September 1939 - forgotten events

The events of September 1939 were overgrown with incredible legends and conjectures. Poland is trying to rewrite history on its own, blaming the Soviet Union for all the problems. While ignoring the facts that do not fit the desired interpretation of events.

From May to August 1939, tripartite negotiations were held between England, France and the USSR on the creation of a defensive alliance.

Everyone understood perfectly well that it should be directed against Germany, it was also clear who the first victims of the aggressor would be - Poland, Romania and the Baltic states. In the first place, such an alliance was very beneficial for the USSR, therefore, back in March 1939, the country's leadership, after England's request about the actions of the USSR in the event of German aggression against Romania, took the initiative to conclude it, and negotiated for six months. Such an alliance was beneficial to us, first of all, in that it made it possible, in case of war, to meet the enemy not on our own territory - in case of an invasion, for example, into Poland, the troops of the USSR could cross its border and join the battle on the territory of Poland.

However, the negotiations broke down, as Poland declared that we would deal with the Germans ourselves, we did not need any help from the USSR. A defensive alliance with the participation of England, France and the USSR was created and was not created.

In this regard, the Soviet Union took an extraordinary step by concluding a non-aggression pact between it and Germany.

Now all critics of the USSR claim that a secret protocol was attached to this treaty, defining the zone of its operation. And although many, especially Western, authors today argue that it is this treaty and its annexes that are the "trigger" of the Second World War, it should be noted that this was just an ordinary treaty of neutrality between the two countries, and the protocols determined the scope of this contracts. That is, the approximate meaning of the protocols was as follows: in other places, you do what you want - this does not concern me due to neutrality, but if you climb into Western Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states, we will consider this an attack on our territories. Germany had similar agreements with France (Declaration of December 6, 1938),

Many articles state that if the USSR had not concluded this pact with the Germans, if there had not been these notorious protocols, Hitler would not have dared to start a war, he would have been afraid.

But - here is what Hitler said about the capture of Poland on August 22, 1939, the day before the conclusion of this treaty, in Obersalzburg, at a meeting of the highest command staff:

“Everyone should keep in mind that we firmly decided from the very beginning to fight against the Western powers ... First of all, Poland will be defeated ... It was completely clear to me that a conflict with Poland would occur sooner or later. I made this decision in early spring.

It will be a big war that will require a lot of effort. I'm only afraid that at the last minute some pig will offer his services to mediate.

On September 3, the German embassy in Moscow received an assignment from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, I. Ribbentrop, to probe the intentions of the USSR regarding the possible entry of the Red Army into Poland. On September 5, V. Molotov received the German Ambassador, V. von Schulenburg. To the ambassador's question regarding the possible entry of the Red Army into Poland, V. Molotov replied that the Soviet government at the right time “will definitely have to ... start concrete actions. But we believe that this moment is not yet ripe, "and" haste can spoil the matter and facilitate the rallying of opponents.

It is these moments that show that the Soviet Union was not eager to attack Poland together with the Germans, and, in principle, was not going to fight with anyone at that time. But in the USSR they carefully watched the development of events, not intending to allow Germany to capture Western Ukraine and Belarus if Germany began to win.

But after a week it becomes clear that the Germans are winning a complete victory, and the surrender of Poland is a matter of one or two weeks. September 9, 1939, USSR. Moscow. German Ambassador W. von Schulenburg was instructed by the German Foreign Ministry to resume conversations "with Molotov regarding the military intentions of the Soviet government in Poland." On the same day, V. Molotov replied to Schulenburg's sounding that "Soviet military operations will begin within the next few days."

And yet the USSR has not yet entered the war. After all, England and France declared war on the Germans, and there is hope that they will soon launch an offensive on the western front, and the Germans will be forced to retreat from Poland.

On September 10, the USSR asks Germany about the possibility of concluding a truce between Poland and Germany for negotiations, to which Ribbentrop replies on September 13 that this question has never been raised. It becomes clear that Hitler, if no action is taken, will occupy the entire neighboring country and enter the borders of the USSR

In addition, from September 9-10, the actions of the OUN begin in Poland, which begin to attack the Polish guards of railway facilities, disarm Polish units, and engage in clashes with them. The Germans are beginning to think about creating puppet states in Western Ukraine and Belarus, since the USSR does not send its troops there, which Molotov is hinted at through its representatives in Moscow. Moscow understands that Poland has lost the war and it is not worth expecting anything further.

In Poland, they were well aware that if the Germans won, the USSR would not stand aside and send troops to the east of Poland, and even for some time they were going to fight. And the protection of the border, I must say, was carried out seriously - when on September 15-16, before the introduction of troops, reconnaissance groups were sent to the territory of Poland in order to reconnoiter the situation, they were detected in a timely manner, received a rebuff and were forced to return back.

Thus, the question of the war with Poland was decided long before the conclusion of the said treaty, and this war would have started regardless of anything.

September 17, 1939, in the morning, Soviet troops entered Poland.

Some pages of the further development of events do not fit into the official history. Here are just two facts:

First fact: POLAND. Ukrainian front. Parts of the 16kd 5kk 12A occupied the village of Turka, and the 9kk division arrived at the Beskid station, occupied on 09/23/1939 by Hungarian troops. An attempt to contact the Hungarians caused them to fire from hand weapons. The return artillery fire of Soviet armored vehicles led to the cessation of firing and the withdrawal of Hungarian soldiers into the railway tunnel on the border.

So, not only the USSR sent troops to Poland in 1939.

And the second fact is that the said article refers to "heavy battles with the Red Army for Wilno, Grodno and Lwow." I don’t know what about Vilna and Grodno, but Lvov, the Red Army was forced to…. to defend against the Germans together with the Poles, while the clashes were quite serious, with losses on both sides, both personnel and armored vehicles, with air battles - the Germans really wanted to capture Lvov, which, if the Red Army had not approached, fell into complete German encirclement.

Through diplomatic channels, the Germans began to put pressure on the Soviet leadership. Based on your desire to get Lviv (hello to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact). On the morning of September 20, 1939, the German ambassador in Moscow, F.V. von der Schulenburg made a statement to Molotov. It pointed to the "danger of an extremely serious incident" between Soviet and German troops. The Ambassador appealed to the Soviet leadership with an insistent request "as soon as possible" to withdraw our troops and thereby take measures that would prevent a conflict. General Köstring addressed Voroshilov with a similar request. In response, the Soviet side expressed "surprise" about the presence of German troops east of Lvov and their combat activity in this area. It was stressed that there would certainly be no incidents,

The decisive position of the Soviet leadership forced Hitler, in order to avoid complicating relations with the USSR, on September 20, 1939, to order the withdrawal of German troops from Lvov. The German generals, who were ready to go into an open military clash with the USSR, qualified this decision of the Fuhrer as a "day of shame for the German political leadership", but were forced to obey the order.

The departure of the Germans from the areas east of Lvov was accompanied by repeated skirmishes and artillery duels between Soviet and German units. Incidents did not stop in the future. There were also Soviet-German skirmishes on the territory of Belarus. So, on September 23, near Vidomlya (now the Kamenetsky district of the Brest region), units of the 10th Wehrmacht Panzer Division (subordinate to Guderian) fired on the cavalry patrol of the reconnaissance battalion of the 8th Infantry Division (hello to the alleged "parade" in Brest). As a result of the shelling, 2 people were killed and two more were wounded. In response, armored vehicles of the reconnaissance battalion opened fire on German tanks, one of which was destroyed along with the crew. Clashes between units of the Red Army and the Wehrmacht took place near Lublin and in other areas of Eastern Poland. 

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