Many people don't know this at all. And over time, even fewer people remain who know about it. And there are others who believe that Poland attacked Germany on September 1, 1939, unleashed World War 2, but they are silent about the USSR. In general, there is no science of history. Think the way someone likes or profitable to think.
Original taken from maxim_nm How the USSR attacked Poland (photos, facts).
Exactly 78 years ago, September 17, 1939 the USSR following Nazi Germany, he attacked Poland - the Germans brought their troops from the west, this happened on September 1, 1939, and more than two weeks later, Soviet troops entered Poland from the east. The official reason for the introduction of troops was the alleged "protection of the Belarusian and Ukrainian population", which is located on the territory "of the Polish state, which revealed internal inconsistency".
A number of researchers of the events that began on September 17, 1939 are unequivocally assessed as the entry of the USSR into World War II on the side of the aggressor (Nazi Germany). Soviet and some Russian researchers consider these events as a separate episode.
So, in today's post - a large and interesting story about the events of September 1939, photos and stories of local residents. Go under the cut, it's interesting there)
02. It all started with the "Note of the Government of the USSR" handed over to the Polish ambassador in Moscow on the morning of September 17, 1939. I am quoting the text in full. Pay attention to speech turns, especially juicy of which I have highlighted in bold - to me personally, this is very reminiscent of modern events on the "annexation" of Crimea.
By the way, in history, in general, the aggressor himself very rarely called his actions actually "aggression." As a rule, these are "actions aimed at protection / prevention / non-admission" and so on. In short, they attacked a neighboring country in order to "nip aggression in the bud."
"Mr. Ambassador,The Polish-German war revealed the internal failure of the Polish state. During ten days of military operations, Poland lost all its industrial areas and cultural centers. Warsaw as the capital of Poland no longer exists. The Polish government has collapsed and shows no signs of life. This means that the Polish state and its government actually ceased to exist. Thus, the treaties concluded between the USSR and Poland ceased to be valid. Left to itself and left without leadership, Poland has become a convenient field for all sorts of accidents and surprises that could pose a threat to the USSR. Therefore, having hitherto been neutral, the Soviet government cannot be more neutral in regard to these facts.
The Soviet government cannot also be indifferent to the fact that half-blooded Ukrainians and Belarusians living on the territory of Poland, left to the mercy of fate, remain defenseless. In view of this situation, the Soviet government ordered the High Command of the Red Army to order the troops to cross the border and take under their protection the lives and property of the population of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus.
At the same time, the Soviet government intends to take all measures to rescue the Polish people from the ill-fated war, into which they were thrown by their unreasonable leaders, and to give them the opportunity to live a peaceful life.
Please accept, Mr. Ambassador, the assurances of our highest consideration.
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR
V. Molotov."
03. In fact, immediately after the presentation of the note, the rapid entry of Soviet troops into Poland began. The Soviet Union introduced armored and armored vehicles, cavalry, infantry and artillery into the territory. In the photo - Soviet cavalry escort an artillery battery.
04. Armored car troops cross the Soviet-Polish border, the picture was taken on September 17, 1939:
05. Infantry units of the USSR in the border area. By the way, pay attention to the helmets of the fighters - these are the SSH-36 helmets, also known as the "hulkingolka". These helmets were widely used in the initial period of the Second World War, but in films (especially of the Soviet years) they are almost never seen - perhaps because this helmet resembles the German "Stalhelm".
06. Soviet tank BT-5 on the streets of the city http://maxim-nm.livejournal.com/42391.html, the former "behind the Polish hour" border town.
07. Shortly after the "attachment" of the eastern part of Poland to the USSR in the city of Brest (then called Brest-Litovsk), a joint parade of Wehrmacht troops and units of the Red Army took place on September 22, 1939.
08. The parade was timed to coincide with the creation of a demarcation line between the USSR and Nazi Germany, as well as the establishment of a new border.
09. Many researchers call this action not a "joint parade", but a "solemn procession", but as for me, the essence of this does not change. Guderian wanted to hold a full-fledged joint parade, but in the end agreed to the proposal of the commander of the 29th armored brigade, Krivoshein, which read: "At 16 o'clock, parts of your corps in a marching column, with standards in front, leave the city, my units, also in a marching column, enter the city, stop in the streets where German regiments pass, and salute the passing units with their banners. Bands perform military marches ". What is this if not a parade?
10. Nazi-Soviet negotiations on the "new frontier", photograph taken in Brest in September 1939:
11. New border:
12. Nazi and Soviet tankers communicate with each other:
13. German and Soviet officers:
14. Immediately after arriving on the "attached lands", the Soviet units launched agitation and propaganda. Such stands were installed on the streets with a story about the Soviet armed forces and the advantages of living in.
15. It must be admitted that at first many local residents welcomed the Red Army soldiers with joy, but later many changed their minds about the "guests from the east." "Purges" began and the removal of people to Siberia, there were also cases when a person was shot simply because there were no calluses on his hands - they say, "unearned element", "exploiter".
Here is what the inhabitants of the well-known Belarusian town told about the Soviet troops in 1939 World(yes, the one where the world famous castle is), quotes from the book "The World: Historical Minion, What Iago Zhykhary Told", translation into Russian is mine:
.
“When the soldiers were walking, no one gave them anything, they didn’t treat them. We asked them how they live there, do they have everything?” The soldiers answered - "Oh, we are good! We have everything there!". In Russia they said that it was bad to live in Poland. But it was good here - people had good costumes, clothes. They didn't have anything there. They took everything from Jewish stores - even those slippers that were "for death."
"The first thing that surprised the Westerners was the appearance of the Red Army soldiers, who for them were the first representatives of the" socialist paradise ". When the Soviets came, you could immediately see how people live there. The clothes were bad. When they saw the "slave" of the prince, they thought that it was the prince himself, they wanted to arrest him. That's how well he was dressed - both the suit and the hat. Goncharikova and Manya Razvodovskaya walked in long coats, the soldiers began to point at them and say that "landowner's daughters" were coming.
