Great presentation. I don't think Russia likes to talk about this brief and stunningly successful Campaign against their Historical nemesis Poland because of the *"trickery"* Stalin and the USSR then fell for afterward going into 1941 and the Molotov Von Ribbentrop Pact which was a stunning act of clever Diplomacy by Germany in this matter that nearly won Germany *THEIR WAR* needs noting. Much of Western Poland was in fact German in 1939 but Eastern Poland/Galacia most definitely was not Russian in 1939. This *"easy win"* which I agree wasn't so easy as it seemed but certainly was seen as such did lead almost directly to the War on Finland by the USSR the first of many military disasters to be suffered by near everyone first in/by Europe later Japan in a War that ultimately had an enormity of surprises actually. What happened to Poland in 1939 was unfortunately not one of those surprises😊😊
@@georgedoolittle9015 Hey Europe, wake up! Stalin had much wider plans in Europe than just Poland and Baltics. Same as Putin has now. Stalin announced that the World Bolshevik Revolution was possible only as a consequence of new World War. And he wanted Hitler to start that war in Europe, to be able to stab him in the back when he gets exhausted and bogged down in trench warfare in France, like in WW1. With no common border with Germany and with Poland on Red Army's way to Europe, that was more difficult to do, therefore the Pact was to eliminate that obstacle. As an 'non-aggression' agreement the Pact made no sense at all, because, again, Germany and the USSR had NO common border in August 1939! Realize that finally!
And No body call. It the polish invasion of Russia in 1914 , meanwhile Russia was in a blody civil war , The soviet union took back its land occupied by the polish
@@gregski4130 Poland's General Pilsudski invaded Russia in 1920 and put western Russia under harsh Polish occupation until 1939 when the Soviet Union took it back.
The war began because Poland was invaded. Yet one of the invaders - namely the Russians - stood against Germany at the Nuremberg Trials. Makes no sense. Russia should have been on trial too.
It was just a formal handover. See below for more important information from the Daily Telegraph 18th October 2008 article by Nick Holdsworth. ‘In August 1939, Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov proposed a triple alliance between the Soviet Union, France, and Poland, aimed at counterbalancing Nazi Germany's growing aggression and protecting Poland. The proposal included a promise to send 1 million Workers' and Peasants' Red Army troops to protect Poland from Germany. However, the Polish government declined the offer, and shortly after Poland's refusal, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed on August 23, 1939, to buy time for the inevitable war with the German enemy !’
Fantastic video, one of my favorite history channels on youtube. Love all the source material in the description. Now a video on the Polish-Soviet war!
The Russian invasion of Poland wasn't an 'episode'. IT was part of a larger scheme, where the two best friends, Nazis and Russians, carved up Europe amongst themselves and started WW2 TOGETHER. Soon after Poland, Russia invaded Finland, then Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. Overall by 1941 the Russians have gobbled up more territory and genocided more people than the Nazis.
Poland should have pursued the Eastern Pact recommended by France and the Soviets. Instead they signed a non aggression pact with Germany in 1934. Then Poland invaded Czechoslovakia alongside Germany 1938/9
@@rjames3981 LOL! You Russians and your cosmic propaganda! Do you even understand the meaning of "non-agression treaty"? It means "don't attack me and I won't attack you". That's the pact that Poland signed with Germany and you, Soviet Russia, hoping that they/you would honor what they/you sign. But Nazi Germany and you, Soviet Russians signed a differnet pact which was "lets carve up Europe and invade Poland together". Do you get the picture now?
You forgot that on September 1, together with the Germans, the Slovak army also attacked Poland. To sum up, in September 1939 Poland had to fight three invaders at once!
This proves, never trust the West. Poland forgets too often. The damn French and British declared war on Germany, but not on the USSR. How interesting. Then they used polish troops as fodder, let them "win" Battle of Britain for them, then never invite them on the victory parade, kill Sikorsky then throw the country to Stalin. Well done. Reminds me of Loyd George abandoning Pilsudski then same way. French sent a single peacock general who did freaking nothing but went home bragging like he did. Somehow we in Central Europe have a talent in always being on the losing side.
@alnotz - Yes, that is why Poland is currently arming itself, it does not count on anyone, despite the fact that it belongs to NATO. Poland prefers to rely only on itself 💪
@@VIS35 Poland is not arming itself, it is being pumped up by the US, on US money... No post-socialist country could afford such an economy. To be the next into the slaughter. The baltics are also, fodder. I've been to Latvia a month ago. It's like the USSR was. People are talking in russian. all of them. And are very poor... It's only the leadership that sucks the West. Lithuania is contrary, on the other hand. No wonder why the huge 6lane motorway has been built very recently through Suwalki. Military road, romans did that too. People never learn from history. Look at South Vietnam, South Korea, ... well Afghanistan. List is way too long. Money turned off, the corrupt puppet states collapse.
Well, Slovakia was a German puppet so they had no choice, Besides, they were upset abt. Polish landgrab of some territory Poland wanted as to gain a border with Hungary.
More like everyone writes their own history unless forced otherwise. Japan wrote it's own history and yet lost the war. Many German historians and memoirs are littered with intentional distortions of WWII from the German perspective in spite people claiming "Germans have owned up to their actions in WWII" but in reality they have not in most respects and just pinned it all on the Nazis and SS ignoring it was literally a generational thing. That was the "German Perspective" for roughly 50-60 years. The most brutal German general in WWII was a member of the Heer for example, not the SS. There is no greater example in US history than the Lost Cause Narrative revolving around the American Civil War. It dominated American Civil War studies throughout the first 3/4s of the 20th Century and Americans are still dealing with it in the 2020s as many have grown up with that false narrative and defend it as if their life depends on it.
History is not written by the victors, but written by those with the most consistent and compelling arguments based on the evidence, backed by a healthy dose of rational logic and passion for debate. The key is not to apologize for any side but to take a firm stand for what's right and what's wrong. Or a quote of Max Miller: “They say 'history is written by the victors,' but in my experience, history is written by those who write stuff down."
It's hard to believe that the Soviet invasion of 17 September 1939, which led directly to the massacre of at least 20,000 Polish officers in 1940, did not result in war between the USSR and Great Britain. It really demonstrates the accuracy of the old saying, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Not only that ,at the end of the War Stalin (Hitler Clone) took over all of eastern Europe not just Poland . There was no point in declaring war against Germany .
Britain had its hands full just with the Germans , would have been an interesting twist . I suspect the Brits figured sooner or later that Germany and Russia would be at others throats soon enough . So watch and wait , but I do feel sorry for the Poles . I don’t think Poland will let it happen again .
@@Crashed131963 - get an education, dude, you have no clue what you talk ! Europe was sold / negotiated by the Brits and Stalin. Like cattle. Churchill was as bad as Stalin.
"Trust is a very fragile thing it takes years to build seconds to break an eternity to repair that betrayal can last a lifetime"-Lawkeeper Equity Mlp Ace Attorney EOJ
France and Britain guaranteed Polish independence. So when Germany attacked western Poland on the 1st of September, they declared war on Germany. When USSR attacked Eastern Poland on the 17th of September there was no war declaration on the USSR. Please explain that to me. It just doesn't add up. And just to be clear. At that point in time, the Soviet Union had executed a full genocide of millions. The Nazis hadn't even gotten started. So if this was for humanitarian reasons, it makes no sense.
