Browsing by Author "Hann, Keith"

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    “A Rush and a Push and the Land is Ours”: Explaining the August 1941 Invasion of Iran
    (2013-01-24) Hann, Keith; Hill, Alexander
    The origins of British participation in the August 1941 invasion of neutral Iran are poorly understood. Rarely examined on its own, the invasion is instead typically simplified in a historiography dominated by other subjects or brushed over altogether, with the most common explanation of its origins—a need to establish a supply corridor to better provide the Soviet Union with war material—being incorrect. Such oversights, simplifications, and inaccuracies have served to mask the true origins of the invasion, which can be traced back to a desire of the British to secure what can be termed “imperial interests”: the lines of communication running through the Middle East from Egypt to British India, and the massive oil refinery complex at Abadan in southern Iran.
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    “Truly Polish in Spirit and Form”: The Communist Poles and their Battle against Nazi Germany, 1941-1945
    (2020-07-06) Hann, Keith; Hill, Alexander; Clark, John Denis Havey; Bercuson, David Jay; Roberts, Geoffrey; Stapleton, Timothy J.; Timm, Annette F.
    The armed resistance of communist Poles and the forces they organized against Nazi Germany during the Second World War—both clandestine and regular—is poorly understood in the West. Rarely examined in any depth in English, the people and events involved are instead typically folded into a historiography focused on other subjects, dominated by Cold War-era prejudices, and defined in large part by a lack of usage of or access to accurate Polish sources. The resulting oversights, simplifications, and inaccuracies have served to mask the significant military contributions of the communist Poles to the armed struggle against Nazi Germany in the period 1941 to 1945, as well as to conceal the ways in which the communists made their armed forces Polish (as opposed to Soviet and/or communist) in appearance and character. In turn, this obscures one of the foundations of communist postwar rule: the communists, who would eventually come to power in Poland and rule that country for over four decades, made a great effort to shore up their legitimacy by constantly referencing and sometimes inflating their role in the defeat of Nazi Germany. Whether or not this military contribution was at times inflated, it was a significant one, made by armed forces that were to a meaningful extent “truly Polish”.