Soviet troops invaded Poland. Polish campaign of the Red Army (RKKA)

Original taken from procol_harum on September 17, 1939 - Soviet attack on Poland

Many people don't know this at all. And over time less people remains 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. They think the way someone likes or benefits to think.

Original taken from maxim_nm in How the USSR attacked Poland (photos, facts).

Exactly 78 years ago, September 17, 1939 USSR following Nazi Germany, it attacked Poland - the Germans brought in their troops from the west, this happened on September 1, 1939, and more than two weeks later USSR troops entered Polish territory from the east. Official reason the entry of troops was supposedly “protection of the Belarusian and Ukrainian population”, which is located on the territory "the Polish state, which revealed internal failure".

A number of researchers clearly assess the events that began on September 17, 1939 as the entry of the USSR into World War II on the side of the aggressor (Nazi Germany). Soviet and some Russian researchers view these events as a separate episode.

So, in today's post - big and interesting story about the events of September 1939, photos and stories of local residents. Go to the cut, it’s interesting)

02. It all started with the “Note of the USSR Government”, presented to the Polish ambassador in Moscow on the morning of September 17, 1939. I quote its text in full. Pay attention to the figures of speech, especially the juicy ones I have highlighted in bold - personally, this reminds me very much of the modern events regarding the “annexation” of Crimea.

By the way, in history, in general, it is very rare that the aggressor himself called his actions “aggression.” As a rule, these are “actions aimed at protecting/preventing/preventing” 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. Within ten days of military operations, Poland lost all of 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 virtually ceased to exist. Thus, the agreements concluded between the USSR and Poland were terminated. Left to its own devices and left without leadership, Poland turned into a convenient field for all sorts of accidents and surprises that could pose a threat to the USSR. Therefore, being hitherto neutral, the Soviet government cannot be more neutral in its attitude towards these facts.

The Soviet government cannot also be indifferent to the fact that half-blooded Ukrainians and Belarusians living on the territory of Poland, abandoned 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 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 plunged by their foolish leaders, and to give them the opportunity to live a peaceful life.

Please accept, Mr. Ambassador, the assurances of our utmost respect.

People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR

V. Molotov."

03. In fact, immediately after the delivery of the note, the rapid entry of Soviet troops into Polish territory began. The Soviet Union introduced armored tanks and armored vehicles, cavalry, infantry and artillery into the territory. In the photo - Soviet cavalrymen accompany an artillery battery.

04. Armored vehicles crossing the Soviet-Polish border, photograph taken September 17, 1939:

05. Infantry units of the USSR in the border area. By the way, pay attention to the fighters’ helmets - these are SSh-36 helmets, also known as “Halkingolka”. These helmets were widely used in the early period of World War II, but in films (especially of the Soviet era) they are almost never seen - perhaps because this helmet resembles the German "stahlhelm".

06. Soviet tank BT-5 on the streets of the city http://maxim-nm.livejournal.com/42391.html, which was a border town “beyond the Polish hour”.

07. Soon after the “annexation” of the eastern part of Poland to the USSR, a joint parade of Wehrmacht troops and units of the Red Army took place in the city of Brest (then called Brest-Litovsk), this happened 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 “ceremonial procession”, but as for me, the essence 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 armor tank 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, stopping on the streets where they pass German regiments, 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 border”, photograph taken in Brest in September 1939:

11. New Frontier:

12. Nazi and Soviet tank crews communicate with each other:

13. German and Soviet officers:

14. Immediately after arriving in the “annexed lands,” Soviet units launched agitation and propaganda. These kinds of stands were installed on the streets with stories about the Soviet armed forces and the advantages of living in.

15. It must be admitted that many local residents at first greeted the Red Army soldiers with joy, but later many changed their minds about the “guests from the east.” “Purges” and the deportation of people to Siberia began, and there were often cases when a person was shot simply because there were no calluses on his hands - they say, “an unemployed element,” an “exploiter.”

This is what residents of a well-known Belarusian town said about Soviet troops in 1939 World(yes, the same one where the world famous castle is), quotes from the book "The World: Historic Myastechka, What the Yago Zhykhars Told", translation into Russian is mine:
.

“When the soldiers walked, no one gave them anything or treated them. We asked them how life was there, did they have everything?” The soldiers answered - “Oh, we are good! We have everything there!” In Russia they said that life in Poland is bad. But it was good here - people had good suits and 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 Westerners was the appearance of the Red Army soldiers, who were for them the first representatives of the “socialist paradise.” When the Soviets arrived, you could immediately see how people lived there. The clothes were bad. When they saw the prince’s “slave,” they thought it was the prince himself and 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 “landowners’ daughters” were coming.

“Soon 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 had nothing left. Polish money depreciated in one day. We sold a cow, and the next a day they were able to buy only 2-3 meters of fabric and shoes. The liquidation 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 lived in Russia. When the Soviets came, that’s when we found out. We were happy about the Soviets. But when we lived under the Soviets, we were horrified. The removal of people began. They will “sew” something onto a person and take him away. The men were sent to prison, and their family was left alone. All those who were taken out did not return."

The original of this post is located at

Today, the Perm Regional Court sentenced Vladimir Luzgin to a fine of 200 thousand rubles for “rehabilitating Nazism.” The reason was an article posted by Luzgin on his VKontakte page. According to the investigation, which the court agreed with, the phrase “the communists and Germany jointly attacked Poland, unleashing the Second World War, that is, communism and Nazism honestly cooperated” contradicts the results of the Nuremberg Tribunal.

But what then to do with the world-famous annex to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which is passed even in high school? We asked historians to evaluate how much the fatal phrase from Luzgin’s repost contradicts the facts.

Ilya Budraitskis

historian, political theorist

The phrase “the communists and Germany jointly attacked Poland” refers to the Soviet-German treaty of 1939 and, more precisely, to the secret protocols according to which the territory of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia was to be divided between Germany and the USSR. The very fact of the existence of these protocols, as well as the responsibility Stalin's USSR for the occupation of these countries, was recognized back during perestroika by the Congress of People's Deputies. Since then, despite a huge number of publications and political statements (including by President Putin), which actually deny the aggressive nature of the actions of the Soviet state during this period, and sometimes the very existence of a secret annex to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, officially Russian Federation did not revise the assessment made in 1989.

However, this does not mean the truth of the statement that the USSR is equally responsible with Germany for starting the war. In addition, the conclusion of an agreement with Hitler was a sharp reversal of the entire previous political line of the USSR and the Communist International, which since 1935 (VII Congress of the Comintern) had called for the creation of all-democratic Popular Fronts against the fascist threat. The conclusion of the pact looked like a betrayal in the eyes of many European communists and led to a serious crisis in a number of pro-Soviet communist parties (in particular in the French Communist Party). Evidence of this stunning impact of the pact on the anti-fascist and labor movements of Europe can be found in hundreds of memoirs of its participants, as well as in fiction(for example, in the famous novel by Arthur Koestler “Blinding Darkness”).