France and Britain were already at war with Germany, they didn't need another enemy, they would have lost the war if they declared war on the USSR too. Germany was seen as the bigger threat.
The guarantee stipulated that the British & French would only come to Polands aid in the event of an attack from Germany (they didn’t really do that either) Hence their non-declaration(s) of war against the USSR.
Thank you for this film! I have always wondered what would have happened if Poland in 1939 had to oppose only the USSR. All of our army modernization was prepared for the Eastern Front. For example, the very existence of the fleet was to block the Gulf of Finland and not, as people thought after the war - to fight the Kriegsmarine. We probably would have lost anyway, but with over a million men under arms and quite a decent number (compared to Finland at the time, for example) of air force, cavalry and anti-tank defense, we could have inflicted heavy losses on the USSR.
Russia is the only winning country of a war to lose more soldiers than the losing side not once but twice. The 1939 Finland winter war and the war against Germany. Russia lost 200,000 to Finland's 25,000 Russia lost 10 million to Germany's 5 million .
@@Crashed131963Rosjan mnoga - milion , albo dwa to żadna strata.. na pierwsza linie szli ,Białorusini, Ukraińcy , kazachowie i obywatele republik radzieckich .. Rosjanie pracowali w sztabie… dzisiaj nie inaczej… 😬☝🏻
@Ne_Ne_Vova_UA that has forever been a problem with the Russia military operations, and that has led to the crisis of underpopulation in the country. The elite wages wars that are of NO interests to the commoner soldier. The last time they rose up and resisted this slaughter was during the first world war, which led to an eventual judaeo-bolshevik take over, which led to further problems, and conflicts with Poland & Ukraine. Unless the Russians assert the interests of their own masses, this will not stop.
Thanks for this piece Stef. Even though I'm somewhat familiar with the topic, I still managed to learn something new. I particularly appreciate you giving an explanation on ethic landscape in Polish so-called Kresy prior to war. It's a massive topic in its own right, not easy to avoid oversimplifications.
You are delusional and ignorant, you talk about the nation who defeated Germany and conquered Berlin ! It was the red flag waiving over Berlin, not the stars and striped, muppet ! Not to say at that time URSS had the biggest and strongest army in Europe ! And were THEM who brought to justice most nazi animals and their collaborators, unlike UK and US who took them home and get in love with them !
For your information, according to Roman law, winners are not judged. Apparently you have serious problems in matters of European history and you simply do not know that literally eleven months before September 1, 1939, Poland and Hitler tore the Republic of Czechoslovakia into pieces. That’s when the Soviet Union officially announced the termination of the Soviet-Polish non-attack agreement.
@@captderichelieu2280 You have serious problems with history. Poland DID NOT tear Czechoslovakia apart in 1939. In 1938, without consulting the Germans, the Poles BLOODLESSLY took back the Zalozie Region which the Czechs took from Poland in 1919 when the Poles were busy with the Polish and Soviet war (1919-1921). At the time the Brits and French signed the Munich Agreement giving Sudetanland to Hitler. Here ends your history lesson.
@@ronaldostrowski4014 After consulting with the Germans, the Poles BLOODLESSLY regained the Zalozhsky region, which the Czechs took from Poland in 1919. You probably think that there are only uneducated idiots around you. But how about if I tell you that the Russians consulted with the Germans and regained western Ukraine and Belarus which they lost as a result of the Soviet-Polish War of 1919 - 1920,....
@@ronaldostrowski4014 You are confusing Polish-Soviet war with Polish-Ukrainian war. Poland was at war with Ukraine since 1918 and it ended after Polish-Czechoslovak war. Polish-Soviet war erupted after the war with Czechoslovakia was over.
Guess we can be grateful that Ribbentrop didn’t include a provision in the Molotov Ribbentrop agreement to have the Soviets attack first. Western allies wouldn’t have known how to respond.
Thanks very much for this. I too study WW2 much yet, this piece of information I have never looked into deeply at all. Great stuff, much learned, keep up the fantastic work! God bless!
You forgot to mention that the czarist government occupied the lands of Polish -Lithuanian Commonwealth that were partitioned by Austria , Russia and Prussia. The fact that those lands were governed by different countries doesn't mean that the Poles lost their identity. They preserved their language, religion and culture all that identifies the nation. The lands of present day Ukraine were part of Poland for 400 years, while they belonged to Russia only for 124 years.
It's not how contemporary Russians see it. And they are partially right because after Pereyeslav agreement the left-bank Ukraine became a part of Russian empire. And it was 1665.
@@renemagritte8237 Chmielnicki realised his huge political mistake right after the Pereyaslav agreement... He thought he will be in Russia as free as in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but to his surprise Russians started to treat him and the cosacs as their slaves.
@@renemagritte8237 Well, contemporary Russians don`t want to see that Lenin indirectly rcognized Polish 1772 borders by admitting that the partitions were a criminal act.
Also needing a mention is that when partitioned between the Germans and Soviets, the Soviets got the bigger half. Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and eastern Romania were also occupied so this was more than just the start of the second world war. In the mean time, Polish pilots, the country's gold reserves and Enigma cryptologists were smuggled out through the corridor to Romania to continue the fight abroad. The Russian occupation did not end Poland until the Berlin wall came down and the invaded eastern territories were never recovered.
@@marekh3296 most of those areas were part of Russia previously and were ONLY given to the West because the USSR was weak tilting the INVASION by MULTIPLE capitalist armies.
Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania started to be formally occupied by Soviet Union in June 1940 not in 1939. In 1939 Lithuania accepted to receive Polish Vilnius/Wilno (view of the city starts this video) from the Soviets as a gift, after the city was captured by them in September 1939 when they attacked Eastern Poland.
1939: the USSR invaded Poland and France invaded Germany (Saar Offensive). The landscape is changing, but such events have traditionally been overlooked and therefore considered somewhat obscure, but so important and so fascinating how things were playing out
6:24 What a "coincidence", a training drill made by the Red Army in 1939 near the Polish border, much like the training drill made by the Russian army in 2022 near the Ukrainian border. History repeats itself.
Interestingly the US learned of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact days before it was signed, although the message did not say that Ribbentrop would fly to Moscow to sign it. Hans von Herwarth from the German embassy in Moscow informed US diplomat Charles Bohlen about the impending pact and later passed the full details of the pact as well as the secret protocol. The US informed Britain and France of all of these details, but the first message was conveniently lost by a Soviet spy in the code room of the British Foreign Office meaning Britain was blindsided.
Notice how the soviet attack was 1/10 scale of their full standard array of forces? This is because the invasion of Poland was a 'dry run.' Their longer term goal was the conquest of europe, starting either in July 1941 or early 1942, which would involve the entire complement of the Soviet armed forces, supplemented by a full callup of reserves, which would have given the Red Army an effective strength of about 9M troops, 50k-60k tanks, and a quite ridiculous number of aircraft.
G. Picker. "Hitler's Table Talk." (G. Picker kept shorthand records of the conversations) Hitler himself admitted the mistake in a close circle. It happened on April 12, 1942. Hitler said the following: ""The entire war with Finland in 1940 - as well as the entry of the Russians into the Poland with its outdated tanks and weapons and soldiers not dressed in uniform is nothing more than a grandiose campaign of disinformation, since Russia at one time had weapons that made it a world power along with Germany and Japan." G. Picker. Hitler's Table Talk. Page 205. And also: "In their own Russia they have created an incredibly powerful military industry... and the more we learn about what is happening in Russia, the more we rejoice that struck the decisive blow in time."
