66 Years ago following the Ribbentrop-Molotov treaty, the Soviets attacked Poland and joined the WW2 on the side of Nazi Germany, breaking all the norms of international politics and diplomacy and morality.
Salut to all the victims of this aggresion, soldiers and civilians murdered by the soviet troops and NKWD, esp to polish officers murdered in forests round Katyn.The Polish defense was already broken, with their only hope being retreat and reorganisation in the south-eastern region (Romanian Bridgehead), when on September 17, 1939, it was rendered obsolete overnight. The 800,000 strong Soviet Union Red Army, divided into the Belarusian and Ukrainian fronts, invaded the eastern regions of Poland that had not yet been involved in military operations. While Soviet diplomacy claimed that they were "protecting the Ukrainian and Belarusian minorities inhabiting Poland in view of Polish imminent collapse", in fact they were acting in co-operation with Nazi Germany, carrying out their part of a secret deal (the division of Europe into Nazi and Soviet spheres of influence, as specified in the secret appendix of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact). Polish border defence forces (Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza) in the east (about 25 battalions) were unable to defend the border, and Edward Rydz-Ċmigly further ordered them to fall back and not engage the Soviets. This, however, did not prevent some clashes and small battles.
S!
Macca
S! to all the brave Pollish ppl...
all of those "great powers" were axis through the entire history of invading, so russians were axis at first in WW2,..later, after the WW2 they commited numerous executions in countries of "Eastern Block" (Hungary, Polland, Romania, East Germany etc. etc.).....GB, US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal etc. etc. ---> they were all "axis" in different periods of the history....the problem is that only german ppl learned their lesson....today, they are the first to stand up against any type of aggression....."we" didnt learn anything from the past wars...."wer" doing the same dirty job today....
Originally posted by horseback:
Why call it 'aggression' when 'backstabbing' will do?
Actually, there are no words sufficient or adequate to describe that evil opportunism...
cheers
horseback
nah, that WAS aggression...the backstabbing part came later, in 44, when the russians urged on the polish home army to uprise in warsaw, when they were just outside it, only to then mysteriously clam up and do nothing as the germans wiped out poles they encouraged to fight....very prudent on thier part, helped soften any possible polish resistance to the russians post war designs on poland
Thankyou FI_Macca44, it is a good time to remember the commencement of Soviet hostilities against Poland and later occupation that the Poles endured.
Does anyone have good sources about this campaign, its most interesting. According to Buchner the Soviet lost 737 KIA and 1862 WIA in fighting with Polish troops during this invasion.
Well there was nothing mysterious about it. All Poles who had supported the Polish Government-in-Exile and the Armia Krajowa were described as 'unreliable elements' by Stalin. Stalin regarded the Warsaw Uprising as a 'criminal act of anti-Soviet policy' which, in his eyes, was an attempt clearly to seize the Polish capital for the 'emigre government in London' before the arrival of the Red Army (which he claimed had 'done all the fighting an dying').Originally posted by Daiichidoku:
nah, that WAS aggression...the backstabbing part came later, in 44, when the russians urged on the polish home army to uprise in warsaw, when they were just outside it, only to then mysteriously clam up and do nothing as the germans wiped out poles they encouraged to fight....
A few links...
http://www.polandinexile.com/army1.htm
http://derela.republika.pl/armcarpl.htm
http://www.kasprzyk.demon.co.uk/www/WW2.html
http://www.humboldt.edu/~rescuers/bo...39/PMap39.html
http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/web/h...939/link.shtml
http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/eceu...and193945.html
http://www.polishnews.com/fulltext/h...history5.shtml