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Soviet invasion of Poland (1939)
Encyclopedia
The 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland was a Soviet
military operation that started without a formal declaration of war on 17 September 1939, during the early stages of World War II
. Sixteen days after Nazi Germany
invaded Poland
from the west, the Soviet Union did so from the east. The invasion ended on 6 October 1939 with the division and annexing of the whole of the Second Polish Republic
by Germany and the Soviet Union.
In early 1939, the Soviet Union entered into negotiations with the United Kingdom, France, Poland, and Romania
to establish an alliance against Nazi Germany. The negotiations failed when the Soviet Union insisted that Poland and Romania give Soviet troops transit rights through their territory as part of a collective security
agreement. The failure of those negotiations led the Soviet Union to conclude the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
with Nazi Germany on 23 August; this was a non-aggression pact
containing a secret protocol dividing Northern and Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence. One week after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, German forces invaded Poland from the north, south, and west. Polish forces then withdrew to the southeast
where they prepared for a long defence of the Romanian Bridgehead
and awaited the French and British support and relief that they were expecting. The Soviet Red Army
invaded the Kresy
, in accordance with the secret protocol, on 17 September. The Soviet government announced it was acting to protect the Ukrainians
and Belarusians
who lived in the eastern part of Poland, because the Polish state had collapsed in the face of the Nazi German attack and could no longer guarantee the security of its own citizens. Facing a second front, the Polish government concluded that the defence of the Romanian Bridgehead was no longer feasible and ordered an emergency evacuation of all troops to neutral Romania.
The Red Army achieved its targets, vastly outnumbering Polish resistance and capturing some 230,000 Polish prisoners of war. The Soviet government annexed the territory under its control and in November 1939 made the 13.5 million formerly Polish citizens now under its control citizens of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union immediately started a campaign of sovietizing
the newly acquired areas. This included staged elections, the results of which the Soviet Union used to legitimize its annexation of eastern Poland. The Soviets quelled opposition through summary executions and thousands of arrests. The Soviet Union sent hundreds of thousands of people from this region to Siberia
and other remote parts of the Soviet Union in four major waves of deportation between 1939 and 1941.
Soviet forces occupied eastern Poland until the summer of 1941, when they were expelled by the invading German army in the course of Operation Barbarossa
. The area was under Nazi occupation until the Red Army reconquered it in the summer of 1944. An agreement at the Yalta Conference
permitted the Soviet Union to annex almost all of their Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact portion of the Second Polish Republic, compensating the People's Republic of Poland
with the southern half of East Prussia
and territories east of the Oder-Neisse Line
. The Soviet Union folded the invaded territories into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.
and started to advance westward towards the disputed territories with the intent of assisting other Communist movements in Western Europe. The border skirmishes of 1919 progressively escalated into the Polish–Soviet War in 1920. Following the Polish victory at the Battle of Warsaw
, the Soviets sued for peace and the war ended with an armistice in October 1920. The parties signed the formal peace treaty, the Peace of Riga
, on 18 March 1921, dividing the disputed territories between Poland and Soviet Russia. In an action that largely determined the Soviet-Polish border during the interwar period
, the Soviets offered the Polish peace delegation territorial concessions in the contested borderland areas, closely resembling the border between the Russian Empire
and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
before the first partition
of 1772. In the aftermath of the peace agreement, Soviet leaders largely abandoned the cause of international revolution and did not return to the concept for approximately 20 years.
In mid-March 1939, the Soviet Union, Britain and France began trading suggestions and plans regarding a potential political and military agreement to counter potential German aggression. Poland did not participate in these talks, acting on the belief that any Polish alignment with Soviet Russia would lead to a serious German reaction. The tripartite discussions focused on potential guarantees to central and eastern European countries should German aggression arise. The Soviets did not trust the British or the French to honor a collective security agreement, since they had failed to move against the Fascists
during the Spanish Civil War
or protect Czechoslovakia from the expansionist goals of Nazi Germany. The Soviet Union also suspected that Britain and France would seek to remain on the sidelines of any potential Nazi-Soviet conflict. As a result, the Soviets sought nothing short of an ironclad military alliance that would provide guaranteed support against an attack on its territory. The Soviet Union insisted on a sphere of influence
stretching from Finland to Romania, to serve as a buffer zone, and military support in the event another country attacked the Soviet Union or a country within its proposed sphere of influence. The Soviet Union also insisted on the right to enter those countries in its sphere of influence in the event its security was threatened. When the military talks began in mid-August, negotiations quickly stalled over the topic of Soviet troop passage through Poland if the Germans attacked, and the parties waited as British and French officials pressured Polish officials to agree to such terms. However, Polish officials refused to allow Soviet troops on to Polish territory because they believed that once the Red Army entered their territory it might never leave. The Soviets suggested that Poland's wishes be ignored and that the tripartite agreements be concluded despite its objections. The British refused to do so because they believed that such a move would push Poland in to establishing stronger bilateral relations with Germany.
Meanwhile, German officials secretly hinted to Soviet diplomats for months that it could offer better terms for a political agreement than Britain and France. The Soviet Union began discussions with Nazi Germany regarding the establishment of an economic agreement while concurrently negotiating with those of the tripartite group. In late July and early August 1939, Soviet and German officials agreed on most of the details for a planned economic agreement, and specifically addressed a potential political agreement. On August 19, 1939, German and Soviet officials concluded the 1939 German–Soviet Commercial Agreement, an economic mutual understanding that exchanged Soviet Union raw materials with Germany in exchange for weapons, military technology and civilian machinery. Two days later, the Soviets suspended the tripartite military talks. On August 24, the Soviet Union and Germany signed the political and military deal that accompanied the trade agreement, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. This pact was an agreement of mutual non-aggression that contained secret protocols dividing the states of northern
and eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence. The Soviet sphere initially included Latvia
, Estonia
and Finland
. Germany and the Soviet Union would partition Poland, the areas east of the Pisa, Narev, Vistula
, and San rivers going to the Soviet Union. The pact provided the Soviets with extra defensive space in the west, presented an opportunity to regain territories ceded in the Peace of Riga and united the eastern and western Ukrainian and Belorussian peoples under a Soviet government.
The day after the Germans and Soviets signed the pact, the French and British military negotiation delegation urgently requested a meeting with Soviet military negotiator Kliment Voroshilov
. On August 25, Voroshilov told them "[i]n view of the changed political situation, no useful purpose can be served in continuing the conversation." The same day, Britain and Poland signed the British-Polish Pact of Mutual Assistance. In this accord, Britain committed itself to the defence of Poland, guaranteeing to preserve Polish independence.
forces available to Britain in the future. At midnight on August 29, German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop
handed British Ambassador Neville Henderson the list of terms that would allegedly ensure peace in regards to Poland. Under the terms, Poland would return Danzig to Germany and there was to be a plebiscite (referendum
) in the Polish Corridor, based on residency in 1919, within the year. When Polish Ambassador Lipski went to see Ribbentrop on August 30, he announced that he did not have the full power to sign, Ribbentrop dismissed him. The Germans announced that Poland had rejected Germany's offer and negotiations with Poland ended. On 31 August, German units posing as Polish troops staged the Gleiwitz incident
near the border city of Gleiwitz
. The following morning Hitler ordered hostilities against Poland to start at 04:45 on 1 September.