"Shortly after the entry of troops, "socialist changes" began. They introduced a tax system. The taxes were large, some could not pay them, and those who paid were left with nothing. Polish money depreciated one day. We sold a cow, and the next day they were able to buy only 2-3 meters of fabric and shoes. The elimination of private trade led to a shortage of almost all consumer goods. When the Soviet troops arrived, at first everyone was happy, but when the night queues for bread began, they realized that everything was bad. "
“We didn’t know how people live in Russia. When the Soviets came, that was all we knew. We were glad for the Soviets. But when we lived under the Soviets, we were horrified. The deportation of people began. They will "sew" something to a person and take it out. Men were put in prisons, and their family remained alone. All those who were taken out did not return"
So it goes.
September 1, 1939. This is the day of the beginning of the greatest catastrophe that claimed tens of millions of human lives, destroyed thousands of cities and villages, and eventually led to a new redivision of the world. It was on this day that the troops of Nazi Germany crossed the western border of Poland. The Second World War began.
And on September 17, 1939, Soviet troops hit the back of defending Poland from the east. Thus began the last partition of Poland, which was the result of a criminal collusion between the two greatest totalitarian regimes of the 20th century - the Nazi and the Communist. The joint parade of Soviet and Nazi troops on the streets of the occupied Polish Brest in 1939 became a shameful symbol of this collusion.
Before the storm
The end of the First World War and the Treaty of Versailles created even more contradictions and points of tension in Europe than before. And if we add to this the rapid strengthening of the communist Soviet Union, which, in fact, was turned into a giant weapons factory, it becomes clear that a new war on the European continent was almost inevitable.
After the First World War, Germany was crushed and humiliated: it was forbidden to have a normal army and navy, it lost significant territories, huge reparations caused economic collapse and poverty. Such a policy of the victorious states was extremely short-sighted: it was clear that the Germans, a talented, hardworking and energetic nation, would not tolerate such humiliation and would strive for revenge. And so it happened: in 1933, Hitler came to power in Germany.
Poland and Germany
After the end of the Great War, Poland again received its statehood. In addition, the Polish state is still seriously "grown up" with new lands. Part of Poznan and the Pomeranian lands, which had previously been part of Prussia, went to Poland. Danzig received the status of a "free city". Part of Silesia became part of Poland, the Poles seized part of Lithuania by force along with Vilnius.
Poland, together with Germany, took part in the annexation of Czechoslovakia, which in no way can be attributed to actions that should be proud of. In 1938, the Teszyn region was annexed under the pretext of protecting the Polish population.
In 1934, a ten-year non-aggression pact was signed between the countries, and a year later, an agreement on economic cooperation. In general, it should be noted that with the advent of Hitler to power, German-Polish relations improved significantly. But it didn't last long.
In March 1939, Germany demanded that Poland return Danzig to it, join the Anti-Comintern Pact and provide a land corridor for Germany to the Baltic coast. Poland did not accept this ultimatum and early in the morning on September 1, German troops crossed the Polish border, Operation Weiss began.
Poland and the USSR
Relations between Russia and Poland have traditionally been difficult. After the end of the First World War, Poland gained independence and almost immediately the Soviet-Polish war began. Fortune was changeable: first, the Poles reached Kyiv and Minsk, and then the Soviet troops reached Warsaw. But then there was the "miracle on the Vistula" and the complete defeat of the Red Army.
According to the Riga Peace Treaty, the western parts of Belarus and Ukraine were part of the Polish state. The new eastern border of the country passed along the so-called Curzon Line. In the early 1930s, a treaty of friendship and cooperation and a non-aggression agreement were signed. But, despite this, Soviet propaganda painted Poland as one of the main enemies of the USSR.
Germany and USSR
Relations between the USSR and Germany in the period between the two world wars were contradictory. Already in 1922, an agreement was signed on cooperation between the Red Army and the Reichswehr. Germany had serious restrictions under the Treaty of Versailles. Therefore, part of the development of new weapons systems and the training of personnel was carried out by the Germans on the territory of the USSR. A flight school and a tank school were opened, among the graduates of which were the best German tankers and pilots of the Second World War.
After Hitler came to power, relations between the two countries deteriorated, military-technical cooperation was curtailed. Germany again began to be portrayed by official Soviet propaganda as an enemy of the USSR.
On August 23, 1939, the Non-Aggression Pact between Germany and the USSR was signed in Moscow. In fact, in this document, the two dictators Hitler and Stalin divided Eastern Europe between themselves. According to the secret protocol of this document, the territories of the Baltic countries, as well as Finland, parts of Romania were included in the sphere of interests of the USSR. Eastern Poland belonged to the Soviet sphere of influence, and its western part was to go to Germany.
Attack
On September 1, 1939, German aircraft began bombing Polish cities, and ground forces crossed the border. The invasion was preceded by several provocations on the border. The invasion force consisted of five army groups and a reserve. Already on September 9, the Germans reached Warsaw, and the battle for the Polish capital began, which lasted until September 20.
On September 17, practically without resistance, Soviet troops entered Poland from the east. This immediately made the position of the Polish troops almost hopeless. On September 18, the Polish high command crossed the Romanian border. Separate pockets of Polish resistance remained until the beginning of October, but it was already agony.
Part of the Polish territories, which were previously part of Prussia, went to Germany, and the rest was divided into governor-generals. Polish territories occupied by the USSR became part of Ukraine and Belarus.
Poland suffered huge losses during World War II. The invaders banned the Polish language, all national educational and cultural institutions, newspapers were closed. Representatives of the Polish intelligentsia and Jews were massively exterminated. In the territories occupied by the USSR, Soviet punitive bodies worked tirelessly. Tens of thousands of captured Polish officers were destroyed in Katyn and other similar places. Poland lost about 6 million people during the war.
The Polish campaign of the Red Army in 1939 was overgrown with an incredible amount of interpretations and gossip. The invasion of Poland was announced both as the start of a world war jointly with Germany, and as a stab in the back of Poland. Meanwhile, if we consider the events of September 1939 without anger and passion, quite a clear logic is found in the actions of the Soviet state.
Relations between the Soviet state and Poland were not cloudless from the very beginning. During the Civil War, Poland, which gained independence, claimed not only its own territories, but at the same time Ukraine and Belarus. The fragile peace in the 1930s did not bring friendly relations. On the one hand, the USSR was preparing for a world revolution, on the other hand, Poland had huge ambitions in the international arena. Warsaw had far-reaching plans to expand its own territory, and besides, it feared both the USSR and Germany. Polish underground organizations fought against the German Freikorps in Silesia and Poznan, Pilsudski recaptured Vilna from Lithuania with armed force.