Margaret Buber-Neumann, wife of one of the leaders Communist Party Germany, who emigrated to the USSR after Hitler came to power and was repressed in Moscow in 1937, was transferred Soviet authorities Gestapo in 1940 (after the pact) and then spent years in women's concentration camp Ravensbrück. Her book of memoirs, “The World Revolution and the Stalinist Regime,” provides terrible evidence of this unprincipled zigzag of Stalin’s foreign policy.

The German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, naturally, instantly radically changed the Soviet foreign policy line, and the heroic struggle of the Red Army and European communists - participants in the anti-fascist resistance made many forget the shameful history of 1939.

The temporary cooperation between Stalin and Hitler, naturally, was not of an ideological nature; moreover, on Stalin’s part it was not “honest” and was an actual betrayal of communist principles. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was thus an act of cynical and situational raison d’etat, but did not bring Nazism and communism, which were and remain radical and irreconcilable opponents, closer together.

Of course, the statement disseminated by Vladimir Luzgin contradicts the results of the Nuremberg Tribunal, which unequivocally found Germany solely guilty of starting the war. However, the tribunal itself, in which the prosecution was presented by four allied countries, was supposed to consolidate the results of the victory over Nazi Germany and establish a general understanding of the justice of this victory, and not to understand the nuances of the history of its own indirect responsibility for the strengthening of Hitler (not only in relation to the Soviet- the German Pact of 1939, but also the Munich Agreement of 1938, as a result of which England and France actually came to terms with the German division of Czechoslovakia).

The verdict of the Perm court is in fact fully consistent with Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code. And the main question should be posed not only in connection with a specific judicial decision, but with the very possibility of regulating public judgments about history with the help of the Criminal Code.

The text to which Luzgin referred is certainly evaluative, propaganda and contains significant distortions of facts. However, the same deliberate distortion, only from other, “patriotic” positions, can be blamed on the popular panegyrics to Stalin that flood the shelves of Russian bookstores, justifying repressions, deportations and the aggressive foreign policy of the USSR. At the center of the problem, therefore, is the very transformation of history into an instrument for justifying the current policies of power. Similar dangerous games with historical politics, the legitimation of the present through a distorted and constantly reconstructed past is characteristic not only of Putin’s Russia, but also of most countries of Eastern Europe. The primitive drawing of the equal sign between Nazism and communism, which can be found in the text distributed by Luzgin, unfortunately, turned into key figure ideologies of most post-socialist countries.

History, used as a stupid instrument of ideological hegemony of elites, is deprived of its dramatic, complex content and turns into a resource for extracting different national versions of the trampled “historical justice”, which are in irreconcilable contradiction with each other.

The history of the 20th century shows that it is precisely with the rhetoric of “restoring historical justice”, violated by external and internal enemies, that all too often the justifications for future wars begin. This is precisely what is worth thinking about in connection with the current sad Perm verdict.

Sergey Mikhailovich
Solovyov

Associate Professor of Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, editor-in-chief of the magazine "Skepticism"

The phrase “the communists and Germany jointly attacked Poland, unleashing the Second World War, that is, communism and Nazism honestly cooperated,” of course, is not the truth, but is nothing more than an ideological cliche. It can be divided into several components.

Throughout the 1930s, the USSR tried to create a system through diplomatic methods collective security in Europe. People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs M. M. Litvinov achieved the conclusion of cooperation agreements with Czechoslovakia and France in 1935 as a counterbalance to Nazi Germany. In 1936–1939, the USSR helped the Spanish Republicans in their fight against the fascists led by General Franco. The USSR supplied weapons, military specialists, raw materials for military industry and so on. In this civil war, the Spanish fascists enjoyed the full support of their Italian and German like-minded people; Hitler and Mussolini not only helped Franco in the most modern weapons, but also sent a total of about 200 thousand of their soldiers. Without this help, Franco's rebellion against the Republican government would have been doomed. England and France announced a policy of non-intervention, which played into the hands of the Nazis.

In September 1938, when Hitler made territorial claims to Czechoslovakia, the Soviet leadership seriously considered the possibility of a military confrontation with Germany, but Great Britain and France agreed to an agreement with Germany, thereby signing the death warrant for Czechoslovakia. This agreement deservedly went down in history as the Munich Agreement. Even before this, France and England did not react in any way to the Nazis’ violation of the Treaty of Versailles or to rearmament German army, to seize (Anschluss) Austria, although they had every opportunity for successful diplomatic and military pressure on Germany. Convinced of his own impunity and the weakness of a potential enemy, Hitler started the war.

Stalin and the Politburo tried to come to an agreement with England and France, because they understood that after Poland Hitler could attack the USSR, but these countries (primarily England) openly sabotaged the negotiations and played for time, hoping that the USSR and Germany would mutually weaken each other in war. For example, for the last round of negotiations, when the war was already on the horizon, France and England sent their representatives to the USSR... by sea, that is, by the longest route. The negotiations stalled on August 21 due to the reluctance of France and England to conclude any specific agreements and put pressure on Poland, which was not going to accept Soviet help in any form.

It was as a result of this policy of encouraging the aggressor that the USSR concluded the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (just two days after the termination of negotiations with Western countries), so as not to become the next victim of the Nazis and to receive (according to the secret protocols to the pact) a sphere of influence in Eastern Europe - a buffer against the inevitable aggression of the Nazis.

In addition, any fascism (German Nazism, Italian and Eastern European fascisms, fascist regimes in Latin America like Pinochet's in Chile) is based on anti-communism. Any agreement between the Nazis and the USSR could only be temporary, and that is how it was regarded by both sides in 1939. To talk in this regard about some kind of “honest cooperation” is simply stupid.

The Union sent troops into Poland not at the same time as the Nazis, not on September 1, but on September 18, when the military defeat of Poland was already a fait accompli, although fighting in different parts of the country was still ongoing. There were no joint military operations, although, of course, Soviet and German troops jointly established demarcation lines and so on.

Crossing the Polish border, Soviet troops pursued a pragmatic goal - to push the border further to the West, so that in the event of German aggression against the USSR they would have more time to protect the economic and political centers of the USSR. It must be said that in the Great Patriotic War, the German blitzkrieg practically thwarted these plans: the territories newly annexed to the USSR under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact were captured by the Nazis in a matter of days.

This statement, of course, contradicts the decisions of the Nuremberg Tribunal, according to which Nazi Germany was recognized as the aggressor and initiator of the war. The process was adversarial, war criminals and Nazi organizations had every opportunity to defend themselves, their lawyers tried to refute this thesis, but they failed.

Speaking about the specific case that gave rise to these questions: the truth on this matter should still be established not by the court or the prosecutor’s office, but by historians in public discussions.

