Annexation of Western Belarus. Accession of Belarus to Russia

On September 17, 1939, 75 years ago, Soviet troops entered Western Belarus. The USSR and Hitler's Germany vilely divided Eastern Europe among themselves.

But for Belarusians and Ukrainians, this, paradoxically, meant reunification, a historical chance. Doesn't happen in history simple ways.

In the latest issue of Nasha Niva, the historian Anatoly the Great publishes some previously unknown documents of that critical era - about the mechanisms of action of the Soviet special services.

And on the site we publish excerpts from the book of the researcher Anatoly Trofimchik “1939 and Belarus: forgotten war". This book will be on sale in the coming days.

"Nasha Niva" cites from this book 10 of the most important facts of the time, as they were perceived by the Belarusians.

1. Belarus and the Belarusian people took part in the Second World War from its first minutes

AT Soviet time It was generally accepted that the starting point was the date of June 22, 1941, when Germany attacked the USSR, which included Belarus. However, can we assume that the Soviet Union did not take part in the hostilities before the German attack on it? The Red Army went through at least two full-fledged wars: first against the Polish Republic, a little later against Finland. Accordingly, the USSR became a participant in World War II on September 17, 1939, when the Red Army crossed the Soviet-Polish border. Since Belarus was part of the USSR, and Belarusians served in the Red Army, it must be admitted that Belarus entered World War II on September 17.

The western part of Belarus at that time was part of the Polish Republic, and Belarusians served in the Polish Army. The number of Belarusian soldiers in the ranks of the Polish Army, taking into account the mobilization of 1939, is estimated at 70 thousand people. Belarusians took an active part in the resistance to both the Wehrmacht and the Red Army.

Belarusians - soldiers of the Polish Army - are returning home (surnames and location unknown).

2. The first German bombs fell on Belarusian cities and towns in September 1939

Immediately after the German attack on Poland, Luftwaffe aviation began to bombard the most strategically important objects, primarily airfields, railway junctions, and even ordinary stations. As a result, for example, Grodno, Lida, Kobrin, Baranovichi, Gantsevichi suffered. German aircraft flew almost to the then Polish-Soviet border. As a result of the bombing, there were killed and wounded. The number of victims, including among civilians, went to tens.

Moreover, to the bombing of Western Belarusian settlements and civilians, the Soviet Union also had a hand: at the request of the German side, from September 4, special radio signals were sent from Minsk to help in the orientation of the raids German aviation. Thus, Moscow is directly involved in the destruction by the Nazis of the Western Belarusian and Western Ukrainian civilian population, which was soon to be “liberated”.

3. The first battles against the German invaders on the territory of Belarus took place in September 1939

Information about the first defense Brest Fortress were hushed up in Soviet times. From September 14 to September 17, regiments under the command of General Konstantin Plisovsky, a significant number of which were Belarusians, defended the fortress from the 19th tank corps Guderian. After the resistance became futile due to the entry of the Red Army into the territory of the Polish Republic, the defenders of the Brest Fortress decided to leave it. But a handful of volunteers, led by Captain Vaclav Radishevsky, remained in the fortress. Soon they had to confront the Red Army. On the night of September 27, a few soldiers left the encirclement one by one. Among them is Captain Radishevsky, who made his way to his family in Kobrin, but was soon discovered by the NKVD and arrested, after which he disappeared forever.

Today, few people disagree with the fact that the division of the Polish Republic was the result of close political and then military interaction between Rome III and III Reich. But if we accept this thesis, we should also agree that the "liberation" of the "fraternal peoples of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus" was carried out jointly - by the Bolsheviks and the Nazis.

4. The first battles of the Red Army and the Wehrmacht took place in September 1939

On September 20, 1939, the soldiers of the advancing armies met for the first time. These meetings are not everywhere (according to different reasons) passed warmly. There was even a Soviet-German clash near Lvov, resulting in casualties on both sides (in fact, the first battle between the Bolsheviks and the Nazis, except for the civil war in Spain, where both sides were represented in one way or another). A Soviet-German battle also took place on the territory of Belarus: on September 23, near Vidomlya (now Kamenetsky district of the Brest region) of the 10th tank division Wehrmacht fired on the equestrian reconnaissance battalion of the 8th Infantry Division. As a result of the shelling, 2 people were killed and two more were wounded. In response, armored vehicles of the reconnaissance battalion opened fire on German tanks, one of which was destroyed along with the crew.

These incidents, however, did not prevent the further development of friendly relations.

Before the "meeting on the Elbe" there was also a meeting on the Bug. True, the ally of the Red Army in the fall of 1939 was different.

5. On the territory of Western Belarus, the Red Army in September 1939 advanced at the same speed as the Wehrmacht - in June 1941

This is the similarity between the campaigns of the Bolsheviks and the Nazis on the same land. But there is also a significant difference. For comparison, we note that during the September campaign to occupy the territory of Western Belarus, the Soviet Union used more equipment than in June-July 1941 - Germany during the occupation of the BSSR. Meanwhile, the speed of advancement in the second case even exceeded Soviet offensive, although the forces (at least numerically) were incommensurable: if the Red Army was opposed by the remnants of the Polish Army, then in the summer of 1941 the Wehrmacht was resisted by the armed forces of the USSR, not inferior in quantity and quality.

Tanks T-26 29th tank brigade The Red Army enters Brest. On the left is a column of German motorcyclists.

6. The Germans had the idea of creating a state entity called “Western Belarus” under their protectorate

After the German attack on Poland, Soviet politicians paused for some time. The Red Army was waiting for a more convenient moment for the offensive. Berlin even expressed courage for a kind of threat: I. Ribbentrop announced a possible cessation of the war if Russia did not launch an offensive, and moreover, organizations on eastern lands Poland of three buffer states - Polish, Ukrainian and Belarusian.

The project of a "united" Belarus under the protectorate of the Third Reich.