The coldness in relations between the USSR and Poland grew into open hostility after the Nazis came to power in Germany. Warsaw reacted surprisingly calmly to the changes in its neighbor, believing that Hitler did not pose a real threat. On the contrary, they planned to use the Reich to implement their own geopolitical projects.
The year 1938 was decisive for Europe's turn to a big war. The history of the Munich Agreement is well known and does not do honor to its participants. Hitler delivered an ultimatum to Czechoslovakia, demanding that the Sudetenland on the German-Polish border be handed over to Germany. The USSR was ready to defend Czechoslovakia even alone, but did not have a common border with Germany. A corridor was required along which Soviet troops could enter Czechoslovakia. However, Poland flatly refused to allow Soviet troops to pass through its territory.
During the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Nazis, Warsaw successfully made its own acquisition by annexing a small Teszyn region (805 sq. Km, 227 thousand inhabitants). Now, however, clouds were gathering over Poland itself.
Hitler created a state that was very dangerous for its neighbors, but it was precisely in his power that his weakness consisted. The fact is that the exceptionally rapid growth of the German military machine threatened to undermine its own economy. The Reich needed to continuously absorb other states and cover the costs of its military development at someone else's expense, otherwise it would be in danger of complete collapse. The Third Reich, despite all its external monumentality, was a cyclopean financial pyramid needed to service its own army. Only war could save the Nazi regime.
We clear the battlefield
In the case of Poland, the Polish corridor, which separated Germany proper from East Prussia, became the reason for the claims. Communication with the exclave was maintained only by sea. In addition, the Germans wanted to reconsider in their favor the status of the city and the Baltic port of Danzig with its German population and the status of a "free city" under the patronage of the League of Nations.
Such a rapid collapse of the existing tandem, of course, did not please Warsaw. However, the Polish government counted on a successful diplomatic resolution of the conflict, and if it failed, then on a military victory. At the same time, Poland confidently torpedoed Britain's attempt to form a united front against the Nazis, including England itself, France, Poland and the USSR. The Polish Foreign Ministry stated that they refused to sign any document jointly with the USSR, and from the Kremlin, on the contrary, they announced that they would not enter into any alliances aimed at protecting Poland without its consent. During a conversation with People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Litvinov, the Polish ambassador announced that Poland would turn to the USSR for help "when needed."
However, the Soviet Union intended to secure its interests in Eastern Europe. There was no doubt in Moscow that a big war was being planned. However, the USSR in this conflict had a very vulnerable position. The key centers of the Soviet state were too close to the border. Leningrad was under attack from two sides at once: from Finland and Estonia, Minsk and Kyiv were dangerously close to the Polish borders. Of course, we were not talking about fears directly from Estonia or Poland. However, in the Soviet Union it was believed that a third force could successfully use them as a springboard for an attack on the USSR (and by 1939 it was quite obvious what kind of force it was). Stalin and his entourage were well aware that the country would have to fight Germany, and would like to get the most advantageous positions before the inevitable clash.
Of course, a much better choice would have been a joint action against Hitler with the Western powers. This option, however, was firmly blocked by Poland's resolute rejection of any contact. True, there was one more obvious option: an agreement with France and Britain, bypassing Poland. An Anglo-French delegation flew to the Soviet Union for negotiations...
... and it quickly became clear that the Allies had nothing to offer Moscow. Stalin and Molotov were primarily interested in the question of what kind of joint action plan could be proposed by the British and French, both regarding joint actions and regarding the Polish question. Stalin feared (and rightly so) that the USSR might be left alone before the Nazis. Therefore, the Soviet Union went on a controversial move - an agreement with Hitler. On August 23, a non-aggression pact was concluded between the USSR and Germany, which determined the spheres of interest in Europe.
As part of the famous Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, the USSR planned to win time and secure a foreground in Eastern Europe. Therefore, the Soviets spoke out an essential condition - the transition to the sphere of interests of the USSR of the eastern part of Poland, which is also western Ukraine and Belarus.
The dismemberment of Russia is at the heart of Polish policy in the East... The main goal is the weakening and defeat of Russia."
Meanwhile, the reality was radically different from the plans of the commander-in-chief of the Polish army, Marshal Rydz-Smigly. The Germans left only weak barriers against England and France, while they themselves attacked Poland with their main forces from several sides. The Wehrmacht was indeed the advanced army of its time, the Germans also outnumbered the Poles, so that for a short time the main forces of the Polish army were surrounded west of Warsaw. Already after the first week of the war, the Polish army began to retreat chaotically in all areas, part of the forces were surrounded. On September 5, the government left Warsaw towards the border. The main command left for Brest and lost contact with most of the troops. After the 10th, there was simply no centralized control of the Polish army. On September 16, the Germans reached Bialystok, Brest and Lvov.
At that moment, the Red Army entered Poland. The thesis about a stab in the back against fighting Poland does not stand up to the slightest criticism: there was no longer any "back". Actually, only the fact of advancing towards the Red Army stopped the German maneuvers. At the same time, the parties did not have any plans for joint actions, no joint operations were conducted. The Red Army soldiers occupied the territory, disarming the Polish units that came across. On the night of September 17, the Ambassador of Poland in Moscow was handed a note of approximately the same content. Leaving aside the rhetoric, it remains to recognize the fact: the only alternative to the invasion of the Red Army was the seizure of the eastern territories of Poland by Hitler. The Polish army did not offer organized resistance. Accordingly, the only party whose interests were actually infringed is the Third Reich. The modern public, worried about the perfidy of the Soviets, should not forget that in fact Poland could no longer act as a separate party, it did not have the strength to do so.
It should be noted that the entry of the Red Army into Poland was accompanied by great disorder. The resistance of the Poles was episodic. However, confusion and a large number of non-combat losses accompanied this march. During the assault on Grodno, 57 Red Army soldiers were killed. In total, the Red Army lost, according to various sources, from 737 to 1475 people dead and took 240 thousand prisoners.
The German government immediately stopped the advance of its troops. A few days later, the demarcation line was determined. At the same time, a crisis arose in the Lviv region. Soviet troops clashed with German ones, and on both sides there were wrecked equipment and human casualties.
