Polish irredentism

Beginning with the movement of Polish tribes, the Poles established its nation, Civitas Schinesghe under the Piast dynasty,[1] where it eventually evolved into the First Kingdom of Poland.

[2] At the early stage, the Polish nation was more concentrated in protecting its border sovereignty amidst foreign incursions and conflicts.

[3] The success of Polish-Lithuanian union paved way for the eventual establishment of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which became the largest country in Europe once of a time.

[4] The establishment of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth helped further enriching Poland and expanded its territory, far to the east of Smolensk and west to modern Germany, making the country a European power.

[7] Both Sweden and Russia had cost Poland into total destruction and devastation, with many goods being stolen by the Russians and Swedes.

Though the Poles managed a famous expulsion of the Ottoman Turks out of Vienna at 1683, Poland was never able to recover from these crippling invasions by Russia and Sweden.

In order to reform the country and reclaim the lost lands, Józef Poniatowski and Tadeusz Kościuszko proposed and initiated the Constitution of Commonwealth, replacing liberum veto to limit Russian, Prussian and Austrian involvements.

Some of the first Polish irredentists in this era included Józef Piłsudski, who initiated the Intermarium concept, which sought to create a united independence state in Central Europe that could deter German and Russian imperialism and to revive the fallen Commonwealth.

He had worked with various Polish and even to Ukrainian, Belarusian, Lithuanian, Czechoslovak and Romanian groups in order to capitalize and to make it happen.

In 1938, Poland took advantage of increasing Nazi German irredentism on Czechoslovakia, and had annexed Trans-Olza into Polish territory.

[17][better source needed] Both the Germans and Soviets used the ethnic cards to play fool with hope of weakening irredentism among Poles and to ensure Poland could not resurge.

However, a number of unwanted political explosion in 2010s led to the rebirth of Polish irredentism, in the wake of increasing nationalist sentiment.

These accusations stemmed from online comments made by readers of an article published on the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza: while the article itself did not mention any Polish alleged annexation desire, the comments suggested that the Kaliningrad Oblast should belong to Poland.

Stanisław Żaryn, spokesperson for the Polish Minister Coordinator for Special Services, dismissed the allegation as "fake news".