This map was published by the American magazine Look on 14 March 1939, six months before the outbreak of the Second World War.
On the map, the American magazine speculates on the possible tensions between the expansionism of Hitler's Nazi Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union. In green, it shows all the territory occupied by Ukrainians at that time, which was divided between the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the east, Poland in the west (with 5 million Ukrainians), Romania in the south (with 1 million Ukrainians) and Czechoslovakia.
The map also refers to how the Soviet Union was amassing troops on the border with Poland, and how Germany could begin its advance from western Czechoslovakia, a region already occupied by the Nazi army.
Finally, the Second World War began after the German invasion of Poland, followed two weeks later by the Soviet invasion from the west and the signing of the non-aggression pact between Stalin and Hitler.
The map was practically forgotten, like one more bad prediction among many others, although it regained some popularity in 2014 when war broke out between Ukraine and Russia. Even more so with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Sources
- The next European war will start in Ukraine
- The Next European War Will Start In Ukraine – Look Magazine (14 March 1939)
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