On September 22, the 29th tank brigade of the Red Army entered Brest, occupied by the Germans. Those at that time, without much success, stormed the fortress, which had not yet become "the one". The piquancy of the moment was that the Germans transferred Brest and the fortress to the Red Army right along with the Polish garrison that had settled inside.
Interestingly, the USSR could have pushed even deeper into Poland, but Stalin and Molotov chose not to.
Ultimately, the Soviet Union acquired a territory of 196 thousand square meters. km. (half of the territory of Poland) with a population of up to 13 million people. On September 29, the Polish campaign of the Red Army actually ended.
Then the question arose about the fate of the prisoners. In total, counting both the military and civilians, the Red Army and the NKVD detained up to 400 thousand people. Some part (mainly officers and policemen) were subsequently executed. Most of those captured were either sent home or sent through third countries to the west, after which they formed the "Army of Anders" as part of the Western coalition. Soviet power was established on the territory of western Belarus and Ukraine.
The Western allies reacted to the events in Poland without any enthusiasm. However, no one cursed the USSR and branded it an aggressor. Winston Churchill, with his characteristic rationalism, said:
- Russia is pursuing a cold policy of self-interest. We would have preferred the Russian armies to stand in their present positions as friends and allies of Poland rather than as invaders. But in order to protect Russia from the Nazi threat, it was clearly necessary that the Russian armies stand on this line.
What did the Soviet Union really gain? The Reich was not the most honored negotiating partner, but the war would have started anyway - with or without a pact. As a result of the intervention in Poland, the USSR received an extensive background for a future war. In 1941, the Germans passed it quickly - but what would have happened if they had started 200-250 kilometers to the east? Then, probably, Moscow would have remained with the Germans in the rear.
Image copyright getty Image caption
On September 1, 1939, Hitler attacked Poland. After 17 days at 6 am, the Red Army with large forces (21 rifle and 13 cavalry divisions, 16 tank and 2 motorized brigades, a total of 618 thousand people and 4733 tanks) crossed the Soviet-Polish border from Polotsk to Kamenetz-Podolsk.
In the USSR, the operation was called the "liberation campaign", in modern Russia they are neutrally called the "Polish campaign". Some historians consider September 17 the date of the actual entry of the Soviet Union into World War II.
The birth of the pact
The fate of Poland was decided on August 23 in Moscow, when the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed.
For "calm confidence in the East" (an expression of Vyacheslav Molotov) and the supply of raw materials and grain, Berlin recognized half of Poland, Estonia, Latvia (Stalin subsequently exchanged Lithuania from Hitler for part of the Polish territory due to the USSR), Finland and Bessarabia as a "zone of Soviet interests".
The opinion of these countries, as well as other world players, was not asked.
Great and not-so-great powers were constantly dividing foreign lands, openly and secretly, on a bilateral basis and at international conferences. For Poland, the German-Russian partition of 1939 was the fourth.
The world has changed quite a lot since then. The geopolitical game continues, but it is impossible to imagine that two powerful states or blocs would so cynically decide the fate of third countries behind their backs.
Has Poland gone bankrupt?
Justifying the violation of the Soviet-Polish non-aggression pact of July 25, 1932 (in 1937 its validity was extended until 1945), the Soviet side argued that the Polish state had in fact ceased to exist.
“The German-Polish war clearly showed the internal bankruptcy of the Polish state. Thus, the agreements concluded between the USSR and Poland ceased to be valid,” said the note handed to the Polish Ambassador Vaclav Grzybowski, summoned to the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs on September 17, by Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vladimir Potemkin.
"The sovereignty of the state exists as long as the soldiers of the regular army are fighting. Napoleon entered Moscow, but as long as the Kutuzov army existed, it was believed that Russia exists. Where did the Slavic solidarity go?" Grzybowski answered.
The Soviet authorities wanted to arrest Grzybowski and his staff. Polish diplomats were saved by the German ambassador Werner von Schulenburg, who reminded the new allies about the Geneva Convention.
The blow of the Wehrmacht was really terrible. However, the Polish army, dissected by tank wedges, imposed on the enemy the battle on the Bzura that lasted from September 9 to 22, which even the Völkischer Beobachter recognized as "fierce".
We are expanding the front of socialist construction, this is favorable for mankind, because Lithuanians, Western Belarusians, Bessarabians consider themselves happy, whom we delivered from the oppression of landowners, capitalists, policemen and all other bastards from the speech of Joseph Stalin at a meeting in the Central Committee of the CPSU (B) on September 9 1940
An attempt to encircle and cut off from Germany the aggressor troops that had broken through was unsuccessful, but the Polish forces retreated behind the Vistula and began to regroup for a counterattack. In particular, 980 tanks remained at their disposal.
The defense of Westerplatte, Hela and Gdynia was admired by the whole world.
Ridiculing the "military backwardness" and "gentry arrogance" of the Poles, Soviet propaganda picked up Goebbels's fiction that the Polish uhlans allegedly rushed at the German tanks on horseback, helplessly stabbing the armor with their sabers.
In fact, the Poles did not engage in such nonsense, and the corresponding film, shot by the German propaganda ministry, was subsequently proven to be a fake. But the Polish cavalry worried the German infantry seriously.
The Polish garrison of the Brest Fortress, led by General Konstantin Plisovsky, repulsed all attacks, and German artillery was stuck near Warsaw. Soviet heavy guns helped, shelling the citadel for two days. Then a joint parade took place, which was received from the German side by Heinz Guderian, who soon became too well known to the Soviet people, and from the Soviet side by brigade commander Semyon Krivoshein.
Surrounded Warsaw capitulated only on September 26, and finally the resistance ended on October 6.
According to military analysts, Poland was doomed, but could fight for a long time.
Diplomatic games
Image copyright gettyAlready on September 3, Hitler began to urge Moscow to act as soon as possible - because the war did not unfold quite the way he wanted, but, most importantly, to induce Britain and France to recognize the USSR as an aggressor and declare war on it along with Germany.
The Kremlin, understanding these calculations, was in no hurry.
On September 10, Schulenburg reported to Berlin: "At yesterday's meeting, I got the impression that Molotov promised a little more than one might expect from the Red Army."
According to historian Igor Bunich, diplomatic correspondence every day more and more resembled conversations in thieves' "raspberries": if you don't go for it, you will be left without a share!
