of prisoners, they could only insist that they had all escaped.

It is said that Stalin even went as far as to say that they had all fled to Manchuria and could not be found.

Ironically, it was Nazi Germany that discovered this massacre.

On February 18, 1943, German troops advancing east discovered the bodies of Polish prisoners buried in the Katyn Forest, and Goebbels was delighted when he heard about it.

They must have cheered, as they had discovered the brutal war crimes committed by the Soviet Union when it joined the Allied Forces.

Naturally, Germany told the world about the Soviet Union’s war crimes, but Stalin denied that they were the work of Nazi Germany.

However, the Red Cross intervened and investigated, and after revealing the time of the massacre, the United States and Britain also dispatched investigators, and through these efforts it was discovered that this mass murder was the work of the Soviet Union.

However, the United States and the United Kingdom completely turned a blind eye.

At this time, the Soviet Union was an indispensable partner in carrying out the war against Germany.

How resentful and miserable must the Polish people have felt?

Originally, in history, their grievances were not resolved.

The Soviet Union denied it, as it was a blatant lie, and Poland, being a satellite of the Soviet Union, could not dare to say anything to the Soviet Union.

Here, the United States and the United Kingdom also condemned this massacre as the Cold War began and the Soviet Union became their greatest enemy, but they were not in a very good position because they had turned a blind eye to the incident.

It was only after Gorbachev came to power and the Cold War ended that everything became clear, and later on, when Russia invaded Ukraine, Poland became a strong supporter of Ukraine, with which it had not had a particularly good relationship historically.

In any case, in this history, after Khrushchev came to power, he acknowledged and apologized for the Katyn Forest massacre.

In the original history, even Khrushchev had his own position, so he stuck his neck out.

“Then I’ll just do it moderately.”

Khrushchev still seemed to be displeased.

That is understandable, because no matter how much the Soviet Union is not what it used to be, it is still a great power, and Poland is a country they ruled.

After all, apologizing properly is a waste of time.

“Secretary.”

“why?”

“Poland is a key country in Eastern Europe. How long are we going to live in hostility with it?”

At this time, Poland was a considerable power.

As a result of South Korea’s intervention, when the Soviet Union was expelled from the Allied Powers at the end of World War II, it took over western Ukraine and eastern Germany, which were originally in history, so its territory increased to 430,000㎢, exceeding the 380,000㎢ of the Second Republic, and its population exceeded 50 million.

This is natural, considering that the population of the country already reached 35 million during the Second Republic.

“… … .”

“And apologizing for past mistakes will not tarnish the reputation of the Soviet Union. Rather, the world will applaud the Soviet Union for truly changing its ways.”

“Is that so?”

“I can guarantee it. And as I said before, the population of the country bordering us is over 50 million. Let’s think about it realistically. How long are we going to abandon a market of 50 million people? No matter how much we import from the Soviet Union, most of our population is in the Far East. That means there is a limit.”

“Ha, I understand. I apologize.”

“If you’re going to do it, do it right. Otherwise, it’ll just keep talking and dragging things out.”

“I got it.”

Originally, what is the reason that Japan and Korea have been at odds over their past history for almost 80 years?

Because there was no proper apology.

Whenever one guy apologized, the other guy would usually start a fire, and even when they did apologize, they would use terms that even the Japanese didn’t know, like “Tongseok no Yeom,” which confused people.

So, since you’re going to apologize, do it properly and neatly.

“That’s what I’m saying. In a federal state like the Soviet Union, everything should be transparent and certain. If you handle it sloppily, it’ll definitely cause problems later. Well, this is an internal matter, so I’m being careful.”

“Hey, we can talk about that much between us.”

“Stop pretending to be close to me.”

“Hehehe! Anyway, that’s right. To be honest, we’re a federation, but after the war with your country, we can practically be considered one nation of the Korean people, so we don’t have most of the problems that a typical federation country has.”

“Is that really so?”

“Oh, so that’s what I mean? That’s why I’m planning to adjust the administrative districts of the Crimean Peninsula to Ukraine soon. Geographically, it’s right to add it there, and in order to become a complete country, I think I need to appease them a bit… … .”

“Hey! Don’t do that!”

“Uh, yeah? You told me not to do that?”

“Crimea, I told you not to touch that?”

“Huh?”

Khrushchev was quite embarrassed when Lee Kang-cheol, who was always cool-headed, became frightened.

“No, why? That’s what it is. It’s just a matter of convenience between fellow Soviet family members, so why is there such a fuss?”

“Which side of the Crimean Peninsula has more people living there now?”

“Well, there are a lot more Russians, right? Maybe 71%? 22% were Ukrainians?”

“So I told you not to do it.”

“No, why?”

“I’m going crazy.”

Khrushchev doesn’t know.

He said that his thoughtless actions almost caused World War III.

Originally, Crimea was given to Ukraine in 1954, shortly after Khrushchev came to power.

But it seemed like it would just pass because it was quiet until now, but it suddenly popped up again.

“Really why?”

“Secretary.”

“yes.”

“Did you see that I was wrong?”

“No, I haven’t seen it. So why don’t I tell you everything and ask for your advice?”

“Then listen to me. If we annex Crimea to Ukraine, we will be in big trouble later.”

“No, at least give me a reason… … .”

“I told you to just believe me?”

“… … .”

Lee Kang-cheol has rarely spoken so strongly.

Then what is there?

“Ha, I see. Well, it’s not that important.”

“Whew!”

“… … .”

Lee Kang-cheol prevented a possible future great war from occurring.