MOSCOW, 17 Sep. Poland in September 1939 was doomed to be defeated by Nazi Germany — Warsaw simply «slept through» the concentration of the Wehrmacht forces near its borders, besides, London was not going to provide real military support to the poorly trained Polish army, and the modern Polish authorities should remember how the Western states gave their country to the slaughter for the sake of their interests, the historian of the special services Vladimir Makarov told RIA Novosti. Friday marks 82 years since the beginning of the Liberation campaign of the Red Army — a complex of political and military measures of the USSR to establish control over the territory of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, held in September-October 1939.
The historian spoke about Mannerheim's plans in the event of the annexation of Karelia Catastrophic collapse «On March 14, 1939, German troops captured Czechoslovakia. In Warsaw, there was some» concern. » today they suddenly realized that trouble began to knock at their gates, so the country was surrounded on three sides by the Germans, «Makarov said. According to him, articles began to appear in the Polish opposition press then calling on the Polish authorities to» sober up » threats from Germany to face the truth and hasten to strengthen the Polish state. «But the Polish leaders were blind and deaf to what was happening at that moment in Europe,» Makarov said. «On August 25, two days after the imprisonment non-aggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union, a general protection pact was signed between Poland and Great Britain. the dialect contained mutual promises of military assistance in the event that one of the parties is attacked by a third party. It is believed that thanks to this pact, Hitler postponed the attack on Poland from August 26 to September 1, «said the historian, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR ratified the Soviet-German non-aggression pact on August 31, 1939. On the same day, Hitler made a speech in the Reichstag, in which he announced that German troops had begun the Polish campaign. World War II began. On September 3, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany, which later became known as the «strange war.» And on September 8, German armored units entered Warsaw. «It became obvious to everyone that the war was lost by Poland and the position of this country and its army is close to disaster,» Makarov explained. The Polish military, who witnessed the defeat of their army, later recalled how it literally collapsed and crumbled even without any battles with the Germans, and masses of soldiers wandered without commanders, not knowing what to do — no one commanded, did not give ikazov, did not know the situation, the historian said.
The historian spoke about the contribution of counterintelligence to the defeat of Japan in 1945 Order to come to the rescue Early in the morning of September 17, the Polish ambassador in Moscow was handed a note stating that “the Soviet government ordered the Red Army High Command to order the troops to cross the border and take life under its protection. and property of the population of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. «Then the head of the government of the USSR Vyacheslav Molotov made a speech on the Soviet radio. In his speech, he said, in particular, that «the events caused by the Polish-German war showed the internal inconsistency and obvious incapacity of the Polish state», that the Polish ruling circles went bankrupt in the shortest possible time, that no one knows about the whereabouts of the Polish government. and his government actually ceased to exist, and due to this situation, the agreements concluded between the USSR and Poland ceased to be effective, Molotov emphasized. The Soviet government considers it its sacred duty to lend a helping hand to its brothers — Ukrainians and Belarusians inhabiting Poland, he said. The People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the USSR on the same day passed notes to foreign ambassadors in Moscow, which explained the decision of the government of the Soviet Union to enter the territory of Western Belarus and Western Ukraine. «And the Red Army entered the territory of the» watercress «, seized by Poland during the Polish-Soviet war of 1919-1920, and on the lands of which the Polish landlord unleashed a real genocide of the civilian population,» added Makarov. On September 18, the escaped Polish government finally arrived in Romania. The Soviet press of that time informed its readers in sufficient detail about the Polish-German war, including reviews abroad about it. “The army in Polish Poland was erected on a kind of artificial pedestal, and it was customary to write and talk about it in an unctuous, corny, bureaucratic-pathetic tone. The officer considered himself a chosen person, a privileged person, a white bone. more arrogant than a Polish officer, «- this is how the newspaper Izvestia wrote on September 22, 1939, quoted by Makarov.