The Red Army began to move two days after Ribbentrop in his next message transparently hinted at the possibility of creating an OUN state in western Ukraine.
If Russian intervention is not launched, the question will inevitably arise as to whether a political vacuum will not be created in the area lying to the east of the German zone of influence. In eastern Poland, conditions may arise for the formation of new states from Ribbentrop's telegram to Molotov of September 15, 1939.
"The question whether the preservation of an independent Polish State is desirable in mutual interests, and what the boundaries of this state will be, can be finally clarified only in the course of further political development," paragraph 2 of the secret protocol read.
At first, Hitler was inclined to the idea of keeping Poland in a truncated form, cutting it off from the west and east. The Nazi Fuhrer hoped that Britain and France would accept such a compromise and end the war.
Moscow did not want to give him a chance to slip out of the trap.
On September 25, Schulenburg reported to Berlin: "Stalin considers it wrong to leave an independent Polish state."
By that time, it was officially announced in London: the only possible condition for peace is the withdrawal of German troops to the positions that they occupied before September 1, no microscopic quasi-states will save the situation.
Divided without a trace
As a result, during Ribbentrop's second visit to Moscow on September 27-28, Poland was divided without a trace.
In the signed document, it was already about "friendship" between the USSR and Germany.
In a telegram to Hitler in response to congratulations on his own 60th birthday in December 1939, Stalin repeated and strengthened this thesis: "The friendship of the peoples of Germany and the Soviet Union, sealed by blood, has every reason to be long and strong."
New secret protocols were attached to the September 28 agreement, the main one of which stated that the contracting parties would not allow "no Polish agitation" in the territories they controlled. The corresponding map was signed not by Molotov, but by Stalin himself, and his 58-centimeter stroke, starting in Western Belarus, crossed Ukraine and drove into Romania.
At a banquet in the Kremlin, according to Gustav Hilger, an adviser to the German embassy, 22 toasts were raised. Further, Hilger, according to him, lost count, because he drank equally.
Stalin honored all the guests, including the SS man Schulze, who was standing behind Ribbentrop's chair. The adjutant was not supposed to drink in such a society, but the owner personally handed him a glass, proclaimed a toast "to the youngest of those present", said that he probably suits a black uniform with silver stripes, and demanded that Schulze promise to come to Sovetsky again. Union, and certainly in uniform. Schulze gave his word, and kept it on June 22, 1941.
Unconvincing arguments
Official Soviet history offered four main explanations, or rather, justifications for the actions of the USSR in August-September 1939:
a) the pact made it possible to delay the war (obviously, it is understood that otherwise, the Germans, having captured Poland, would immediately go to Moscow without stopping);
b) the border moved 150-200 km to the west, which played an important role in repelling future aggression;
c) the USSR took Ukrainians and Belarusians under the protection of half-brothers, saving them from Nazi occupation;
d) the pact prevented "anti-Soviet collusion" between Germany and the West.
The first two points arose retroactively. Until June 22, 1941, Stalin and his entourage did not say anything of the sort. They did not consider the USSR as a weak defending side and were not going to fight on their territory, even if it was "old" or newly acquired.
The hypothesis of a German attack on the USSR in the autumn of 1939 does not look serious.
For aggression against Poland, the Germans were able to assemble 62 divisions, of which about 20 were undertrained and understaffed, 2,000 aircraft and 2,800 tanks, over 80% of which were light tankettes. At the same time, Kliment Voroshilov, in negotiations with the British and French military delegations in May 1939, said that Moscow was capable of deploying 136 divisions, 9-10 thousand tanks, 5 thousand aircraft.
On the former border, we had powerful fortified areas, and then only Poland was a direct enemy, which would not have dared to attack us alone, and in the event of its collusion with Germany, it would not be difficult to establish the exit of German troops to our border. Then we would have had time to mobilize and deploy. Now we are face to face with Germany, which can secretly concentrate its troops for an attack from the speech of the Chief of Staff of the Belarusian Military District Maxim Purkaev at a meeting of the district command staff in October 1939.
The extension of the border to the west in the summer of 1941 did not help the Soviet Union, because the Germans occupied this territory in the first days of the war. Moreover, thanks to the pact, Germany moved east by an average of 300 km, and most importantly, acquired a common border with the USSR, without which an attack, especially a sudden one, would have been impossible at all.
A "crusade against the USSR" might have seemed plausible to Stalin, whose worldview was shaped by the Marxist doctrine of class struggle as the main driving force of history, and, moreover, suspicious by nature.
However, not a single attempt by London and Paris to conclude an alliance with Hitler is known. Chamberlain's "appeasement" was intended not to "direct German aggression to the East," but to encourage the Nazi leader to abandon aggression altogether.
The thesis about the protection of Ukrainians and Belarusians was officially presented by the Soviet side in September 1939 as the main reason.
Through Schulenburg, Hitler expressed his strong disagreement with such an "anti-German formulation."
“The Soviet government, unfortunately, does not see any other pretext to justify its current intervention abroad. We ask, taking into account the difficult situation for the Soviet government, not to allow such trifles to stand in our way,” Molotov said in response to the German ambassador
In fact, the argument could be considered irreproachable if the Soviet authorities, in pursuance of the secret order of the NKVD No. 001223 of October 11, 1939, in a territory with a population of 13.4 million, did not arrest 107 thousand and did not deport 391 thousand people administratively. About ten thousand died during the deportation and in the settlement.
High-ranking Chekist Pavel Sudoplatov, who arrived in Lvov immediately after its occupation by the Red Army, wrote in his memoirs: “The atmosphere was strikingly different from the state of affairs in the Soviet part of Ukraine. liquidate".
special accounts
In the first two weeks of the war, the Soviet press devoted short informational messages to her under neutral headings, as if they were talking about distant and insignificant events.
On September 14, as part of the information preparation for the invasion, Pravda published a long article devoted mainly to the oppression of national minorities in Poland (as if the arrival of the Nazis promised them better times), and contained the statement: "That's why no one wants to fight for such a state" .
Subsequently, the misfortune that befell Poland was commented on with undisguised gloating.
Speaking at a session of the Supreme Soviet on October 31, Molotov rejoiced that "nothing was left of this ugly offspring of the Treaty of Versailles."
Both in the open press and in confidential documents, the neighboring country was called either "former Poland" or, in the Nazi style, "governor-general."