An excerpt from a book about the Barbarossa plan. You will be pleased ‘There was no information…’ Within the Soviet hinterland the Russian Army was on the move. Lines and lines of tanks stood motionless on railway flatcars waiting in open fields near the frontier area. Some 4,216 wagons loaded with ammunition were threading their way towards the frontier network; 1,320 trainloads of lorries puffed and hissed their way towards border objectives. The LXIIIrd Rifle Corps, 200th and 48th Rifle Divisions were still in transit as were many other units in the middle of June. A huge consignment of maps alone filled 200 railway wagons in the Baltic, Western and Kiev Special Military Districts. Possibly the largest-scale train movement in Russian history was under way, much of it unnoticed by German reconnaissance, all of it moving westward.(1) About 170 Soviet divisions were within operational distance of western Russia, from a total of perhaps 230-240 divisions under arms, but not all at war strength.(2) These belonged to the First Strategic Echelon; 56 were already deployed directly on the frontier and 114 further back. Ten Soviet armies were located within four Military Districts running north to south (see p.55). To the north was the Baltic Special Military District with the 26 divisions of Eighth and Eleventh Armies, which included six armoured divisions. Next in line south were Third, Tenth and Fourth Armies, belonging to the Western Special Military District. It had 36 divisions, of which 10 were armoured. The Kiev Special Military District with Fifth, Sixth, Twenty-sixth and Twelfth Armies had 56 divisions, of which 26 were armoured. To the south was the Odessa Special Military District with a further 14 divisions including two armoured. Behind these forces to the north lay the Leningrad Military District with the Fourteenth, Seventh and Twenty-third Armies. They faced a proposed new German front of 1,800km stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea. On Friday, 13 June 1941, Moscow radio broadcast an unusual and incongruous TASS report which was printed in the Communist Party organ the next day. It stated: ‘The rumours of Germany’s intentions to tear up the [Russo-German Non-Aggression] pact and to undertake an attack on the USSR are without any foundation [and are] clumsy propaganda by forces hostile to the USSR and Germany and interested in an extension of the war.’(3) On the day this communiqué was issued, 183 Soviet divisions were in transit. Between 12 and 15 June orders were given to the western military districts to move all divisions stationed within their interiors closer to the state frontier. The entire First Strategic Echelon of 114 divisions began to concentrate directly in the border belt; an additional 69 divisions belonging to the Second Strategic Echelon began preparations and movement in secrecy and under cover towards the western frontier. Maj-Gen N. I. Biryukov, the commander of the 186th Rifle Division stationed in the Ural Military District, recalled: ‘On 13 June 1941 we received a directive of special importance from District Staff according to which the division must move to “a new camp”. The address of the new quarters was not communicated even to me, the division commander. Only when passing through Moscow did I learn that our division was to be concentrated in woods to the west of Idritsa.’(4)
For the same reason why actual war in Ukraine is consequently called Liberation and Special Operation by Russians. Russians are smart - they avoid to call war a war so they can not be held responsible for starting a war.
The western Democracies let Poland down after the war. The American government tossed their concerns aside and Britain also refused to stand up for Poland.
Soviet repression affected almost 500,000 Polish citizens between 1939 and 1941, including imprisonments, shootings and mass deportations deep into the Soviet Union, mainly of Polish intellectuals and civil servants at all levels (including foresters).
Cuz they didn't care for, is all about dividing and conquering. France was a cowardly country who surrender in what - 2 weeks ? And UK later sold Poland and Eastern countries to the URSS in exchange for Greece and Austria...
@@dragosstanciu9866 wrzesień 1939- jeszcze ani Anglia , ani Francja tak naprawdę nie zaangarz😅wsly się przeciw Niemcom.. Chaberlain postawił na konflikt ZSRR- Niemcy ( miał w koncu racje ale nie spodziewal sie ze Adolf poczyni takie postępy w 1940) ☝🏻i temat polski nie był mu na rękę w tym momencie wiec go „ wyciszono”😬🫵🏻.
Few channels tell the story of Poland’s attack with Germany on Czechoslovakia in 1938/9, or of the Polish German non aggression pact of 1934 which greenlighted German rearmament and set the ball rolling towards WW2. Few also mention the proposed anti Nazi Eastern pact of 1934 which the Poles rejected. Few also mention that Poland occupied Vilnius and the southern third of Lithuania.
@@rjames3981Of course you’re too stupid to know, that Poland: 1. Poland had nothing to do with German attack 2. Czechoslovakia brutally attacked Poland in 1919? 3. You think non- agression pacts are something unusual?😂 They were signed for hundreds of years before between many countries 4. Vilnius and territory around it was Polish with big majority of the population being Polish. 60-90%
The Soviet state fought against Poland in 1919-1921. Tukhachevsky's troops reached the outskirts of Warsaw and then retreated to Smolensk. The result of this two-year war was the conclusion of the Riga Peace Treaty on March 18, 1921. According to its terms, Poland received the lands of today's Grodno, Brest, and parts of the Minsk and Vitebsk regions. As well as Galicia, part of Volyn and Rivne regions in Ukraine. How Belarusians and Ukrainians lived for 18 years under Polish occupation, Western Belarus and Western Ukraine. And Poland increased its territory by almost 50 percent as a result of the Riga Peace Treaty.
Excellent. VERY good that you showed archival footage of Soviet cavalry and horse drawn artillery putting the lie to the idea the Polish army was somehow "backward" because it used horse drawn artillery and cavalry - as did the German, Italian and practically every other army in the early aort of the war. Even the UK had a cavalry unit during the invasion of Vichy Syria. Also, very pleased you used the Polish pronunciation for Lwow, which is after all a Polish city. As for the Lithuanians cooperation with the Soviets, the joke was on them.
As I understand from sources, the German army used nearly 750 thousand horses and mules in WW2 during the invasion of Russia (during Operations Barbarossa).
When the Soviet Union switched sides this alliance of Communism and Naziism was conveniently forgotten by the Allies. Much in the same way the Fins were lauded as heroes during the Winter War against Soviet Russia during this period only to find their cities bombed by the RAF a few years later. (Like the Italians and several other lesser powers, the Fins switched sides from the Axis to the Allies when it became apparent that the Axis would lose). Setting aside ex Posto facto moralism, WWII proves that nations have no permanent friends or enemies only permanent interests.
Glorifying the Finns, did you know that they had their own death camps where they threw people based on ethnicity?Did you know that almost a third of all captured prisoners of war died in their camps? Did you know that they helped organize the siege of Leningrad, which killed almost a million civilians?
Glorifying the Finns, did you know that they had their own death camps where they threw people based on ethnicity?Did you know that almost a third of all captured prisoners of war died in their camps? Did you know that they helped organize the siege of Leningrad, which killed almost a million civilians?
Happy New Year to you and yours, Stefan!! I don't know if it's been said, but I think I speak for many subscribers and viewers that your meticulous research and efforts are greatly appreciated. Looking forward to more exciting and informative videos about obscure historical facts and events in 2025!!
Russia in Poland before WW2: "Their bullets will run out faster than our men !" Russia in Ukraine before WW3: "Their bullets will run out faster than our men !" If it ain't broke, don't fix it, huh ?
I don't understand the thinking that the Soviet Union would be taking Poland's side after the two parties were always fighting eachother since the Russian civil war. I wish they did help Poland in 39 but it doesn't actually make sense given the context.
