Annexation of Western Ukraine to the USSR. Annexation of western Ukraine and western Belarus

On September 17, 1939, the Red Army entered Polish territory. This year marks exactly seventy years since these epoch-making events. But the political situation now is such that the political elites of both Ukraine and modern Poland are paying increased attention to the events of those years. Surely we should expect the next loud statements about the treacherous attack, the horrors of the Soviet occupation, the atrocities of the Red Army soldiers and hypocritical sighs about the fate of “unfortunate” Poland. At the same time, all participants in the future political-historical farce will forget about how Poland participated in the “deriban” of Czechoslovakia in 1938, what policy it pursued towards the Ukrainian and Belarusian population on its territory, and, of course, that thanks to “occupation” Ukraine established itself within its modern borders. Today we will try to remember what actually happened then. In this article I will focus exclusively on the military-political aspect of those events. We will talk about the social consequences of the “occupation” later.

Today, many pseudo-historians say that the Ribentrop-Molotov Pact contains clauses that obliged the USSR to attack Poland simultaneously with Germany, a week after the German attack, two weeks later, etc. There is not even a hint of real history in such statements. It’s just that the modern political situation requires us to put a bold equal sign between Nazi Germany and the USSR. In reality, the USSR not only did not undertake any obligations regarding the invasion of Poland, but also delayed this moment in every possible way.

Already on September 3, 1939, Ribbentrop sent the German Ambassador to the USSR F.V. Schulenburg was instructed to ask Molotov “whether the Soviet Union would consider it desirable for the Russian army to move at the appropriate moment against the Polish forces in the Russian sphere of influence and, for its part, to occupy this territory.” Similar requests from Germany for the entry of Soviet troops into Poland occurred later. But Molotov answered Schulenburg on September 5 that “at the right time” the USSR “will be absolutely necessary to begin concrete actions,” but the Soviet Union was in no hurry to take action.

Moreover, on September 14, Molotov stated that for the USSR “it would be extremely important not to begin to act before the administrative center of Poland, Warsaw, falls.” And it is quite likely that in the event of effective actions of the Polish army against Germany, and even more so in the case of a real, and not formal, entry into the war by England and France, the Soviet Union would generally abandon the idea of annexing Western Ukraine and Belarus. At least at this stage. But in reality, the Allies did not provide any help to Poland, which was falling apart.

By September 17, both the military and civilian Polish authorities had lost any control over the country, and the army was a scattered group of troops. The Germans reached the line Osowiec - Bialystok - Bielsk - Kamenets-Litovsk - Brest-Litovsk - Wlodawa - Lublin - Vladimir-Volynsky - Zamosc - Lviv - Sambir, thereby already occupying about half of the territory of Poland, occupying Krakow, Lodz, Gdansk, Lublin, Brest, Katowice, Torun. Warsaw has been under siege since September 14. On September 1, President I. Moscicki left the city, and on September 5, the government left the city, which finally left the country on September 17. Commander-in-Chief E. Rydz-Smigly held out in Warsaw the longest, but he also left the city on the night of September 7th, moving to Brest. However, Rydz-Smigly did not stay there for long: on September 10, the headquarters was moved to Vladimir-Volynsky, on the 13th to Mlynov, and on the 15th to Kolomyia near the Romanian border. Of course, the commander-in-chief could not lead the troops normally in such conditions. And this only exacerbated the chaos that arose as a result of the rapid advance of the Germans and confusion at the front.

Thus, in view of the effective actions of the Germans, the disorganization of the army and the inability of the leadership to organize the defense of the state, by September 17, the defeat of Poland was completely inevitable. It is significant that even the British and French general staffs, in a report prepared on September 22, noted that the USSR began to invade Poland only when its final defeat became obvious.

What alternatives did the Soviet Union have? Not to send troops into Poland? Why on earth? As mentioned above, the Polish army practically ceased resistance, the Germans moved unhindered to the borders of the USSR. Thus, on September 18, the deputy chief of staff of the OKW operational department, V. Warlimont, showed the acting USSR military attache in Germany Belyakov a map on which Lviv was part of the future territory of the Reich. After the USSR presented claims, the Germans attributed everything to Warlimont’s personal initiative. But it is very hard to believe that he drew maps contrary to the instructions received from the Reich leadership. If the Red Army had not crossed the Polish border on September 17, then two years later the German army would have been 200 kilometers closer to Moscow. And who knows what results this would have led to.

Moreover, the need for a Soviet invasion of Poland was also recognized in the West. Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, said in a radio speech on October 1 that “Russia is pursuing a cold policy of self-interest. 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. In any case, this line exists and, therefore, the Eastern Front has been created, which Nazi Germany will not dare to attack."