Newspapers printed cartoons depicting a border post knocked down by a Red Army boot and a sad teacher announcing to the class: "This, children, is the end of our study of the history of the Polish state."
Through the corpse of white Poland lies the path to the world conflagration. On bayonets we will carry happiness and peace to working mankind Mikhail Tukhachevsky, 1920
When the Polish government-in-exile headed by Vladislav Sikorsky was created in Paris on October 14, Pravda responded not with informational or analytical material, but with a feuilleton: “The territory of the new government consists of six rooms, a bathroom and a toilet. In comparison with this territory, Monaco looks boundless empire."
Stalin had special scores with Poland.
During the disastrous Polish war of 1920 for Soviet Russia, he was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council (political commissar) of the Southwestern Front.
The neighboring country in the USSR was called nothing more than "pan Poland" and blamed for everything and always.
As follows from the decree signed by Stalin and Molotov on January 22, 1933 on the fight against the migration of peasants to the cities, it turns out that people did this not trying to escape from the Holodomor, but being incited by "Polish agents".
Until the mid-1930s, the Soviet military plans saw Poland as the main adversary. Mikhail Tukhachevsky, who also turned out to be among the beaten commanders at one time, according to the recollections of witnesses, simply lost his temper when the conversation turned to Poland.
Repressions against the leadership of the Polish Communist Party living in Moscow in 1937-1938 were a common practice, but the fact that it was declared "wrecking" as such and dissolved by the decision of the Comintern is a unique fact.
The NKVD discovered in the USSR also the "Polish organization of troops", allegedly created back in 1914 by Pilsudski personally. She was accused of what the Bolsheviks themselves took credit for: the decomposition of the Russian army during the First World War.
In the course of the "Polish operation", carried out on Yezhov's secret order No. 00485, 143,810 people were arrested, 139,835 of them were convicted and 111,091 were shot - one in six ethnic Poles living in the USSR.
In terms of the number of victims, even the Katyn massacre fades before these tragedies, although it was she who became known to the whole world.
easy walk
Before the start of the operation, Soviet troops were brought together in two fronts: Ukrainian under the command of the future People's Commissar of Defense Semyon Timoshenko and Belarusian General Mikhail Kovalev.
The 180-degree turn happened so quickly that many Red Army soldiers and commanders thought they were going to fight the Nazis. The Poles also did not immediately understand that this was no help.
Another incident occurred: the political officers explained to the fighters that they had to "beat the lords", but the installation had to be urgently changed: it turned out that in the neighboring country everyone was lords and panis.
The head of the Polish state, Edward Rydz-Smigly, realizing the impossibility of a war on two fronts, ordered the troops not to resist the Red Army, but to be interned in Romania.
Some commanders did not receive the order or ignored it. The fighting took place near Grodno, Shatsk and Oran.
On September 24, near Przemysl, the lancers of General Vladislav Anders defeated two Soviet infantry regiments with a surprise attack. Timoshenko had to advance tanks to prevent the Poles from breaking through into Soviet territory.
But for the most part, the “liberation campaign,” which officially ended on September 30, was a cakewalk for the Red Army.
The territorial acquisitions of 1939–1940 turned out to be a major political loss for the USSR and international isolation. The "bridgeheads" occupied with the consent of Hitler did not strengthen the country's defense capability at all, since Vladimir Beshanov was not intended for this,
historian
The victors captured about 240 thousand prisoners, 300 combat aircraft, a lot of equipment and military equipment. Created at the beginning of the Finnish war, the "armed forces of democratic Finland", without thinking twice, dressed in trophy uniforms from warehouses in Bialystok, disputes with Polish symbols from it.
The declared losses amounted to 737 killed and 1862 wounded (according to updated data from the site "Russia and the USSR in the wars of the XX century" - 1475 dead and 3858 wounded and sick).
In a holiday order on November 7, 1939, People's Commissar of Defense Kliment Voroshilov stated that "the Polish state at the first military clash shattered like an old rotten cart."
"Just think about how many years tsarism fought to annex Lvov, and our troops took this territory in seven days!" - Lazar Kaganovich triumphed at a meeting of the party economic activists of the People's Commissariat of Railways on October 4.
In fairness, it should be noted that in the Soviet leadership there was a person who tried to at least partially cool the euphoria.
“We were terribly damaged by the Polish campaign, it spoiled us. Our army did not immediately understand that the war in Poland was a military walk, not a war,” Joseph Stalin said at a meeting of the highest command staff on April 17, 1940.
However, on the whole, the "liberation campaign" was perceived as a model for any future war that the USSR would start whenever it wanted and end victoriously and easily.
Many participants in the Great Patriotic War noted the enormous harm inflicted by the army and society by the hatred moods.
Historian Mark Solonin called August-September 1939 the finest hour of Stalinist diplomacy. From the point of view of momentary goals, it was so: without officially entering the world war, with little bloodshed, the Kremlin achieved everything it wanted.
However, just two years later, the decisions taken then almost turned into death for the country.
How relations between the two countries developed in 1918-1939, between the First and Second World Wars.
Rally in support of the Red Army during the Soviet-Polish war. Gdansk, 1920
Part 1. Eternal competitors
Relations between Russia and Poland have never been easy. Both states fought fierce competition for centuries for control over the territories of modern Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine.The ambitions of the Poles stretched all the way to Smolensk, which for some time was under their rule. The peak of the advantage of the Commonwealth was the beginning of the 17th century, when, with its direct participation, the question of the existence of Russia as an independent state arose.
The revenge of the Russian Empire took place two centuries later, when Poland was erased from the political map of the world, and most of its territory, including Warsaw, was under the rule of the Russian monarch.
Joint "living" was not calm - Poland was periodically shaken by powerful anti-Russian uprisings, which were harshly suppressed by the Russian army.
It is not surprising that at the beginning of the 20th century the Kingdom of Poland was one of those parts of the Russian Empire where the revolutionary mood was especially strong.
Part 2. “I rode the red tram of socialism to the stop “Independence”, but I got off on it”
The "divorce" of Russia and Poland began before the fall of the Romanov dynasty. During the First World War, Polish territory was occupied by German troops.The independence of Poland was recognized by a decree of the Bolshevik Council of People's Commissars on December 10, 1917.