The reason for that was the fact that communism and fascism were in fierce opposition to one another. Soviets and Germans supported opposite sides of the civil war in Spain. German communists were wiped out by the nazis and Hitler frequently described the bolsheviks as a threat to all civilization in his speeches. In fact, one reason why the western powers were initially kinda relieved that it's the nazis raither than communists who took power in Germany was because they felt it would stop the spread of the revolution and Germany could become a bulwark against bolshevism. It seemed unbelievable that Hitler and Stalin could possibly become allies - and yet that's exactly what happened. They may have hated each other's guts but that didn't stop them from carving up eastern Europe.
@@liquidrock8388I could see the bulwark against communism thing consider all the fascist dictatorship supported by America in the cold war. But an alliance is not the same as a non aggression pact.
It is over looked beacuse narrative says that ww2 begun beacuse Poland could not have been left to the wolfes but after "victory" for the side of Poland it was left to Stalin.
2 nations invaded Poland. One was declared war upon, the other allied with. This tells us that the war was not about Poland. The final clue to the real cause of the Great European Slave Revolt of 1933-45, is that Poland mobilized its vast army, as large as Germany's, in March 1939 and sent it all to its western border....
@@juhopuhakka2351 We are ruled by an antihuman cult that gained power millennia ago through the same method. Banking. Germany was literally a state that broke away from the dystopian evil that people are witnessing today. WW2 was the hidden ruling elites stacking their slave states one by one to crush the rebellion.
RIP to those almost 200 000 soviets who liberated Poland in 1945, and the nazi concentration camps in Poland ! But obvious illiterate idiots who will try to falsify the history will only "remember" of those " 3,000-7,000 Polish troops and 1,475-3,000 Soviet troops "...
The Soviet invasion of Poland is often overshadowed by Germany's actions in 1939. Do you think this campaign deserves more attention when discussing the start of World War II and its impact on Poland?
It's not talked about much because it points to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact which proves that the USSR had at least equal guilt in starting WW2. "At least" since the Soviets started invading Finnland and the Baltics before the invasion of Poland.
@@jacekszkutnik6294 To be brutally honest, Slovakia technically fits into the same category as the Protectorate of Bohemia. Basically Slovakia in 1939 is in the same position Belarus was in 2022, functionally a puppet of another power.
Poland invaded Zaolzie from Czechoslovakia in 1938, after our country lost Sudetenland to Germany because of Munich Agreement. The Poles made a fatal mistake that ensured their own doom a year later by attacking their neighbours for piece of lands, something the Germans and Soviets recognised and exploited. Let's hope what happened will be a lesson for future cooperation between Poland and Czechia.
During battle of Kock in October 1939 Polish forces had on their się się some Red Army prisoners. They decided, after surrending to Polish Army in earlier battles, to fight alongside the Poles claiming that they have no sympathy to communist regime. I don't know about their future. I hope, that they weren't sent back to Red Army. The families of Russians who escaped during bolschevik revolution to Poland an lived there until 1939 were strongly sought, arrested and propably executed or sent to Gulags.
In Europe, Stalin with Soviet Union made actually Slavic state close to borders which were 1300 years ago or even 2000 years ago before Roman conquer. Only east Austria, Yugoslavia and north Greece (Macedonia, Thrace) were missing.
The battle was lost long before any of allies could muster any sort of help. And there were no better allies than GB and France. Not that they were fantastic, but best. Sad but true.
The soviet army had everything tanks such as t26 bt7 including armored cars such as ba 20 ba 10 heavy tanks such as t35 soldiers they had boots and rifles and other stuff to name a few
@@dragosstanciu9866 - BS, Greece was communist at that time, full commie gov, and military, Stalin sold them to get full control of countries in East ! Stalin had full power in Austria, Finland, and full Germany - in fact in FULL Europe, since all the allies combined forces were just 1/4 of the soviet ones. The deal is on paper, as a historical document. Do your research, read about Yalta Treaty. They negotiated countries like cattle.
Жаль автор не начал с истории отношений СССР\Польша, а то опять создается впечатление что на бедного дрожащего ягненка напали, но Польша того времени тот еще зверь не стоит его не дооценивать.
Вы, русские, вторглись, покорили, завоевали и издевались над людьми, находящимися под вашим правлением. И каким-то образом вы утверждаете, что освобождаете?
As a general comment I would like to add that the Soviet Union denied even the existence of the Molotov Ribbentrop pact after they had been attacked by Germany and also after the war.(I suppose that it was held secret also during the invasion of Poland). I have even met people here in Canada who had immigrated from the former Soviet Union and did not know about the pact because it was not taught in schools in Russia (I wonder if it is today?) and they had not bothered to learn the truth after they had come to the West. I once tried to explain the history to a Russian who would be about 50 today and somehow he would not believe me until he had checked it out for himself. He also could not understand why all the people in Eastern Europe did not want the Red Army to stay since they had liberated them from the Germans.
Niewiarygodne jest również to, jak wielu Rosjan do dziś nie wie, że IIWW wybuchła w 1939 roku i że Rosja była agresorem wraz z Niemcami. Uważają, że zaczęła się w 1941 roku (kiedy to Niemcy zdradziły rosyjskiego sojusznika), nie mają pojęcia co działo się wcześniej. Uważają się też za jedynych walczących i zwycięzców nad Niemcami. Nic nie wiedzą o koalicji antyhitlerowskiej i wojnie na całym świecie.
Поляки в 1921 увеличили свою территорию н 50% напав на Советы, воспользовавшись слабостью власти и революцией. Советы в 1939 пришли за своим. Русские всегда приходят за своей землей.
@ I am Polish, for your information, and if the Poles were neutral, I would speak Polish, so you are right, we should not interfere with the Russians, so as not to give away land and people.
@@Банкивасограбят I don't think much of Polan'ds inter-war government... or the current one... but I still respect Poland for protecting young babies in a way which most European countries (including Russia) don't.
Britain And France were already at war with Germany, they didn't need another strong enemy, They would have lost the war. There was nothing Britain and France could do.
Nazi (National Socialist) and Communist ideologies are not so different in practice. This is how we see it in Poland. Thank you for this high quality content!
Poland fought invaded and occupied Lithuania and Czechoslovakia between the wars and in 1938/9. They slso colluded with the Nazis in the extermination of many Jewish people in the 1940s. More recently Poland invaded Iraq and Afghanistan
@@rjames3981 It is patently untrue what you say. Poland did not occupy Lithuania. Vilnius was inhabited by an overwhelming majority of Poles, Jews and Byelorussians with a very small Lithuanian minority before 1939. Poles there were descendants of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania and as such wanted to be united with Poland. The Lithuanian nationalists supported by the Germans wanted to create a separate, mono-nationalist country and decided to control Vilnius received from Soviet hands in 1920. The Polish residents did not accept such an arrangement and arranged a change. Thus, the city was returned to the Poles. Poland did not fight against Czechoslovakia (except in 1919). Not a single Czech was killed during the takeover of Zaolzie in 1938. The land was Polish and was seized by the Czechs in 1919, when Poland was busy fighting a war in the east against Soviet aggression. Nevertheless, Poland's seizure of Zaolzie in 1939 was a political mistake by the Polish government. Almost all European nations collaborated with the Nazis in the extermination of the Jews, except the Polish nation. Therefore, your comment is a great manipulation and lie.