Kirill Novikov

Researcher at RANEPA

The fact is that Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939, and attacked alone, not counting the Slovak units. England and France declared war on Germany on September 3, which turned the Polish-German war into a world war, and the USSR invaded Poland only on the 17th, that is, when the world war had already begun. At the same time, the invasion of Poland by the Red Army was in line with the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, so the fact of cooperation between Moscow and Berlin cannot be denied.

However, this does not contradict the decisions of the Nuremberg Tribunal. Firstly, the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1946 still remained unpublished, so the tribunal, in principle, could not evaluate it. Secondly, the tribunal was established “to try and punish the main war criminals European countries axis,” that is, he could only judge the losers, but could not judge the winners. Consequently, the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal cannot be used to determine the degree of responsibility of the USSR and its allies for the outbreak of war. Finally, just because the defendants were found guilty of crimes against peace, it does not follow that there were no others guilty.

I can comment on the event related to V. Luzgin as follows. I believe that a person has the right to own opinion, even if he is wrong about something, from someone’s point of view. This is called freedom of speech, which is spelled out in our Constitution. History is up for debate. We need to have discussions, give arguments, and not drag them into jail.

Until the complete cessation of Polish resistance in early October (dates are called 7 and even ) of the year.

Prelude

September 1939

At the end of September, Soviet and German troops met at, and. There was even a small clash between the “allies”, during which both sides had minor losses. However, all the problems were resolved, and the German and Red armies held joint parades in and. years, summing up the results of the operation, he said, referring to Poland: “Nothing remains of this ugly brainchild that lived off the oppression of non-Polish nationalities.”

Campaign battles and skirmishes

The Battle of Sarn, The Battle of Dubne, The Battle of Kodziowci, The Defense of Vilno, The Battle of Puchova Góra, The Battle of Wola Sudkowska, The Battle of Wladypol, The Battle of Dchwola, The Battle of Krzemen, The Battle of Shaskem, The Battle of Wytyczno, The Battle of Kock.

Results

Poland was finally destroyed as a state. The USSR moved its border to the west, generally uniting all ethnically Belarusian and Ukrainian territories under its rule.

Territorial changes

Losses of the parties

The losses of the Polish side in actions against Soviet troops amounted to 3,500 people killed, 20,000 missing and 454,700 prisoners. Of the 900 guns and mortars and 300 aircraft, the vast majority were taken as trophies.

Prisoners

After the entry of Soviet troops into the territory of Western Belarus and the division of Poland between Germany and the USSR, tens of thousands of Polish citizens, captured by the Red Army and interned - military personnel of the Polish army and officials of local authorities, ended up in the territory occupied by Soviet troops. state power, “Osadniks” (military colonists), policemen.

With the entry of the Red Army into the eastern Polish lands, there was a wave of robberies, looting and spontaneous killings of members of the local Polish administration by peasants. The general described the appearance of “liberated” Lvov at the end of 1939:

Shops were looted, windows were broken, only one had several hats on it. Endless queues grocery stores. (..) People are in a gloomy mood. The streets are full of NKVD members and soldiers. The pavements and sidewalks are dirty and covered with snow. The impression is terrible.

The Soviet government gave the local population free education and medical care, support Ukrainian language; on the other hand, the Polish population was subjected to discrimination and repression. Coercion and repression against “socially hostile elements” dealt a heavy blow to the entire society and embittered the population. The Poles were subjected to severe discrimination; they tried not to hire them, and from the beginning of 1940 they began to deport them en masse. Even before the start of the Great Patriotic War, 312 thousand families, or 1173 thousand people, were exiled to Siberia. On June 1, 1941, 2.6 thousand collective farms were created here, in which 143 thousand were united. rural farms. According to the commander of the rear of Army Group South, General Friederici, the Ukrainian population in 1941, when German troops entered, greeted them as friends and liberators.

Polish campaign The Red Army of 1939 has become the subject of an incredible amount of interpretation and gossip. The invasion of Poland was declared both as the beginning 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 or partiality, a very clear logic is revealed 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, newly independent Poland laid claim not only to its own territories, but also to Ukraine and Belarus. The fragile peace of the 1930s did not bring friendly relations. On the one hand, the USSR was preparing for a worldwide revolution, on the other, Poland had huge ambitions in the international arena. Warsaw had far-reaching plans to expand its own territory, and in addition, it was afraid of both the USSR and Germany. Polish underground organizations fought against German Freikorps in Silesia and Poznan, and Pilsudski recaptured Vilna from Lithuania with armed force.

The coldness in relations between the USSR and Poland developed into open hostility after the Nazis came to power in Germany. Warsaw reacted surprisingly calmly to the changes at 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 bring honor to its participants. Hitler issued an ultimatum to Czechoslovakia, demanding the transfer to Germany of the Sudetenland on the German-Polish border. The USSR was ready to defend Czechoslovakia even alone, but did not have a common border with Germany. A corridor was needed through which Soviet troops could enter Czechoslovakia. However, Poland flatly refused to allow Soviet troops through its territory.

During the Nazi takeover of Czechoslovakia, Warsaw successfully made its own acquisition by annexing the small Cieszyn region (805 sq. km, 227 thousand inhabitants). However, now clouds were gathering over Poland itself.

Hitler created a state that was very dangerous for its neighbors, but its strength was precisely its weakness. The point is that exclusively fast growth Germany's war machine threatened to undermine its own economy. The Reich needed to continuously absorb other states and cover the costs of its military construction at someone else's expense, otherwise it was under the threat of complete collapse. The Third Reich, despite all its external monumentality, was a cyclopean financial pyramid needed to serve its own army. Only war could save the Nazi regime.

We are clearing the battlefield

In the case of Poland, the reason for the claims was the Polish corridor, which separated Germany proper from East Prussia. 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.

Warsaw, of course, was not pleased with such a rapid disintegration of the established tandem. 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 the Kremlin, on the contrary, 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 necessary.”

However, the Soviet Union intended to secure its interests in Eastern Europe. There was no doubt in Moscow that a big war was brewing. However, the USSR had a very vulnerable position in this conflict. 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 concerns directly from Estonia or Poland. However, the Soviet Union believed that they could be successfully used as a springboard for an attack on the USSR by a third force (and by 1939 it was quite obvious what this force was). Stalin and his entourage were well aware that the country would have to fight Germany, and would like to obtain the most advantageous positions before the inevitable clash.

Of course, where best choice there would be a joint action with the Western powers against Hitler. This option, however, was firmly blocked by Poland's decisive refusal of any contacts. True, there was one more obvious option: an agreement with France and Britain, bypassing Poland. The 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 plan of joint action could be proposed by the British and French, both regarding joint actions and in relation to the Polish question. Stalin feared (and quite rightly so) that the USSR might be left alone in the face of the Nazis. Therefore, the Soviet Union took a controversial move - an agreement with Hitler. On August 23, a non-aggression pact was concluded between the USSR and Germany, which determined the areas of interests in Europe.