It is obvious, however, that the German side would not have gone further than threats and discussions on the issue of the sovereignization of Western Belarus.

Soon a similar idea arose among the Bolsheviks - on the eve of the offensive on September 17th. But it was rejected: on September 28, the allies signed a treaty of friendship.

7. Moscow considered the division of the Polish Republic as the division of Poland, and not the reunification of Belarus and Ukraine

The Red Army went to Western Belarus under the slogans of the liberation of blood brothers. But on the eve of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Belarus did not appear in the main results of diplomatic negotiations - neither as a subject, nor as - at least! - an object.

About this attitude Soviet leadership the unification of Belarus is evidenced by the accession of Western Belarus with significant changes in relation to its original territorial definition, as well as a number of other facts, including from the statements of German and Soviet leaders, like:

“Mr. Stalin personally told me at that time that he was ready to make concessions in the north of the border line, where it passes through Belarus” (Schulenburg);
one of the priorities of the Kremlin was to “take over” the states that, according to the pact with Germany, belonged to the sphere of interests of the Soviet Union (Kaganovich).

Map of the transfer of part of the Western Belarusian territory to Lithuania (from the Soviet press, October 1939)

It was symptomatic of further development events. Belarus as such emerged in exceptional cases- if necessary.

8. In September 1939, there was an attempt to organize armed resistance for the independence of Belarus

Skeptics may ask: independence from whom? The answer may surprise: both from Germany and from the USSR.

Even before the German attack on Poland, former Hromadovites (members of the BSRG - the Belarusian Salyansk-Workers' Hramada) developed the idea of creating the Western Belarusian Republic (ZBR). In order to prevent the capture of these territories by the Wehrmacht, they began to organize armed detachments. First order to start fighting concerned the capture of Pinsk, which was planned to enter on September 18. But the day before the assault, the operation was canceled (of course, in view of the crossing of the Soviet-Polish border by the Red Army).

Later, ZBR supporters transformed their activities into a partisan movement. In the future, Belarusian nationalists sought to take advantage of the world war - already in the service of Nazi Germany, but could not achieve their goal.

Belarusian writers during the Second All-Belarusian Congress in Minsk, June 27, 1944: Valentin Tavlai, Todar Lebeda, Alexander Solovey, Masey Sednev, Sergei Khmara, Vladimir Sedura, Khvedar Ilyashevich.

9. How Bolsheviks Became "Bashlyks"

In a matter of days in September 1939, the situation for the Western Belarusian population changed, and in the direction of the expectations of the vast majority of it. And his hopes were directed to the east. Soon, recent Polish citizens (primarily Belarusians and Jews) sincerely welcomed the Red Army and Soviet power. The stamp was a message about the construction of triumphal gates in cities, towns and even villages.

The triumphal gates erected in Brest in honor of the German and Soviet "liberators".

According to the memoirs, many Belarusians expected changes for the better, and the Red Army was called only “ours”. But soon they saw the essence of the liberators, and the Bolsheviks in their mouths, not without irony, were transformed into "hoods". Moreover, hopes arose for new "liberators" - in the person of Wehrmacht soldiers. They appeared in the summer of 1941 and it is no coincidence that there were those who met them with bread and salt.

"Westerners" welcome another power.

Since that time, a folk saying has come down to us:

For the king
Drank tea with piragom,
How past the palyaks -
Eat bread trajaki:
White, black and none!
And kali nastaў advise -
Agledzela asshole light.

(Under the tsar, they drank tea with a pie. When the Poles came, they ate three kinds of bread (three types): white, black and none! And when the council came (the Soviets came), the asshole “opened up”.

10. There was no reunification of Belarus on September 17

September 17, 1939 is only the date - in Soviet terminology - of liberation, but by no means of unification. The leadership of the Soviet Union at that time itself did not yet know whether the former Polish “north-eastern kres” would be in the same republic with the BSSR. De jure, the turn to the option, which eventually came true, began on September 28, 1939, when another treaty of friendship and border was signed between the USSR and Germany, which determined new line delimitation on Polish territory and spheres of influence in relation to the still sovereign Lithuanian state. On October 29, the People's Assembly of Western Belarus adopted a declaration on its entry into the BSSR. On November 2, 1939, the Kremlin officially granted this "request", which was only later (!), on November 14, duplicated by the Supreme Soviet of the BSSR.

Formally, the reunification of Belarus took place only almost two months after the “liberation”. But that's not all. After all, this is only legal side affairs. In fact, the reunification took place even later - after the war. The fact is that free movement was not allowed across the recent Soviet-Polish border. She was extremely vigilantly guarded. large forces border guards. It turns out that simple people got the opportunity to cross the former Soviet-Polish border only with the beginning of the German occupation. From September 17, 1939 until the end of June 1941, it was actually the Belarusian-Belarusian border.

"Soldiers of the Red Army disassemble the border between Belarus and Western Belarus." So says the inscription on the archival photo about the border, the ban on free movement through which was never lifted.

Based on the materials of the book: Anatoly Trofimchik, "1939 and Belarus: a forgotten war"

Almost every year in Belarus, some publicists and public organizationspropose to establish a holiday in honor of September 17, 1939, claiming that this day symbolizes the unification of Belarusians within the boundaries of a single state. Within the framework of this paradigm, Western Belarus was liberated from the oppression of the landowners and Polonization, Belarusian people began to live joyfully and peacefully in the Belarusian Soviet Republic, and this happy life was interrupted only by the war between the USSR and Germany in June 1941. According to supporters of this point of view, Belarus still enjoys the fruits of this event.

Opponents note that the Belarusian independent state did not exist then, that until September 17 the territory of Belarus was divided by Poland and the USSR, which did not even allow the thought of Belarusian independence, and in September 1939 Belarus simply passed under the control of one USSR. At the same time, although the Bolshevik leadership in Moscow made some concessions to the Belarusians in terms of organizing cultural life, the unprecedented mass terror that fell first on Eastern and then on Western Belarus led to executions, death in custody, deportation to Siberia and Far East many hundreds of thousands of Belarusians, Russification and destruction of traditional national culture.

