"The Polish state ceased to exist": how the USSR attacked Poland 85 years ago after Hitler

On September 17, 1939, the USSR sent troops into Poland after the Wehrmacht entered Poland on September 1. The whole world was alarmed by the news that the Polish state had ceased to exist. The eastern territories were annexed to the USSR in accordance with the Secret Protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, officially called the Non-Aggression Pact between Germany and the USSR.

And on the morning of September 17, 1939, 700 thousand Red Army soldiers invaded Poland on Stalin's orders. OBOZ.UA explains how and why the USSR attacked Poland 85 years ago.

According to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Germany and the USSR divided their spheres of influence, which led to the so-called fourth partition of Poland.

Between 3 and 6 a.m. on September 17, the USSR struck at the rear of Polish troops fighting the Third Reich. Beforehand, the Polish ambassador to the USSR, Wacław Grzybowski, was handed a note stating that "the Polish Republic no longer exists."

Many years later, Grzybowski recalled on Radio Free Europe that he received a call from the USSR's Foreign Ministry at about 2 a.m. "I was prepared for bad news, but the news that awaited me was even worse," the ambassador recalled.

Stalin ordered the crossing of the Polish border. An armed aggression began, carried out like Hitler's invasion on September 1, without a declaration of war.

More than 6,000 tanks and about 1,800 aircraft attacked Poland's eastern borders. However, the Polish government of the time even called for avoiding clashes with the Red Army and did not break off diplomatic relations with Moscow. Only a day later, on the night of September 17-18, the Polish government crossed the border with Romania, intending to flee to France.

Of course, not the entire army accepted the order not to start fighting against the Red Army. Soldiers and civilians began to organize resistance. According to rough estimates, about 2,500 Polish soldiers were killed in the battles with the Soviet army, and another 20,000 were wounded or went missing. Soviet losses are estimated to have amounted to 3,000 killed and 6-7,000 wounded. More than 250 thousand Polish soldiers were taken prisoner by the Soviets. This figure includes 10 thousand officers who were shot by order of the NKVD in 1940.

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