The most interesting thing is that neither England nor France declared war on the USSR despite allied obligations to Poland. On September 18, at a meeting of the British government, it was decided not to even protest against the actions of the Soviet Union, since England assumed obligations to defend Poland only from Germany. On September 23, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs L.P. Beria informed the People's Commissar of Defense K.E. Voroshilov that “the resident of the NKVD of the USSR in London reported that on September 20 of this year. The British Foreign Office sent a telegram to all British embassies and press attachés, indicating that England not only does not intend to declare war on the Soviet Union now, but must remain on the best possible terms.” And on October 17, the British announced that London wants to see an ethnographic Poland of modest size and there can be no talk of returning Western Ukraine and Western Belarus to it. Thus, the Allies essentially legitimized the actions of the Soviet Union on Polish territory.

We should also not forget that the Soviet Union, in fact, regained the lands captured by the Poles in the 20s. Lands inhabited by ethnic Ukrainians and Belarusians, towards whom Pilsudski's government pursued a harsh colonization policy. So the annexation of Western Ukraine and Belarus in 1939 was not only expedient, but also fair.

Let's move on to considering military operations directly. On September 17, Soviet troops with the forces of the Ukrainian (under the command of Army Commander 1st Rank S.K. Timoshenko) and Belorussian (under the command of Army Commander 2nd Rank M.P. Kovalev) fronts invaded the eastern regions of Poland. Only some border guard posts offered resistance. By the evening of September 18, Soviet units approached Vilna. By the 20th the city was taken. The losses of the Soviet army amounted to 13 people killed and 24 wounded, 5 tanks and 4 armored vehicles were destroyed. About 10 thousand Poles surrendered. It is characteristic that most of the resistance was provided not by the regular army, but by the local militia, formed from students and high school students.

Meanwhile, the 36th Tank Brigade occupied Dubno at 7 o'clock on September 18, where the rear units of the 18th and 26th Polish infantry divisions were disarmed. In total, 6 thousand military personnel were captured; the trophies of the Soviet troops were 12 guns, 70 machine guns, 3 thousand rifles, 50 vehicles and 6 trains with weapons.

An interesting incident occurred on the outskirts of Grodno. On September 20, a motorized group of the 16th Rifle Corps under the command of Brigade Commander Rozanov encountered a Polish detachment (about 200 people) who were suppressing the anti-Polish uprising of the local population (I think it’s not difficult to guess its ethnic composition). In this punitive raid, 17 local residents were killed, including 2 teenagers, 13 and 16 years old. A fierce battle ensued, in which armed local residents took an active part. The hatred towards the Poles was very strong.

On September 22, Grodno surrendered. And again, it is characteristic that already on the 18th, anti-Polish protests began in the city.

The strength of the “resistance” of the Polish army is very well demonstrated by the ratio of those killed and those who surrendered. So throughout the entire campaign, the Polish army lost 3,500 people killed. At the same time, 454,700 soldiers and officers surrendered. The Soviet army lost 1,173 people killed.

At the end of September, the Soviet and German armies met at Lvov, Lublin and Bialystok. Moreover, several armed clashes occurred, which led to minor losses on both sides.

Thus, in just a month, the Polish state ceased to exist. The Soviet Union significantly moved its borders to the west and united almost all ethnic Ukrainian and Belarusian lands. The first stage of the Second World War has ended.

70 years ago, in September 1939, Soviet power came to Western Ukraine, which was then part of Poland. In less than two weeks, the territories of Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv regions and Volyn became part of the USSR. Now this period is talked about exclusively as the beginning of the “dark times”, the Soviet occupation. Forgetting, however, that it was then that Ukraine essentially established itself within its modern borders.

Today we will try to remember what Western Ukraine was like before the “occupation” and what it became after.

The territories annexed to the USSR in 1939 were captured by Poland after the defeat of the Red Army in 1921. In the territories annexed in this way, the Polish government began to pursue a harsh policy of colonization and polonization, not caring about “human rights” or “European values.” However, the times were cruel then and the Poles acted exactly the same way as the Germans, French or British would have acted in their place. Now they like to highlight the “repressions” of the totalitarian Soviet regime, although very often the actions of the Soviet authorities were much softer and more humane than European democracies in similar conditions.

Some facts.

Ukrainian units that participated on the side of the Poles in the fight against the Red Army were interned and thrown into camps behind barbed wire. Ukrainians were not allowed to study on Ukrainian territory. Thus, an ethnic Ukrainian could theoretically enter a university in Krakow, Warsaw or Poznan (though only theoretically, in reality there were not many such cases), but admission to Lviv University was prohibited.