In the minds of many, September 17, 1939 is the date when the Soviet troops, in agreement with Nazi Germany entered Western Belarus and Ukraine, stabbing Poland in the back, which is at war with Hitler, is either completely absent or covered in myths.

We will try to dispel some of the latter in this publication.

1. The territory of the BSSR after September 17, 1939 is the territory of the Republic of Belarus?

On November 12, 1939, the Third Extraordinary Session of the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR decided: "Accept Western Byelorussia into the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic and thereby reunite the Byelorussian people in a single Byelorussian state."

In December, the BSSR consisted of 10 regions, 5 "old" eastern ones - Vitebsk, Gomel, Minsk, Mogilev, Polesskaya; and 5 "new" western ones - Baranovichi, Bialystok, Brest, Vileika, Pinsk.

However, about a year later, quietly and without fanfare, the newly reunited Belarusian people in Moscow decided to divide again - giving part of the Belarusian territory to the recently annexed Lithuania. In November 1940, in connection with the transfer of part of the territory of the BSSR to the Lithuanian SSR, 3 districts were abolished: Godutishkovsky and Sventsyansky of the Vileika region, Porechsky district of the Bialystok region.

In the same way, considering the Belarusian land only as a bargaining chip in big political games, in 1944, after the next occupation of the territory of Belarus by the Red Army, Stalin grabbed a new piece from the BSSR - the Bialystok region and part of the Brest region.

Then there was the question of what kind of government would be in Poland, and Stalin, planning to put his puppets there, demonstrated to the USA, Great Britain and Polish public opinion his readiness to make concessions. The status of the BSSR as one of the founding countries of the UN did not interfere with this at all, the Belarusian Republic, which existed exclusively on paper, did not enjoy any real sovereignty.

From the remnants of the Bialystok region and part of the Brest region, the Grodno region was created.

Smaller pieces of the Belarusian territory in 1946-1955 Moscow handed over to Poland four more times.

If in 1940 the territory of the BSSR was 223 thousand square kilometers, then in 1959 it was 207 thousand, so the modern territory of Belarus is by no means the result of September 17, 1939.

2. The Bolsheviks stood as a mountain for Eastern Belarus in 1921 and defended it?

The division of Belarus into Western and Eastern was the result of the Peace of Riga in 1921 concluded between Poland and Soviet Russia (there was no USSR yet, and the agreement was discussed and signed by the delegation of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic), which ended the Soviet-Polish war of 1919-1920.

However, although the Polish delegation negotiated from a position of strength, in a period of major successes Polish army at the front, the Soviet-Polish border in Belarus was drawn further west than was possible.

The secretary of the Polish delegation Alexander Ladas will later write that in the Belarusian question for Poland:
"...Various possibilities were opened, and the decision depended solely on the will of the Polish delegation, since the Soviets, under the pressure of military operations, were ready for any concessions".

The Soviet delegation was really ready for anything for the sake of peace - in fact, the Brest peace previously signed by Lenin gave Germany the whole of Belarus, and if necessary, this experience could be easily repeated - the opinion of the Belarusian population on this matter worried the Bolsheviks in 1921 just as little as and in 1918.

Therefore, not the position of the Moscow delegation, but the discussions between the Polish negotiators Jan Dobsky and Stanislav Grabsky on the one hand and Leon Vasilevsky and Witold Kamenetsky on the other, led to the refusal of Poland from the lands of Central and Eastern Belarus. If Vasilevsky and Kamenetsky allowed the creation of a federal Belarusian state in alliance with Poland and were in favor of moving the border to the east, then the majority of the Polish delegation, on the contrary, considered Belarus as an object of Polonization, and therefore was afraid to include lands from too a large number non-Polish population.

The initiator of the construction of the Minsk Red Church Edward Voinilovich with sorrow and shame for Polish politicians wrote then:

"... Poland itself refused eastern regions. The Belarusians will not understand us, because we ourselves, complaining for so many years about the division of the state between three neighbors, now, without asking the Belarusians, have dismembered their country...

However, Grabsky, who negotiated behind the shoulders of the delegation, came to the conclusion that Poland once and for all needed to get rid of this "Belarusian plague", and was satisfied with the line of today's truce, which left Minsk to the Bolsheviks and passed near Nesvizh, halfway between Nesvizh and Timkovichi to the river Doe, and along it to Pripyat.

The Bolsheviks would give Poland and most Belarus, but the Poles did not take it.

3. In Western Belarus, were the Orthodox persecuted by the Polish authorities?

The policy of Poland in the 1930s was based on the desire to assimilate the Belarusians, including using the confessional factor - it was believed that the Orthodoxy of the majority of the Belarusian population as a whole prevented this. Besides a large number of Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic churches in the 19th century were confiscated by the Russian authorities and converted into Orthodox ones - this gave grounds to both local Catholic communities and the Polish authorities to initiate processes to return the buildings to their original owners. However, the problems of the Orthodox Church in Poland were not related to religious reasons- in 1935, the authorities even initiated the creation of Societies of Orthodox Poles in Western Belarus and helped these organizations, stimulating the use Polish in worship, encouraging the singing of Polish patriotic songs after the liturgy. Similar societies were created in Slonim, Bialystok, Volkovysk, Novogrudok.

At the same time, Catholic and Greek Catholic priests who used the Belarusian language in their sermons and tried to fight assimilation were persecuted.

An article in Belarusian Latin in the newspaper "Belarusskaya Krynitsa" dated October 18, 1925 about the persecution by the Polish authorities for patriotic activities of the Catholic priest and Belarusian nationalist Vincent Gadlevsky. At the end of 1942, he will be shot by the Germans.