As part of the famous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the USSR planned to gain time and secure a foothold in Eastern Europe. Therefore, the Soviets expressed an essential condition - the transfer of the eastern part of Poland, also known as western Ukraine and Belarus, to the sphere of interests of the USSR.

The dismemberment of Russia lies at the heart of Polish policy in the East... The main goal is the weakening and defeat of Russia."

Meanwhile, 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 leading army of its time, the Germans also outnumbered the Poles, so that within 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 sectors, and 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, centralized control of the Polish army simply did not exist. On September 16, the Germans reached Bialystok, Brest and Lvov.

At this moment the Red Army entered Poland. The thesis about a stab in the back of fighting Poland does not stand up to the slightest criticism: no “back” no longer existed. 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, and no joint operations were carried out. The Red Army soldiers occupied the territory, disarming Polish units that came their way. On the night of September 17, the Polish Ambassador in Moscow was handed a note with approximately the same content. If we leave the rhetoric aside, we can only admit the fact: the only alternative to the Red Army invasion was the capture eastern territories Poland by Hitler. The Polish army did not offer organized resistance. Accordingly, the only party whose interests were actually infringed was the Third Reich. The modern public, worried about the treachery 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. Poles' resistance was sporadic. However, confusion and a large number of Non-combat losses accompanied this march. During the storming of Grodno, 57 Red Army soldiers died. In total, the Red Army lost, according to various sources, from 737 to 1,475 people killed 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 troops, and on both sides there was damaged equipment and casualties.

On September 22, the 29th Tank Brigade of the Red Army entered Brest, which was occupied by the Germans. At that time, without much success, they stormed the fortress, which had not yet become “the one.” The piquancy of the moment was that the Germans handed over Brest and the fortress to the Red Army right along with the Polish garrison entrenched inside.

Interestingly, the USSR could have advanced even deeper into Poland, but Stalin and Molotov chose not to do this.

Ultimately, the Soviet Union acquired a territory of 196 thousand square meters. km. (half 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 military and civilians, the Red Army and the NKVD detained up to 400 thousand people. Some (mostly officers and police) were subsequently executed. Most of those captured were either sent home or sent through third countries to the West, after which they formed the “Anders Army” 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 or branded it an aggressor. Winston Churchill, with his characteristic rationalism, stated:

- Russia is holding cold politics own interests. We would prefer that the Russian armies stand in their present positions as friends and allies of Poland, and not as invaders. But to protect Russia from the Nazi threat, it was clearly necessary for the Russian armies to stand on this line.

What did the Soviet Union really gain? The Reich was not the most honorable negotiating partner, but the war would have started in any case - with or without a pact. As a result of the intervention in Poland, the USSR received a vast forefield 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 behind the Germans’ rear.

On September 17, 1939, the Soviet invasion of Poland took place. The USSR was not alone in this aggression. Earlier, on September 1, by mutual agreement with the USSR, the troops of Nazi Germany invaded Poland and this date marked the beginning of the Second World War.

It would seem that the whole world condemned Hitler’s aggression, England and France " declared war on Germany as a result of allied obligations, but were in no hurry to enter the war, fearing its expansion and hoping for a miracle. We will find out later that the Second World War had already begun, and then...then politicians still hoped for something.

So, Hitler attacked Poland and Poland is fighting with its last strength against the Wehrmacht troops. England and France condemned Hitler's invasion and declared war on Germany, that is, they sided with Poland. Two weeks later, Poland, with its last strength repelling the aggression of Nazi Germany, is additionally invaded from the east by another country - the USSR.

A war on two fronts!

That is, the USSR, at the very beginning of the global fire, decided to take the side of Germany. Then, after the victory over Poland, the Allies (USSR and Germany) will celebrate their joint victory and hold a joint military parade in Brest, spilling captured champagne from the captured wine cellars of Poland. There are newsreels. And on September 17, Soviet troops moved from their western borders deep into the territory of Poland towards the “brotherly” Wehrmacht troops to Warsaw, which was engulfed in fire. Warsaw will continue to defend itself until the end of September, confronting two strong aggressors and will fall in an unequal struggle.

The date September 17, 1939 marked the entry of the USSR into World War II on the side of Nazi Germany. It will be later, after the victory over Germany, that history will be rewritten and the real facts will be hushed up, and the entire population of the USSR will sincerely believe that the “Great Patriotic War” began on June 22, 1941, and then... then the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition received a severe blow and The global balance of power has sharply shaken.

September 17, 2010 it was 71st anniversary Soviet invasion to Poland. How did this event go in Poland:

A little chronicle and facts

Heinz Guderian (center) and Semyon Krivoshein (right) watch the passage of Wehrmacht and Red Army troops during the transfer of Brest-Litovsk on September 22, 1939 to the Soviet administration

September 1939
Meeting of Soviet and German troops in the Lublin area

They were the first

who met Hitler's war machine with an open face - the Polish military command.The first heroes of World War II:

Commander-in-Chief of the VP Marshal Edward Rydz-Smigly

Chief of the VP General Staff, Brigadier General Vaclav Stachewicz

VP Armor General Kazimierz Sosnkowski

Divisional General of the VP Kazimierz Fabrycy

Divisional General VP Tadeusz Kutrzeba

Entry of Red Army forces into Polish territory

At 5 a.m. on September 17, 1939, troops of the Belorussian and Ukrainian fronts crossed the entire length of the Polish-Soviet border and attacked the KOP checkpoints. Thus, the USSR violated at least four international agreements:

• Riga Peace Treaty of 1921 on Soviet-Polish borders
• The Litvinov Protocol, or the Eastern Pact of Renunciation of War
• Soviet-Polish non-aggression pact of January 25, 1932, extended in 1934 until the end of 1945
• London Convention of 1933, which contains a definition of aggression, and which the USSR signed on July 3, 1933

The governments of England and France presented notes of protest in Moscow against the undisguised aggression of the USSR against Poland, rejecting all of Molotov’s justifying arguments. On September 18, the London Times described this event as “a stab in the back of Poland.” At the same time, articles began to appear explaining the actions of the USSR as having an anti-German orientation (!!!)

The advancing units of the Red Army encountered virtually no resistance from the border units. To top it all off, Marshal Edward Rydz-Smigly gave the so-called in Kuty. “General Directive”, which was read out on the radio:

Quote: The Soviets invaded. I order the withdrawal to Romania and Hungary by the shortest routes. Do not conduct hostilities with the Soviets, only in the event of an attempt on their part to disarm our units. The task for Warsaw and Modlin, which must defend themselves from the Germans, remains unchanged. The units approached by the Soviets must negotiate with them in order to withdraw garrisons to Romania or Hungary...