The Allied governments declared war on Germany on 3 September but failed to provide any meaningful support. Despite some Polish successes in minor border battles, German technical, operational and numerical superiority forced the Polish armies to retreat from the borders towards Warsaw and Lwów. On 10 September, the Polish commander-in-chief, Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły, ordered a general retreat
to the southeast towards the Romanian Bridgehead
. Soon after they began their invasion of Poland, the Nazi leaders began urging the Soviets to play their agreed part and attack Poland from the east. Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov
and German ambassador to Moscow Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg
exchanged a series of diplomatic messages on the matter but the Soviets nevertheless delayed their invasion of eastern Poland. The Soviets were distracted by crucial events relating to their ongoing border disputes
with Japan. They needed time to mobilize the Red Army and they saw a diplomatic advantage in waiting until Poland had disintegrated before making their move. On 17 September 1939, Molotov delivered the following declaration of war to the Polish Ambassador in Moscow:
On the same day, Molotov declared on the radio that all treaties between the Soviet Union and Poland were now void; the Polish government had abandoned its people and effectively ceased to exist. On the same day, the Red Army crossed the border into Poland.
s, plus on parts of territories of additional five voivodeships. Rail connections were operating on approximately one-third territory of the country, and both passenger and cargo traffic was being carried out on borders with five neighboring countries (Lithuania, Latvia, Soviet Union, Romania, Hungary). In Pińsk
, assembly of several PZL.37 Łoś planes was going on, in a PZL factory that had been moved from Warsaw. A French Navy
ship with a transport of Renault R35 tanks for Poland approached Romanian port of Constanta
, another ship, with artillery equipment, had just left Marseilles. Altogether, seventeen French ships with materiel
were heading towards Romanian ports Constanta and Galati
, carrying fifty tanks, twenty airplanes and large quantities of ammunition and TNT. In Polish hands still were major cities, such as Warsaw, Lwów, Wilno, Grodno, Łuck, Tarnopol, and Lublin (captured by the Germans on Sept. 18). Approximately 750,000 soldiers were still in the ranks of Polish Army, including two motorized brigades (one of them, Warsaw Armoured Motorized Brigade
, had not yet taken part in combat), and twenty six infantry divisions. Polish Army, although decimated by weeks of fighting, still was a formidable force. As Polish historian Leszek Moczulski
wrote, on September 17, 1939, Polish Army was still bigger than most European armies and strong enough to fight the Wehrmacht for a long time. On the Baranowicze – Równe
line, rail transports of troops from northeastern corner of the country towards the Romanian Bridgehead
were going day and night, and the second largest battle of the September Campaign – Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski
, started on the day of the Soviet invasion. According to Leszek Moczulski, around 250,000 Polish soldiers were fighting in central Poland, 350,000 were getting ready to defend the Romanian Bridgehead, 35,000 were north of Polesie, and 10,000 were fighting on the Baltic coast of Poland, in Hel
and Gdynia
. Due to the ongoing battles in the area of Warsaw, Modlin
, the Bzura
, Zamość
, Lwów and Tomaszów Lubelski, most German divisions were ordered to move back towards these locations and the situation stabilized. The area remaining in control of the Polish authorities was some 140,000 square kilometers – approximately 200 kilometers wide and 950 kilometers long – from the Daugava to the Carpathian Mountains.
, containing between 450,000 and 1,000,000 troops, split between two fronts. Comandarm
2nd rank Mikhail Kovalyov
led the Red Army in the invasion on the Belarusian Front, while Comandarm 1st rank Semyon Timoshenko
commanded the invasion on the Ukrainian Front.
Under the Polish Plan West
defensive plan, Poland assumed the Soviet Union would remain neutral during a conflict with Germany. As a result, Polish commanders deployed most of their troops to the west, to face the German invasion. By this time, no more than 20 under-strength battalions, consisting of about 20,000 troops of the Border Protection Corps, defended the eastern border. When the Red Army invaded Poland on 17 September, the Polish military was in the midst of a fighting retreat towards the Romanian Bridgehead whereupon they would regroup and await British and French relief.
When the Soviet Union invaded, Rydz-Śmigły was initially inclined to order the eastern border forces to resist, but was dissuaded by Prime Minister Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski and President Ignacy Mościcki
. At 04:00 on 17 September, Rydz-Śmigły ordered the Polish troops to fall back, stipulating that they only engage Soviet troops in self-defence. However, the German invasion had severely damaged the Polish communication systems, causing command and control problems for the Polish forces. In the resulting confusion, clashes between Polish and Soviet forces occurred along the border. General Wilhelm Orlik-Rückemann, who took command of the Border Protection Corps on August 30, received no official directives after his appointment. As a result, he and his subordinates continued to proactively engage the Soviet forces, before dissolving the group on 1 October.
The Polish government refused to surrender or negotiate a peace and instead ordered all units to evacuate Poland and reorganize in France. The day after the Soviet invasion started, the Polish government crossed into Romania. Polish units proceeded to manoeuvre towards the Romanian bridgehead area, sustaining German attacks on one flank and occasionally clashing with Soviet troops on the other. In the days following the evacuation order, the Germans defeated the Polish Kraków
and Lublin
Armies at the Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski
.
Soviet units often met their German counterparts advancing from the opposite direction. Notable examples of co-operation occurred between the two armies in the field. The Wehrmacht passed the Brest Fortress
, which had been seized after the Battle of Brześć Litewski
, to the Soviet 29th Tank Brigade on 17 September. German General Heinz Guderian
and Soviet Brigadier Semyon Krivoshein
then held a joint victory parade
in the town. Lwów surrendered on 22 September, days after the Germans had handed the siege operations over to the Soviets. Soviet forces had taken Wilno
on 19 September after a two-day battle
, and they took Grodno on 24 September after a four-day battle
. By 28 September, the Red Army had reached the line formed by the Narew, Western Bug, Vistula and San rivers—the border agreed in advance with the Germans.
Despite a tactical Polish victory on 28 September at the Battle of Szack
, the outcome of the larger conflict was never in doubt. Civilian volunteers, militia
s and reorganised retreating units held out against German forces in the in the Polish capital
, Warsaw
, until 28 September, and the Modlin Fortress
, north of Warsaw, surrendered the next day after an intense sixteen-day battle
. On 1 October, Soviet troops drove Polish units into the forests at the battle of Wytyczno
, one of the last direct confrontations of the campaign. Several isolated Polish garrison
s managed to hold their positions long after being surrounded, such as those in the Volhynia
n Sarny Fortified Area
which held out until 25 September. The last operational unit of the Polish Army to surrender was General Franciszek Kleeberg
's Independent Operational Group Polesie
. Kleeberg surrendered on 6 October after the four-day Battle of Kock
, effectively ending the September Campaign. On 31 October, Molotov
reported to the Supreme Soviet: "A short blow by the German army, and subsequently by the Red Army, was enough for nothing to be left of this ugly creature of the Treaty of Versailles
".
, Belarus
ians and Jews welcomed the invading troops. The local reaction was mentioned by Lev Mekhlis
, who told Stalin that the people of West Ukraine welcomed the Soviets "like true liberators". The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
rebelled against the Poles, and communist partisans organized local uprisings, such as that in Skidel
. The Jewish population had suffered through pogrom
s in eastern Poland during the German invasion, and many saw the Soviets as the lesser of two evils. This reaction would strengthen the existing Polish fears of Żydokomuna
and mar Polish-Jewish relations into the 21st century.
of 25 August 1939, the British had promised assistance if a European power attacked Poland. A secret protocol of the pact, however, specified that the European power referred to Germany. When Polish Ambassador Edward Raczyński reminded Foreign Secretary
Edward Frederick Lindley Wood of the pact, he was bluntly told that it was Britain's business whether to declare war on the Soviet Union. British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain
considered making a public commitment to restore the Polish state but in the end issued only general condemnations. This stance represented Britain's attempt at balance: its security interests included trade with the Soviets that would support its war effort and the possibility of a future Anglo-Soviet alliance against Germany. Public opinion in Britain was divided between expressions of outrage at the invasion and a perception that Soviet claims to the region were reasonable.