Thus, the problems of Orthodox Belarusians in interwar Poland were caused not by their confessional affiliation, but, like the Catholic Belarusians, by national identification, resistance to assimilation.

At the same time, in the USSR, the most severe persecution, up to mass executions, were subjected to tens of thousands of Orthodox priests and hundreds of thousands of believers.

If by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War in Western Belarus, despite the arrests of dozens of priests by the NKVD, there were still about 800 Orthodox churches and 5 monasteries, then in Eastern Belarus the Orthodox Church practically officially ceased to exist - there was not a single open church in Minsk, in the summer of 1939 the last church was closed - in Bobruisk.

There would be no happiness, but misfortune helped - the situation for Orthodoxy in the east of Belarus would be sharply improved precisely by the war and the German occupation, which allowed believers to legally gather again, get churches for use and hold services in them. From 1941 to 1944, 306 Orthodox churches were opened in Eastern Belarus.

4. Until September 1939, the USSR advocated the unification of Western and Eastern Belarus into a single republic?

The need to "realize the aspirations of the Belarusian and Ukrainian peoples for reunification" arose in Soviet diplomatic documents only at the moment when it was necessary to somehow justify the introduction of Soviet troops into Poland.
Prior to that, the USSR repeatedly recognized the Polish borders, and in 1932 concluded a non-aggression pact with Warsaw, which was broken on September 17, 1939. Germany will do the same with respect to the USSR on June 22, 1941.

Moreover, still Treaty of Riga 1921, the Moscow delegation renounced any claims to the lands to the west of the established Polish-Soviet border, thus clearly voicing their opinion on this matter.

5. Soviet troops entered Western Belarus to protect the population from the advancing German army?

This version can sometimes be heard - it is an echo of those times when the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact had not yet been published and Soviet historians argued that the strike of Soviet troops on September 17, 1939 in the rear of Poland, which was at war with Germany, was not agreed with the top leadership of the Reich.

However, now the details of those events are well known. Germany attacked Poland on September 1, and in August the USSR and the Reich signed a non-aggression pact with secret protocol to it - on the delimitation of spheres of mutual interests in Eastern Europe in the event of "territorial and political reorganization."

Three days before the war on August 27, the German ambassador expressed concern that Soviet troops were being withdrawn from the Soviet-Polish border and asked Moscow to officially refute the rumors. In the spirit of mutual cooperation, the USSR not only dissuaded the ambassador, but also printed a TASS report stating that the Soviet command had decided to strengthen the grouping of Soviet troops on the western border "due to the aggravation of the situation." According to the leadership of the Reich, the presence of Soviet troops on the border could not only pull part of the Polish units, but also to influence the position of Poland's allies - France and England.

On September 1, Germany officially notified the USSR about the start of the war with Poland, and also asked to set up the work of the Soviet radio station in Minsk so that it could be used by German aircraft. The request was fulfilled.

At this time, Belarusian conscripts in the Polish army were already fighting with German troops in the west and north of Poland.

Subsequently, the USSR supplied Germany with resources and provided transit for German trade, coordinated diplomatic moves - until the summer of 1941, and cooperated with Hitler in many other ways against the backdrop of the already ongoing World War II.

But he certainly did not protect the Western Belarusian population from the Germans in 1939.

After all, Berlin itself already on September 3, 1939 asked Moscow about whether it plans to send troops to Poland. And I received an answer - yes, as agreed, we will definitely introduce it.

German chronicle about the actions of German aviation in Poland in September 1939

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Russian historian Mikhail Meltyukhov writes:

"On September 14, [Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR] Molotov told [German Ambassador] Schulenburg that "The Red Army has reached a state of readiness sooner than expected. Soviet actions can therefore begin earlier than the time indicated by him during the last conversation. Given the political motivation of the Soviet action (the fall of Poland and the defense of the Russian "minorities"), it would be extremely important not to start acting before the administrative center of Poland, Warsaw, falls. "Therefore, Molotov asked to be informed when it could be expected to fall".

In a telegram on the 15th, the Germans informed Moscow that they would capture Warsaw within a few days.

In a speech on October 31, 1939, before the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Molotov summarizes Soviet policy in relation to Nazism: "The ideology of Hitlerism, like any other ideological system, can be recognized or denied - this is a matter of political views. But any person will understand that ideology cannot be destroyed by force, it cannot be ended by war. Therefore, it is not only senseless, but also criminal to wage such a war as the war for the "destruction of Hitlerism" ... Our relations with Germany, as I have already said, have improved radically. Here things developed along the line of strengthening friendly relations, developing practical cooperation and political support for Germany in her aspirations for peace.

6. Belarusian nationalists in Western Belarus were sharply anti-Soviet from the very beginning and condemned the entry of Soviet troops?

Belarusian nationalists in Western Belarus, that is, people who aspired to create an independent Belarusian state, in the 1920s and 1930s almost without exception took anti-Polish positions - this was a natural reaction to the official anti-Belarusian policy of the Warsaw government.

Many, with almost no reliable information, looked to the east with hope, considering the Byelorussian SSR a real Belarusian state, where Belarusian culture and education, the economy works for the benefit of the entire population, the rights of all nationalities are protected. This was also facilitated to a large extent by the patriotic position of the Communist Party of Western Belarus (KPZB), which also constantly criticized the Polish national policy.