Poland gained actual independence in November 1918, after the defeat of Germany in the war. While the German troops were leaving the occupied territories, the question of who would have power was being decided on them. Józef Pilsudski became the "Head of the Polish State".
In the Polish struggle for independence, there were two currents - socialist and nationalist. Pilsudski found himself, so to speak, at the intersection - a former activist of the Polish Socialist Party, having come to power, he told yesterday's associates: “Comrades, I was driving the red socialist tram to the Nezavisimost stop, but I got off it. You can drive to the final stop if you can, but now let's move on to "You".
Jozef Pilsudski.
Part 3. Collision is inevitable
New Poland proclaimed itself the "Second Commonwealth" not by chance. Piłsudski and his associates set the task of restoring the state within the borders of 1772. This made conflicts with neighbors to the east inevitable. The Poles claimed the territories of Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania, formerly part of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires.But the Bolsheviks, acting within the framework of the concept of "world revolution", intended to move to the West, freeing the proletariat from the chains of landlords and capitalists. After Soviet Russia declared null and void the Brest-Litovsk treaty with Germany in November 1918, the movement of the Red Army into the territories previously occupied by the Germans began.
“Closed within the boundaries of the times of the sixteenth century, cut off from the Black and Baltic Seas, deprived of the land and mineral wealth of the South and Southeast, Russia could easily pass into the state of a second-rate power, unable to seriously threaten the newfound independence of Poland. Poland, as the largest and strongest of the new states, could easily secure for itself a sphere of influence that would stretch from Finland to the Caucasus Mountains,” Jozef Pilsudski said in turn.
A clash between the two states was inevitable.
Part 4. War and Peace
It must be understood that within the framework of the “world revolution”, the Bolsheviks considered their movement to the West not as the seizure of new territories, but as the liberation of workers and peasants.Do not forget that there were many Polish socialists in Soviet Russia, the most famous of which was the head of the Cheka, Felix Dzerzhinsky.
The parties were guided by completely different principles, but the conflict did not become less “hot” from this.
The Soviet-Polish war of 1919-1921 was fierce. The situation changed like a kaleidoscope. In August 1919, the Poles occupied Minsk, and in May 1920 they entered Kyiv. However, this was followed by a large-scale offensive by the Red Army, during which the Poles were not only driven back, but also Soviet troops entered Polish territory.
However, the Red Army under the command of Mikhail Tukhachevsky in August 1920 suffered a crushing defeat on the outskirts of Warsaw, which went down in Polish history as the “Miracle on the Vistula”.
In October 1920, at the cost of heavy losses, the Poles occupied Minsk again. But the forces of the parties by this time were exhausted. An armistice was concluded, which in March 1921 was transformed into the Riga Peace Treaty.
According to him, the territories of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus were ceded to Poland. The Soviet side agreed to return to Poland war trophies, all scientific and cultural valuables removed from the territory of Poland starting from January 1, 1772, and also undertook to pay Poland 30 million gold rubles within a year for Poland's contribution to the economic life of the Russian Empire and transfer property to the Polish side in the amount of 18 million gold rubles.
Poland, in turn, recognized the sovereignty of the Ukrainian and Byelorussian SSR (to which Minsk was returned). The parties pledged not to conduct hostile activities against each other.
Part 5. "Curzon Line", or Polish Debt
The Soviet-Polish war, objectively speaking, ended with the defeat of the Bolsheviks. But it must be borne in mind that Soviet Russia waged a "war on two fronts", continuing the fight against the whites in the south of the country. In addition, the Polish authorities relied on the support of Great Britain and France, who viewed Warsaw as a counterbalance to the Bolsheviks.At the same time, Poland also did not achieve all the territorial acquisitions that it aspired to.
It is impossible not to mention such an important moment as the “Curzon line”. In December 1919, the Supreme Soviet of the Entente recommended the line along which the eastern border of Poland should run. The line basically corresponds to the ethnographic principle: to the west of it there were lands with a predominance of the Polish population, to the east - territories with a predominance of non-Polish (Lithuanian, Belarusian, Ukrainian) population.
In December 1919, Warsaw simply ignored this line, but when the Red Army began to approach the capital of Poland in the summer of 1920, the country's authorities agreed to recognize it. The head of the British Foreign Office, Lord Curzon, in a note sent to the government of the RSFSR, demanded to stop the Red Army units on this line. Thanks to this note, the border proposed by the Entente became known as the "Curzon Line". The Soviet government did not accept Lord Curzon's demand, and the subsequent new turn in the war led to the fact that the border of Poland under the Riga Treaty passed significantly to the east of the Curzon Line. This is important to remember in order to understand subsequent events.
British Foreign Secretary 1919-1924 George Curzon.
Part 6. Peaceful life on a powder keg
The peace treaty of 1921 brought no real peace. Skirmishes on the border took place constantly, periodically turning into serious battles. This was explained both by the fact that the border was not demarcated, and by the fact that an impressive number of white emigrants were concentrated on the territory of Poland, who were actively used by Polish intelligence in their operations.And the status of the Soviet state in the international arena was uncertain. In the West, the positions of those who considered it necessary to overthrow the power of the Bolsheviks through military intervention were strong.
The Soviet secret services also did not sit idly by. The Main Political Directorate (GPU) under the NKVD, which replaced the Cheka, carried out operations against the leading White émigré groups.
At the same time, Moscow was trying to improve relations with Warsaw. Attempts were made to interest the Poles in cultural and economic ties, but little success was achieved in this matter.
However, by 1924, Poland nevertheless expelled from its territory the most active part of the representatives of the Russian emigration and white military formations. Work was carried out to demarcate the border.
Jozef Piłsudski in 1922 transferred power to the elected president. However, four years later, in the conditions of a political and economic crisis, Piłsudski staged a coup d'etat. An authoritarian regime was established in Poland, under which Ignacy Mościcki formally became president, but Piłsudski himself remained the real leader.
The situation in relations between the two countries remained explosive. On June 7, 1927, Soviet envoy Pyotr Voikov was shot dead by a white émigré in Warsaw, Boris Koverda. Attacks on Soviet diplomats and the premises of diplomatic missions continued after this egregious incident.
Soviet diplomats who worked in Poland reported to Moscow about the threat of a military invasion from Warsaw. The fears were not in vain - at that time in continental Europe, perhaps only France had a stronger army.