The commander-in-chief's directive led to the disorientation of the majority of Polish military personnel and their mass capture. In connection with Soviet aggression, Polish President Ignacy Mościcki, while in the town of Kosov, addressed the people. He accused the USSR of violating all legal and moral norms and called on the Poles to remain strong and courageous in the fight against soulless barbarians. Mościcki also announced the transfer of the residence of the President of the Republic of Poland and all higher authorities “to the territory of one of our allies.” On the evening of September 17, the President and the government of the Republic of Poland, headed by Prime Minister Felician Skladkovsky, crossed the border of Romania. And after midnight on September 17/18 - the Commander-in-Chief of the VP Marshal Edward Rydz-Smigly. It was also possible to evacuate 30 thousand military personnel to Romania and 40 thousand to Hungary. Including a motorized brigade, a battalion of railway sappers and a police battalion "Golędzinow".

Despite the order of the commander-in-chief, many Polish units entered into battle with the advancing Red Army units. Particularly stubborn resistance was shown by units of the VP during the defense of Vilna, Grodno, Lvov (which from September 12 to 22 defended against the Germans, and from September 18 also against the Red Army) and near Sarny. On September 29 - 30, a battle took place near Shatsk between the 52nd Infantry Division and the retreating units of the Polish troops.

War on two fronts

The Soviet invasion sharply worsened the already catastrophic situation of the Polish army. In the new conditions, the main burden of resistance to German troops fell on the Central Front of Tadeusz Piskor. On September 17 - 26, two battles took place near Tomaszow Lubelski - the largest in the September campaign after the Battle of Bzura. The task was to break through the German barrier in Rawa Ruska, blocking the path to Lviv (3 infantry and 2 tank divisions of the 7th Army Corps of General Leonard Wecker). During the heaviest battles fought by the 23rd and 55th infantry divisions, as well as the Warsaw tank-motorized brigade of Colonel Stefan Rowecki, it was not possible to break through the German defenses. The 6th Infantry Division and the Krakow Cavalry Brigade also suffered huge losses. On September 20, 1939, General Tadeusz Piskor announced the surrender of the Central Front. More than 20 thousand Polish soldiers were captured (including Tadeusz Piskor himself).

Now the main forces of the Wehrmacht concentrated against the Polish Northern Front.

On September 23, a new battle began near Tomaszow Lubelski. The Northern Front was in a difficult situation. From the west, the 7th Army Corps of Leonard Wecker pressed against him, and from the east - the Red Army troops. Units of the Southern Front of General Kazimierz Sosnkowski at this time tried to break through to the encircled Lvov, inflicting a number of defeats on the German troops. However, on the outskirts of Lvov they were stopped by the Wehrmacht and suffered heavy losses. After the news of the capitulation of Lvov on September 22, the front troops received orders to split into small groups and make their way to Hungary. However, not all groups managed to reach the Hungarian border. General Kazimierz Sosnkowski himself was cut off from the main parts of the front in the Brzuchowice area. In civilian clothes, he managed to pass through the territory occupied by Soviet troops. First to Lviv, and then, through the Carpathians, to Hungary. On September 23, one of the last mounted battles of World War II took place. The 25th regiment of the Wielkopolska Uhlan, Lieutenant Colonel Bohdan Stakhlewski, attacked the German cavalry in Krasnobrud and captured the city.

On September 20, Soviet troops suppressed the last pockets of resistance in Vilna. About 10 thousand Polish soldiers were captured. In the morning, tank units of the Belorussian Front (27th Tank Brigade of the 15th Tank Corps from the 11th Army) launched an attack on Grodno and crossed the Neman. Despite the fact that at least 50 tanks took part in the assault, it was not possible to take the city on the move. Some of the tanks were destroyed (the city’s defenders widely used Molotov cocktails), and the rest retreated back beyond the Neman. Grodno was defended by very small units of the local garrison. All the main forces a few days earlier became part of the 35th Infantry Division and were transferred to the defense of Lvov, which was besieged by the Germans. Volunteers (including scouts) joined parts of the garrison.

The troops of the Ukrainian Front began preparations for the assault on Lvov, scheduled for the morning of September 21. Meanwhile, the power supply in the besieged city was cut off. By evening, German troops received Hitler's order to move 10 km from Lvov. Because according to the agreement, the city went to the USSR. The Germans made a last attempt to change this situation. The Wehrmacht command again demanded that the Poles surrender the city no later than 10 o’clock on September 21: “If you surrender Lvov to us, you will remain in Europe, if you surrender it to the Bolsheviks, you will become Asia forever”. On the night of September 21, the German units besieging the city began to retreat. After negotiations with the Soviet command, General Vladislav Langner decided to capitulate Lvov. The majority of officers supported him.

The end of September and the beginning of October marked the end of the existence of the independent Polish state. Warsaw defended until September 28, Modlin defended until September 29. On October 2, the defense of Hel ended. The last to lay down their arms were the defenders of Kotsk - October 6, 1939.

This ended the armed resistance of regular units of the Polish Army on Polish territory. To further fight against Germany and its allies, armed formations made up of Polish citizens were created:

• Polish armed forces in the West
• Anders Army (2nd Polish Corps)
• Polish armed forces in the USSR (1943 – 1944)

Results of the war

As a result of the aggression of Germany and the USSR, the Polish state ceased to exist. September 28, 1939, immediately after the surrender of Warsaw, in violation of the Hague Convention of October 18, 1907). Germany and the USSR defined the Soviet-German border on the territory of Poland they occupied. The German plan was to create a puppet "Polish residual state" Reststaat within the borders of the Kingdom of Poland and Western Galicia. However, this plan was not adopted due to Stalin's disagreement. Who was not satisfied with the existence of any Polish state entity.

The new border largely coincided with the “Curzon Line” recommended in 1919 by the Paris Peace Conference as a eastern border Poland, since it delimited areas of compact residence of Poles, on the one hand, and Ukrainians and Belarusians, on the other.

The territories east of the Western Bug and San rivers were annexed to the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR. This increased the territory of the USSR by 196 thousand km², and the population by 13 million people.

Germany expanded the borders of East Prussia, moving them close to Warsaw, and included the area up to the city of Lodz, renamed Litzmannstadt, into the Wart region, which occupied the territory of the old Poznan region. By decree of Hitler on October 8, 1939, Poznan, Pomerania, Silesia, Lodz, part of the Kielce and Warsaw voivodeships, where about 9.5 million people lived, were proclaimed German lands and annexed to Germany.

The small residual Polish state was declared the "General Government of the Occupied Polish Regions" under the control of the German authorities, which a year later became known as the "General Government of the German Empire". Krakow became its capital. Any independent policy of Poland ceased.

