Soviet invasion of Poland (1939)

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Invasion of Poland: Germany and its allies from the west (blue), Soviet from the east (red).

The Soviet invasion of Poland took place sixteen days after the onset of the Second World War, that started on September 1, 1939 by the German attack on Poland. In the midst of the German successes in the western front, the Red Army forces invaded the territory of Poland through the eastern Polish border on September 17.

In the run up to war, the Soviet Union attempted to create an anti-German alliance with other natural opponents of German expansion: the United Kingdom, France and Poland itself. Having been rebuffed, the Soviet Union instead signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Germany nine days before the German invasion. This non-aggression pact had a secret appendix in which the Soviet Union and Germany divided the territory of Eastern Europe between themselves. In the wake of the German victories against the Polish Army, the Polish High Command withdrew almost all forces from the Polish-Soviet border to face the German threat. Sixteen days after the German invasion, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, violating the Soviet-Polish Non-Aggression Pact in order to safeguard territories allocated to the USSR in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. To justify its action, the Soviet Union issued a declaration that Poland as a feasible state no longer existed^[1] and the Soviet actions were aimed at protecting the Ukrainians and Belarusians inhabiting the eastern part of Poland.^[2]

Easily overcoming the minor Polish resistance, the Soviets quickly achieved their territorial goals. In the aftermath, all of the former Polish citizens from the areas annexed by the USSR were treated as if they were Soviet citizens. This resulted in thousands of people being arrested and hundreds of thousands of people (estimates vary) being sent to the east in four major waves of deportations^[3] with tens of thousands being executed.

1 Prelude
2 Military campaign
3 Aftermath
4 Gallery
5 References
6 See also
7 External links
8 Further reading

[edit] Prelude

Another map of the placement of Polish (only) divisions on September 1. Note that the majority of Polish forces were concentrated on the German border; the Soviet border was mostly stripped of units.

From the beginning of the Polish September Campaign the German government repeatedly asked Stalin to act upon the August agreement and attack Poland from the east; German ambassador to Moscow Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg and Stalin's protegé Vyacheslav Molotov exchanged many diplomatic communiqués on that subject.^[2] Worried by an unexpectedly rapid German advance and eager to grab their allotted share of the country, Soviet forces finally attacked Poland on September 17. It was agreed that the USSR would relinquish its interest in the territories between the new border and Warsaw in exchange for inclusion of Lithuania in the Soviet "zone of interest."

[edit] Military campaign

Situation after September 14, 1939.

By 17 September 1939 the Polish defense was already broken and their only hope was to retreat and reorganize along the Romanian Bridgehead. However, these plans were rendered obsolete nearly overnight, when the over 800,000 strong Soviet Union Red Army attacked and created the Belarussian (under Mikhail Kovalyov) and Ukrainian (under Semyon Timoshenko) fronts after invading the eastern regions of Poland. This was in violation of the Riga Peace Treaty, the Soviet-Polish Non-Aggression Pact and other international treaties, both bilateral and multilateral^[4]. Soviet diplomats claimed that they were "protecting the Ukrainian and Belarusian minorities of eastern Poland in view of the imminent Polish collapse." In fact, the Soviets were acting in co-operation with the Nazis, carving Europe into Nazi and Soviet spheres of influence as specified in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.^[2]^[5]^[1]

Polish border defence forces in the east, known as the Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza, consisted of about 25 battalions. The Polish commander-in-chief, Marshal of Poland Edward Rydz-Śmigły, ordered them to fall back and not to engage the Soviets.^[5] This, however, did not prevent some clashes and even small battles, as soldiers and the local population attempted to defend their homeland against the new invaders, although in some cases the non-ethnic Polish populations, particularly Ukrainians and Belarusians, actively supported the Soviet advance. Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists rose against the Poles, and communist partisans organised local revolts, e.g. in Skidel, robbing and murdering Poles. ^[6] Those movements were quickly disciplined by the NKVD.

