The Polish Question in the External Policy of the USSR in 1939–1945 in a Crisis of National Historical Science (1988–1998)

This article discusses the problems of interpretation of the Polish question in the diplomacy of the USSR in 1939–1945, the Author, analyzing the publications of a number of historians, comes to the conclusion that in the conditions of crisis of Russian historical science in the historiography of 1988–1998 was split into three areas, later left two directions.
Each direction of historiography was a specific interpretation of history of the Polish question in the context of an active declassifi cation archival holdings. The author emphasizes the signifi cant contribution of local historians to the study of the Polish question in the diplomacy of the USSR, comes to the conclusion about the positive impact of the crisis of science to the problem of interpretation of facts and events. Crisis, despite all its costs, opened up new possibilities in the study of the Polish question, allowed the historians to be more Autonomous and independent in the interpretation of the history of the Polish question, and helped raise new scientific problems, among which the author singles out the problem of the study plans for the Sovietization of Poland in terms of possible the entry of the USSR into the Second World War in September–December 1939 issue and explore possible alternatives for the solution of the Polish question discussed by the Soviet diplomacy during the years of the Great Patriotic War.