A letter from students of the Radoshkovichi Belarusian Gymnasium protesting "bullying and harassment against our cultural rights and political figures and our entire nationality", as well as Polish " school reform which does not allow our youth to receive an education in their native language. "On the page you can see the signatures of young men, some of whom after 1939 will become disillusioned with the BSSR, take a sharply anti-Soviet position and will fight against the Soviet Union since 1941." data-y-height="620" data-y-width="571" data-y-src="https://img.tyt.by/620x620s/n/07/d/pismo_radoshkovichi1_n.jpg" data-x -height="760" data-x-width="700" data-x-src="https://img.tyt.by/n/07/d/pismo_radoshkovichi1_n.jpg" data-zoom="1" alt ="(!LANG: Letter from students of the Radoshkovichi Belarusian Gymnasium protesting"издевательств и притеснений в отношении наших культурных прав и политических деятелей и всей нашей национальности", а также польской "школьной реформы, которая не позволяет нашей м" src="https://img.tyt.by/620x620s/n/07/d/pismo_radoshkovichi1_n.jpg" border="0" height="326" hspace="5" vspace="5" width="300">Письмо учеников Радошковичской белорусской гимназии с протестом по поводу "издевательств и притеснений в отношении наших культурных прав и политических деятелей и всей нашей национальности", а также польской "школьной реформы, которая не позволяет нашей молодежи получить образование на родном языке". На странице видны подписи юношей, некоторые из которых после 1939 года разочаруются в БССР, займут резко антисоветскую позицию и будут воевать против Советского Союза с 1941 года." data-y-height="620" data-y-width="550" data-y-src="https://img.tyt.by/620x620s/n/0b/a/pismo_radoshkovichi2_n.jpg" data-x-height="789" data-x-width="700" data-x-src="https://img.tyt.by/n/0b/a/pismo_radoshkovichi2_n.jpg" data-zoom="1" alt="Letter from students of the Radoshkovichi Belarusian Gymnasium protesting"издевательств и притеснений в отношении наших культурных прав и политических деятелей и всей нашей национальности", а также польской "школьной реформы, которая не позволяет нашей м" src="https://img.tyt.by/620x620s/n/0b/a/pismo_radoshkovichi2_n.jpg" border="0" height="326" hspace="5" vspace="5" width="289"> !}

However, the arrival of Soviet power in Western Belarus quickly put an end to these illusions.

Boris Ragulya, an officer in the Polish army, who fled in May 1940 from German captivity:

“Finally, we were able to cross the border into Belarus. In the very first hut we entered, we were told that we were fools and it would be better if we returned back [to the German zone of occupation] and came together with the Germans to liberate them. For me, this was a terrible blow ... Then I got a job in Lyubcha as a teacher in a school - in a castle. The school was Russian. When I asked the director why it turned out that here, in Lyubcha, where no one except the priest speaks Russian, - Russian school, he asked me: “Are you a nationalist?” I say: “Yes, once we fought with the Poles for Belarusian school, now the Byelorussian Soviet Republic - and again the Russian school "... A month later I was arrested ..."

7. Collectivization in Western Belarus began immediately after the establishment of Soviet control?

The confiscation of the lands of the landowners in Western Belarus was announced by the Soviet authorities immediately - in October 1939, and often it was completely spontaneous - former owners already fled, and the peasants simply divided the ownerless land and inventory among themselves. As Soviet officials arrived in the village, the former landowners' farms adapted to the needs of future collective farms, they created various kinds of offices for accounting and collecting products, councils, storage facilities, machine and tractor stations (MTS).

The creation of collective farms in Western Belarus, the Bolshevik leadership planned to carry out more smoothly than on eastern territories without causing those social and economic upheavals that led to mass famine in the USSR in the early 1930s.

Therefore, from the end of 1939 to June 1941, in connection with the creation of collective farms, the number of peasant farms decreased by only 7 percent. In total, collective farms - primarily in areas adjacent to the former Soviet-Polish border - were created 1115.

At the same time, the persecution of wealthier peasants, called kulaks, began, and the size of the farm was limited to 10, 12 and 14 hectares, depending on the quality of the land. It was forbidden to hire labor or to lease land.

Smorgon, November 2, 1939 "At a rally dedicated to the reunification of Western Belarus with the USSR."

Accession to the USSR of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus

The accession of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus to the USSR (according to official Soviet propaganda - the reunification of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus with the Ukrainian SSR and the BSSR), in essence, was the annexation of the USSR from Poland by the territories of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, in accordance with the adoption by the Extraordinary V session of the Supreme Council of the USSR of the Law of the USSR "On the inclusion of Western Ukraine into the Union of the SSR with its reunification with the Ukrainian SSR" (November 1, 1939) and the Law of the USSR "On the inclusion of Western Belarus in the Union of the SSR with its reunification with the Byelorussian SSR" (November 2, 1939 d.) on the basis of petitions of the Plenipotentiary Commissions of the People's Assembly of Western Ukraine and the People's Assembly of Western Belarus. The decision to submit petitions was stipulated in the Declaration "On the entry of Western Ukraine into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic", adopted by the People's Assembly of Western Ukraine in Lvov on October 27, 1939 and the Declaration "On the entry of Western Belarus into the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic", adopted by the People's Assembly Western Belarus in Bialystok on October 29, 1939, respectively.

The annexation of territories was a direct consequence of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact with a secret protocol to it, the outbreak of World War II and the division of Poland between Germany and the USSR. The annexation led to an increase in the territory and population of the Byelorussian SSR and, especially, the Ukrainian SSR, including at the expense of those territories (Galicia) that had never previously been part of either the Soviet Union or the Russian Empire.

On November 12, 1939, the Third Extraordinary Session of the Supreme Council of the BSSR decided: "Accept Western Belarus into the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic and thereby reunite the Belarusian people in a single Belarusian state."

On November 14, 1939, the third Extraordinary Session of the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR decided: "Accept Western Ukraine into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and thereby reunite the great Ukrainian people in a single Ukrainian state."

Both territories until September 28, 1939 were part of the Polish state following the Riga Peace Treaty of 1921, their western border was almost completely east of the Curzon Line recommended by the Entente as the eastern border of Poland in 1918. In March 1923 the Paris Conference allied ambassadors approved the eastern borders of Poland.