The Soviet invasion was one of the decisive factors that convinced the legitimate Polish government that the war in Poland was lost. Prior to the Soviet attack from the East, the Polish military's fall-back plan had called for long-term defence against Germany in the south-eastern part of Poland, while awaiting relief from a Western Allies attack on Germany's western border. However, the Polish government refused to surrender or negotiate a peace with Germany and ordered all units to evacuate Poland and reorganize in France; soon afterwards - around midnight of the 17th September^[7] - the Polish government itself crossed into Romania - half a day after the Soviet Union declared that the Polish state no longer existed; and days after such a pretext was conceived.^[2]^[1] The Polish government in exile would re-estabilish itself just weeks later, and the Polish Underground State would function throught the entire Second World War in occupied Poland.

Soviet (left) and German officers meet after the Soviets' invasion of Poland.

The Red Army takes over in Brześć Litewski. The Wehrmacht general at the center is Heinz Guderian.

Meanwhile, Polish forces tried to move towards the Romanian bridgehead area, still actively resisting the German invasion and occasionally clashing with the Soviet forces. In a battle that lasted from 17 September to 20 September, the Polish Armies Kraków and Lublin were defeated by the Germans at the Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski, the second largest battle of the campaign. The city of Lwów capitulated on 22 September in a turn of events illustrative of the bizarre nature the conflict had taken on due to Soviet intervention; the city had been attacked by the Germans over a week earlier and in the middle of the siege, the German troops handed operations over to their new Soviet allies.^[8]^[9]In another case seemingly unthinkable a few years later, the Soviet 29th tank brigade under Brigadier S.M. Krivosheyin reached the area of Brześć Litewski (now Brest) on 17 September and peacefuly took over the fortress from the Wehrmacht, which had just taken the town; afterwards a joint German-Soviet parade was held in the town.^[10] On 19th September Soviet forces took Wilno after a two days battle. On September 24, the Red Army captured Grodno after a 4-day battle. After a tactical Polish victory at the battle of Szack, the Soviets executed all the NCOs and officers they had managed to capture. Soon afterwards, the Red Army easily reached the line of the rivers Narew, Western Bug, Vistula and San by September 28, in many cases meeting German units advancing from the other side. On October 1, in one of the last battles of the campaign, the battle of Wytyczno, Soviet forces forced the Polish units to withdraw into the forests.^[11]^[12]

Despite their country attacked by both of its powerful neighbours, some isolated Polish garrisons managed to hold their positions long after being surrounded by enemy forces. The Polish capital of Warsaw, defended by reorganised retreating units, civilian volunteers and militias, held out until its capitulation on 28 September. The Modlin Fortress north of Warsaw capitulated on 29 September after an intense 16-day battle. Oksywie garrison held until 19 September; Hel was defended until 2 October. The last operational unit of the Polish Army, General Franciszek Kleeberg's Samodzielna Grupa Operacyjna "Polesie", capitulated after the 4-day Battle of Kock near Lublin on 6 October, marking the end of the September Campaign.

[edit] Aftermath

Further information: Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union and Treatment of Polish citizens by occupiers

Between 250,000 to 450,000 Polish soldiers were taken prisoner of war by the Soviets.^[13]^[14] Soviets conquered about 250,000 square kilometers inhabited by 13.5 million Polish citizens, suffering only about 737 fatalities and 3000 casualties.^[5] On September 28, another secret German-Soviet protocol modified the arrangements of August: all Lithuania was to be a Soviet sphere of influence, not a German one; but the dividing line in Poland was moved in Germany's favor, to the Bug River. With few exceptions, the Soviet Union annexed all Polish territory east of the line of the rivers Pisa, Narew, Western Bug, and San. During the following two years, approximatly 100,000 Polish citizens would be arrested^[15]; between 350,000 to over 1,500,000 Poles would be deported and between 250,000 to 1,000,000 would die; the casualties were mostly civilians;^[3] although the Soviets also murdered tens of thousands of Polish prisoners-of-war; some immediatly during their invasion, like General Józef Olszyna-Wilczyński;^[16]^[17] over 20,000 others would die in the infamous Katyn massacre.^[10]