Here are excerpts from the resolution of the congress of Ukrainians in Canada in 1924: “In Galicia alone, the Polish-gentry government closed 682 public schools, 3 teachers’ seminaries and 7 private gymnasiums... In the Ukrainian provinces of Volyn and Polesie, where there are only 8% of the Polish population, out of 2694 There are only 400 Ukrainian public schools and they are mercilessly Polonized.”

In 1918, there were 3,600 Ukrainian schools in Western Ukraine. By 1939, there were only 461 of them left, of which 41 were private. But even in Ukrainian schools, history and geography were taught exclusively in Polish (isn’t it true, there is a lot in common with educational policy in modern Ukraine). But the closure of schools and the Polishization of the Ukrainian population were not the worst disasters.

Along the new Polish-Soviet border, the Polish government began to allocate land to its veterans. This was done with the aim of increasing Polish influence in territories inhabited by ethnic Ukrainians.

Only 1% of the electricity generated in Poland came from Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. But in Western Ukraine alone there were more than half of the total number of prisons in all of Poland - 187 out of 330. Three-quarters of all executions in Poland occurred in the “Eastern Cress”.

Naturally, all this led to the emergence of organized resistance. In 1930, the uprising began to gain strength, which engulfed the Lvov, Stanislav, Ternopil and Volyn voivodeships. It’s interesting, but during the uprising OUN militants and communists acted together. The estates of the siege-colonists burned throughout Western Ukraine. In response, the Polish government carried out the so-called “pacification”. Detachments of Polish police and cavalry disarmed 800 villages, arresting about 5 thousand participants in the anti-Polish movement. 50 people were killed, 4 thousand were maimed, 500 Ukrainian houses were burned. The Minister of Internal Affairs of Poland, Slavoj-Skladowski, later admitted: “if it were not for pacification, then in Western Ukraine we would have had an armed uprising, to suppress which guns and divisions of soldiers would have been needed.”

Is it any wonder that after all this, the Red Army in 1939 was greeted with flowers, and the Polish officers literally asked to put them in jail and strengthen security so as not to become the main characters in the lynchings that the local Ukrainian population was going to arrange for them.

To complete the picture, it is worth mentioning the “most Ukrainian” city in Ukraine - Lviv. According to the 1931 census, the population was distributed according to ethnicity as follows (belonging to a particular nationality was determined by spoken language):

Ukrainians 24,245 people. or 7.8%
Rusyns 10,892 people. or 3.5%
Poles 198,212 people. or 63.5%
Jews 75,316 people. or 24.1%
other 3,566 people or 1.1%

Poles in Lviv predominated in administration (71%), in transport and communications (76%), in education and industry. Jews dominated trade - 62%; 27% of Poles were employed in trade, 11% of Ukrainians. In the legal profession, notary office, and among practicing doctors, Jews accounted for 71%. whereas Ukrainians make up 7%.

But 45% of Ukrainians were employed as domestic servants, Jews - 4%. Of the working Ukrainian women, 64% worked as domestic servants, of the working Polish women - 25%, of Jewish women - 5%.

As for the richest residents of the city, those who used hired labor, they and their family members made up 6% of the total population of the city, 11% of the Jewish, 4% of the Polish and 2% of the Ukrainian population.

And here is an excerpt from the memoirs of a native Lviv resident, 89-year-old Lyubov Yatsenko: “The indigenous population was hired only as janitors, watchmen and domestic servants. The lords disparagingly called the Ukrainians “cattle”, and sometimes they weren’t even allowed on the tram. All important positions (lawyers, doctors, teachers, city administration employees, railway employees) were the privilege of Poles and Jews.”

These figures are well known, but this does not prevent the current Ukrainian manipulators from history from declaring that Soviet power destroyed the flower of the Ukrainian nation, the intellectual elite, intelligentsia, etc. Apparently, Ukrainian intellectuals disguised themselves as servants and laborers.

After the end of the Great Patriotic War, the situation in Western Ukraine and Lviv in particular began to change radically. In 1945-1946, factories dismantled in various regions of the USSR were located in Lvov: electric lamp, telegraph equipment, tool, and agricultural machinery. Construction of a large bus plant began.

Many new enterprises were built in other areas. In total, by the end of the Fourth Five-Year Plan, 70 large (number of workers over 300) plants and factories and hundreds of small ones were already operating in the western regions. And if the level of Ukrainian industry by 1950 exceeded the pre-war level by only 15 percent, then gross output in the western regions increased during this time by 115%, and in the Lviv region by as much as 241%!