Thank you for posting this. Contrary to the common misconception, WW2 was not started by the Nazi Germany alone. They had an ally, Soviet Russia. They did not just invade Poland, the first country to try to stand up to the Nazis - soon after came Finland, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. Over all by 1941 Stalin had gobbled up more land than Hitler. They also genocided more people than Hitler, not with gas chambers, but with Siberia. Only after June 22nd 1941 did the Russians miraculously transformed into a 'holy crusader against fascism'. Beyond disgusting.
I wonder if history would've changed much if France and Britain declared war on the USSR in the aftermath of the invasion. A few things I think would've happened. - Finland would've been an Allied nation. After the Soviet invasion in 1939 France and Britain mulled about sending Finland aid they could spare. They ultimately didn't as Norway found itself invaded. In this scenario Britain and France would've had the justification to invade Norway and Sweden to support Finland if they didn't allow passage. - The Red Army would likely have still invaded Iran forcing Britain to send forces to secure India and the Suez Canal from a possible Soviet attack. There would be less forces facing Rommel in North Africa although the Afrika Korps would probably still stall due to logistical issues - The UK might have sought peace in 1940/41. With their French ally defeated and facing the two most powerful (on paper) militaries in the world in both North Africa and the Middle East, the British war cabinet might seek peace with. They would have been overstretched to the point that when Japan attacks in late 1941 the Front in Burma collapses and the Japanese make significant headway into India. - Although Barbarossa might be delayed until 1942 the result would be catastrophic for the Soviets. With a large portion of the Red Army engaged in the Middle East against the British, the Western armies of the USSR would completely crumble under the weight of the German assault. There would also be no lend lease program making Soviet materiel shortages all the more pronounced. It would be likely that Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad would fall. The Soviets would seek peace with Britain and withdraw from the Middle East but the damage will have already been done. The German advance would be stopped probably around Kazan and Astrakhan due to logistical issues and the insane amount of manpower needed to be left behind for occupation. The Soviet forces in Iran would be at risk of being cut off as the Germans approach and possibly take Baku. - Red Army counterattacks against the Germans would be less effective. While cities such as Saratov or Kazan would be retaken it wouldn't change the strategic picture too much. With more of their industrial, population and resource base occupied the Soviet war economy would take longer to rebuild than irl east of the Urals. This would lead to a lack of new equipment for the Red Army. - With Anglo-American attacks against Vichy territories in North Africa the Afrika Korps would retreat back to Italy with the majority of its force intact. Operation Husky would not be as successful . Mussolini might still be overthrown but with a larger German force in Italy they wouldn't surrender and switch sides. - With Italy still in the fight the Wehrmacht could concentrate more forces across Northern France and the Low Countries in preparation for Allied landings. Operation Dragoon would still take the Germans by surprise an lead to a hurried withdrawal to Germany and Northern Italy. - With the eventual collapse of Germany (probably as late as 1948 after a few atomic strikes) the Allied armies would continue east liberating Poland, Belarus, the Baltics and large swathes of Ukraine before the Soviets would arrive. Should the USSR still be at war with the Allies we could see American amphibious invasions of the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin and the Kamchatka Peninsula. With all this and the Americans shiny atomic checkmate Stalin would sue for peace. - The USSR would be a shell of its irl self having lost Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltics and possibly some Pacific territories. They would be forced to pay huge reparations. With a much weakened USSR the communists lose in China and Vietnam while Korea is fully occupied by the Americans.
The Allies would have lost the war if they declared war on the USSR too in 1939. Britain and France would have been defeated. No hope for Allied victory.
"the dispute with Japan" was culminated in the Battle of Khalkin gol that Japan had lost: this made it possible to move red army westwards in the end on 17 september 1939
Poland paid the price for their non aggression pact with Germany in 1934, their joint attack with Germany of Czechoslovakia in 1938/9 and their rejection of the proposed anti Nazi Eastern pact. When the Polish leadership ran away to the Romanian corridor, the Soviets had little choice but to protect the eastern borderlines.
You need to seriously work on your knowledge of history because so far you're just repeating lies. 1. Poland had non-aggression pacts with most of its neighbors. It signed such a pact with the USSR on July 25, 1932 and if the USSR hadn't broken it on September 17, 1939, this pact would have been in force until 1945, I think. 2. There was no joint attack with Germany on Czechoslovakia in 1938. 3. As for the pact with the USSR against Germany, Poland and Romania were not naive enough to let the Red Army into their territory because, as experience shows, the Red Army would never have left. 4. The Polish government fled to Romania only after and as a result of the Red Army entering Polish territory.
The Hitler Pilsudski Polish German Pact of 1934 was the most important non aggression pact of the 1930s. It secured Germany’s eastern border and facilitated its rearming in contravention of the Versailles Treaty signed at the end of WW1. This treaty had restricted the German Navy, restricted its army to 100,000, forbidden German from having an Air Force, and demilitarised the Rhineland. With the signing of the Pact Hitler was confident he could break these arrangements and rearm. This later enabled Germany to take Czechoslovakian territory simultaneously with Poland. Poland then took on Germany (effectively alone) in a war they couldn’t win. The Polish leadership moved their headquarters close to the Romanian corridor to ‘save their own skins’. This was before the Soviets moved into the eastern borderlines.
@@rjames3981 "The most important non-aggression pact..." no, you're exaggerating a bit. It wasn't even a pact, just a declaration of mutual non-use of violence for 10 years. In 1934, everyone still thought that Mr. Hitler is a normal politician and Poland wanted to have all its borders secured. In later years, Poland firmly rejected all attempts by Germany to draw it into an alliance against the USSR. It was the passivity of the Western Powers that led to the growth of Germany's power, not the attitude of such a relatively weak country as Poland. As for Czechoslovakia in 1938, Poland acted here invoking the provisions of the Munich Treaty and not together with Germany. Of course, this does not bring us glory, but why does no one mention, for example, Hungary, which took much more. In September 1939, our government moved near the border with Romania, but this was related to the defense plan based on the so-called "romanian bridgehead" and the hope for supplies from France through the port of Constanța. The idea was to hold out for a few more weeks so that France could strike from the west, but when the USSR struck from the east everything collapsed.
France (or Britain) had no realistic plan to help Poland. They deceived Poland. As for Poland’s (and Hungary’s) occupation of Czechoslovakian lands in 1938/9, that was never part of the Munich agreement. Just opportunism (as subsequently with Germany’s occupation of Czechoslovakia) See also below re the German Polish non aggression pact of 1934 ‘In Czechoslovakia the agreement angered the Czechoslovak political elite.[27] Announcement of the declaration came just four days after discussions between Jozef Beck and the Czech foreign minister, Edvard Beneš. Beneš, speaking to Joseph Addison (the British ambassador in Prague), claimed that the agreement was a "stab in the back" and went on to say that it showed that Poland was a "useless country" that deserved another partition.[28] At the time Beneš was particularly angered by reports in the Polish government-controlled and right-wing press accusing the Czechs of mistreating Poles in the Trans-Olza region and perceived Polish encouragement of Slovak nationalists.[29]’
@@rjames3981 " France (or Britain) had no realistic plan to help Poland..." - we know it now, but not then. " ...that was never part of the Munich agreement..." - I didn't say that. Poland referred to the rights of self-determination of nations mentioned in the pact. It did not act together with Germany. As for the Polish-German declaration of non-violence of 1934, its conclusion was partly caused by a change in France's policy towards the USSR and it certainly could not have been liked by Czechoslovakia, which had been Poland's open enemy since 1919 and in 1920 had taken Cieszyn Silesia, taking advantage of the fact that the Red Army was then standing near Warsaw. And now look at your first post and see how far you've strayed from your original conclusions. I'm glad our discussion led somewhere, but now I have to go to bed ;)
I had heard (possibly from this program) that the Soviet authorities sent in troikas of judges to try people as if to give them the illusion of legality. Many of these "judges" were Soviet Jews who had been promoted from being simple lawyers to judges overnight. Some of these people survived the war and formed a core of people who went to Israel after the Israeli Independence. Apparently the Soviet Union was the first foreign power to declare their support for Israel. Can anyone confirm this story? Thanks.