The French had made promises to Poland, including the provision of air support, these were not honoured. A Franco-Polish Military Alliance
was signed in 1921 and amended thereafter. The agreements were not strongly supported by the French military leadership, though; the relationship deteriorated during the 1920s and 1930s. In the French view, the German-Soviet alliance was fragile and overt denunciation of, or action against, the Soviets would not serve either France's or Poland's best interests. Once the Soviets moved into Poland, the French and the British decided there was nothing they could do for Poland in the short term and began planning for a long-term victory instead. The French had advanced
tentatively into the Saar
region in early September, but after the Polish defeat they retreated behind the Maginot Line
on 4 October.
On 1 October 1939, Winston Churchill
—via the radio—stated:
The Soviet Union had ceased to recognise the Polish state at the start of the invasion. Neither side issued a formal declaration of war; this decision had significant consequences, and Smigly-Rydz would be criticised for it. The Soviets killed tens of thousands of Polish prisoners of war, some during the campaign itself. On 24 September, the Soviets killed 42 staff and patients of a Polish military hospital in the village of Grabowiec
, near Zamość
. The Soviets also executed all the Polish officers they captured after the Battle of Szack
, on 28 September 1939. Over 20,000 Polish military personnel and civilians perished in the Katyn massacre
. Torture
was used by the NKVD
on a wide scale in various prisons, especially those in small towns.
The Poles and the Soviets re-established diplomatic relations in 1941, following the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement
; but the Soviets broke them off again in 1943 after the Polish government demanded an independent examination of the recently discovered Katyn burial pits. The Soviets then lobbied the Western Allies to recognise the pro-Soviet Polish puppet government of Wanda Wasilewska
in Moscow.
On 28 September, the Soviet Union and Germany signed the German–Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Demarcation, changing the secret terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
. They moved Lithuania
into the Soviet sphere of influence
and shifted the border in Poland to the east, giving Germany more territory. By this arrangement, often described as a fourth partition of Poland, the Soviet Union secured almost all Polish territory east of the line of the rivers Pisa, Narew, Western Bug and San. This amounted to about 200,000 km² of land, inhabited by 13.5 million Polish citizens. The border created in this agreement roughly corresponded to the Curzon Line
drawn by the British in 1919, a point that would successfully be used by Stalin during negotiations with the Allies
at the Teheran and Yalta Conference
s. The Red Army had originally sown confusion among the locals by claiming that they were arriving to save Poland from the Nazis. Their advance surprised Polish communities and their leaders, who had not been advised how to respond to a Soviet invasion. Polish and Jewish citizens may at first have preferred a Soviet regime to a German one. However, the Soviets were quick to impose their ideology on the local ways of life. For instance, the Soviets quickly began confiscating, nationalising and redistributing all private and state-owned Polish property. During the two years following the annexation, the Soviets also arrested approximately 100,000 Polish citizens. Due to a lack of access to secret Soviet archives, for many years after the war the estimates of the number of Polish citizens deported to Siberia from the areas of Eastern Poland, as well as the number who perished under Soviet rule, were largely guesswork. A wide range of numbers was given in various works, between 350,000 and 1,500,000 for the number deported to Siberia and between 250,000 and 1,000,000 for the number who died, these numbers mostly included civilians. With the opening of the Soviet secret archives after 1989, the lower range of these estimates has emerged as closer to the truth. In August 2009, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion, the authoritative Polish Institute of National Remembrance announced that its researchers reduced the estimate of the number of people deported to Siberia from one million to 320,000, and estimated that 150,000 Polish citizens perished under Soviet rule during the war.
, Poles were the largest single ethnic group; but Belarusians and Ukrainians together made up over 50% of the population.
On 26 October, elections
to Belorussian and Ukrainian assemblies were held to give the annexation an appearance of validity. The Belarusians and Ukrainians in Poland had been increasingly alienated by the Polonization
policies of the Polish government and its repression of their separatist movements, so they felt little loyalty towards the Polish state. Not all Belarusians and Ukrainians, however, trusted the Soviet regime, which was responsible for the Ukrainian Famine of 1932–33
. In practice, the poor generally welcomed the Soviets, and the elites tended to join the opposition, despite supporting the reunification itself. The Soviets quickly introduced Sovietization
policies in Western Belorussia and Western Ukraine, including compulsory collectivization of the whole region. In the process, they ruthlessly broke up political parties and public associations and imprisoned or executed their leaders as "enemies of the people". The Soviet authorities also suppressed the anti-Polish Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
, which had actively resisted the Polish regime since the 1920s; aiming for an independent, undivided Ukrainian state. The unifications of 1939 were nevertheless a decisive event in the history of Ukraine
and Belarus
, because they produced the two republics which eventually achieved independence in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union.
had from the start called the operation a "liberation campaign", and later Soviet statements and publications never wavered from that line. Despite publication of a recovered copy of the secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in western media, for decades, it was the official policy of the Soviet Union to deny the existence of the protocols. The existence of the secret protocol was officially denied until 1989. Censorship was also applied in the People's Republic of Poland
, to preserve the image of "Polish-Soviet friendship" promoted by the two communist governments. Official policy allowed only accounts of the 1939 campaign that portrayed it as a reunification of the Belarusian and Ukrainian peoples and a liberation of the Polish people from "oligarchic capitalism.” The authorities strongly discouraged any further study or teaching on the subject. Various underground publications addressed the issue, as did other media, such as the 1982 protest song
Ballada wrześniowa by Jacek Kaczmarski
.
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
military operation that started without a formal declaration of war on 17 September 1939, during the early stages of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Sixteen days after Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
invaded Poland
Invasion of Poland (1939)
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
from the west, the Soviet Union did so from the east. The invasion ended on 6 October 1939 with the division and annexing of the whole of the Second Polish Republic
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...
by Germany and the Soviet Union.
In early 1939, the Soviet Union entered into negotiations with the United Kingdom, France, Poland, and Romania
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...
to establish an alliance against Nazi Germany. The negotiations failed when the Soviet Union insisted that Poland and Romania give Soviet troops transit rights through their territory as part of a collective security
Collective security
Collective security can be understood as a security arrangement, regional or global, in which each state in the system accepts that the security of one is the concern of all, and agrees to join in a collective response to threats to, and breaches of, the peace...
agreement. The failure of those negotiations led the Soviet Union to conclude the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...
with Nazi Germany on 23 August; this was a non-aggression pact
Non-aggression pact
A non-aggression pact is an international treaty between two or more states/countries agreeing to avoid war or armed conflict between them and resolve their disputes through peaceful negotiations...
containing a secret protocol dividing Northern and Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence. One week after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, German forces invaded Poland from the north, south, and west. Polish forces then withdrew to the southeast
Plan West
Plan Zachód was a military plan of the Polish Army of the Second Polish Republic, for defence against invasion from Nazi Germany. It was designed in the late 1930s.-Background:...
where they prepared for a long defence of the Romanian Bridgehead
Romanian Bridgehead
The Romanian Bridgehead was an area in southeastern Poland, now located in Ukraine. During the Polish Defensive War of 1939 , on September 14 the Polish Commander in Chief Marshal of Poland Edward Rydz-Śmigły ordered all Polish troops fighting east of the Vistula to withdraw towards Lwów, and...
and awaited the French and British support and relief that they were expecting. The Soviet Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
invaded the Kresy
Kresy
The Polish term Kresy refers to a land considered by Poles as historical eastern provinces of their country. Today, it makes western Ukraine, western Belarus, as well as eastern Lithuania, with such major cities, as Lviv, Vilnius, and Hrodna. This territory belonged to the Polish-Lithuanian...
, in accordance with the secret protocol, on 17 September. The Soviet government announced it was acting to protect the Ukrainians
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
and Belarusians
Belarusians
Belarusians ; are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Old Belarusian...
who lived in the eastern part of Poland, because the Polish state had collapsed in the face of the Nazi German attack and could no longer guarantee the security of its own citizens. Facing a second front, the Polish government concluded that the defence of the Romanian Bridgehead was no longer feasible and ordered an emergency evacuation of all troops to neutral Romania.