The sectoral structure of industry in the western regions has also undergone significant changes. Thus, mechanical engineering and metalworking products were produced in comparison with the pre-war years in the Volyn region 20 times more, in the Ternopil region - 18 times, in the Lviv region - 19 times.

The development of industry required appropriate specialists who came from the Eastern regions of Ukraine and from Russia. Thus, 20 thousand workers and about 2 thousand engineers arrived in Lvov during the fourth five-year plan. But the newcomers could not satisfy the needs of industry for workers, especially since in the east they were needed no less. Therefore, it was urgently necessary to raise the level of education of the residents of Western Ukraine (which, as mentioned above, was in a very deplorable state). To solve this problem, about 10 thousand representatives of the intelligentsia came to the western regions to combat illiteracy, organize health care, open schools, libraries, reading rooms, etc. By the way, it was these people, honest and selfless idealists, who took the brunt of the UPA militants’ blow. Although less than 10% of them were Komsomol activists or party members. And they did not come to instill ideology, but only to teach and heal.

Let's return to our topic. As industrial enterprises were built in Western Ukraine and new educational institutions were opened, the population of cities grew, mostly due to people from rural areas, who, while receiving an education, joined the ranks of the working class and intelligentsia. It was the Soviet government that was “to blame” for the fact that Lvov and other large cities in Western Ukraine became truly Ukrainian. And Ukrainians have ceased to be servants, second-class citizens and have taken their rightful place in industry, science, education, and medicine.

However, now Ukraine is rapidly getting rid of the legacy of its “totalitarian past.” If this continues, then very soon we will return to the pre-war level. And our children, instead of becoming doctors, scientists, and military personnel, at best, will become janitors or servants for foreign lords.

The myth of the voluntary accession of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus to the USSR

The main myth associated with the so-called “liberation campaign” of the Red Army in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus in September 1939 was undertaken with the aim of saving the Ukrainians and Belarusians of Poland from German occupation after the defeat of the Polish army. At the same time, it was denied that Soviet troops entered Poland in pursuance of a secret additional protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, according to which the eastern provinces of Poland were transferred to the Soviet sphere of interest. It was also alleged that Soviet troops crossed the Soviet-Polish border precisely on September 17 because on that day the Polish government and the main command of the army left the country. In fact, on this day the Polish government and the commander-in-chief, Marshal Edward Rydz-Smigly, were still on Polish territory, although they had left Warsaw.

According to the Soviet propaganda myth, the population of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus overwhelmingly welcomed the arrival of the Red Army and unanimously supported joining the USSR.

In fact, the national composition of the population of the annexed territories was such that it excluded the possibility that the majority of residents would be in favor of joining the USSR. In 1938 in Poland, according to official statistics, out of 35 million inhabitants, there were 24 million Poles, 5 million Ukrainians, and 1.4 million Belarusians. However, on Stalin’s instructions, Pravda wrote about 8 million Ukrainians and 3 million Belarusians in the Red Army. Army of the Ukrainian and Belarusian voivodeships. Elections to the People's Assemblies of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus took place there. Elections were held according to the principle: one person per seat. Only communists and their allies were nominated as deputies, and any agitation against them was prohibited. In October 1939, the People's Assemblies proclaimed Soviet power and turned to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR with a request for reunification with Ukraine and Belarus, which was granted in November.

Stalin did not hold a plebiscite on joining the USSR in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. There was no certainty that the majority of the population of the liberated territories would vote for joining the USSR, and it was unlikely that anyone in the world would recognize its obviously falsified results. According to the 1931 census, 5.6 million Poles, 4.3 million Ukrainians, 1.7 million Belarusians, 1.1 million Jews, 126 thousand Russians, 87 thousand Germans and 136 thousand lived in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. representatives of other nationalities. In Western Belarus, Poles predominated in Bialystok (66.9%), Vilna (59.7%) and Novogrudok (52.4%) voivodeships, Belarusians - only in Polesie (69.2%). 2.3 million Poles, 1.7 million Belarusians and 452 thousand Jews lived in Western Belarus. In Western Ukrainian voivodeships, Poles predominated in Lviv (57.7%) and Tarnopol (49.7%) voivodeships (in Tarnopol voivodeship, Ukrainians accounted for 45.5%), Ukrainians - in Volyn (68.4%) and Stanislavovsky (68.9%). %). 3.3 million Poles, 4.3 million Ukrainians and 628 thousand Jews lived in Western Ukraine.

In Western Ukraine, the illegal Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which advocated the independence of Ukraine, was popular. OUN members fought against the Polish authorities, including using terrorist methods. They also attacked Soviet representatives. Ukrainian nationalists were no less hostile to Soviet power than they were to the Poles. There was no noticeable Belarusian national movement in Western Belarus. But a significant part of the Belarusian population of Western Belarus were Catholic Belarusians, who were culturally and politically oriented toward the Poles. And the Poles made up about half of the population of Western Belarus.