@@HistoryHustle seriously? You respond to a question about the Polish connivance in the destruction of Czechoslovakia (they blocked a Franco-Soviet attempt to defend the country in 1938 in collusion with Germany and the UK) with "what do you mean?" What is your academic specialty again? 🙄
Were there any provisions made for the evacuation of the German minority before the outbreak of hostilities or were they left to their own devices? I think that the German minorities in Estonia, Latvia and possibly Lithuania had been evacuated according to agreements in the pact but I could be wrong.
British and Canadian soldier reached Denmark before the Russians. It was close. If Russia was 2 days faster Denmark would have been in the USSR and Warsaw Pact.
There weren't Russians, don't be ignorant. Besides the zones were already delimited in Yalta conference, so it makes no sense to advance more for the Red Army.
Ayn Rand, whose father was a busi-nessman who was constantly harmed by the communists, may not have always understood economics[ monopoly, big enough, is a way you can almost print $] but understood underneath tyrants are all the same. So she eschewed 'statism' which she called BOTH communism and fascism. I don't think she could see the upcoming American antithesis-thesis- synthesis.
Did not the Lithuanians see the writing on the wall? Did they not realize that the "gift" of Wilno and surrounding area came with a price? Or were they just taking advantage of the immediate situation?
The Lithuanians had no choice, they had a small army, they could not oppose any Soviets plans against them. The USSR wanted to take Lithuania with or without Wilno.
Why did the Germans even bother about Lvov since it was to be in the Soviet zone? Could they not understand that or were they driven by their sense of superiority mixed with cruelty?
Go to piavpn.com/HistoryHustle to get 83% off Private Internet Access with 4 months free!
Great presentation. I don't think Russia likes to talk about this brief and stunningly successful Campaign against their Historical nemesis Poland because of the *"trickery"* Stalin and the USSR then fell for afterward going into 1941 and the Molotov Von Ribbentrop Pact which was a stunning act of clever Diplomacy by Germany in this matter that nearly won Germany *THEIR WAR* needs noting. Much of Western Poland was in fact German in 1939 but Eastern Poland/Galacia most definitely was not Russian in 1939. This *"easy win"* which I agree wasn't so easy as it seemed but certainly was seen as such did lead almost directly to the War on Finland by the USSR the first of many military disasters to be suffered by near everyone first in/by Europe later Japan in a War that ultimately had an enormity of surprises actually. What happened to Poland in 1939 was unfortunately not one of those surprises😊😊
@@georgedoolittle9015 Hey Europe, wake up! Stalin had much wider plans in Europe than just Poland and Baltics. Same as Putin has now. Stalin announced that the World Bolshevik Revolution was possible only as a consequence of new World War. And he wanted Hitler to start that war in Europe, to be able to stab him in the back when he gets exhausted and bogged down in trench warfare in France, like in WW1. With no common border with Germany and with Poland on Red Army's way to Europe, that was more difficult to do, therefore the Pact was to eliminate that obstacle. As an 'non-aggression' agreement the Pact made no sense at all, because, again, Germany and the USSR had NO common border in August 1939! Realize that finally!
Stalin was still bitter about his loss to the Poles in the Polish-Soviet War and vowed revenge...
And No body call. It the polish invasion of Russia in 1914 , meanwhile Russia was in a blody civil war , The soviet union took back its land occupied by the polish
@@fergar9264 There was no Polish invasion on Russia in 1914. You are ill informed.
@@fergar9264 russian troll detected
He sucked as a military commander, and sucked as leader of a country lol
@@gregski4130 Poland's General Pilsudski invaded Russia in 1920 and put western Russia under harsh Polish occupation until 1939 when the Soviet Union took it back.
The war began because Poland was invaded. Yet one of the invaders - namely the Russians - stood against Germany at the Nuremberg Trials. Makes no sense. Russia should have been on trial too.
It was partially a Soviet trial. General prosecutor was a Russian.
@renemagritte8237
Exactly. A guilty party co-conspirator killer was also the prosecutor. Too weird for words.
this was Mr.Churchill's and Mr.Roosevelt's coward decision
The Ruski did not invade Poland. They stopped at the Curzon line.
Rubbish, they invaded crossing the Polish border they recognized earlier.@@bruceparr1678
Missed opportunity to talk about the joint German-Soviet parade at Bret Livotsk
Tak, haniebna parada obu agresorów w Brześciu nad Bugiem (Bug - rzeka na terenie obecnej Białorusi).
@@MagorzataKocjan Bug nie znajduje siÄ na terytorium obecnej Biaöorusi, jest rzeką graniczną w dolnym biegu i ukraińską w biegu górnym.
@@MagorzataKocjan Bug nie jest jest rzeką na obecnej Białorusi, co najwyżej na pewnym odcinku jest rzeką graniczną pomiędzy Polską, a Białorusią.
Brześć Litewski (Brest Litovsk)
It was just a formal handover. See below for more important information from the Daily Telegraph 18th October 2008 article by Nick Holdsworth.
‘In August 1939, Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov proposed a triple alliance between the Soviet Union, France, and Poland, aimed at counterbalancing Nazi Germany's growing aggression and protecting Poland. The proposal included a promise to send 1 million Workers' and Peasants' Red Army troops to protect Poland from Germany.
However, the Polish government declined the offer, and shortly after Poland's refusal, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed on August 23, 1939, to buy time for the inevitable war with the German enemy !’
Poland was betrayed three times to this day they still hold a grudge about what happened during the Warsaw uprising and after the war
Uprising was too early. The Poles should not have attack the Germans until the Russians were entering the city .
the soviets could have backed them, but they didnt want to cuz they wanted a soviet satellite
Powstanie warszawskie było głupota 😊mówię to jako Polak 😊
Ita a silly place to put a country in fairness.
@@robertkowal8442 Powtarzaj tak dalej a Twoje dzieci będą myły sedesy u sąsiadów i żebrały na ulicach miast innych państw.
Cool, waited for this video a long time.
👍
At the end of the day: Soviet-Russia is as guilty as Nazi-Germany in the outbreak of WW2.
"But the thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies"-Lawkeeper Equity Mlp Ace Attorney EOJ
How an enemy can "betray". Such a stupid quote 😹😹😹😹
Fantastic video, one of my favorite history channels on youtube. Love all the source material in the description. Now a video on the Polish-Soviet war!
Thanks for putting a focus on a rarely spoken about episode of WW2 ..... The Soviet Union was definitely not a neighbour you wanted
Just as RF today...
The Russian invasion of Poland wasn't an 'episode'. IT was part of a larger scheme, where the two best friends, Nazis and Russians, carved up Europe amongst themselves and started WW2 TOGETHER. Soon after Poland, Russia invaded Finland, then Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. Overall by 1941 the Russians have gobbled up more territory and genocided more people than the Nazis.
