The Polish operation of the Red Army began 80 years ago. The Polish campaign began in the conditions of the death of the Polish state under the blows of the Third Reich. The Soviet Union returned to the state the Western Russian lands captured by Poland during the Soviet-Polish war of 1919-1921. and pushed the border lines to the west. It is possible that it was these kilometers that saved Moscow from falling in 1941.
How the Polish elite sentenced the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
In the pre-war period, Warsaw looked at Hitler's Germany as an ally in a future war with the USSR (Polish predator). Poland took part in the partition of Czechoslovakia. In 1938, the Poles conquered the Cieszyn region, an economically developed region, which significantly increased the production capacity of Poland's heavy industry. In March 1939, when Germany finished off Czechoslovakia, Slovakia became "independent" (a vassal of the Third Reich), and Bohemia and Moravia (Czech Republic) became part of the German Empire. Warsaw did not protest against the capture of the Czech Republic, but was offended by the fact that it was allocated too little share.
Even before the capture of Czechoslovakia, Berlin began to put pressure on Warsaw, preparing to resolve the Polish question. In January 1939, Hitler met with Polish Foreign Minister Beck. The Fuhrer invited him to abandon old patterns and look for solutions on new paths. In particular, Danzig can be politically reunited with the German Empire, but Polish interests, especially economic (Danzig could not exist economically without Poland), must be ensured. According to Hitler's formula, Danzig politically became German, and economically remained with Poland. The Fuhrer also touched upon the issue of the Polish corridor - after the Versailles Peace of 1919, the Polish territory divided East Prussia from the rest of Germany. Hitler noted that Poland needs a connection with the Baltic Sea, but Germany also needs a land connection with East Prussia. And it is necessary to find a solution that will meet the interests of both parties.
Thus, Adolf Hitler clearly formulated the interests of the Reich - to return Danzig to Germany and revise the status of the Polish corridor that separates Germany from East Prussia. Beck said nothing sensible in response - neither for nor against.
In April 1939, England and Poland signed an agreement on mutual assistance. In the same period, Moscow offered London to conclude an agreement between Britain, France and the USSR on mutual assistance in the event of aggression in Europe against any of the contracting powers. Also, the three powers were to provide any, including military, assistance to the Eastern European states located between the Baltic and the Black Sea and bordering the USSR, in case of aggression against them. That is, with such an agreement, the Third Reich had no chance of winning against Poland or France. The West could have prevented a major war in Europe, but London and Paris needed a war - a "crusade" of Germany against Russia.
Such an agreement could change the course of history, stop the further expansion of the Third Reich and the world war. However, most of the British and French elite preferred to continue the policy of playing off Germany and Russia. Therefore, the summer negotiations between the USSR and the Western powers were actually sabotaged by Paris and London. The British and French were dragging out time, they sent minor representatives who did not have broad powers to conclude a military alliance. Moscow, however, was ready for such an alliance, offering to deploy 120 divisions against the aggressor.
Poland generally refused to let the Red Army pass through its territory. First, in Warsaw they feared an uprising in the Western Russian regions, which, at the sight of the Red Army, would oppose the Poles. Secondly, the Polish elite was traditionally overconfident. Warsaw was not afraid of a war with the Germans, they promised that "the Polish cavalry would take Berlin in a week!" If Germany dares to attack. In addition, the Poles believed that "the West will help them" if Hitler decides to attack Poland. Thus, the Polish elite refused to help the USSR in a possible war with the Third Reich. Thus, Warsaw signed the death warrant to the Polish state.
Moreover, Warsaw itself provoked Berlin to attack. In the summer of 1939, a new stage of Polish pressure on Danzig began. On July 29, Danzig protested the rude behavior of Polish customs officials. On August 4, Warsaw handed an ultimatum to the free city, in which it promised to impose a blockade on the import of food products, if the Danzig government did not promise that in the future it would never interfere in the affairs of Polish customs. Also, Polish customs officers were to receive weapons. In fact, Warsaw threatened to starve out Danzig, since the free city depended on external food supplies. At the request of Hitler, the free city capitulated. Berlin feared that Warsaw wanted to provoke a conflict with Germany, but she had not yet completed military preparations and wanted to keep the peace.
Poland at this time was experiencing a military psychosis associated with the demand to return Danzig-Gdansk. In mid-August 1939, the Polish authorities began mass arrests of Germans in Upper Silesia. Thousands of arrested Germans were sent inland. Thousands of Germans tried to flee to Germany. German firms and organizations were closed, consumer cooperatives and trade associations were disbanded.
Back in February 1939, Warsaw began to develop a plan for war with Germany and was ready to deploy 39 infantry divisions and 26 cavalry, border, mountain and motorized brigades. The Polish army numbered 840 thousand people.
Catastrophe of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Seeing that the Anglo-Franco-Soviet negotiations on the conclusion of a mutual assistance pact were at an impasse, despite all the efforts of Moscow, the Soviet government came to the final conclusion that the West wanted to get out of the crisis of capitalism at the expense of the USSR. In the Far East, in May 1939, battles began on the Khalkin-Gol River. Behind the Japanese were the United States and England, which set the Japanese Empire against China and the USSR.