The Red Army achieved its targets, vastly outnumbering Polish resistance and capturing some 230,000 Polish prisoners of war. The Soviet government annexed the territory under its control and in November 1939 made the 13.5 million formerly Polish citizens now under its control citizens of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union immediately started a campaign of sovietizing
Sovietization
Sovietization is term that may be used with two distinct meanings:*the adoption of a political system based on the model of soviets .*the adoption of a way of life and mentality modelled after the Soviet Union....
the newly acquired areas. This included staged elections, the results of which the Soviet Union used to legitimize its annexation of eastern Poland. The Soviets quelled opposition through summary executions and thousands of arrests. The Soviet Union sent hundreds of thousands of people from this region to Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
and other remote parts of the Soviet Union in four major waves of deportation between 1939 and 1941.
Soviet forces occupied eastern Poland until the summer of 1941, when they were expelled by the invading German army in the course of Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
. The area was under Nazi occupation until the Red Army reconquered it in the summer of 1944. An agreement at the Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, held February 4–11, 1945, was the wartime meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D...
permitted the Soviet Union to annex almost all of their Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact portion of the Second Polish Republic, compensating the People's Republic of Poland
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
with the southern half of East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
and territories east of the Oder-Neisse Line
Oder-Neisse line
The Oder–Neisse line is the border between Germany and Poland which was drawn in the aftermath of World War II. The line is formed primarily by the Oder and Lusatian Neisse rivers, and meets the Baltic Sea west of the seaport cities of Szczecin and Świnoujście...
. The Soviet Union folded the invaded territories into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Historical background
The result of the Paris Peace Conference did little to decrease the territorial ambitions of parties in the region. Józef Piłsudski sought to expand the Polish borders as far east as possible in an attempt to create a Polish-led federation to counter any potential imperialist intentions on the part of Russia or Germany. At the same time, the Bolsheviks began to gain the upper hand in the Russian Civil WarRussian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
and started to advance westward towards the disputed territories with the intent of assisting other Communist movements in Western Europe. The border skirmishes of 1919 progressively escalated into the Polish–Soviet War in 1920. Following the Polish victory at the Battle of Warsaw
Battle of Warsaw (1920)
The Battle of Warsaw sometimes referred to as the Miracle at the Vistula, was the decisive battle of the Polish–Soviet War. That war began soon after the end of World War I in 1918 and lasted until the Treaty of Riga resulted in the end of the hostilities between Poland and Russia in 1921.The...
, the Soviets sued for peace and the war ended with an armistice in October 1920. The parties signed the formal peace treaty, the Peace of Riga
Peace of Riga
The Peace of Riga, also known as the Treaty of Riga; was signed in Riga on 18 March 1921, between Poland, Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine. The treaty ended the Polish-Soviet War....
, on 18 March 1921, dividing the disputed territories between Poland and Soviet Russia. In an action that largely determined the Soviet-Polish border during the interwar period
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
, the Soviets offered the Polish peace delegation territorial concessions in the contested borderland areas, closely resembling the border between the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...
before the first partition
Partitions of Poland
The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland for 123 years...
of 1772. In the aftermath of the peace agreement, Soviet leaders largely abandoned the cause of international revolution and did not return to the concept for approximately 20 years.
Treaty negotiations
Falange
The Spanish Phalanx of the Assemblies of the National Syndicalist Offensive , known simply as the Falange, is the name assigned to several political movements and parties dating from the 1930s, most particularly the original fascist movement in Spain. The word means phalanx formation in Spanish....
during the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
or protect Czechoslovakia from the expansionist goals of Nazi Germany. The Soviet Union also suspected that Britain and France would seek to remain on the sidelines of any potential Nazi-Soviet conflict. As a result, the Soviets sought nothing short of an ironclad military alliance that would provide guaranteed support against an attack on its territory. The Soviet Union insisted on a sphere of influence
Sphere of influence
In the field of international relations, a sphere of influence is a spatial region or conceptual division over which a state or organization has significant cultural, economic, military or political influence....
stretching from Finland to Romania, to serve as a buffer zone, and military support in the event another country attacked the Soviet Union or a country within its proposed sphere of influence. The Soviet Union also insisted on the right to enter those countries in its sphere of influence in the event its security was threatened. When the military talks began in mid-August, negotiations quickly stalled over the topic of Soviet troop passage through Poland if the Germans attacked, and the parties waited as British and French officials pressured Polish officials to agree to such terms. However, Polish officials refused to allow Soviet troops on to Polish territory because they believed that once the Red Army entered their territory it might never leave. The Soviets suggested that Poland's wishes be ignored and that the tripartite agreements be concluded despite its objections. The British refused to do so because they believed that such a move would push Poland in to establishing stronger bilateral relations with Germany.
Meanwhile, German officials secretly hinted to Soviet diplomats for months that it could offer better terms for a political agreement than Britain and France. The Soviet Union began discussions with Nazi Germany regarding the establishment of an economic agreement while concurrently negotiating with those of the tripartite group. In late July and early August 1939, Soviet and German officials agreed on most of the details for a planned economic agreement, and specifically addressed a potential political agreement. On August 19, 1939, German and Soviet officials concluded the 1939 German–Soviet Commercial Agreement, an economic mutual understanding that exchanged Soviet Union raw materials with Germany in exchange for weapons, military technology and civilian machinery. Two days later, the Soviets suspended the tripartite military talks. On August 24, the Soviet Union and Germany signed the political and military deal that accompanied the trade agreement, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. This pact was an agreement of mutual non-aggression that contained secret protocols dividing the states of northern
Northern Europe
Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. Northern Europe typically refers to the seven countries in the northern part of the European subcontinent which includes Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Finland and Sweden...
and eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence. The Soviet sphere initially included Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
, Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
and Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
. Germany and the Soviet Union would partition Poland, the areas east of the Pisa, Narev, Vistula
Vistula
The Vistula is the longest and the most important river in Poland, at 1,047 km in length. The watershed area of the Vistula is , of which lies within Poland ....
, and San rivers going to the Soviet Union. The pact provided the Soviets with extra defensive space in the west, presented an opportunity to regain territories ceded in the Peace of Riga and united the eastern and western Ukrainian and Belorussian peoples under a Soviet government.
The day after the Germans and Soviets signed the pact, the French and British military negotiation delegation urgently requested a meeting with Soviet military negotiator Kliment Voroshilov
Kliment Voroshilov
Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov , popularly known as Klim Voroshilov was a Soviet military officer, politician, and statesman...
. On August 25, Voroshilov told them "[i]n view of the changed political situation, no useful purpose can be served in continuing the conversation." The same day, Britain and Poland signed the British-Polish Pact of Mutual Assistance. In this accord, Britain committed itself to the defence of Poland, guaranteeing to preserve Polish independence.
German invasion of Poland
On August 26, Hitler tried to dissuade the British and the French from interfering in the upcoming conflict, even pledging to make WehrmachtWehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
forces available to Britain in the future. At midnight on August 29, German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.-Early life:...
handed British Ambassador Neville Henderson the list of terms that would allegedly ensure peace in regards to Poland. Under the terms, Poland would return Danzig to Germany and there was to be a plebiscite (referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
) in the Polish Corridor, based on residency in 1919, within the year. When Polish Ambassador Lipski went to see Ribbentrop on August 30, he announced that he did not have the full power to sign, Ribbentrop dismissed him. The Germans announced that Poland had rejected Germany's offer and negotiations with Poland ended. On 31 August, German units posing as Polish troops staged the Gleiwitz incident
Gleiwitz incident
The Gleiwitz incident was a staged attack by Nazi forces posing as Poles on 31 August 1939, against the German radio station Sender Gleiwitz in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia, Germany on the eve of World War II in Europe....
near the border city of Gleiwitz
Gliwice
Gliwice is a city in Upper Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. Gliwice is the west district of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union – a metropolis with a population of 2 million...