Poland should have pursued the Eastern Pact recommended by France and the Soviets. Instead they signed a non aggression pact with Germany in 1934.
Then Poland invaded Czechoslovakia alongside Germany 1938/9
In 1932 Poland signed a non aggression treaty with USSR. They were real peaceniks until their hand was forced.@
@@rjames3981 LOL! You Russians and your cosmic propaganda! Do you even understand the meaning of "non-agression treaty"? It means "don't attack me and I won't attack you". That's the pact that Poland signed with Germany and you, Soviet Russia, hoping that they/you would honor what they/you sign. But Nazi Germany and you, Soviet Russians signed a differnet pact which was "lets carve up Europe and invade Poland together". Do you get the picture now?
Thank You so much for another great (historical) episode.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
You forgot that on September 1, together with the Germans, the Slovak army also attacked Poland. To sum up, in September 1939 Poland had to fight three invaders at once!
This proves, never trust the West. Poland forgets too often. The damn French and British declared war on Germany, but not on the USSR. How interesting. Then they used polish troops as fodder, let them "win" Battle of Britain for them, then never invite them on the victory parade, kill Sikorsky then throw the country to Stalin. Well done.
Reminds me of Loyd George abandoning Pilsudski then same way. French sent a single peacock general who did freaking nothing but went home bragging like he did.
Somehow we in Central Europe have a talent in always being on the losing side.
@alnotz - Yes, that is why Poland is currently arming itself, it does not count on anyone, despite the fact that it belongs to NATO. Poland prefers to rely only on itself 💪
@@VIS35 Poland is not arming itself, it is being pumped up by the US, on US money... No post-socialist country could afford such an economy. To be the next into the slaughter. The baltics are also, fodder. I've been to Latvia a month ago. It's like the USSR was. People are talking in russian. all of them. And are very poor... It's only the leadership that sucks the West. Lithuania is contrary, on the other hand. No wonder why the huge 6lane motorway has been built very recently through Suwalki. Military road, romans did that too.
People never learn from history. Look at South Vietnam, South Korea, ... well Afghanistan. List is way too long. Money turned off, the corrupt puppet states collapse.
@@alnotz Cowards will never fight for anyone else, not this generation.
Well, Slovakia was a German puppet so they had no choice, Besides, they were upset abt. Polish landgrab of some territory Poland wanted as to gain a border with Hungary.
Excellent content. I enjoy your detailed, well researched information on lesser known military campaigns of the Second World War.
Thank you, wanted to make this one a long time. Glad you liked it. Happy new year's eve!
Remember it is the winner who writes history.
Thats soo untrue.
More like whoever gets to write their narrative first…….
More like everyone writes their own history unless forced otherwise. Japan wrote it's own history and yet lost the war. Many German historians and memoirs are littered with intentional distortions of WWII from the German perspective in spite people claiming "Germans have owned up to their actions in WWII" but in reality they have not in most respects and just pinned it all on the Nazis and SS ignoring it was literally a generational thing. That was the "German Perspective" for roughly 50-60 years. The most brutal German general in WWII was a member of the Heer for example, not the SS.
There is no greater example in US history than the Lost Cause Narrative revolving around the American Civil War. It dominated American Civil War studies throughout the first 3/4s of the 20th Century and Americans are still dealing with it in the 2020s as many have grown up with that false narrative and defend it as if their life depends on it.
"History can say whatever it wants but rarely does it remember anything correctly"-Lawkeeper Equity Mlp Ace Attorney EOJ
History is not written by the victors, but written by those with the most consistent and compelling arguments based on the evidence, backed by a healthy dose of rational logic and passion for debate. The key is not to apologize for any side but to take a firm stand for what's right and what's wrong.
Or a quote of Max Miller: “They say 'history is written by the victors,' but in my experience, history is written by those who write stuff down."
It's hard to believe that the Soviet invasion of 17 September 1939, which led directly to the massacre of at least 20,000 Polish officers in 1940, did not result in war between the USSR and Great Britain. It really demonstrates the accuracy of the old saying, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
How is it hard? Liberalism and communism are from the same rotten tree. Globalist agendas against nationalism.
Not only that ,at the end of the War Stalin (Hitler Clone) took over all of eastern Europe not just Poland . There was no point in declaring war against Germany .
Britain had its hands full just with the Germans , would have been an interesting twist . I suspect the Brits figured sooner or later that Germany and Russia would be at others throats soon enough . So watch and wait , but I do feel sorry for the Poles . I don’t think Poland will let it happen again .
@@Crashed131963 - get an education, dude, you have no clue what you talk ! Europe was sold / negotiated by the Brits and Stalin. Like cattle. Churchill was as bad as Stalin.
@@Rkolb2798 Look how awful Russia's 3 year invasion of Ukraine is going?
Poland's military budget is much higher than Ukraine's and Poland is in NATO.
"Trust is a very fragile thing it takes years to build seconds to break an eternity to repair that betrayal can last a lifetime"-Lawkeeper Equity Mlp Ace Attorney EOJ
France and Britain guaranteed Polish independence. So when Germany attacked western Poland on the 1st of September, they declared war on Germany. When USSR attacked Eastern Poland on the 17th of September there was no war declaration on the USSR. Please explain that to me. It just doesn't add up.
And just to be clear. At that point in time, the Soviet Union had executed a full genocide of millions. The Nazis hadn't even gotten started. So if this was for humanitarian reasons, it makes no sense.
France and Britain were already at war with Germany, they didn't need another enemy, they would have lost the war if they declared war on the USSR too. Germany was seen as the bigger threat.
The guarantee stipulated that the British & French would only come to Polands aid in the event of an attack from Germany (they didn’t really do that either)
Hence their non-declaration(s) of war against the USSR.
@@jgmcfc I've read it was part of a secret side-protocol, but not officially.
The allies guaranteed specifically against the German Reich.
Sinister and commie churchill was responsible for the non declaration of war against Russia.
Another excellent video Stefan. Cheers from Tennessee
Thank you for this film! I have always wondered what would have happened if Poland in 1939 had to oppose only the USSR. All of our army modernization was prepared for the Eastern Front. For example, the very existence of the fleet was to block the Gulf of Finland and not, as people thought after the war - to fight the Kriegsmarine. We probably would have lost anyway, but with over a million men under arms and quite a decent number (compared to Finland at the time, for example) of air force, cavalry and anti-tank defense, we could have inflicted heavy losses on the USSR.
Russia is the only winning country of a war to lose more soldiers than the losing side not once but twice. The 1939 Finland winter war and the war against Germany.
Russia lost 200,000 to Finland's 25,000
Russia lost 10 million to Germany's 5 million .
@@Crashed131963Rosjan mnoga - milion , albo dwa to żadna strata.. na pierwsza linie szli ,Białorusini, Ukraińcy , kazachowie i obywatele republik radzieckich .. Rosjanie pracowali w sztabie… dzisiaj nie inaczej… 😬☝🏻
@@Crashed131963 they literally threw so many unequipped and underprepared soldiers that even through that it was enough to outnumber the enemies.
@Ne_Ne_Vova_UA that has forever been a problem with the Russia military operations, and that has led to the crisis of underpopulation in the country. The elite wages wars that are of NO interests to the commoner soldier. The last time they rose up and resisted this slaughter was during the first world war, which led to an eventual judaeo-bolshevik take over, which led to further problems, and conflicts with Poland & Ukraine. Unless the Russians assert the interests of their own masses, this will not stop.
