Were the fighting of the Red Army against Poland in September 1939 by a “liberation campaign”?

In September 2021, the Russian Foreign Ministry published a tweet, in which he called the events of September 1939 "a liberation campaign of the Red Army in Poland." We checked how reasonable it is.

September 17, 2021, Russian Foreign Ministry on Twitter Congratulated subscribers with a significant date. According to the Foreign Ministry, “on September 17, 1939, the Red Army began a liberation campaign in Poland. Soviet troops entered the Kerzon line, not allowing the Wehrmacht to approach Minsk. The peoples of Western Belarus and Western Ukraine met Soviet soldiers with glee. ” Similar publications appeared in the accounts of the Foreign Ministry in other social networks, for example Facebook And Instagram. All these messages caused an ambiguous reaction of Internet users.

What really happened in September 1939? Soviet-Polish border, installed The Riga Peace Treaty, signed in March 1921, took place 30 km west of the modern city line of Minsk. However, the appearance of the German army near the city was extremely unlikely. According to the second point secret protocol To the non -aggression agreement between the USSR and Germany of August 23, 1939, after the “reorganization” of Poland, the line between the two countries was supposed to pass along the rivers Visla, Narev, Piss and San, that is, to the west Kerzon's lines - a conditional border separating the region with a predominantly Ukrainian, Belarusian and Polish population. She was named after the British Foreign Minister George Kerzon, who demanded to stop the advance of the Red Army during the 1920 Soviet-Polish War.

However, on September 5, 1939, the People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs of the USSR Vyacheslav Molotov in a commemorative note to the German ambassador in the Soviet Union Verner von Shulenburg indicatedthat the transition of the line of contact of interests is possible, but "such cases cannot interfere with the exact implementation of the adopted plan."

On the same day, the USSR refused Poland in the transit of military materials through its territory, Motivating This is an unwillingness to get involved in the war. At the same time, the USSR allowed German ships to enter Murmansk in order to avoid capture by French and British warships, as well as allowed Use the Minsk radio station as a radio beacon to orientate German military aircraft.

The delay in the beginning of hostilities against Poland was not caused by the peacefulness of the Soviet leadership, as stated in the video, but by the desire of the Central Committee of the All -Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the General Staff to complete the mobilization of personnel, as well as horses, vehicles and tractors from the national economy necessary to ensure mobility of the units and formations of the Ukrainian and Belarusian fronts. In addition, Moscow sought to find out the situation at the theater of military operations and the probability of the beginning of the large -scale hostilities of France and Great Britain in response to German aggression. September 9 Red Army General Staff gave Directive about the beginning of hostilities in two days. She ordered the troops of the Belarusian Front to seize by Oshmyany by September 14 and go to the approaches to Vilna (Vilnius), and the Ukrainian front-to advance to Lutsk and Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk).

However, then the beginning of the operation was postponed, since the reports of the German command about the capture of Warsaw were not confirmed on September 8: only the advanced tank units of the Wehrmacht came to its suburbs, which met the stubborn resistance of the garrison of the Polish capital and citizens. The siege of the city continued until September 28 and ceased due to the exhaustion of defense capabilities.

The delay in the beginning of hostilities is also connected with the desire of the USSR to evade accusations of complicity of German aggression. September 10, accepting the German ambassador Werner von Shulenburg, the People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs of the USSR Vyacheslav Molotov reportedthat “the Soviet government intended to declare that Poland is falling apart and as a result of which the Soviet Union should come to the aid of Ukrainians and Belarusians who are threatened with Germany. This pretext will present the intervention of the USSR plausive in the eyes of the masses and will give the Soviet Union the opportunity not to look like an aggressor. ”

The Red Army in most directions reached the Kerzon line, but in the Lviv and Bialystok directions, Soviet troops advanced in September 1939 significantly west. Help Belarusians and Ukrainians were more likely to be a pretext for the beginning of hostilities against Poland. In fact, for the Soviet leadership, the occupation of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus was part of the section of the spheres of influence in Eastern Europe according to the Molotov -Ribbentrop Pact, which confirmed the conclusion of the agreement between the USSR and Germany "About friendship and borders".

Indicative and speech Vyacheslav Molotov at the session of the Supreme Council on October 31, 1939: “It turned out to be a sufficient short blow to Poland from the side of the German army, and then the Red Army, so that nothing left of this ugly brainchild of the Versailles agreement, which lived due to the oppression of Nonfolsky nationalities.” The words of the People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs, He thinks Historian Sergei Sluch, confirmed that the leadership of the USSR recognized the participation of the Red Army in the defeat of Poland.

The term "liberation campaign" appeared in 1939. In the postwar years, he entrenched in historical literature, in particular in a six -volume "History of the Great Patriotic War" and 12-volume "History of World War II", as well as in university and school textbooks on the history of the USSR. This term masks the complicity of the USSR in the Germany war against Poland. As for the glee of the masses, most Ukrainians and Belarusians really rejoiced at the arrival of the Red Army, which, as it seemed to them, would end a discrimination on a national basis. However, the delight is pretty fast Weakened With the first attempts of collectivization and deportations. It is also difficult to assume that the Poles rejoiced at the arrival of the Red Army, who made up the majority of the population of the former Lviv and Bialystok Voivodes, who were under the control of the USSR.

Photo on the cover: Soviet troops enter Vilna (1939)

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What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation. Foreign policy documents. Volume 22
2. M. Meltyukhov. Soviet-Polish wars. Military-political confrontation of 1918–1939
3. N. Lebedeva. September 1939: Poland between Germany and the USSR
4. S. Sluch. USSR, Eastern Europe and World War II (1939–1941)