While accusations and claims of betrayal remained part of Western literature regarding the Soviet occupation of Poland, within the People's Republic of Poland, as in the entire Eastern Bloc at large, the events of the Soviet invasion of Poland and their aftermath were forbidden to be taught or researched; or at best portrayed as "liberation" of the Polish people from "oligarchic capitalism." ^[12]^[10]^[18] Despite the various attempts at whitewashing or silencing research and discussion of the Soviet occupation and massacres in Poland, they were however discussed in various underground publications (bibuła)^[12] or other media, such as the protest songs of Jacek Kaczmarski (Ballada wrześniowa) from 1982.^[19]

Polish-Soviet relations would be briefly re-established in 1941 after the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement, than broken off again after the news of the Katyn massacre.

[edit] Gallery

Near the end: TIME magazine, September 25, 1939.	"The stab in the back": Dziennik Chicagowski [Chicago Daily] � The Polish Daily News, September 19, 1939.	Red Army cavalry in Lviv. 1939.	According to Soviet propaganda, the Red Army invaded Poland so as to liberate and protect the "Ukrainian-Belarussian brothers". The text reads: "Our army is an army that liberates workers", signed "J. Stalin".
Soviet WWII propaganda poster depicting the Soviet annexation of eastern Poland / Western Ukraine as liberation of peasants from the yoke of pans. Note the villain is wearing a parade uniform of the Polish army.	Soviet WWII propaganda poster urging the civilians to beware of the spies. Note the villain seen in the shadow wearing a Polish parade uniform.	Soviet propaganda poster showing the bad fate of a peasant under Polish yoke and the liberation by the Red Army.	Soviet propaganda poster addressed towards the Western Ukrainian population. The Ukrainian text reads: "Electors of the working people! Vote for joining of Western Ukraine into the Soviet Ukraine, for the united, free and thriving Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Let's forever eliminate the border between Western and Soviet Ukraine. Long Live the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic!"
Soviet propaganda poster depicting the Red Army killing the Polish eagle that presumably oppressed the Ukrainian peasants under the former Polish rule.	Soviet propaganda leaflet addressed to Polish soldiers	Soviet propaganda leaflet addressed to Polish soldiers	Soviet propaganda leaflet addressed to Polish soldiers