The Ukrainian and Belarusian population in Poland (mostly peasants) fought for their national rights, but did not intend to join the USSR, having heard about terror and famine. And Ukrainians and Belarusians lived in Poland more prosperously than the poor Soviet collective farmers. Nevertheless, the invasion of the Red Army was perceived calmly, and even enthusiastically by the Jews, who were threatened by Hitler's genocide. However, the measures of the Soviet government quickly led to the fact that in 1941, Ukrainians and Belarusians greeted the Germans with bread and salt, as liberators from the Bolsheviks.

Polish general Wladislaw Anders cited in his memoirs the stories of Lvov residents about how the Bolsheviks “robbed not only private but also state property,” how the NKVD penetrated into all spheres of life, about crowds of refugees who, having learned what it was like to live under the Bolsheviks, despite the Why, they want to go to lands occupied by the Germans.

There were many facts of looting and arbitrary executions by soldiers and commanders of the Red Army.

The commanders guilty of arbitrary executions did not suffer any serious punishment. People's Commissar of Defense Kliment Voroshilov merely reprimanded them, pointing out that there was no deliberate ill will in the actions of those responsible for illegal actions, that all this happened “in the context of hostilities and acute class and national struggle of the local Ukrainian and Jewish population with former Polish gendarmes and officers."

Often the killings of Poles were carried out by the local Ukrainian and Belarusian population. Secretary of the Brest Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus. Kiselev said in April 1940: “There were many such murders of the sworn enemies of the people, committed in the wrath of the people in the first days of the arrival of the Red Army. We justify them, we are on the side of those who, having emerged from captivity, dealt with their enemy.”

Even before June 22, 1941, mass forced collectivization began in Western Ukrainian and Western Belarusian lands. The intelligentsia was accused of “bourgeois nationalism” and repressed. Before the start of the Great Patriotic War, 108 thousand people, mostly Poles, were arrested on the territory of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. A significant part of them were shot on the eve and in the first weeks of the Great Patriotic War. Only according to the verdicts of the tribunals and the Special Conference, 930 people were shot. About 6 thousand more prisoners were shot at the beginning of the war during the evacuation of prisons in Western Ukraine and more than 600 people in Western Belarus.

In December 1939, a predatory monetary reform was carried out. Zlotys on household accounts and deposits were exchanged for rubles at the rate of 1:1, but for an amount not exceeding 300 zlotys.

The behavior of many representatives of the new government did not arouse sympathy among the population. Thus, as noted in party documents, in the Drohobych region, “the head of the RO NKVD of the Novostreletsky district, Kochetov, on November 7, 1940, got drunk, in a village club in the presence of the head of the RO police Psekh, severely beat the farm laborer Tsaritsa with a revolver, who was taken to the hospital in a difficult situation.” . In the Bogorodchansky district of the Stanislav region, the communist Syrovatsky “summoned peasants on the issue of tax at night, threatened them, forced girls to cohabitate.” In the Obertynsky district of the same region, “there were massive violations of revolutionary legality.”

In a letter addressed to Stalin, assistant to the Rivne regional prosecutor Sergeev noted: “It would seem that with the liberation of Western Ukraine, the best forces of the country, crystalline honest and unshakable Bolsheviks, should have been sent here to work, but it turned out the other way around. Most of them were crooks big and small, whom they tried to get rid of in their homeland.”

Soviet personnel who replaced the Polish administration were often unable to organize the economy. One of the delegates to the Volyn regional party conference in April 1940 was indignant: “Why, under the Poles, the streets were watered every day, swept with brooms, but now there is nothing?”

In 1939–1940, about 280 thousand Poles were deported from the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus to the eastern regions of the USSR, including 78 thousand refugees from German-occupied areas of Poland. About 6 thousand people died on the way. In June 1941, just before the start of the Great Patriotic War, 11 thousand “Ukrainian nationalists and counter-revolutionaries” were also deported from Western Ukraine. With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, many natives of the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus deserted the Red Army or evaded mobilization.

The issue of international legal recognition of the Soviet annexation of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus was finally resolved by the Treaty on the Soviet-Polish State Border, which the USSR concluded on August 16, 1945 with the pro-communist government of Poland. The Soviet-Polish border passed mainly along the Curzon line, but with the return of the cities of Bialystok and Przemysl (Przemysl) to Poland.