With the adoption and publication of the Laws of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR and BSSR on the inclusion of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus in the USSR with their reunification with the Ukrainian SSR and BSSR, the Stalin Constitution of 1936 and the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR extended their validity to the territories of the former Western Ukraine and Western Belarus and the BSSR of 1937, as the Basic Laws, as well as all other laws in force of the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian SSR and the BSSR. Various transformations began in these territories, accompanied by mass repression in relation to "class-alien" and "enemies of Soviet power" and affected a significant number of ethnic Poles living in these territories.

After the conclusion of the Sikorsky-Maisky Agreement on July 30, 1941, the territories of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, at that time occupied by Nazi Germany, received an indefinite status. The issue of territories discussed at the Tehran Conference was decided in favor of the USSR at Yalta Conference and enshrined at the Potsdam Conference. By the agreement of August 16, 1945 between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Polish Republic "On the Soviet-Polish state border" these territories (with small digressions in favor of Poland (Bialystok and its environs, Przemysl and its environs) were assigned to the USSR. In the second half of the 1940s - the first half of the 1950s. There has been a slight adjustment of the boundaries.

After Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, the USSR defiantly severed all economic and military relations with Germany. From that moment on, the official course of the USSR was the course towards the creation of a "Collective Security" system in Europe.
In March 1938 Germany carried out the Anschluss of Austria, and on March 15, 1939 Germany occupied the Czech Republic. The threat of the occupation of Poland loomed.
On March 18, 1939, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR, M. M. Litvinov, proposed convening a conference of six countries: the USSR, Britain, France, Romania, Poland, and Turkey in order to prevent further German aggression. However, the British side found this proposal "premature".
April 16, 1939 Litvinov, in response to English sentence to give Poland unilateral guarantees also from the USSR, proposed a draft tripartite treaty providing for "providing all kinds of assistance, including military assistance, to the Eastern European states located between the Baltic and Black Seas and bordering on the USSR, in case of aggression against these states."
The proposal for a tripartite alliance was seen in the West as too radical.
Accordingly, the proposals of England and France to the Soviet Union were rejected as not meeting the principle of reciprocity.
Thus, the possibilities of creating an anti-Hitler coalition were missed.
The prospect of participating in the war against Germany did not suit Stalin, and establishing ties with Berlin became for him priority. On May 3, Litvinov was dismissed and replaced by Molotov. In Berlin, this was taken as an encouraging sign (after all, Litvinov was a Jew, and it was not acceptable for the Nazi government to negotiate with a Jewish people's commissar). A day later, German newspapers were banned from any attacks on the USSR.
In May 1939, negotiations were resumed with Britain and France. The discrepancy was only on one point - "indirect aggression".
The Soviet wording was regarded by Britain and France as a demand from the USSR to give it the opportunity, at will and under any pretext, to send its troops into neighboring countries.
According to Churchill, Poland, Romania, Finland and three Baltic states they did not know what they were more afraid of - German aggression or Russian salvation. It was the need to make such a terrible choice that paralyzed the politics of England and France.
On August 3, 1939, Ribbentrop made his first official statement on the topic of German-Soviet rapprochement, which, in particular, contained a hint at the division of spheres of influence.
Despite ongoing negotiations with Britain and France, Germany's proposal to Stalin to conclude German-Soviet treaty about non-aggression and the division of spheres of influence seemed more advantageous.
August 23, 1939 non-aggression pact between Germany and Soviet Union with the application of the secret protocol was signed.
And already on September 1, Hitler attacked Poland. Poland's situation was hopeless. The Poles did not want to be occupied by the Red Army, but they could not resist the Germans either. England, although it has entered into an alliance with Poland, to render it military aid did not.
September 17, when almost all of Poland was occupied German troops, and the government of Poland emigrated, the Red Army crossed the Polish border of Poland and in a few days, almost without any resistance, occupied the territories formerly belonging to Ukraine and Belarus. Thus, the lands that Poland annexed to itself (so far, except for Lithuania) as a result of the Soviet-Polish war under the Riga Peace Treaty of 1921, have now passed into the USSR.
The Sovietization of these lands began.
Some actions new government caused the approval of the population: the expansion of the network of Ukrainian schools, the improvement of living conditions and medical care, nationalization, which at first did not affect the interests of the Ukrainian population, because trade and large-scale industry were in the hands of the Poles.
But soon the population felt Negative consequences activities of the new government: forced collectivization, liquidation of the activities of political parties, public organizations, terror against opponents of Soviet power.
But the Polish authorities in the period from 1921 to 1939 pursued a policy of Polonization, the forcible imposition of Catholicism and the oppression of Ukrainians and Belarusians.

Two and a half weeks after the German attack, the USSR invades Poland. Moscow says it's coming to save western Ukrainians and western Belarusians and tries not to look like an ally of Berlin. Carefully coordinating their actions, the two powers divide the country located between them in accordance with the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - exactly in half

On the day of the German attack on Poland, September 1, a general military duty, the draft age was lowered from 21 to 19 years and it was decided to triple the number of Soviet divisions. In the European part of the country, military training has been appointed, the demobilization of retired soldiers has been postponed, and civilian rail traffic has been reduced in order to transfer trains for military needs. Future fronts will be formed on the basis of the Kyiv and Belorussian districts.

Berlin is expecting an early counter offensive by the Red Army. On September 3, when the new plenipotentiary of the USSR presented his credentials, Hitler speaks as of a matter already decided:

Russia and Germany will establish the borders that existed before the world war,

that is, without Poland. However, Molotov responded to Ribbentrop's haste on September 4 that "the moment for concrete action is not ripe." There is a considerable risk in delaying, and the People's Commissar specifically stipulates: if the Germans have to "temporarily cross the line of contact between the interests of both sides", then this should not interfere with the "exact implementation adopted plan". The next day, the Polish ambassador Yezhibovsky hears from Molotov in a personal conversation:

The Soviet Union does not want to be drawn into this war on the other side.