The funeral procession carries the coffin with the body of the Soviet ambassador to Poland, Piotr Voikov, who was killed in Warsaw.
Part 7. Warsaw puts on Hitler
But in the early 1930s, things began to change and relations improved.First, it became obvious that the Bolsheviks in the Soviet Union not only firmly entrenched themselves in power, but also successfully developed the economy and military potential of the state. Secondly, despite periodic crises, the Western countries resigned themselves to the existence of the USSR, which gradually fit into the system of international relations. Under these conditions, Poland became interested in good neighborly relations with Moscow.
On June 15, 1931, the USSR and Poland signed a Treaty of Friendship and Trade Cooperation, and on January 25, 1932 they signed a Non-Aggression Treaty.
But the improvement was short-lived. In 1933, the Nazis came to power in Germany, and Poland soon made a sharp turn, reorienting itself from London and Paris to Berlin.
The Soviet Union, alarmed by Hitler's rise to power, probed the waters in Warsaw for an anti-Nazi pact, but was rebuffed.
On January 26, 1934, Poland and Germany signed a non-aggression pact for a period of 10 years. On November 4, 1935, they signed an agreement on economic cooperation.
The entire system of European security, built after the First World War by London and Paris, collapsed. Poland entered into a close alliance with a state that made no secret of its aggressive plans.
In Moscow, nothing good was expected from this union either. The Soviet leaders, of course, knew Hitler's work, so they had an idea of where Germany intended to go in search of a new "living space".
In Poland, Goebbels and Goering were welcomed on a grand scale, counting on the fact that Warsaw would “share its share” in the future Nazi conquests.
Part 8. Munich agreement: a piece of the pie for Poland
To some, it may seem that this is a thickening of colors. But Winston Churchill put it even harsher, comparing Poland to a hyena.This happened a few years later, after Poland received its own "piece of the pie" as a result of the "Munich Agreement". While Nazi Germany occupied the Sudetenland, and then the rest of the territory of the Czech Republic and Moravia, Poland occupied the Teszyn region of the destroyed Czechoslovakia.
In September 1938, when the Munich Agreement had not yet been concluded, the Soviet Union, which had concentrated troops on the border with Poland, expressed its readiness to come to the aid of Czechoslovakia, thus fulfilling the provisions of the previously concluded agreement.
In response, the Polish government announced that it would not let the Red Army through its territory, and if Moscow did try to send troops, the Polish authorities would immediately declare war on the Soviet Union.
On September 23, 1938, Moscow warned Warsaw that if the latter tried to occupy part of Czechoslovakia, the non-aggression pact would be annulled.
But on September 30, 1938, the Munich Agreement was signed, Czechoslovakia surrendered without a fight, Poland received the Teszyn region.
The USSR did not break the non-aggression pact with Poland - after the actual surrender of Czechoslovakia, this no longer made sense.
But the Soviet government realized that under the current conditions, the chances of creating an anti-Hitler coalition in Europe are practically unrealistic, and it is necessary to act, thinking only about their own interests. In Warsaw, they triumphed and made new grandiose plans.
The Polish envoy to Iran, J. Karsho-Sedlevsky, in a conversation with a German diplomat in December 1938, stated: “The political perspective for the European East is clear. In a few years, Germany will be at war with the Soviet Union, and Poland will support, voluntarily or involuntarily, Germany in this war. It is better for Poland to absolutely definitely take the side of Germany before the conflict, since the territorial interests of Poland in the west and the political goals of Poland in the east, primarily in Ukraine, can only be ensured through a previously reached Polish-German agreement.
From the report of the 2nd department (intelligence department) of the main headquarters of the Polish Army in December 1938: “The dismemberment of Russia lies at the heart of Polish policy in the East ... Therefore, our possible position will be reduced to the following formula: who will take part in the division. Poland must not remain passive at this remarkable historical moment. The task is to prepare well in advance physically and spiritually ... The main goal is the weakening and defeat of Russia.
In January 1939, Polish Foreign Minister Jozef Beck, in a conversation with German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, said: "Poland claims Soviet Ukraine and access to the Black Sea."
Comrade Stalin's detour
But in March 1939, a new reversal occurs. Hitler put forward a proposal to Poland: to agree to the inclusion of the city of Danzig in Germany and to the creation of an extraterritorial corridor that would connect Germany with East Prussia. In exchange for the "Danzig Corridor", Germany offered to extend the Friendship Treaty for 25 years.In Poland, however, they decided not to make concessions, and threw themselves into the arms of their former allies - France and Great Britain. On March 28, 1939, Hitler broke the non-aggression pact with Poland. On March 31, 1939, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced Anglo-French military guarantees for Poland in connection with the threat of aggression from Germany.
This is where Winston Churchill spoke: “And now, when all these advantages and all this help have been lost and rejected, England, leading France, proposes to guarantee the integrity of Poland - the same Poland that only six months ago, with the greed of a hyena, took part in the robbery and destruction of the Czechoslovak state."
Throughout the spring and summer of 1939, the Soviet Union negotiated an anti-Hitler agreement with Britain and France. On the part of the Western powers, representatives of not the highest rank participated in the negotiations, and the impression was created that France and England were not very interested in an agreement.
The political configuration in Europe was developing in such a way that the USSR could be left alone in the war against the Third Reich, which could begin in the coming months. But Moscow needed to buy time. On August 23, 1939, the Soviet Union was the last of the European powers to conclude an agreement with Hitler by signing the Non-Aggression Pact.
Part 10, final. Farewell, hyena
Did it give Germany a free hand with respect to Poland? Yes and no. After all, the guarantors of its integrity were primarily France and Great Britain, and not the Soviet Union. And why on earth, given the entire history of relations since 1918, should Moscow, figuratively speaking, drag chestnuts out of the fire for Warsaw?On September 1, 1939, Germany attacked Poland. France and Great Britain, having formally declared war on Berlin, did not lift a finger to save the Poles from defeat.
On the night of September 17, 1939, the Polish government, led by President Ignacy Moscicki, fled the country to Romania. At dawn on September 17, Soviet troops entered the territory of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. They went to the "Curzon Line" - the border marked by the Entente back in 1919. The operation was completed on September 29, 1939.
The Second Rzeczpospolita actually ceased to exist.