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Chapter 4. The fate of Western Ukraine

The annexation of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus to the USSR (according to official Soviet propaganda - the reunification of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus with the Ukrainian SSR and BSSR), in essence, represented the annexation of the territories of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus from Poland by the USSR, in accordance with the adoption by the Extraordinary V session of the Supreme Council of the USSR, the USSR Law “On the inclusion of Western Ukraine into the USSR with its reunification with the Ukrainian SSR” (November 1, 1939) and the USSR Law “On the inclusion of Western Belarus into the USSR with its reunification with the Belarusian SSR” (November 2, 1939 d) 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. The decision to submit petitions was stipulated in the Declaration “On the entry of Western Ukraine into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic”, adopted by the People's Assembly of Western Ukraine in Lvov on October 27, 1939 and the Declaration “On the entry of Western Belarus into the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic”, adopted by the People's Assembly Western Belarus in Bialystok on October 29, 1939, respectively.

The annexation of territories was a direct consequence of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with its secret protocol, the outbreak of World War II and the division of Poland between Germany and the USSR. Annexation led to an increase in the territory and population of the Belarusian SSR and, especially, the Ukrainian SSR, including at the expense of those territories (Galicia) that had never previously been part of either the Soviet Union or the Russian Empire.

On November 12, 1939, the third Extraordinary Session of the Supreme Council of the BSSR decided: “To accept Western Belarus into the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic and thereby reunite the Belarusian people in a single Belarusian state.”

On November 14, 1939, the third Extraordinary Session of the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR decided: “To accept Western Ukraine into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and thereby reunite the great Ukrainian people in a single Ukrainian state.”

Both territories, until September 28, 1939, were part of the Polish state as a result of the Riga Peace Treaty of 1921; their western border was almost completely east of the “Curzon Line,” recommended by the Entente as the eastern border of Poland in 1918. In March 1923, the Paris Conference of Allied Ambassadors approved the eastern borders of Poland.

With the adoption and publication of the Laws of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR and BSSR on the inclusion of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus into the USSR with their reunification with the Ukrainian SSR and BSSR on the territory of the former Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, the Stalin Constitution of 1936 and the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR extended their effect and the BSSR of 1937, as the Basic Laws, as well as all other current laws of the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian SSR and the BSSR. Various transformations were launched in these territories, accompanied by mass repressions against “class aliens” and “enemies of Soviet power” and affecting a significant number of ethnic Poles living in these territories.

After the conclusion of the Sikorsky-Maisky Agreement on July 30, 1941, the territories of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, at that time occupied by Nazi Germany, received an uncertain status. The issue of territories discussed at the Tehran Conference was resolved in favor of the USSR at the Yalta Conference and consolidated at the Potsdam Conference. By the Treaty of August 16, 1945 between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Polish Republic “On the Soviet-Polish State Border”, these territories (with minor deviations in favor of Poland (Bialystok and the surrounding area, Przemysl and the surrounding area) were assigned to the USSR. In the second half of 1940 -x - in the first half of the 1950s there was a slight correction of the borders.

Annexation of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus to the USSR

On September 17, 1939, 75 years ago, Soviet troops entered Western Belarus. The USSR and Hitler's Germany vilely divided Eastern Europe between themselves.

But for Belarusians and Ukrainians, this, paradoxically, meant reunification, a historical chance. There are no easy paths in history.

In the latest issue of Nasha Niva, historian Anatoly the Great publishes some previously unknown documents from that turning point - about the mechanisms of action of the Soviet intelligence services.

And on the website we publish excerpts from the book by researcher Anatoly Trofimchik “1939 and Belarus: The Forgotten War.” This book will be on sale in the coming days.

“Nasha Niva” cites from this book the 10 most important facts of that time, as they were perceived by Belarusians.

1. Belarus and the Belarusian people took part in the Second World War from its first minutes

In Soviet times, it was generally accepted that the starting point was the date of June 22, 1941, when Germany attacked the USSR, which included Belarus. However, can we consider that the Soviet Union did not take part in hostilities before Germany attacked it? The Red Army went through at least two full-fledged wars: first against the Polish Republic, a little later against Finland. Accordingly, the USSR became a participant in World War II on September 17, 1939, when the Red Army crossed the Soviet-Polish border. Since Belarus was part of the USSR, and Belarusians served in the Red Army, it must be admitted that Belarus also entered World War II on September 17.

The western part of Belarus at that time was part of the Polish Republic, and Belarusians served in the Polish Army. The number of Belarusian soldiers in the ranks of the Polish Army, taking into account the mobilization of 1939, is estimated at 70 thousand people. Belarusians took an active part in the resistance to both the Wehrmacht and the Red Army.

Belarusians - soldiers of the Polish Army - are returning home (surnames and location unknown).