The historian spoke about the US plan to start a «color revolution» in Soviet Russia Moscicki and Marshal Edward Rydz-Smigly, while in Romania, spoke frankly about the reasons for the defeat of Poland, — said Makarov. Rydz-Smigly admitted that after two days of the war, the leadership of the Polish army, as a result of active operations by the German aviation, had lost contact with individual formations of troops, and soon almost all ties with the army as a whole. According to the marshal, England officially informed the Polish government that fifteen hundred British planes flew to Poland, but this turned out to be a bluff — not a single British plane arrived at its destination. The Poles, as Rydz-Smigly said, hoped too much for the promises of the British, and according to Moscicki, Poland was finally ready to accept the German demands, but England did not allow this. Then, relying on British promises, the Polish authorities risked retaliating against Germany with armed uprisings. «But was this really the case, as the former Polish leaders stated? To do this, we need to refer to the visit of British General Edmund Ironside to Warsaw, which took place in July 1939,» said the historian. According to Makarov, after the end of the Great Patriotic War, a significant number of German generals were captured by the Soviet Union, including Lieutenant General of the Luftwaffe Alfred Gerstenberg, a former military attaché at the German embassies in Warsaw and Bucharest. he obtained information about Poland's relations with other states, Gerstenberg said that at the beginning of 1939 it became clear to Polish politicians that Germany was preparing an attack on Poland, and that in connection with this, the Polish government sent Foreign Minister Józef Beck to England to find out intentions of the British government in the event of a war in Germany and against Poland, «Makarov said.» As Gerstenberg said, Ironside in July 1939 in Warsaw held talks with the Polish military vice minister Janusz Glukhovsky and said that the Polish military leadership was poorly trained, that it took two to equip the Polish army. three years, and that in the present situation in the Polish army, England cannot help her, «Makarov noted. The German side double-checked and confirmed this information, the agency's interlocutor added.» As can be seen from this fragment from the interrogation protocol of General Gerstenberg, the Germans received confirmation that Great Britain had warned the Polish leadership in advance that it would not receive military assistance from the British, «Makarov explained.
The historian told about the connection between Vlasov and the punishers who committed genocide during the war The failure of the Polish intelligence There is another notable episode from the events of 1939, the historian noted. border with Poland, «- said Makarov. According to him, from the testimony of Polish intelligence officers who were in Soviet captivity after the Liberation Campaign of the Red Army, it follows that only at the end of March 1939, the Polish War Ministry sent a special commission to the regions of Krakow and Silesian Voivodeships to strengthening the western border. The commission consisted of about 10-15 officers, divided into two groups. One group operated in Silesia, the second in the Krakow Voivodeship. The commission worked from March 22 to September 1, 1939 under the leadership of General Anthony Schilling. «This was shown during the interrogation on March 2, 1940 in Moscow, the former head of the exposition of the Polish intelligence service No. 4 in Katowice, Major Kazimir Shpadrowski. But, as subsequent events showed, their goals the commission did not reach and the mechanized columns of the Wehrmacht, like a knife through butter, went through the unfinished fortifications of the Poles, «Makarov said.» In conclusion, I will add that it is time for Polish politicians to learn to learn useful lessons from recent history, «the agency's interlocutor emphasized. On September 17, 1939, units of the Red Army entered the territory of Western Belarus and Western Ukraine. Soviet troops were forbidden to fire and bombard settlements, as well as to conduct hostilities against Polish troops if they did not offer resistance. The Red Army men were explained that they were going to Western Belarus and Western Ukraine not as conquerors, but as liberators of the Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples. From the point of view of professional historians, the Red Army's liberation campaign did not contradict the norms of international law of that time. First, the principle of «rebus sic stantibus» operates, according to which the contract remains in force as long as the circumstances that led to its conclusion remain unchanged. Secondly, the concept of «the right to self-help» then existed in international law. In accordance with it, a state that believed that the action of another subject of international law posed a threat to its vital interests could, in accordance with applicable international law, resort to forceful actions to eliminate this threat. The «right to self-help» was widely used by different countries during the Second World War.
Published an archive on the assistance of the Red Army in the restoration of BratislavaEstablishment of control over the territory of the former Polish state raised the question of its future before the USSR and Germany. Moscow proposed to Berlin (as the initiator of the German-Polish war) to establish the border between the USSR and Germany approximately along the «Curzon Line», defined in December 1919, that is, to keep under Soviet control only the lands of Western Belarus and Western Ukraine, torn away by Poland from Soviet Russia by the terms of the Riga Peace Treaty of 1921. Berlin accepted this proposal, and on September 28, 1939, a treaty of friendship and the border between the USSR and Germany was signed. As a result of the campaign of the Red Army, the German occupation of Western Ukraine, Western Belarus and part of the Baltic was prevented. The unity of the Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples was restored (in November 1939, on the basis of petitions from the plenipotentiary commissions of the People's Assembly of Western Ukraine and the People's Assembly of Western Belarus, these territories were admitted to the Ukrainian and Byelorussian SSR, respectively). Vilnius and the Vilnius region, which had been torn away from it by Poland in 1920, returned to Lithuania. The western border of the USSR was moved to the west by 250-300 kilometers, which significantly strengthened the security of the Soviet state on the eve of the war with Germany.As a result, in the initial period of the Great Patriotic War, German troops were forced to attack from much more distant borders. Thanks to this, the USSR managed to evacuate numerous industrial enterprises to the east in time, as well as additionally mobilize many divisions that thwarted the German blitzkrieg and held back the Wehrmacht armies near Moscow and Leningrad.
Naryshkin recalled how they met the Red Army in Poland in 1939