On October 6, 1939, speaking in the Reichstag, Hitler publicly announced the cessation of the 2nd Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the division of its territory between Germany and the USSR. In this regard, he turned to France and England with a proposal for peace. On October 12, this proposal was rejected by Neville Chamberlain at a meeting of the House of Commons

Losses of the parties

Germany- During the campaign, the Germans, according to various sources, lost 10-17 thousand killed, 27-31 thousand wounded, 300-3500 people missing.

USSR- The combat losses of the Red Army during the Polish campaign of 1939, according to Russian historian Mikhail Meltyukhov, amounted to 1,173 killed, 2,002 wounded and 302 missing. As a result of the fighting, 17 tanks, 6 aircraft, 6 guns and mortars and 36 vehicles were also lost.

According to Polish historians, the Red Army lost about 2,500 soldiers, 150 armored vehicles and 20 aircraft.

Poland- According to post-war research by the Bureau of Military Losses, more than 66 thousand Polish military personnel (including 2000 officers and 5 generals) died in battles with the Wehrmacht. 133 thousand were wounded, and 420 thousand were captured by the Germans.

Polish losses in battles with the Red Army are not precisely known. Meltyukhov gives figures of 3,500 killed, 20,000 missing and 454,700 prisoners. According to the Polish Military Encyclopedia, 250,000 military personnel were captured by the Soviets. Almost the entire officer corps (about 21,000 people) was subsequently shot by the NKVD.

Myths that arose after the Polish campaign

The war of 1939 has become overgrown with myths and legends over many years. This was a consequence of Nazi and Soviet propaganda, falsification of history and the lack of free access by Polish and foreign historians to archival materials during the Polish People's Republic. Some works of literature and art also played a decisive role in the creation of enduring myths.

"The Polish cavalrymen in desperation rushed with sabers at the tanks"

Perhaps the most popular and enduring of all myths. It arose immediately after the Battle of Krojanty, in which the 18th Pomeranian Lancer Regiment of Colonel Kazimierz Mastalez attacked the 2nd Motorized Battalion of the 76th Motorized Regiment of the 20th Motorized Division of the Wehrmacht. Despite the defeat, the regiment completed its task. The attack of the lancers brought confusion to the general course German offensive, knocked down his pace and disorganized the troops. It took the Germans some time to resume their advance. They never managed to reach the crossings that day. In addition, this attack had a certain effect on the enemy psychological impact, which Heinz Guderian recalled.

The very next day, Italian correspondents who were in the combat area, referring to the testimony of German soldiers, wrote that “Polish cavalrymen rushed with sabers at the tanks.” Some “eyewitnesses” claimed that the lancers cut down tanks with sabers, believing that they were made of paper. In 1941, the Germans made a propaganda film on this topic, Kampfgeschwader Lützow. Even Andrzej Wajda did not escape the propaganda stamp in his 1958 “Lotna” (the picture was criticized by war veterans).

The Polish cavalry fought on horseback, but used infantry tactics. It was armed with machine guns, 75 and 35 mm carbines, anti-tank guns"Bofors" a small amount of anti-aircraft guns"Bofors 40 mm", as well as a small number of "UR 1935" anti-tank rifles. Of course, the cavalrymen carried sabers and pikes, but these weapons were used only in mounted battles. Throughout the entire September campaign, there was not a single case of Polish cavalry attacking German tanks. It should be noted, however, that there were times when the cavalry galloped quickly in the direction of the tanks attacking it. With one single goal - to get past them as quickly as possible.

"Polish aviation was destroyed on the ground in the first days of the war"

In fact, just before the start of the war, almost all aviation was relocated to small, camouflaged airfields. The Germans managed to destroy only training and support aircraft on the ground. For two whole weeks, inferior to the Luftwaffe in numbers and quality of vehicles, Polish aviation inflicted heavy losses on them. After the end of the fighting, many Polish pilots moved to France and England, where they joined the Allied Air Force pilots and continued the war (after shooting down many German aircraft during the Battle of Britain)

"Poland did not provide adequate resistance to the enemy and quickly surrendered"

In fact, the Wehrmacht, superior to the Polish Army in all major military indicators, received a strong and completely unplanned rebuff from the OKW. The German army lost about 1,000 tanks and armored vehicles (almost 30% of the total strength), 370 guns, over 10,000 military vehicles (about 6,000 cars and 5,500 motorcycles). The Luftwaffe lost over 700 aircraft (about 32% of the total personnel participating in the campaign).

Manpower losses amounted to 45,000 killed and wounded. According to Hitler’s personal admission, the Wehrmacht infantry “...did not live up to the hopes placed on it.”

A significant number of German weapons were so damaged that they required major repairs. And the intensity of the fighting was such that there was only enough ammunition and other equipment for two weeks.

By time Polish campaign turned out to be only a week shorter than the French one. Although the forces of the Anglo-French coalition were significantly superior to the Polish Army both in numbers and in weapons. Moreover, the unexpected delay of the Wehrmacht in Poland allowed the Allies to more seriously prepare for the German attack.

Read also about the heroic one, which the Poles were the first to take upon themselves.

Quote: Immediately after the invasion of Poland on September 17, 1939 ""...The Red Army committed a series of violence, murders, robberies and other lawlessness, both in relation to captured units and in relation to the civilian population" "[http://www .krotov.info/libr_min/m/mackiew.html Jozef Mackiewicz. "Katyn", Ed. "Dawn", Canada, 1988] In total, according to general estimates, about 2,500 military and police personnel, as well as several hundred civilians, were killed. Andrzej Frischke. "Poland. The fate of the country and the people 1939 - 1989, Warsaw, publishing house "Iskra", 2003, p. 25, ISBN 83-207-1711-6] At the same time, the commanders of the Red Army called on the people to "beat the officers and generals" (from the address of Army Commander Semyon Timoshenko).

“When we were taken prisoner, we were ordered to raise our hands up and they drove us at a run for two kilometers. During the search, they stripped us naked, grabbing everything of any value... after which they drove us for 30 km, without rest or water. Who was weaker and did not keep up, received a blow with the butt, fell to the ground, and if he could not get up, he was pinned with a bayonet. I saw four such cases exactly that Captain Krzeminski from Warsaw was shoved with a bayonet several times, and when he fell, another Soviet. the soldier shot him twice in the head..." (from the testimony of a KOP soldier) [http://www.krotov.info/libr_min/m/mackiew.html Yuzef Matskevich. "Katyn", Ed. "Dawn", Canada, 1988] ]