Berlin in the summer of 1939 held another secret negotiations with London. The British were preparing an agreement with Hitler at the expense of Soviet civilization. No wonder a significant part of the British government documents about this period are still secret. Negotiations with the Nazis were conducted not only by politicians, lords, but also by members of the royal family. Moscow knew about these negotiations and their content. Stalin was well aware of secret German-British contacts. It was clear that the West wanted to come to an agreement at the expense of Russia.
It was necessary to make a retaliatory move, to gain time for the rearmament and modernization of the armed forces. In mid-August 1939, negotiations between Moscow and Berlin began. On August 23, 1939, Molotov and Ribbentrop signed the "Non-aggression Pact between Germany and the USSR" in Moscow. Also, the two great powers delineated spheres of influence in Eastern Europe.
It is obvious that Stalin, like Western military analysts at that time, thought that the war in the West, following the example of the First World War, would be of a long, positional nature. The French trumpeted the whole world about the "inaccessibility" of the Maginot Line. No one yet knew and would not have believed in a blitzkrieg, when the Wehrmacht in two or three weeks smashed to pieces the Poles, who were considered a serious military power and themselves threatened to take Berlin. The fact that the Germans will do away with France, Belgium and Holland in a few weeks, and even the expeditionary British army. In the West itself, they did not think about defeat, and when the war between the USSR and Finland began, Paris and London began to prepare for a war with Russia! Who could have foreseen that the armies of Poland, France, England, Holland, Belgium, Norway, Greece, Yugoslavia would be completely defeated, flee, and leave all their arsenals to the Germans. That factories throughout Europe, including "neutral" Swedes and Swiss, will work for the Third Reich.
In Moscow they thought they were getting several years of peace. While Hitler dealt with Poland, France and England, the USSR will complete its programs for rearming the Red Army and creating an ocean-going fleet. At the same time, having signed an agreement with Berlin, Molotov ended the war in the Far East with one stroke of the pen. In Tokyo, this non-aggression pact made a stunning impression. In Japan, it was decided that Germany had postponed plans for a war with the USSR for the time being. The fighting on Halkin Gol ends, Tokyo makes a strategic decision to attack in the south (colonies and possessions of the Western powers).
On September 1, 1939, Germany attacked Poland. On September 3, England and France declared war on the Reich, but in reality they did not fight. A "strange war" began (Why England and France betrayed Poland), when the Anglo-French troops fraternized with the Germans, drank and played, "bombed" Germany with leaflets. Paris and London "merged" Poland, deciding that after its defeat, Hitler will finally start a war with Russia. France and England had every opportunity to stop the big war in Europe at the very beginning. It was enough to start bombing the industrial centers and cities of Germany, to move their significantly superior forces against the weak second-rate divisions of the Germans on the Western Front (they did not even have tanks and aircraft!) To bring Berlin to its knees and make it ask for peace. Or play on the fear of the German generals, hurt by the memories of the First World War, who were very afraid of a war on two fronts and was ready to overthrow the Fuhrer. The German generals did not know what Hitler knew - London and Paris would not be fighting a real war. Poland will be given to him, as Czechoslovakia was given, and as France and almost all of Europe will be given.
As a result, the Allies did not lift a finger to help the dying Poland. The Polish armed forces turned out to be not as strong as the Polish propaganda trumpeted. The Poles were preparing more for war with the Russians than with the Germans. The Polish military-political leadership slept through the qualitative strengthening of the German army. And the West, in which they believed so, did not help, betrayed. Already on September 5, 1939, the order of the Polish high command followed to withdraw the remaining troops to Warsaw, on September 6 the Polish front collapsed. The Polish leadership, so proud and brave before the war, turned out to be rotten. Already on September 1, the country's president Moscicki fled from Warsaw, the evacuation of government institutions began on September 4, the government fled on September 5, and on the night of September 7, the Polish commander-in-chief Rydz-Smigly also fled from the capital. On September 8, the Germans were already on the outskirts of Warsaw.
On September 12, the Germans were at Lvov, on September 14 they completed the encirclement of Warsaw (the city surrendered on September 28). The remaining Polish troops were dissected, isolated from each other. Basically, Polish resistance from this time continued only in the Warsaw-Modlin area and to the west - around Kutno and Lodz. The Polish command gave the order to defend Warsaw at any cost. The Polish command hoped to hold out in the areas of Warsaw and Modlin, and near the border with Romania, and wait for help from France and England. The Polish leadership at this time asked the French for asylum in France. The Polish government fled to the Romanian border and began to ask for transit to France. On September 17, the Polish government fled to Romania.
Thus, the Polish state had actually ceased to exist by September 16-17. The Polish armed forces were defeated, the Wehrmacht captured all the main vital centers of Poland, only a few large centers of resistance remained. The Polish government fled, not wanting to die heroically in the defense of Warsaw. Germany, with further movement, would easily have occupied the remaining regions of Poland. Paris and London understood this well (that Poland no longer exists), so they did not declare war on the USSR when the Red Army crossed the Polish border.