Soviet official position camouflaged as neutral until the middle of the 10th of September. In the meantime, propaganda is being rebuilt. Stalin summons the head of the executive committee of the Comintern, Dimitrov, and orders Germany not to be considered an aggressor. As a result, the directive to the world communist parties calls fascist state Poland. In the Soviet press, a campaign is launched against the "pansky" power, which "oppressed other nationalities." The editorial of Pravda, "On the Internal Causes of Poland's Military Defeat," was prepared by the Party ideologue Zhdanov and corrected by Stalin. It is about the incapacity of the neighboring state, which “began to disintegrate at the first military failures”, and about “half-brothers” waiting for liberation. Moscow and Berlin are trying to agree in advance on a communiqué about the start of Soviet hostilities. The Germans propose a joint document about " common task» Germany and the USSR «in their natural spheres of influence», but the Kremlin does not want to be equally involved and reveal its agreement with the Nazis. In the Soviet one-sided project " fraternal peoples are called not only oppressed Poles in the past, but also “at risk of falling under German domination” in the present. So the intervention of the USSR looks much more plausible, but this is unacceptable for the Germans.

September 9 Berlin announces the fall of Warsaw. Molotov sends congratulations. Now the Kremlin is in a hurry, intending to speak on the 12th. But the news turned out to be false, they are waiting further. Another week passes, the Wehrmacht crosses the "line of interest" everywhere. It is impossible to delay, and the desired is passed off as real - in a note of the USSR government of September 17, it was announced:

Warsaw as the capital of Poland no longer exists,

although the capitulation of the Polish capital will be signed only on 28 September. But from this statement follows the main Soviet argument:

The Polish state and its government actually ceased to exist. Thus, the treaties concluded between the USSR and Poland ceased to be valid.

That is, even before the Soviet intervention, there was no country to which now there can be no obligations. But they are before consanguineous peoples, and the Red Army was ordered to cross the border and take under its protection "the life and property of the population of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus."

The operation starts on September 17 at 5 am. About half a million people, 4 thousand tanks, 5.5 thousand guns, 2 thousand aircraft were involved. This is more than the entire Polish Army, for which the invasion is a complete surprise. It is impossible to build a front of defense from the east, besides, at first the offensive of the Red Army was perceived as anti-German. Soviet troops move almost unhindered, making up to 100 km a day. Already on the 18th Ukrainian front Rovno was taken, and Belorussian - Vilna (Vilnius). Stalin, having rejected another version of the text sent by the German Foreign Ministry, himself draws up a joint statement. It is immediately announced by Moscow and Berlin: the troops of the two powers are "operating in Poland" in order to

restore order and tranquility, disturbed by the collapse Polish state, and help the people of Poland to reorganize the conditions of their state existence.

For the Kremlin, this campaign is also a continuation civil war. In 1920, during the previous Polish campaign, Stalin himself was the commissar of the Red Front, which Lvov could not take. Then the powers of the Entente demanded from Soviet Russia to stop at the turn of the Ukrainian and Belarusian majority of the population, recognizing this "Curzon Line" - by the name of the head of the British Foreign Office, from which the note came - as the eastern Polish border. Lenin rejected the ultimatum, hoping to sovietize all of Poland, and then start a revolution in Germany. They hurried with the offensive - until the West intervened. As a result, the Red Army near Warsaw was then defeated, retreated, and the Poles even occupied Minsk. I had to conclude a peace treaty, ceding Western Ukraine and Western Belarus.

According to the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the demarcation with Germany mainly takes place along the "Curzon Line". In addition to Lvov, there is a large ledge to the West, in favor of the USSR. Perhaps this is Stalin's personal trophy. Never entered into Russian empire, until 1918, the Austrian Lemberg, Lviv, and during the Civil War, and by the beginning of World War II - the city of the Polish majority, Ukrainians are only third there, after the Jews. On the 19th of September, the Red Army finds itself at the local suburbs. Lviv is already surrounded by the Germans. Comes to a clash of German and Soviet units. The command of the Wehrmacht insists: we will take the city and hand it over to the Russians. Then a joint assault is proposed. Moscow is adamant, and Hitler personally orders his generals to withdraw 10 km to the west. German blockade they change to the Red Army, and on September 22 Lvov surrenders to the Soviets. On the same day, the Belorussian Front captured Grodno, where the Poles fiercely resisted.

Everywhere begins the withdrawal of German troops back to the "line of interest". By agreement, the vanguard of the Red Army should follow 25 km after the German tail column. A military delegation arrives from Berlin to Moscow to clarify the demarcation line with People's Commissar of Defense Voroshilov and Chief of the General Staff Shaposhnikov. And on September 27-29, Ribbentrop was again received in the Kremlin, signing the Treaty of Friendship and Border with the Reich Minister. Germany receives the lands of the Warsaw and Lublin Voivodeships, previously intended for the USSR, in exchange for Lithuania, together with Vilna (Vilnius). Stalin does not need Poles in Ukraine and Lithuanians in Belarus, because soon he will get all of Lithuania.

In new Soviet cities The Wehrmacht and the Red Army hold several joint parades: in Grodno, Pinsk, and the most famous one in Brest, which is hosted by General Guderian and brigade commander Krivoshein. The USSR received 50.4% of the Polish territory, almost 200 thousand km 2 with a population of about 13 million people. There are many refugees from the zone of German occupation, especially Jews. In the north they form five regions of Belarus. Of these, Bialystok after the war will be returned to socialist Poland, and the rest will be enlarged. According to the latest administrative division these are the entire Brest and Grodno regions and the western parts of the Minsk and Vitebsk regions. In the south - six new regions of Ukraine, of which Khmelnytsky, Rivne, Ternopil, Volyn, Lvov and Ivano-Frankivsk will continue to be preserved. The Supreme Council accepts these lands as part of the USSR, and Molotov at the session says:

It turned out that a short blow to Poland, first by the German army, and then by the Red Army, was enough to leave nothing of this ugly offspring of the Treaty of Versailles.