The most serious war crimes of the Red Army took place in Rohatyn, where prisoners of war were brutally killed along with the civilian population (the so-called “Rohatyn massacre”) Vladislav Pobug-Malinovsky. "Newest political history Poland. 1939 - 1945", publishing house "Platan", Krakow, 2004, volume 3, p. 107, ISBN 83-89711-10-9] Katyn crime in documents. London, 1975, pp. 9-11]] Wojciech Roszkowski. "The modern history of Poland 1914 - 1945". Warsaw, "World of Books", 2003, pp. 344-354, 397-410 (volume 1) ISBN 83-7311-991-4], in Grodno, Novogrudok, Sarny, Ternopil, Volkovysk, Oshmyany, Svislochi, Molodechno and Kossovo Vladislav Pobug-Malinowski "The latest political history of Poland. 1939 - 1945", publishing house "Platan", Krakow, 2004, volume 3, p. 107, ISBN 83-89711-10-9] "...Terror and murders took on enormous proportions in Grodno, where 130 schoolchildren and servants, the wounded defencists were quenched on the spot. 12-year-old Tadzik Yasinsky was tied to a tank and dragged along the pavement. After the occupation of Grodno, repressions began; those arrested were shot on Dog Mountain and in the Secret grove. On the square under Fara lay a wall of corpses..." Julian Siedletski. "The Fates of the Poles in the USSR in 1939 - 1986", London, 1988, pp. 32-34] Karol Liszewski. "The Polish-Soviet War of 1939", London, Polish Cultural fund, 1986, ISBN 0-85065-170-0 (Monograph contains detailed description battles on the entire Polish-Soviet front and testimony of witnesses about war crimes of the USSR in September 1939)] Institute of National Memory of Poland. Investigation into the mass murder of civilians and military defenders of Grodno by Red Army soldiers, NKVD officers and saboteurs 09.22.39]

“At the end of September 1939, part of the Polish army entered into battle with a Soviet unit in the vicinity of Vilna. The Bolsheviks sent parliamentarians with a proposal to lay down their arms, guaranteeing in return freedom and return to their homes. The commander of the Polish unit believed these assurances and ordered to lay down their arms. The entire detachment at once surrounded, and the liquidation of the officers began..." (from the testimony of Polish soldier J.L. dated April 24, 1943) [http://www.krotov.info/libr_min/m/mackiew.html Jozef Matskevich. "Katyn", Ed. "Dawn", Canada, 1988] ]

"I myself witnessed the capture of Ternopil. I saw how soviet soldiers hunted Polish officers. For example, one of the two soldiers passing by me, leaving his comrade, rushed into opposite direction, and when asked where he was in a hurry, he answered: “I’ll be back now, just kill that bourgeois,” and pointed to a man in an officer’s overcoat without insignia...” (from the testimony of a Polish serviceman on the crimes of the Red Army in Ternopol) [http://www .krotov.info/libr_min/m/mackiew.html Yuzef Matskevich. “Katyn”, Publishing house “Zarya”, Canada, 1988] ]

“Soviet troops entered at about four o’clock in the afternoon and immediately began a brutal massacre and brutal abuse of the victims. They killed not only police and military personnel, but also the so-called “bourgeois”, including women and children. Those military personnel who escaped death and who As soon as they disarmed, they were ordered to lie down in a wet meadow outside the city. There were machine guns positioned in such a way that they could shoot low above the ground. They were held there all night. , and from there to the depths Soviet Russia..." (from testimony on the "Rohatyn massacre") [http://www.krotov.info/libr_min/m/mackiew.html Jozef Mackiewicz. "Katyn", Publishing House "Zarya", Canada, 1988] ]

“On September 22, during the battles for Grodno, at about 10 o’clock, the commander of the communications platoon, junior lieutenant Dubovik, received an order to escort 80-90 prisoners to the rear. Having moved 1.5-2 km from the city, Dubovik interrogated the prisoners in order to identify the officers and persons who took participation in the murder of the Bolsheviks. Promising to release the prisoners, he sought confessions and shot 29 people. The remaining prisoners were returned to Grodno. The command of the 101st was aware of this. rifle regiment 4th rifle division, but no measures were taken against Dubovik. Moreover, the commander of the 3rd battalion, Senior Lieutenant Tolochko, gave a direct order to shoot the officers..."Meltyukhov M.I. [http://militera.lib.ru/research/meltyukhov2/index.html Soviet-Polish wars. Military-political confrontation 1918-1939] M., 2001.] end of quote

Often Polish units surrendered, succumbing to the promises of freedom that the Red Army commanders guaranteed them. In reality, these promises were never kept. Like, for example, in Polesie, where some of the 120 officers were shot and the rest were sent deep into the USSR [http://www.krotov.info/libr_min/m/mackiew.html Yuzef Matskevich. "Katyn", Ed. "Zarya", Canada, 1988] ] On September 22, 1939, the commander of the defense of Lvov, General Vladislav Langner, signed an act of surrender, providing for the unhindered passage of military and police units to the Romanian border immediately after they laid down their arms. This agreement was violated by the Soviet side. All Polish military personnel and police were arrested and taken to the USSR. Wojciech Roszkowski. "Modern history of Poland 1914 - 1945". Warsaw, "World of Books", 2003, pp. 344-354, 397-410 (volume 1)ISBN 83-7311-991-4]

The command of the Red Army did the same with the defenders of Brest. Moreover, all captured border guards of the 135th KOP regiment were shot on the spot by Wojciech Roszkowski. "Modern history of Poland 1914 - 1945". Warsaw, "World of Books", 2003, pp. 344-354, 397-410 (volume 1)ISBN 83-7311-991-4]

One of the most serious war crimes of the Red Army was committed in Velikiye Mosty on the territory of the School of State Police Subofficers. At that time, in this largest and most modern police force educational institution There were about 1000 cadets in Poland. The School Commandant, Inspector Vitold Dunin-Vonsovich, gathered the cadets and teachers on the parade ground and gave a report to the arriving NKVD officer. After which the latter ordered to open fire from machine guns. Everyone died, including the commandant [http://www.lwow.com.pl/policja/policja.html Krystyna Balicka “Destruction of the Polish Police”] ]

The reprisal of General Olshina-Wilczynski

On September 11, 2002, the Institute of National Remembrance began an investigation into the circumstances of the tragic death of General Józef Olszyny-Wilczynski and Captain Mieczysław Strzemeski (Act S 6/02/Zk). Inquiries into Polish and Soviet archives revealed the following:

“On September 22, 1939, the former commander of the Grodno operational group, General Jozef Olshina-Wilczynski, his wife Alfreda, adjutant artillery captain Mieczyslaw Strzemeski, the driver and his assistant ended up in the town of Sopotskin near Grodno. Here they were stopped by the crews of two Red Army tanks. The tank crews ordered everyone left the car. The general's wife was taken to a nearby barn, where more than a dozen other people were already there, after which both Polish officers were shot on the spot. From the photocopies of Soviet archival materials located in the Central Military Archive in Warsaw, it follows that on September 22, 1939. In the Sopotskin area, a motorized detachment of the 2nd tank brigade of the 15th tank corps entered into battle with Polish troops. The corps was part of the Dzerzhinsky cavalry mechanized group of the Belarusian Front, commanded by corps commander Ivan Boldin...” [http://www.pl.indymedia .org/pl/2005/07/15086.shtml