Polish campaign of the Red Army
The question arose before Moscow: what to do in the current situation? It was possible to start a war with Germany, violating the just concluded non-aggression pact; To do nothing; occupy the West Russian regions occupied by the Poles after the death of the Russian Empire. To fight Germany and Japan, with the hostile attitude of England and France, was suicide. This scenario would clearly have pleased the French and British, who wanted a clash between Germany and the USSR. Nothing could be done - German troops would have occupied all of Poland and saved several weeks in 1941, which allowed them to implement the blitzkrieg plan and take Moscow in August - September 1941.
It is clear that the Soviet leadership made the most sensible decision. On the night of September 17, Moscow informed Berlin that in the morning the Red Army would cross the Polish border. Berlin was asked that German aviation should not operate east of the Bialystok-Brest-Lvov line. At 3 o'clock. 15 minutes. On the morning of September 17, the Polish ambassador in Moscow, Grzybowski, was handed a note stating:
“The Polish-German war revealed the internal bankruptcy of the Polish state. During the ten days of the war 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 disintegrated and shows no signs of life. This means that the Polish state and its government have virtually ceased to exist."
As a result, agreements between Poland and the USSR are losing their significance. Poland can become a convenient springboard from which a threat to the USSR can arise. Therefore, the Soviet government can no longer maintain neutrality, nor can Moscow indifferently look at the fate of the West Russian population (consanguineous Ukrainians and Belarusians). The Red Army received an order to cross the border and take under its protection the population of Western Belarus and Western Ukraine.
It is worth noting that in Paris and London they understood everything perfectly. The British government on September 18 made a decision that according to the agreement with Warsaw, England is obliged to defend Poland only in the event of German aggression, so there is no need to send a protest to Moscow. The governments of England and France advised the Polish leadership not to declare war on the USSR. In Poland, the reaction to the Soviet note and the appearance of the Red Army on Polish territory was contradictory. So, the commander-in-chief of the Polish army Rydz-Smigly gave two conflicting orders: in the first he ordered to resist, in the second, on the contrary, not to engage in battle with the Russians. True, there was little use from his orders, the control of the remaining troops had long been lost. Part of the Polish command generally considered the Soviet troops as "allied".
In general, the Polish army in the east of the country did not offer serious resistance to the Red Army. So on the first day of the Polish campaign, the losses of Soviet troops amounted to 3 people killed and 24 wounded, another 12 people drowned. Already on September 17, Baranovichi was occupied, in the area of which about 5 thousand Polish soldiers were captured. On the same day, our troops liberated Rivne. On September 18, they occupied Dubno, Rogachuv and Lutsk, on September 19 - Vladimir-Volynsky. On September 18-19, Soviet troops took Vilna. In the battles for the city, the 11th Army lost 13 people killed and 24 wounded, 5 tanks and 4 armored vehicles were knocked out. In the Vilna region, about 10 thousand people and large reserves were taken prisoner. On September 19, Soviet troops took the city of Lida and Volkovysk. On September 20, battles began for Grodno, on September 22, Soviet troops occupied the city. Here the Poles put up noticeable resistance. The Red Army lost 57 people killed, 159 wounded, 19 tanks were destroyed. 664 Poles were buried on the battlefield, more than 1, 5 thousand people were taken prisoner. On September 21, the Red Army occupied Kovel.
On September 12-18, the German army surrounded Lviv from the north, west and south. From the east, units of the Red Army came out to the city. The parties demanded from each other to withdraw the troops from the city and not interfere with its assault. By the evening of September 20, the Wehrmacht received an order from the high command to withdraw from Lvov. As a result, the city was taken by the Red Army on September 22.
On September 21, 1939, the troops of the Belorussian and Ukrainian fronts received an order from the People's Commissar of Defense to stop at the line reached by the forward units. Meanwhile, the leaders of the USSR and Germany were conducting intense negotiations over the demarcation line. On September 22, units of the German army began to retreat, gradually yielding the occupied territories that were part of the USSR's sphere of influence to the Red Army. In particular, on September 22, Soviet troops occupied Bialystok and Brest. By September 29, the trip was completed.
Thus, the Polish army did not offer serious resistance. Polish units immediately surrendered, or after a small battle, or retreated, abandoning fortifications, heavy weapons and supplies. During the Polish campaign from September 17 to October 2, 1939, the Red Army lost 852 killed and died, 144 missing. For comparison, in the conflict with Japan on the river. Khalkin-Gol, our casualties amounted to more than 6, 8 thousand people and missing more than 1, 1 thousand people. The Polish losses were, of course, higher - about 3, 5 thousand killed, about 20 thousand wounded, about 450 thousand prisoners.
On September 28, 1939, in Moscow, Ribbentrop and Molotov signed an agreement on friendship and the border between the USSR and Germany. As a result, Russia returned the lands of Western Belarus and Western Ukraine-Little Russia: an area of 196 thousand square meters. km and with a population of about 13 million people. In November, these territories, according to the popular expression organized with the participation of the Soviet side, were annexed to the Ukrainian SSR and the BSSR. The territory of the Vilna region, together with Vilna, was transferred to Lithuania in October. This event had an important military-strategic importance - the borders of the USSR were moved to the west, which led to gaining time.