. The following morning Hitler ordered hostilities against Poland to start at 04:45 on 1 September.
The Allied governments declared war on Germany on 3 September but failed to provide any meaningful support. Despite some Polish successes in minor border battles, German technical, operational and numerical superiority forced the Polish armies to retreat from the borders towards Warsaw and Lwów. On 10 September, the Polish commander-in-chief, Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły, ordered a general retreat
Withdrawal (military)
A withdrawal is a type of military operation, generally meaning retreating forces back while maintaining contact with the enemy. A withdrawal may be undertaken as part of a general retreat, to consolidate forces, to occupy ground that is more easily defended, or to lead the enemy into an ambush...
to the southeast towards the Romanian Bridgehead
Romanian Bridgehead
The Romanian Bridgehead was an area in southeastern Poland, now located in Ukraine. During the Polish Defensive War of 1939 , on September 14 the Polish Commander in Chief Marshal of Poland Edward Rydz-Śmigły ordered all Polish troops fighting east of the Vistula to withdraw towards Lwów, and...
. Soon after they began their invasion of Poland, the Nazi leaders began urging the Soviets to play their agreed part and attack Poland from the east. Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...
and German ambassador to Moscow Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg
Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg
Friedrich-Werner Graf von der Schulenburg was a German diplomat who served as the last German ambassador to the Soviet Union before Operation Barbarossa. He began his diplomatic career before World War I, serving as consul and ambassador in several countries...
exchanged a series of diplomatic messages on the matter but the Soviets nevertheless delayed their invasion of eastern Poland. The Soviets were distracted by crucial events relating to their ongoing border disputes
Soviet-Japanese Border Wars
The Soviet–Japanese Border Wars were a series of border conflicts between the Soviet Union and Japan between 1932 and 1939.Before Japanese occupation of Manchukuo, the Soviet Union had conflict with China on the border of Manchuria...
with Japan. They needed time to mobilize the Red Army and they saw a diplomatic advantage in waiting until Poland had disintegrated before making their move. On 17 September 1939, Molotov delivered the following declaration of war to the Polish Ambassador in Moscow:
"The Polish-German War has revealed the internal bankruptcy of the Polish State. During the course of ten days' hostilities Poland has lost all her industrial areas and cultural centres. Warsaw, as the capital of Poland, no longer exists. The Polish Government has disintegrated, and no longer shows any sign of life. This means that the Polish State and its Government have, in point of fact, ceased to exist. In the same way, the Agreements concluded between the U.S.S.R. and Poland have ceased to operate. Left to her own devices and bereft of leadership, Poland has become a suitable field for all manner of hazards and surprises, which may constitute a threat to the U.S.S.R. For these reasons the Soviet Government, who has hitherto been neutral, cannot any longer preserve a neutral attitude towards these facts.
The Soviet Government also cannot view with indifference the fact that the kindred Ukrainian and White Russian people, who live on Polish territory and who are at the mercy of fate, should be left defenceless.
In these circumstances, the Soviet Government have directed the High Command of the Red Army to order troops to cross the frontier and to take under their protection the life and property of the population of Western Ukraine and Western White Russia.
At the same time the Soviet Government propose to take all measures to extricate the Polish people from the unfortunate war into which they were dragged by their unwise leaders, and enable them to live a peaceful life".
On the same day, Molotov declared on the radio that all treaties between the Soviet Union and Poland were now void; the Polish government had abandoned its people and effectively ceased to exist. On the same day, the Red Army crossed the border into Poland.
Situation in Poland on the day of the invasion
In the morning of September 17, 1939, Polish administration was still active on the whole territory of six eastern voivodeshipVoivodeship
Voivodship is a term denoting the position of, or more commonly the area administered by, a voivod. Voivodeships have existed since medieval times in Poland, Romania, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia and Serbia....
s, plus on parts of territories of additional five voivodeships. Rail connections were operating on approximately one-third territory of the country, and both passenger and cargo traffic was being carried out on borders with five neighboring countries (Lithuania, Latvia, Soviet Union, Romania, Hungary). In Pińsk
Pinsk
Pinsk , a town in Belarus, in the Polesia region, traversed by the river Pripyat, at the confluence of the Strumen and Pina rivers. The region was known as the Marsh of Pinsk. It is a fertile agricultural center. It lies south-west of Minsk. The population is about 130,000...
, assembly of several PZL.37 Łoś planes was going on, in a PZL factory that had been moved from Warsaw. A French Navy
French Navy
The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...
ship with a transport of Renault R35 tanks for Poland approached Romanian port of Constanta
Constanta
Constanța is the oldest extant city in Romania, founded around 600 BC. The city is located in the Dobruja region of Romania, on the Black Sea coast. It is the capital of Constanța County and the largest city in the region....
, another ship, with artillery equipment, had just left Marseilles. Altogether, seventeen French ships with materiel
Materiel
Materiel is a term used in English to refer to the equipment and supplies in military and commercial supply chain management....
were heading towards Romanian ports Constanta and Galati
Galati
Galați is a city and municipality in Romania, the capital of Galați County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, in the close vicinity of Brăila, Galați is the largest port and sea port on the Danube River and the second largest Romanian port....
, carrying fifty tanks, twenty airplanes and large quantities of ammunition and TNT. In Polish hands still were major cities, such as Warsaw, Lwów, Wilno, Grodno, Łuck, Tarnopol, and Lublin (captured by the Germans on Sept. 18). Approximately 750,000 soldiers were still in the ranks of Polish Army, including two motorized brigades (one of them, Warsaw Armoured Motorized Brigade
Warsaw Armoured Motorized Brigade
The Warsaw Armoured Motorized Brigade was a motorized unit of the Polish Army during the interbellum period. The brigade was one of two such units in Poland...
, had not yet taken part in combat), and twenty six infantry divisions. Polish Army, although decimated by weeks of fighting, still was a formidable force. As Polish historian Leszek Moczulski
Leszek Moczulski
Leszek Moczulski is a Polish historian and politician, a member of various organizations opposing the communist regime in the People's Republic of Poland and the co-founder of the first non-communist and not-underground political party in the Eastern Bloc....
wrote, on September 17, 1939, Polish Army was still bigger than most European armies and strong enough to fight the Wehrmacht for a long time. On the Baranowicze – Równe
Równe
Równe may refer to:*Polish name for Rivne in Ukraine*Równe, Masovian Voivodeship *Równe, Opole Voivodeship *Równe, Pomeranian Voivodeship *Równe, Subcarpathian Voivodeship...
line, rail transports of troops from northeastern corner of the country towards the Romanian Bridgehead
Romanian Bridgehead
The Romanian Bridgehead was an area in southeastern Poland, now located in Ukraine. During the Polish Defensive War of 1939 , on September 14 the Polish Commander in Chief Marshal of Poland Edward Rydz-Śmigły ordered all Polish troops fighting east of the Vistula to withdraw towards Lwów, and...
were going day and night, and the second largest battle of the September Campaign – Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski
Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski
Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski took place from 17 September to 26 September 1939 near the town of Tomaszów Lubelski. It was the second largest battle of the Invasion of Poland and also the largest tank battle of the campaign. It resulted in the destruction of the Polish forces...
