Post by Bonobo on Sept 17, 2009 20:47:18 GMT 1
Anniversary of 1939 Russian attack on Poland
17.09.2009 10:13
Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Russian invasion of Poland in 1939 when the Red Army practically sealed Poland's fate at the beginning of World War II.
The aggression from the east, which followed the German Nazi attack on Poland from the west sixteen days earlier, practically sealed Poland's fate at the beginning of World War II.
Soviet Russia attacked Poland at 6am in the morning on the 17 September 1939. Survivors recall that people did not expect it to happen.
“We believed the Russians would not attack, that they would keep their word. But sadly, they stabbed us in the back, so to say,” said one survivor.
The 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland was a military operation that started without a formal declaration of war on 17 September 1939, during the early stages of World War II, sixteen days after the beginning of the Nazi German attack on Poland. It ended in a decisive victory for the Soviet Union's Red Army.
Since 1935 Stalin wanted a nonaggression pact with Nazi Germany rather than an alliance with Britain and France. In early 1939, the Soviet Union allegedly tried to form an alliance against Nazi Germany with the United Kingdom, France, Poland, and Romania; but several difficulties arose, including the Soviet demand that Poland and Romania allow Soviet troops transit rights through their territories as part of collective security.[7] With the failure of the negotiations, the Soviets on 23 August 1939 signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany. As a result, on 1 September, the Germans invaded Poland from the west; and on 17 September, the Red Army invaded Poland from the east.[8] The Soviet government pretended that it was acting to protect the Ukrainians and Belarusians who lived in the eastern part of Poland, because the Polish state had collapsed in the face of the German attack and could no longer guarantee the security of its own citizens.[9][10]
The Red Army quickly achieved its targets, vastly outnumbering Polish resistance.[1] About 230,000 Polish soldiers or more (452,500[11]) were taken prisoners of war.[12] The Soviet government annexed the territory newly under its control and in November declared that the 13.5 million Polish citizens who lived there were now Soviet citizens. The Soviets quelled opposition by executions and by arresting thousands.[13] According to data published by IPN in 2009, they sent 320,000 to Siberia and other remote parts of the USSR in four major waves of deportations between 1939 and 1941. [14]. IPN estimates the number of Polish citizens who perished under the Soviet rule during World War II at 150,000. [14]. Some earlier estimates cited much higher numbers of victims.
The Soviet invasion, which the Politburo called "the liberation campaign", led to the incorporation of millions of Poles, western Ukrainians, and western Belarusians into the Soviet Ukrainian and Byelorussian republics.[15] During the existence of the People's Republic of Poland, the invasion was a taboo subject, almost omitted from the official history in order to preserve the illusion of "eternal friendship" between members of the Eastern Bloc.[16]
read more here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_invasion_of_Poland
Stalin and Hitler - best partners in 1939.
Soviets dismantle Polish border infrastructure
www.rp.pl/galeria/55362,10,296000.html
Polish Border Defence soldiers.
POWs
Nazi German- Soviet Russian friendship in 1939
At the newly established border
German Russian triumph parade in Polish Brześć Litewski
A few months later, 22.000 POWs, Polish army officers and policemen, the elite of the nation, were murdered by Soviets in execution sites, of which Katyn is the most known.
www.ivrozbiorpolski.pl/index.php?page=galeria-01