2. The first German bombs fell on Belarusian cities and towns in September 1939

Immediately after Germany's attack on Poland, Luftwaffe aircraft began to bomb the most strategically important targets, primarily airfields, railway junctions and even ordinary stations. As a result, for example, Grodno, Lida, Kobrin, Baranovichi, Gantsevichi suffered. German planes flew almost to the then Polish-Soviet border. As a result of the bombing, there were killed and wounded. The number of victims, including among civilians, was in the dozens.

Moreover, the Soviet Union also had a hand in the bombing of Western Belarusian settlements and civilians: at the request of the German side, from September 4, special radio signals were sent from Minsk to help in targeting German air raids. Thus, Moscow was directly involved in the Nazi extermination of the Western Belarusian and Western Ukrainian civilian population, which was soon to be “liberated.”

3. The first battles against German invaders on the territory of Belarus took place back in September 1939

Information about the first defense of the Brest Fortress was suppressed during Soviet times. From September 14 to 17, regiments under the command of General Konstantin Plisovsky, a significant number of which were Belarusians, defended the fortress from Guderian's 19th Panzer Corps. After resistance became futile due to the entry of the Red Army into the territory of the Polish Republic, the defenders of the Brest Fortress decided to leave it. But a handful of volunteers, led by Captain Vaclav Radishevsky, remained in the fortress. Soon they had to confront the Red Army. On the night of September 27, a few soldiers left the encirclement one by one. Among them is Captain Radishevsky, who made his way to his family in Kobrin, but was soon discovered by the NKVD and arrested, after which he disappeared forever.

Today, few people disagree that the division of the Polish Republic was the result of close political and then military interaction between the Third Rome and the Third Reich. But if we accept this thesis, we must also agree that the “liberation” of the “fraternal peoples of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus” was carried out jointly - by the Bolsheviks and the Nazis.

4. The first battles between the Red Army and the Wehrmacht took place in September 1939

On September 20, 1939, soldiers of the advancing armies met for the first time. Not everywhere these meetings (for various reasons) were warm. There was even a Soviet-German clash near Lvov, which resulted in casualties on both sides (in fact, the first battle between the Bolsheviks and the Nazis, if you don’t count the civil war in Spain, where both sides were represented in one way or another). A Soviet-German battle also took place on the territory of Belarus: on September 23, near Vidomlya (now the Kamenets district of the Brest region), units of the 10th Wehrmacht Panzer Division fired at the mounted patrol of the reconnaissance battalion of the 8th Infantry Division. As a result of the shelling, 2 people were killed and two more were wounded. In response, the armored vehicles of the reconnaissance battalion opened fire on German tanks, one of which was destroyed along with its crew.

These incidents, however, did not prevent the further development of friendly relations.

Before the “meeting on the Elbe” there was a meeting on the Bug. True, the Red Army had a different ally in the fall of 1939.

5. Through the territory of Western Belarus, the Red Army in September 1939 advanced at the same speed as the Wehrmacht - in June 1941

This is the similarity between the campaigns of the Bolsheviks and the Nazis on the same land. But there is also a significant difference. For comparison, we note that during the September campaign to occupy the territory of Western Belarus, the Soviet Union used more equipment than Germany used in June-July 1941 during the occupation of the BSSR. Meanwhile, the speed of advance in the second case even exceeded the Soviet offensive, although the forces (at least numerically) were incommensurable: if the Red Army was opposed by the remnants of the Polish Army, then the Wehrmacht in the summer of 1941 was resisted by the armed forces of the USSR, which were not inferior in both quantity and quality .

T-26 tanks of the 29th Tank Brigade of the Red Army enter Brest. On the left is a column of German motorcyclists.

6. The Germans had the idea of creating a state entity under their protectorate called “Western Belarus”

After Germany's attack on Poland, Soviet politicians paused for some time. The Red Army was waiting for a more opportune moment to attack. Berlin even expressed the courage to make a kind of threat: I. Ribbentrop announced a possible end to the war if Russia did not launch an offensive, and moreover, the organization of three buffer states in the eastern lands of Poland - Polish, Ukrainian and Belarusian.

The project of a “united” Belarus under the protectorate of the Third Reich.

It is obvious, however, that the German side would not go further than threats and discussions on the issue of sovereignty of Western Belarus.

Soon a similar idea arose among the Bolsheviks - on the eve of the September 17 offensive. But it was rejected: on September 28, the allies signed a treaty of friendship.

7. Moscow viewed the division of the Polish Republic as a division of Poland, and not a reunification of Belarus and Ukraine

The Red Army marched into Western Belarus under the slogans of liberation of blood brothers. But on the eve of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Belarus did not appear in the main results of the diplomatic negotiations - neither as a subject, nor as - at least! - object.

