The polemic over the historical responsibility of various countries for unleashing World War II somehow overshadowed the theme of the guilt of Germany, which was of course more responsible for the global catastrophe than any other country. Occasionally one is left with the impression that the eager critics of “the Soviet totalitarianism” are oblivious to Germany's role in the onset of the war.

It is explainable that those who uphold the legacy of J. Pilsudski, E. Hacha, A. Smetona, and K. Pats would rather not highlight the guilt of Hitler's Germany, as otherwise the attention is inevitably drawn to compromising facts from their own past - from direct cooperation with the Nazi regime to the instigation of seizure of other countries' territories - which are the sins the Soviet Union is being constantly charged with.

London, Washington, and Paris are not interested in an unbiased reconstruction of the history of World War II either, even though their representatives were among the signatories of the sentence passed by the Nuremberg Tribunal which condemned the German aggression as an international crime and high-ranking German officials – as criminals. The major Western powers were deeply involved in helping the fascist regime to rise, appeasing it, and reorienting Hitler's aggressive aspirations towards the east.

It may be a paradox, but of all Western leaders, it was German Chancellor A. Merkel who expressed determination to oppose – jointly with Russia – any attempts of revising the World War II history or portraying fascism positively wherever the tendencies may surface.

It should be stressed that there are facts established as a result of a proper court procedure, and they exist regardless of anybody's reluctance to recognize them.

Hitler outlined the priorities of his government during his very first meeting with the German military command in the capacity of Reichskanzler. The agenda was topped by struggle over sales markets, the seizure of the lebensraum in the east, and its ruthless Germanization. He unveiled in Mein Kampf the intention to resume the German expansion to the east which had been stopped six centuries earlier. The Nazi leader not only wrote that Germany would depart from its usual tendency to advance towards the west and south of Europe and turn to the territories stretching east, but also stated explicitly that speaking of the conquest of new lands in the east, he meant primarily Russia and the peripheral countries under its control.

In 1933 Germany withdrew from the Conference on Disarmament and the League of Nations. The Nazi regime launched a vigorous rearmament campaign. The Wehrmacht-building law was passed in 1935 by which the German army was to comprise at least 36 divisions and the total number of servicemen in its ground forces was to reach 500,000. As a part of the policy, Germany reinstated conscription.

The German economy underwent urgent militarization. Over 300 military plants were opened and the military share of the German budget rose to 21% over the first three years of the Nazi rule. In August 1936, Hitler issued a secret memorandum on a four-year plan in which he set the following objectives to be accomplished within the term: (1) to create a combat-ready German army and (2) to have the German economy ready for war.

Bracing for a major war, the Nazi regime continuously probed into the attitudes of Western powers, assessing their readiness to oppose the German expansion and making efforts to split the potential anti-fascist coalition. At the same time, Germany was launching covert operations in the countries neighboring it which led to a number of creeping revolts. In March, 1936 Germany occupied the Rhineland and abolished its demilitarized status. In March, 1938 it annexed Austria.

In December, 1937 Hitler signed the Fall Grun plan aimed at the occupation of Czechoslovakia. He kept it in mind when he came to Munich on September 29, 1938 to sign an agreement on the annexation of the Sudetes jointly with N. Chamberlain, E. Daladier, and B. Mussolini. Already on October 21 Hitler ordered Wehrmacht to prepare for the occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia and the Memel province which used to belong to Lithuania since 1923.

On April 11, 1939, immediately upon the March, 1939 partition of Czechoslovakia to which London and Paris implicitly gave consent (the Czech Republic was occupied by Germany, and the “independent” Slovakia turned into Germany's ally), Hitler confirmed the Fall Weiss plan for an attack on Poland. The date set in the related operational documents – September 1, 1939 – became the first day of World War II. Hitler's August 31, 1939 directive to the Wehrmacht supreme command was an ultimate expression of aggressiveness. It read: “Now that the potential for the political settlement of the situation at the eastern border, which grew absolutely intolerable for Germany, is completely exhausted, I made the decision to resolve the problem by force... If Great Britain and France launch a military attack on Germany, the task of the troops in the west will be to create the conditions for the victorious completion of the operation against Poland while using their reserves as sparingly as possible. Accordingly, maximal damage should be caused to the enemy armed forces and military economy”.

For Germany, the aggression against Poland was a prologue to the implementation of a tremendous expansionist program. It included routing France, expelling Great Britain from the continent, subduing the entire Europe, destroying the USSR and subsequently conquering the Middle East, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and India. After that, Hitler planned to besiege Great Britain, and, upon “solving the British problem” – to invade the US jointly with Japan. It was a plan to achieve global dominance.

The origin of World War II may be an extremely complicated theme, but it is clear who played the main role in unleashing it. It is unfair to pretend that there is any room for doubts regarding the issue or – which is even worse – to equate the responsibilities of Germany, the aggressor, and the USSR, which paid the highest price for ruining Hitler's plans. Such games can lead to a replay of the catastrophe which erupted 70 years ago.