The investigation identified the persons directly responsible for this crime. This is the commander of the motorized detachment, Major Fedor Chuvakin, and Commissioner Polikarp Grigorenko. There are also testimonies of witnesses to the murder of Polish officers - the wife of General Alfreda Staniszewska, the driver of the car and his assistant, as well as local residents. On September 26, 2003, a request was submitted to the Military Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation for assistance in the investigation into the murder of General Olszyna-Wilczynski and Captain Mieczyslaw Strzemeski (as a crime that does not have a statute of limitations in accordance with the Hague Convention of October 18, 1907). In the response of the Military Prosecutor's Office to the Polish side, it was stated that in this case we are not talking about a war crime, but about a crime under common law, the statute of limitations for which has already expired. The prosecutor's arguments were rejected as having as their sole purpose the termination of the Polish investigation. However, the refusal of the Military Prosecutor's Office to cooperate made further investigation pointless. On May 18, 2004 it was terminated. [http://www.pl.indymedia.org/pl/2005/07/15086.shtml Act S6/02/Zk - investigation into the murder of General Olszyna-Wilczynski and Captain Mieczyslaw Strzemeski, Institute of National Memory of Poland] ]

Why did Lech Kaczynski die?... The Polish Law and Justice party, led by President Lech Kaczynski, is preparing a response to Vladimir Putin. The first step against “Russian propaganda praising Stalin” should be a resolution equating the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 with fascist aggression.

Polish conservatives from the Law and Justice (PiS) party proposed to officially equate the invasion of Poland by Soviet troops in 1939 with fascist aggression. The most representative party in the Sejm, to which Polish President Lech Kaczynski belongs, presented a draft resolution on Thursday.

According to Polish conservatives, every day Stalin is glorified in the spirit of Soviet propaganda is an insult to the Polish state, the victims of World War II in Poland and around the world. To prevent this, they call on the Sejm leadership to “call on the Polish government to take steps to counter the falsification of history.”

“We insist on revealing the truth,” Rzeczpospolita quoted the statement as saying. official representative factions of Mariusz Blaszczak. “Fascism and communism are the two great totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, and their leaders were responsible for the outbreak of World War II and its consequences. The Red Army brought death and ruin to Polish territory. Its plans included genocide, murder, rape, looting and other forms of persecution,” reads the resolution proposed by PiS.

Blaszczak is confident that the date of September 17, 1939, when Soviet troops entered Poland, was not as well known until that time as September 1, 1939, the day of the invasion of Hitler’s troops: “Thanks to the efforts of Russian propaganda, which falsifies history, this remains the case to this day.”.

When asked whether the adoption of this document would harm Polish-Russian relations, Blaszczak said that there would be nothing to harm. In Russia, “smear campaigns are underway” against Poland, in which government agencies, including the FSB, are taking part, and official Warsaw “should put an end to this.”

However, the passage of the document through the Sejm is unlikely.

The deputy head of the PiS faction, Gregory Dolnyak, generally opposed the draft resolution being made public until his group managed to agree on the text of the statement with the other factions. “We must first try to agree on any resolution with historical content among us, and then make it public,” Rzeczpospolita quotes him as saying.

His fears are justified. The ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk's Civic Platform party is openly skeptical.

Deputy Speaker of Parliament Stefan Niesiołowski, representing the Civic Platform, called the resolution “stupid, untruthful and damaging to the interests of Poland.” “It does not correspond to the truth that the Soviet occupation was the same as the German one, it was softer. It is also not true that the Soviets carried out ethnic cleansing; the Germans did this,” he noted in an interview with Gazeta Wyborcza.

The socialist camp also categorically opposes the resolution. As Tadeusz Iwiński, a member of the Left Forces and Democrats bloc, noted to the same publication, LSD considers the draft resolution “anti-historical and provocative.” Poland and Russia succeeded in Lately bring closer positions on the issue of the role of the USSR in the death of the Polish state in 1939. In an article in Gazeta Wyborcza dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the start of the war, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact “unacceptable from a moral point of view” and had “no prospects in terms of practical implementation,” not forgetting to reproach historians writing for the sake of the “momentary political situation.” The idyllic picture was blurred when, at memorial celebrations on Westerplatte near Gdansk, Prime Minister Putin compared attempts to understand the causes of World War II to “picking through a moldy bun.” At the same time, Polish President Kaczynski announced that in 1939 “Bolshevik Russia” inflicted a “stab in the back” on his country, and clearly accused the Red Army, which occupied eastern Polish lands, of persecuting Poles on ethnic grounds.

The Nuremberg Military Tribunal sentenced: Goering, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Streicher, Sauckel, Jodl, Seyss-Inquart, Bormann (in absentia) to death by hanging.

Hess, Funk, Raeder - to life imprisonment.

Schirach, Speer - to 20, Neurath - to 15, Doenitz - to 10 years in prison.

Fritsche, Papen, and Schacht were acquitted. Ley, who was handed over to the court, hanged himself in prison shortly before the start of the trial. Krup (industrialist) was declared terminally ill, and the case against him was dropped.

After the Control Council for Germany rejected the prisoners' requests for clemency, those sentenced to death were hanged in Nuremberg prison on the night of October 16, 1946 (2 hours earlier, G. Goering committed suicide). The Tribunal also declared the SS, SD, Gestapo, and leadership of the National Socialist Party (NDSAP) criminal organizations, but did not recognize the SA, the German government, the General Staff and the Wehrmacht High Command as such. But a member of the tribunal from the USSR, R. A. Rudenko, stated in a “dissenting opinion” that he disagreed with the acquittal of the three defendants and spoke in favor of the death penalty against R. Hess.

The International Military Tribunal recognized the aggression the gravest crime international character, punished like criminals statesmen, guilty of preparing, unleashing and waging aggressive wars, rightly punished the organizers and executors of criminal plans for the extermination of millions of people and the conquest of entire nations. And its principles, contained in the Charter of the Tribunal and expressed in the verdict, were confirmed by the resolution of the UN General Assembly of December 11, 1946, as generally recognized norms international law and entered the consciousness of most people.

So, don't say that someone is rewriting history. It is beyond the power of man to change past history, change what has already happened.

But it is possible to change the brains of the population by implanting political and historical hallucinations in them.

Regarding the charges of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal, don’t you think that the list of accused is not complete? Many escaped responsibility and continue to go unpunished to this day. But the point is not even in them - their crimes, which are presented as valor, are not condemned, thereby distorting historical logic and distorting memory, replacing it with propaganda lies.

“You can’t trust anyone’s word, comrades... (Stormy applause).” (I.V. Stalin. From speeches.)