This attitude of the Soviet leadership towards the unification of Belarus is evidenced by the annexation of Western Belarus with significant changes relative to its original territorial definition, as well as a number of other facts, including from statements by German and Soviet leaders, such as:

“Mr. Stalin personally told me at that time that he was ready to make concessions in the north of the border line, where it passes through Belarus” (Schulenburg);
one of the Kremlin’s primary tasks was to “take control” of the states assigned, according to the pact with Germany, to the sphere of interests of the Soviet Union (Kaganovich).

Map of the transfer of part of Western Belarusian territory to Lithuania (from the Soviet press, October 1939)

This was symptomatic of further developments. Belarus as such surfaced in exceptional cases - if necessary.

8. In September 1939, there was an attempt to organize armed resistance for the independence of Belarus

Skeptics may ask: independence from whom? The answer may surprise you: from both Germany and the USSR.

Even before Germany’s attack on Poland, former Hromadovites (members of the BSRG - Belarusian Syalyansk-Rabotnitskaya Gramada) developed the idea of creating the Western Belarusian Republic (ZBR). To prevent the Wehrmacht from capturing these territories, they began to organize armed detachments. The first order to begin hostilities concerned the taking control of Pinsk, which was planned to be entered on September 18. But the day before the assault, the operation was canceled (of course, due to the Red Army crossing the Soviet-Polish border).

Later, ZBR supporters transformed their activities into a partisan movement. Subsequently, Belarusian nationalists sought to take advantage of the world war - already in the service of Nazi Germany, but were unable to achieve their goal.

Belarusian writers during the days of the II All-Belarusian Congress in Minsk, June 27, 1944: Valentin Tavlay, Todar Lebeda, Alexander Solovey, Masey Sednev, Sergei Khmara, Vladimir Sedura, Khvedar Ilyashevich.

9. How the Bolsheviks became “bashlyks”

In a matter of days in September 1939, the situation for the Western Belarusian population changed, moreover, towards the expectations of the overwhelming majority of it. And his hopes were directed to the east. Soon, recent Polish citizens (primarily Belarusians and Jews) wholeheartedly welcomed the Red Army and Soviet power. The news about the construction of triumphal gates in cities, towns and even villages became a stamp.

The triumphal gates erected in Brest in honor of the German and Soviet “liberators”.

According to recollections, many Belarusians expected changes for the better, and the Red Army soldiers were referred to as “ours.” But soon they saw the essence of the liberators, and the Bolsheviks, not without irony, transformed into “bashlyks” in their mouths. Moreover, hopes arose for new “liberators” - in the person of Wehrmacht soldiers. They appeared in the summer of 1941 and it was no coincidence that there were those who greeted them with bread and salt.

“Westerners” welcome the next government.

Since those times, a folk saying has come down to us:

Behind the king -
Drink tea with pie,
How the past skits went -
Ate bread in trays:
White, black and brown!
And when the day comes -
Agledzela asshole light.

(Under the Tsar, they drank tea with cake. When the Poles arrived, they ate three types of bread: white, black and none! And when the council came (the Soviets came) - the light “opened” on the ass.

10. There was no reunification of Belarus on September 17

September 17, 1939 is only the date - in Soviet terminology - of liberation, but in no case of unification. The leadership of the Soviet Union at that time did not yet know whether the former Polish “northeastern Kres” would be in the same republic with the BSSR. The de jure turn to the option that eventually came true began on September 28, 1939, when another friendship and border treaty was signed between the USSR and Germany, which defined a new line of demarcation on Polish territory and a sphere of influence in relation to the still sovereign Lithuanian state. On October 29, the People's Assembly of Western Belarus adopted a declaration on its entry into the BSSR. On November 2, 1939, the Kremlin officially granted this “request,” which was only later (!), on November 14, duplicated by the Supreme Council of the BSSR.

Formally, the reunification of Belarus took place only almost two months after the “liberation”. But that's not all. After all, this is only the legal side of the matter. In fact, reunification occurred even later - after the war. The fact is that free movement was not allowed across the recent Soviet-Polish border. It was extremely vigilantly guarded by a large force of border guards. It turns out that ordinary people were able to cross the former Soviet-Polish border only with the beginning of the German occupation. From September 17, 1939 until the end of June 1941, it was actually the Belarusian-Belarusian border.

“Red Army soldiers are dismantling the border between Belarus and Western Belarus.” This is what the inscription on the archival photo says about the border, the ban on free movement across which was never lifted.

Based on materials from the book: Anatoly Trofimchik, “1939 and Belarus: a forgotten war”