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b ^c (English) Tadeusz Piotrowski (1997). Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide.... McFarland & Company, 295. ISBN 0-7864-0371-3.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d See telegrams: No. 317 of September 10: The German Ambassador in the Soviet Union, (Schulenburg) to the German Foreign Office. Moscow, September 10, 1939-9:40 p. m.; No. 371 of September 16; No. 372 of September 17 Source: The Avalon Project at Yale Law School. Last accessed on 14 November 2006; (Polish)1939 wrzesień 17, Moskwa Nota rządu sowieckiego nie przyjęta przez ambasadora Wacława Grzybowskiego (Note of the Soviet government to the Polish government on 17 September 1939 refused by Polish ambassador Wacław Grzybowski]. Last accessed on 15 November 2006.
^ ^a ^b The actual number of deported in the period of 1939-1941 remains unknown and various estimates vary from 350,000 ((Polish) Encyklopedia PWN 'OKUPACJA SOWIECKA W POLSCE 1939–41', last retrieved on March 14, 2006, Polish language) to over 2 millions (mostly WWII estimates by the underground). The earlier number is based on records made by the NKVD and does not include roughly 180,000 prisoners of war, also in Soviet captivity. Most modern historians estimate the number of all people deported from areas taken by Soviet Union during this period at between 800,000 and 1,500,000; for example R. J. Rummel gives the number of 1,200,000; Tony Kushner and Katharine Knox give 1,500,000 in their Refugees in an Age of Genocide, p.219; in his Lethal Politics: Soviet Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1917, p.132. See also: Marek Wierzbicki, Tadeusz M. Płużański (March 2001). "Wybiórcze traktowanie źródeł". Tygodnik Solidarność (March 2, 2001). and (Polish) Albin Głowacki (September 2003). Piotr Chmielowiec "Formy, skala i konsekwencje sowieckich represji wobec Polaków w latach 1939-1941". Okupacja sowiecka ziem polskich 1939–1941, Rzeszów-Warsaw: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej. ISBN 83-89078-78-3. According to Norman Davies almost half of the approximately one million deported Polish citizens were dead by the time the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement had been signed in 1941, as quoted by Bernd Wegner in From Peace to War: Germany, Soviet Russia, and the World, 1939-1941, Bernd Wegner, 1997, ISBN 1571818820. Google Print, p.78
^ Apart from the two pacts mentioned, the treaties violated by the Soviet Union were: the 1919 Covenant of the League of Nations (to which the USSR adhered in 1934), the Briand-Kellog Pact of 1928 and the 1933 London Convention on the Definition of Aggression; see for instance: (English) Tadeusz Piotrowski (1997). Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide.... McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-0371-3.
^ ^a ^b ^c http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.cgi?path=119281057047108 Review] PDF of Gross' Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland's West. H-net review, 2003. Last accessed on 14 November 2006.
^ For example, see events as described in: Bronisław Konieczny, Mój wrzesień 1939. Pamiętnik z kampanii wrześniowej spisany w obozie jenieckim, KSIĘGARNIA AKADEMICKA SP. Z O.O./Biblioteka Centrum Dokumentacji Czynu Niepodległościowego, ISBN 8371883285 [1] [2] [3] and Moje życie w mundurze. Czasy narodzin i upadku II RP, KSIĘGARNIA AKADEMICKA SP. Z O.O., 2005 ISBN 8371886934 [4] [5]
^ (Polish) Dariusz Baliszewski, "Most honoru", Tygodnik Wprost, Nr. 1138 (19 September 2004), Polish, retrieved on 24 March 2005
^ (Polish) Artur Leinwand (1991). Obrona Lwowa we wrześniu 1939 roku. Instytut Lwowski.
^ (Polish) Kazimierz Ryś (Kazimierz Ryziński), Ryszard Dalecki (1943-1990). Obrona Lwowa w roku 1939. Palestine-Rzeszów: WEiP APW, Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza, 50. ISBN 8303033565.; ISBN refers to the 1990 reprint of the original publication
^ ^a ^b ^c Fischer, Benjamin B., "The Katyn Controversy: Stalin's Killing Field", Studies in Intelligence, Winter 1999-2000.
^ Czesław Grzelak. Szack - Wytyczno 1939. Warsaw, Bellona. 1993. ISBN 8311093245.
^ ^a ^b ^c Wilhelm Orlik-Rückemann (1985). Leopold Jerzewski Kampania wrześniowa na Polesiu i Wołyniu; 17.IX.1939-1.X.1939. Warsaw, Głos, 20.
^ Молотов на V сессии Верховного Совета 31 октября цифра «примерно 250 тыс.»
^ Отчёт Украинского и Белорусского фронтов Красной Армии Мельтюхов, с. 367. http://www.usatruth.by.ru/c2.files/t05.html
^ (Polish)REPRESJE 1939-41 Aresztowani na Kresach Wschodnich (Repressions 1939-41. Arrested on the Eastern Borderlands.) Ośrodek Karta. Last accessed on 15 November 2006.
^ (Polish) Annoucemnt by Instytut Pamięci Narodowej about start of investigation of Genereal Olszyna-Wilczyński death. Last accessed on 14 November 2006.
^ Olszyna-Wilczyński Józef Konstanty, entry at Encyklopedia PWN. Last accessed on 14 November 2006.
^ Marc Ferro, The Use and Abuse of History: Or How the Past Is Taught to Children, Routledge, 2003, ISBN 0-415-28592-5, Google Print, p.258
^ Ballada wrześniowa (September's tale). Text from official page of Jacek Kaczmarski. Last accessed on 15 November 2006.