The fifth partition of Poland, carried out by participants in all previous ones (three in the 18th century, the fourth in 1815, after Napoleonic Wars), causes the guarantors of Versailles - Britain and France - a restrained official reaction. A full-fledged Soviet-German military alliance would be much worse, so there is no question of breaking off relations. The Polish government in exile was advised not to declare war on the USSR. Public opinion may be indignant: the Red Army "stabbed Poland in the back" (the expression "Times"), politicians are inclined to believe that Moscow "took its own." Churchill, then Lord of the Admiralty, said:

The fact that the Russian armies had to stand on this line was absolutely necessary for the security of Russia against the Nazi threat. The conferences of the heads of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition in 1943-1945 will decide that the restored Poland will receive compensation for the territory at the expense of Germany.

Captured Polish soldiers - Ukrainians and Belarusians are sent home, most of the natives of the Polish lands proper will be handed over to Germany. In March 1940, the head of the NKVD, Beria, will turn to the Politburo about the Poles kept by his department - former officers, policemen, "members of the nationalist counter-revolutionary parties", as well as "former landowners, manufacturers, officials." As "hardened, incorrigible enemies of the Soviet regime," it was decided to shoot them. Nearly 22,000 people are executed in the Katyn forest near Smolensk, in camps and prisons.

Indeed, having suffered from the Poles, many Ukrainians and Belarusians, especially in the villages, are happy with the Red Army. In the cities, the attitude is wary. Even in Moscow, the standard of living is lower than in pre-war Lvov and Bialystok, to say nothing of Soviet Ukraine and Belarus. The "soldiers-liberators" are in a hurry to acquire watches, clothes, button accordions, etc., which unpleasantly impresses the local inhabitants. Soon they themselves will learn about Soviet commodity shortages. The Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks decides to hold " popular assemblies from the elected” - Western Ukrainian in Lvov and Western Belarusian in Bialystok. Their delegates are selected as deputies of the Supreme Soviet. The meetings approve the declarations written in the Central Committee union republics: we enter the USSR, liquidate landownership, nationalize industry and banks. On November 1-2, relevant federal laws were adopted.

For the Kremlin, even the communist parties of Poland, Western Ukraine and Western Belarus are not loyal enough - their organizations have been disbanded, regional committees of the CP (b) U and CP (b) B are being established. Communists are sent from the eastern regions of these republics, party Ukrainians and Belarusians are demobilized from the army. local indigenous rural population in comparison with the Soviet collective farmers - completely anti-socialist: religious, with a large "kulak stratum", "infected with nationalism." Immediate collectivization is difficult. At the end of 1940, the NKVD will report on the "cleansing of the enemy element" of the annexed regions: in total, over 400 thousand people were arrested, 275 thousand of them were deported, over 300 "counter-revolutionary organizations" and 150 "bandit groups" were liquidated. Deportations will continue even before the war itself, in June 1941. During the Nazi occupation Western Ukraine will turn out to be a zone of mass collaborationism, the rebel underground will be destroyed only in the 1950s (see "Forest Brothers"; "Bandera is killed"). In the post-Soviet period, the "defenders" are the most active supporters of the pro-Western course of Ukraine.

In the Soviet Union "reunification" Ukrainian people will end with the inclusion in the Ukrainian SSR before the war of the Romanian Northern Bukovina and after the war - the Czechoslovak Subcarpathian Rus (Transcarpathian region with a center in Uzhgorod).

Phenomena mentioned in the text

German attack on Poland. World War II 1939

On September 1, Germany attacked Poland. Britain and France declare war on the aggressor. They do not conduct active hostilities, but there is no return to the previous state - the Second World War begins

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact 1939

On the eve of the inevitable war in Europe, Stalin chooses Nazi Germany as a partner for the USSR. According to the secret annex to the non-aggression pact, the two powers divide "spheres of influence" - they determine the boundaries of their seizures. By the next treaty and secret protocols to it, the parties clarify the boundaries and exchange territories

1939

Battle of Britain 1940

After defeating all the forces that opposed him on the European continent, Hitler approves a plan to attack the last enemy - Great Britain. But, not having achieved air superiority, landings from the sea will have to be abandoned.

Beria 1938

The heads of the NKVD were replaced every two years, but the next people's commissar would remain near Stalin until the death of the leader. Lavrenty Beria was first instructed to curtail the Great Terror (see 1937)

Katyn 1990

April 13 TASS publishes a statement about the execution of prisoners Polish officers in Katyn forest in the Smolensk region. Until now, the USSR insisted that the Germans did it in 1941. Now he admits: he executed the Poles Soviet NKVD in 1940

Deputies to the Soviet parliament of a new model are elected with pomp - as fictitious as the former All-Russian Central Executive Committee

Forest brothers 1948

The authorities cannot finally defeat the anti-Soviet resistance in the Baltic States and, in order to eradicate its social base, conducts the first after the war mass deportation"hostile elements"

Bandera killed 1959

Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Ukrainian nationalists, who lives in Germany under a false name, was liquidated by a KGB agent. But the killer, awarded in Moscow, will then flee to the West, and the world will learn about the methods of work of the Soviet special services.

Orange Revolution 2004

Having mobilized half of the country's electorate, the united opposition under the orange banners disrupts Operation Successor in Ukraine. The outgoing president, Leonid Kuchma, tried to keep incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych in his place. Russia is helping the Ukrainian authorities in word and deed. The opposition is supported by the West. As a result of the third round of voting, the Orange leader Viktor Yushchenko was elected president. The second “revolution” in the CIS after Georgia looks like a wave of new democratization, which seriously scares the Kremlin

Portal for the student. Self-training