, started on the day of the Soviet invasion. According to Leszek Moczulski, around 250,000 Polish soldiers were fighting in central Poland, 350,000 were getting ready to defend the Romanian Bridgehead, 35,000 were north of Polesie, and 10,000 were fighting on the Baltic coast of Poland, in Hel
Hel
Hel may refer to:* Hel , a location in Norse mythology* Hel , ruler of Hel, the location* Hel , a Swedish Viking rock band* Hel, Poland, a town on the Polish Baltic coast* Hel Peninsula, the peninsula on which the town is situated...
and Gdynia
Gdynia
Gdynia is a city in the Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland and an important seaport of Gdańsk Bay on the south coast of the Baltic Sea.Located in Kashubia in Eastern Pomerania, Gdynia is part of a conurbation with the spa town of Sopot, the city of Gdańsk and suburban communities, which together...
. Due to the ongoing battles in the area of Warsaw, Modlin
Modlin Fortress
Modlin Fortress is one of the biggest 19th century fortresses in Poland. It is located the town of Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki in district Modlin on the Narew river, some 50 kilometres north of Warsaw...
, the Bzura
Bzura
Bzura is a river in central Poland, a tributary of the Vistula river , with a length of 166 kilometres and the basin area of 7,788 km2.-Towns and townships:*Zgierz*Aleksandrów Łódzki*Ozorków*Łęczyca*Łowicz*Sochaczew...
, Zamość
Zamosc
Zamość ukr. Замостя is a town in southeastern Poland with 66,633 inhabitants , situated in the south-western part of Lublin Voivodeship , about from Lublin, from Warsaw and from the border with Ukraine...
, Lwów and Tomaszów Lubelski, most German divisions were ordered to move back towards these locations and the situation stabilized. The area remaining in control of the Polish authorities was some 140,000 square kilometers – approximately 200 kilometers wide and 950 kilometers long – from the Daugava to the Carpathian Mountains.
Opposing forces
The Red Army entered the eastern regions of Poland with seven field armiesField army
A Field Army, or Area Army, usually referred to simply as an Army, is a term used by many national military forces for a military formation superior to a corps and beneath an army group....
, containing between 450,000 and 1,000,000 troops, split between two fronts. Comandarm
Comandarm
Comandarm was a military rank in the Red Army until the end of the 1930s....
2nd rank Mikhail Kovalyov
Mikhail Kovalyov
Colonel-General Mikhail Prokofievich Kovalyov was a Soviet military officer.Mikhail Kovalyov was born to family of a peasants in stanitsa Bryukovetskaya, Krasnodar Krai. In 1915 he enlisted in the Russian Army. After graduating from a School for Praporshchiks Kovalyov fought in World War I...
led the Red Army in the invasion on the Belarusian Front, while Comandarm 1st rank Semyon Timoshenko
Semyon Timoshenko
Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko was a Soviet military commander and senior professional officer of the Red Army at the beginning of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.-Early life:...
commanded the invasion on the Ukrainian Front.
Under the Polish Plan West
Plan West
Plan Zachód was a military plan of the Polish Army of the Second Polish Republic, for defence against invasion from Nazi Germany. It was designed in the late 1930s.-Background:...
defensive plan, Poland assumed the Soviet Union would remain neutral during a conflict with Germany. As a result, Polish commanders deployed most of their troops to the west, to face the German invasion. By this time, no more than 20 under-strength battalions, consisting of about 20,000 troops of the Border Protection Corps, defended the eastern border. When the Red Army invaded Poland on 17 September, the Polish military was in the midst of a fighting retreat towards the Romanian Bridgehead whereupon they would regroup and await British and French relief.
Military campaign
Ignacy Moscicki
Ignacy Mościcki was a Polish chemist, politician, and President of Poland . He was the longest-serving President of Poland .-Life:...
. At 04:00 on 17 September, Rydz-Śmigły ordered the Polish troops to fall back, stipulating that they only engage Soviet troops in self-defence. However, the German invasion had severely damaged the Polish communication systems, causing command and control problems for the Polish forces. In the resulting confusion, clashes between Polish and Soviet forces occurred along the border. General Wilhelm Orlik-Rückemann, who took command of the Border Protection Corps on August 30, received no official directives after his appointment. As a result, he and his subordinates continued to proactively engage the Soviet forces, before dissolving the group on 1 October.
The Polish government refused to surrender or negotiate a peace and instead ordered all units to evacuate Poland and reorganize in France. The day after the Soviet invasion started, the Polish government crossed into Romania. Polish units proceeded to manoeuvre towards the Romanian bridgehead area, sustaining German attacks on one flank and occasionally clashing with Soviet troops on the other. In the days following the evacuation order, the Germans defeated the Polish Kraków
Kraków Army
Kraków Army was one of the Polish armies to take part in the Polish Defensive War of 1939. It was officially created on March 23, 1939 as the main pivot of Polish defence. It was commanded by Gen...
and Lublin
Lublin Army
Lublin Army was an improvised Polish Army created on September 4 1939 from 1 motorized brigade and various smaller units concentrated around cities of Lublin, Sandomierz and upper Vistula river. It was commanded by Maj. Gen...
Armies at the Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski
Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski
Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski took place from 17 September to 26 September 1939 near the town of Tomaszów Lubelski. It was the second largest battle of the Invasion of Poland and also the largest tank battle of the campaign. It resulted in the destruction of the Polish forces...
.
Brest Fortress
Brest Fortress , formerly known as Brest-Litovsk Fortress , is a 19th century Russian fortress in Brest, Belarus. It is one of the most important Soviet World War II war monuments commemorating the Soviet resistance against the German invasion on June 22, 1941...
, which had been seized after the Battle of Brześć Litewski
Battle of Brzesc Litewski
Battle of Brześć Litewski was a World War II battle involving German and Polish forces that took place between 14 and 17 September 1939, near the town of Brześć Litewski...
, to the Soviet 29th Tank Brigade on 17 September. German General Heinz Guderian
Heinz Guderian
Heinz Wilhelm Guderian was a German general during World War II. He was a pioneer in the development of armored warfare, and was the leading proponent of tanks and mechanization in the Wehrmacht . Germany's panzer forces were raised and organized under his direction as Chief of Mobile Forces...
and Soviet Brigadier Semyon Krivoshein
Semyon Krivoshein
Semyon Moiseevich Krivoshein was a Soviet tank commander, who played a vital part in the World War II reform of the Red Army tank forces and in momentous defeat of German Panzers in the Battle of Kursk.-Early life and Russian Civil War:...
then held a joint victory parade
Victory parade
A victory parade is a type of parade held in order to celebrate a victory. Because of that, victory parades can be divided into military victory parades and more frequent sport victory parades....
in the town. Lwów surrendered on 22 September, days after the Germans had handed the siege operations over to the Soviets. Soviet forces had taken Wilno
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
on 19 September after a two-day battle
Battle of Wilno (1939)
The Battle of Wilno was one of the major battles during the Soviet invasion of Poland that accompanied the larger German invasion. During 18-19 September, Soviet forces approached and occupied the city of Wilno...
, and they took Grodno on 24 September after a four-day battle
Battle of Grodno (1939)
The Battle of Grodno took place between 21 September and 24 September 1939, during the Soviet invasion of Poland. It was fought between improvised Polish units under Gen...
. By 28 September, the Red Army had reached the line formed by the Narew, Western Bug, Vistula and San rivers—the border agreed in advance with the Germans.
Despite a tactical Polish victory on 28 September at the Battle of Szack
Battle of Szack
Battle of Szack was one of the major battles between the Polish Army and the Red Army fought in 1939 in the beginning the Second World War.- Eve of the Battle :...
, the outcome of the larger conflict was never in doubt. Civilian volunteers, militia
Militia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
s and reorganised retreating units held out against German forces in the in the Polish capital
Siege of Warsaw (1939)
The 1939 Battle of Warsaw was fought between the Polish Warsaw Army garrisoned and entrenched in the capital of Poland and the German Army...
, Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, until 28 September, and the Modlin Fortress
Modlin Fortress
Modlin Fortress is one of the biggest 19th century fortresses in Poland. It is located the town of Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki in district Modlin on the Narew river, some 50 kilometres north of Warsaw...
, north of Warsaw, surrendered the next day after an intense sixteen-day battle
Battle of Modlin
The Battle of Modlin took place during the German invasion of Poland at the beginning of the Second World War. Modlin Fortress was initially the headquarters of the Modlin Army until its retreat eastwards. From 13 September to 29 September in 1939 it served as a defensive citadel for Polish forces...
. On 1 October, Soviet troops drove Polish units into the forests at the battle of Wytyczno
Battle of Wytyczno
The battle of Wytyczno took place on October 1, 1939 near the village of Wytyczno near Włodawa in Poland. It was a struggle between the Polish forces of the Border Defence Corps of Gen...
, one of the last direct confrontations of the campaign. Several isolated Polish garrison
Garrison
Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....
s managed to hold their positions long after being surrounded, such as those in the Volhynia
Volhynia
Volhynia, Volynia, or Volyn is a historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Prypiat and Southern Bug River, to the north of Galicia and Podolia; the region is named for the former city of Volyn or Velyn, said to have been located on the Southern Bug River, whose name may come...
n Sarny Fortified Area
Sarny Fortified Area
Sarny Fortified Area was a line of bunkers and trenches along both sides of the Sluch river, in the area of the town of Sarny, northern Volhynia in Ukraine...
which held out until 25 September. The last operational unit of the Polish Army to surrender was General Franciszek Kleeberg
Franciszek Kleeberg
Franciszek Kleeberg was a Polish general. He served in the Austro-Hungarian Army before joining the Polish Legions in World War I and later the Polish Army. During the German Invasion of Poland he commanded Independent Operational Group Polesie...
's Independent Operational Group Polesie
Independent Operational Group Polesie
Independent Operational Group Polesie was one of the Polish Army Corps that defended Poland during the Invasion of Poland in 1939. It was created on 11 September 1939 and was commanded by general Franciszek Kleeberg...
. Kleeberg surrendered on 6 October after the four-day Battle of Kock
Battle of Kock (1939)
The Battle of Kock, was the final battle in the Invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II. It took place between 2–5 October 1939, near the town of Kock, in Poland....
, effectively ending the September Campaign. On 31 October, Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...
reported to the Supreme Soviet: "A short blow by the German army, and subsequently by the Red Army, was enough for nothing to be left of this ugly creature of the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
".
Domestic reaction
The response of non-ethnic Poles to the situation added a further complication. Many UkrainiansUkraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
ians and Jews welcomed the invading troops. The local reaction was mentioned by Lev Mekhlis
Lev Mekhlis
Lev Zakharovich Mekhlis was a Jewish-Soviet statesman and party figure.-Career:He however served incompetently as a party commissar at the front during World War II, among his mistakes being failures, in conjunction with General Dmitri Kozlov, which meant the Crimean Front was defeated and had to...
, who told Stalin that the people of West Ukraine welcomed the Soviets "like true liberators". The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists is a Ukrainian political organization which as a movement originally was created in 1929 in Western Ukraine . The OUN accepted violence as an acceptable tool in the fight against foreign and domestic enemies particularly Poland and Russia...
rebelled against the Poles, and communist partisans organized local uprisings, such as that in Skidel
Skidel
Skidal is a Belarusian town that is located 31 kilometers from Grodno.-Overview:The village is sometimes referred to as a shtetl due to the high volume of Jewish people living there before the Holocaust...
. The Jewish population had suffered through pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
s in eastern Poland during the German invasion, and many saw the Soviets as the lesser of two evils. This reaction would strengthen the existing Polish fears of Żydokomuna
Zydokomuna
Żydokomuna is a pejorative antisemitic stereotype which came into use between World Wars I and II, blaming Jews for the rise of communism in Poland, where communism was identified as part of a wider Jewish-led conspiracy to seize power....
and mar Polish-Jewish relations into the 21st century.
Allied reaction
The reaction of France and Britain to the Soviet invasion and annexation of Eastern Poland was muted, since neither country wanted a confrontation with the Soviet Union at that time. Under the terms of the Polish-British Common Defence PactPolish-British Common Defence Pact
The Anglo-Polish military alliance refers to agreements reached between the United Kingdom and the Polish Second Republic for mutual assistance in case of military invasion by "a European Power". According to the secret protocol added to the treaty the phrase "a European Power" used in the...
of 25 August 1939, the British had promised assistance if a European power attacked Poland. A secret protocol of the pact, however, specified that the European power referred to Germany. When Polish Ambassador Edward Raczyński reminded Foreign Secretary
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, commonly referred to as the Foreign Secretary, is a senior member of Her Majesty's Government heading the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and regarded as one of the Great Offices of State...
Edward Frederick Lindley Wood of the pact, he was bluntly told that it was Britain's business whether to declare war on the Soviet Union. British Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
considered making a public commitment to restore the Polish state but in the end issued only general condemnations. This stance represented Britain's attempt at balance: its security interests included trade with the Soviets that would support its war effort and the possibility of a future Anglo-Soviet alliance against Germany. Public opinion in Britain was divided between expressions of outrage at the invasion and a perception that Soviet claims to the region were reasonable.
The French had made promises to Poland, including the provision of air support, these were not honoured. A Franco-Polish Military Alliance
Franco-Polish Military Alliance
The Franco-Polish alliance was the military alliance between Poland and France that was active between 1921 and 1940.-Background:Already during the France-Habsburg rivalry that started in the 16th century, France had tried to find allies to the east of Austria, namely hoping to ally with Poland...
was signed in 1921 and amended thereafter. The agreements were not strongly supported by the French military leadership, though; the relationship deteriorated during the 1920s and 1930s. In the French view, the German-Soviet alliance was fragile and overt denunciation of, or action against, the Soviets would not serve either France's or Poland's best interests. Once the Soviets moved into Poland, the French and the British decided there was nothing they could do for Poland in the short term and began planning for a long-term victory instead. The French had advanced
Saar Offensive
The Saar Offensive was a French operation into Saarland on the German 1st Army defence sector in the early stages of World War II. The purpose of the attack was to assist Poland, which was then under attack...
tentatively into the Saar
Saarland
Saarland is one of the sixteen states of Germany. The capital is Saarbrücken. It has an area of 2570 km² and 1,045,000 inhabitants. In both area and population, it is the smallest state in Germany other than the city-states...
region in early September, but after the Polish defeat they retreated behind the Maginot Line
Maginot Line
The Maginot Line , named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, artillery casemates, machine gun posts, and other defences, which France constructed along its borders with Germany and Italy, in light of its experience in World War I,...
on 4 October.
On 1 October 1939, Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
—via the radio—stated:
Aftermath
In October 1939, Molotov reported to the Supreme Soviet that the Soviets had suffered 737 deaths and 1,862 casualties during the campaign, although Polish specialists claim up to 3,000 deaths and 8,000–10,000 wounded. On the Polish side, 3,000–7,000 soldiers died fighting the Red Army, with 230,000–450,000 taken prisoner. The Soviets often failed to honour the terms of surrender. In some cases, they promised Polish soldiers their freedom and then arrested them when they laid down their arms.The Soviet Union had ceased to recognise the Polish state at the start of the invasion. Neither side issued a formal declaration of war; this decision had significant consequences, and Smigly-Rydz would be criticised for it. The Soviets killed tens of thousands of Polish prisoners of war, some during the campaign itself. On 24 September, the Soviets killed 42 staff and patients of a Polish military hospital in the village of Grabowiec
Grabowiec, Zamosc County
Grabowiec is a village in Zamość County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina called Gmina Grabowiec. It lies approximately north-east of Zamość and south-east of the regional capital Lublin....
