IS POLAND LOST*?

At the time of writing—the second half of,
September 1939—it is too early for any prognosis
of developments in Eastern Europe, but I have
strong reasons to adhere to my belief that, with
the exceptions indicated above, Soviet Russia's
interests lie in the East and that she will ultimately
direct her policy accordingly.

At all events, my answer to the question, 'Is
Poland Lost?', was and is a definite negative. The
justification of this answer lies in the Polish
national character, as reflected in a thousand years
of their history and not least in the history of the
Polish Republic. At present the Polish people are
opposed by two apparently conflicting ideologies,
Bolshevism and Nazism. I say apparently con-
flicting, because the difference is not very great.
Apart from similarities of principle and method,
Bolshevism and Nazism have become almost
identical in one essential respect. Stalin has long
departed from the principles of pure Marxism and
Leninism and Bolshevism to-day is only another
name for a new Russian nationalism, just as
Hitlerism is a new and insanely extreme German
nationalism. Both ideologies have been imposed
on the respective peoples by force, and neither is
an expression of the fundamental character of the
great mass of these two nations. It constitutes*no
departure from the hard realism of political facts
to say that this state of affairs, both in Nazi
Germany and Bolshevik Russia, conceals the germ
of disintegration, which must inevitably be brought
about by the impact of any powerful force. That

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