, near Zamość
Zamosc
Zamość ukr. Замостя is a town in southeastern Poland with 66,633 inhabitants , situated in the south-western part of Lublin Voivodeship , about from Lublin, from Warsaw and from the border with Ukraine...
. The Soviets also executed all the Polish officers they captured after the Battle of Szack
Battle of Szack
Battle of Szack was one of the major battles between the Polish Army and the Red Army fought in 1939 in the beginning the Second World War.- Eve of the Battle :...
, on 28 September 1939. Over 20,000 Polish military personnel and civilians perished in the Katyn massacre
Katyn massacre
The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre , was a mass execution of Polish nationals carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs , the Soviet secret police, in April and May 1940. The massacre was prompted by Lavrentiy Beria's proposal to execute all members of...
. Torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
was used by the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
on a wide scale in various prisons, especially those in small towns.
Sikorski-Mayski Agreement
The Sikorski–Mayski Agreement was a treaty between the Soviet Union and Poland signed in London on 30 July 1941. Its name was coined after the two most notable signatories: Polish Prime Minister Władysław Sikorski and Soviet Ambassador to the United Kingdom Ivan Mayski.- Details :After signing...
; but the Soviets broke them off again in 1943 after the Polish government demanded an independent examination of the recently discovered Katyn burial pits. The Soviets then lobbied the Western Allies to recognise the pro-Soviet Polish puppet government of Wanda Wasilewska
Wanda Wasilewska
Wanda Wasilewska was a Polish and Soviet novelist and communist political activist who played an important role in the creation of a Polish division of the Soviet Red Army during World War II and the formation of the Polish People's Republic....
in Moscow.
On 28 September, the Soviet Union and Germany signed the German–Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Demarcation, changing the secret terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...
. They moved Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
into the Soviet sphere of influence
Sphere of influence
In the field of international relations, a sphere of influence is a spatial region or conceptual division over which a state or organization has significant cultural, economic, military or political influence....
and shifted the border in Poland to the east, giving Germany more territory. By this arrangement, often described as a fourth partition of Poland, the Soviet Union secured almost all Polish territory east of the line of the rivers Pisa, Narew, Western Bug and San. This amounted to about 200,000 km² of land, inhabited by 13.5 million Polish citizens. The border created in this agreement roughly corresponded to the Curzon Line
Curzon Line
The Curzon Line was put forward by the Allied Supreme Council after World War I as a demarcation line between the Second Polish Republic and Bolshevik Russia and was supposed to serve as the basis for a future border. In the wake of World War I, which catalysed the Russian Revolution of 1917, the...
drawn by the British in 1919, a point that would successfully be used by Stalin during negotiations with the Allies
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
at the Teheran and Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, held February 4–11, 1945, was the wartime meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D...
s. The Red Army had originally sown confusion among the locals by claiming that they were arriving to save Poland from the Nazis. Their advance surprised Polish communities and their leaders, who had not been advised how to respond to a Soviet invasion. Polish and Jewish citizens may at first have preferred a Soviet regime to a German one. However, the Soviets were quick to impose their ideology on the local ways of life. For instance, the Soviets quickly began confiscating, nationalising and redistributing all private and state-owned Polish property. During the two years following the annexation, the Soviets also arrested approximately 100,000 Polish citizens. Due to a lack of access to secret Soviet archives, for many years after the war the estimates of the number of Polish citizens deported to Siberia from the areas of Eastern Poland, as well as the number who perished under Soviet rule, were largely guesswork. A wide range of numbers was given in various works, between 350,000 and 1,500,000 for the number deported to Siberia and between 250,000 and 1,000,000 for the number who died, these numbers mostly included civilians. With the opening of the Soviet secret archives after 1989, the lower range of these estimates has emerged as closer to the truth. In August 2009, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion, the authoritative Polish Institute of National Remembrance announced that its researchers reduced the estimate of the number of people deported to Siberia from one million to 320,000, and estimated that 150,000 Polish citizens perished under Soviet rule during the war.
Belorussia and Ukraine
Of the 13.5 million civilians living in the newly annexed territoriesPolish areas annexed by the Soviet Union
Immediately after the German invasion of Poland in 1939, which marked the beginning of World War II, the Soviet Union invaded the eastern regions of the Second Polish Republic, which Poles referred to as the "Kresy," and annexed territories totaling 201,015 km² with a population of 13,299,000...
, Poles were the largest single ethnic group; but Belarusians and Ukrainians together made up over 50% of the population.
On 26 October, elections
Elections to the People's Assemblies of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus
Elections to the People's Assemblies of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, which took place on October 22, 1939, were an attempt to legitimate territorial gains of the Soviet Union, at the expense of the Second Polish Republic...
to Belorussian and Ukrainian assemblies were held to give the annexation an appearance of validity. The Belarusians and Ukrainians in Poland had been increasingly alienated by the Polonization
Polonization
Polonization was the acquisition or imposition of elements of Polish culture, in particular, Polish language, as experienced in some historic periods by non-Polish populations of territories controlled or substantially influenced by Poland...
policies of the Polish government and its repression of their separatist movements, so they felt little loyalty towards the Polish state. Not all Belarusians and Ukrainians, however, trusted the Soviet regime, which was responsible for the Ukrainian Famine of 1932–33
Holodomor
The Holodomor was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian SSR between 1932 and 1933. During the famine, which is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine" and "famine-genocide in Ukraine", millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of...
. In practice, the poor generally welcomed the Soviets, and the elites tended to join the opposition, despite supporting the reunification itself. The Soviets quickly introduced Sovietization
Sovietization
Sovietization is term that may be used with two distinct meanings:*the adoption of a political system based on the model of soviets .*the adoption of a way of life and mentality modelled after the Soviet Union....
policies in Western Belorussia and Western Ukraine, including compulsory collectivization of the whole region. In the process, they ruthlessly broke up political parties and public associations and imprisoned or executed their leaders as "enemies of the people". The Soviet authorities also suppressed the anti-Polish Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists is a Ukrainian political organization which as a movement originally was created in 1929 in Western Ukraine . The OUN accepted violence as an acceptable tool in the fight against foreign and domestic enemies particularly Poland and Russia...
, which had actively resisted the Polish regime since the 1920s; aiming for an independent, undivided Ukrainian state. The unifications of 1939 were nevertheless a decisive event in the history of Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
and Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, because they produced the two republics which eventually achieved independence in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Censorship
Soviet censors later suppressed many details of the 1939 invasion and its aftermath. The PolitburoPolitburo
Politburo , literally "Political Bureau [of the Central Committee]," is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.-Marxist-Leninist states:...
had from the start called the operation a "liberation campaign", and later Soviet statements and publications never wavered from that line. Despite publication of a recovered copy of the secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in western media, for decades, it was the official policy of the Soviet Union to deny the existence of the protocols. The existence of the secret protocol was officially denied until 1989. Censorship was also applied in the People's Republic of Poland
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
, to preserve the image of "Polish-Soviet friendship" promoted by the two communist governments. Official policy allowed only accounts of the 1939 campaign that portrayed it as a reunification of the Belarusian and Ukrainian peoples and a liberation of the Polish people from "oligarchic capitalism.” The authorities strongly discouraged any further study or teaching on the subject. Various underground publications addressed the issue, as did other media, such as the 1982 protest song
Protest song
A protest song is a song which is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of topical songs . It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre...
Ballada wrześniowa by Jacek Kaczmarski
Jacek Kaczmarski
Jacek Kaczmarski was a Polish singer, songwriter, poet and author.Kaczmarski was a voice of the Solidarity trade union movement in 1980s Poland, for his commitment to a free Poland, independent of Soviet rule. His songs criticized the ruling communist regime and appealed to the tradition of...
.