@Ne_Ne_Vova_UAsuch is their character , their strategy never really changes
First, thank you for the content!
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Top! Check je snel weer in de podcast! ❤
👍👍👍
Thanks for this piece Stef. Even though I'm somewhat familiar with the topic, I still managed to learn something new. I particularly appreciate you giving an explanation on ethic landscape in Polish so-called Kresy prior to war. It's a massive topic in its own right, not easy to avoid oversimplifications.
As always Stefan you approach history from the mostly untold...many thanks...
"It's not the stab in the back that kills you it is the person who is holding the knife"-Harley Quinn
Yay. Finally the promised video.. thanks Hustler.❤
It’s was big mistake that in Nuremberg world forget to judge communism same as naz i animals..
You are delusional and ignorant, you talk about the nation who defeated Germany and conquered Berlin ! It was the red flag waiving over Berlin, not the stars and striped, muppet ! Not to say at that time URSS had the biggest and strongest army in Europe ! And were THEM who brought to justice most nazi animals and their collaborators, unlike UK and US who took them home and get in love with them !
For your information, according to Roman law, winners are not judged. Apparently you have serious problems in matters of European history and you simply do not know that literally eleven months before September 1, 1939, Poland and Hitler tore the Republic of Czechoslovakia into pieces. That’s when the Soviet Union officially announced the termination of the Soviet-Polish non-attack agreement.
@@captderichelieu2280 You have serious problems with history. Poland DID NOT tear Czechoslovakia apart in 1939. In 1938, without consulting the Germans, the Poles BLOODLESSLY took back the Zalozie Region which the Czechs took from Poland in 1919 when the Poles were busy with the Polish and Soviet war (1919-1921). At the time the Brits and French signed the Munich Agreement giving Sudetanland to Hitler. Here ends your history lesson.
@@ronaldostrowski4014 After consulting with the Germans, the Poles BLOODLESSLY regained the Zalozhsky region, which the Czechs took from Poland in 1919. You probably think that there are only uneducated idiots around you. But how about if I tell you that the Russians consulted with the Germans and regained western Ukraine and Belarus which they lost as a result of the Soviet-Polish War of 1919 - 1920,....
@@ronaldostrowski4014 You are confusing Polish-Soviet war with Polish-Ukrainian war. Poland was at war with Ukraine since 1918 and it ended after Polish-Czechoslovak war. Polish-Soviet war erupted after the war with Czechoslovakia was over.
Fascinating deep dive! This topic isn't usually covered in depth in American history courses.
Many thanks! I wanted to make this overview for a long time.
Americans weren't involved in Europe at this time.
The problem with loyalty is when the bullets start flying they'll throw you to the wolves
Thank you for the video Stefan!
Cheers, wanted to make this one a long time. Glad you liked it. Happy new year's eve!
@HistoryHustle Happy New Year's Eve, and happy new year! 🎉
Een Hustle op de valreep !! Fijne jaarwisseling Stefan, en een super 2025 toegewenst !!
👋 oet Grun', TW.
Dank voor je enthousiaste reacties TW, goede jaarwisseling!
Guess we can be grateful that Ribbentrop didn’t include a provision in the Molotov Ribbentrop agreement to have the Soviets attack first. Western allies wouldn’t have known how to respond.
best history channel on youtube.
thank you for the video.
Many thanks!
Thanks very much for this. I too study WW2 much yet, this piece of information I have never looked into deeply at all. Great stuff, much learned, keep up the fantastic work! God bless!
You forgot to mention that the czarist government occupied the lands of Polish -Lithuanian Commonwealth that were partitioned by Austria , Russia and Prussia. The fact that those lands were governed by different countries doesn't mean that the Poles lost their identity. They preserved their language, religion and culture all that identifies the nation. The lands of present day Ukraine were part of Poland for 400 years, while they belonged to Russia only for 124 years.
It's not how contemporary Russians see it. And they are partially right because after Pereyeslav agreement the left-bank Ukraine became a part of Russian empire. And it was 1665.
@@renemagritte8237 Chmielnicki realised his huge political mistake right after the Pereyaslav agreement... He thought he will be in Russia as free as in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but to his surprise Russians started to treat him and the cosacs as their slaves.
@@renemagritte8237 Well, contemporary Russians don`t want to see that Lenin indirectly rcognized Polish 1772 borders by admitting that the partitions were a criminal act.
@danhubert-hx4ss Exactly. Neglecting these parts of history which could make them uncomfortable is Russian national sport. They are World Champions.
Also needing a mention is that when partitioned between the Germans and Soviets, the Soviets got the bigger half.
Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and eastern Romania were also occupied so this was more than just the start of the second world war. In the mean time, Polish pilots, the country's gold reserves and Enigma cryptologists were smuggled out through the corridor to Romania to continue the fight abroad.
The Russian occupation did not end Poland until the Berlin wall came down and the invaded eastern territories were never recovered.
Thanks for sharing your insights.
@@marekh3296 most of those areas were part of Russia previously and were ONLY given to the West because the USSR was weak tilting the INVASION by MULTIPLE capitalist armies.
Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania started to be formally occupied by Soviet Union in June 1940 not in 1939. In 1939 Lithuania accepted to receive Polish Vilnius/Wilno (view of the city starts this video) from the Soviets as a gift, after the city was captured by them in September 1939 when they attacked Eastern Poland.
1939: the USSR invaded Poland and France invaded Germany (Saar Offensive). The landscape is changing, but such events have traditionally been overlooked and therefore considered somewhat obscure, but so important and so fascinating how things were playing out
6:24 What a "coincidence", a training drill made by the Red Army in 1939 near the Polish border, much like the training drill made by the Russian army in 2022 near the Ukrainian border. History repeats itself.
Interestingly the US learned of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact days before it was signed, although the message did not say that Ribbentrop would fly to Moscow to sign it. Hans von Herwarth from the German embassy in Moscow informed US diplomat Charles Bohlen about the impending pact and later passed the full details of the pact as well as the secret protocol. The US informed Britain and France of all of these details, but the first message was conveniently lost by a Soviet spy in the code room of the British Foreign Office meaning Britain was blindsided.
Notice how the soviet attack was 1/10 scale of their full standard array of forces? This is because the invasion of Poland was a 'dry run.' Their longer term goal was the conquest of europe, starting either in July 1941 or early 1942, which would involve the entire complement of the Soviet armed forces, supplemented by a full callup of reserves, which would have given the Red Army an effective strength of about 9M troops, 50k-60k tanks, and a quite ridiculous number of aircraft.
G. Picker. "Hitler's Table Talk."
(G. Picker kept shorthand records of the conversations)
Hitler himself admitted the mistake in a close circle. It happened on April 12, 1942. Hitler said the following: ""The entire war with Finland in 1940 - as well as the entry of the Russians into the Poland with its outdated tanks and weapons and soldiers not dressed in uniform is nothing more than a grandiose campaign of disinformation, since Russia at one time had weapons that made it a world power along with Germany and Japan." G. Picker. Hitler's Table Talk. Page 205. And also: "In their own Russia they have created an incredibly powerful military industry... and the more we learn about what is happening in Russia, the more we rejoice that struck the decisive blow in time."
An excerpt from a book about the Barbarossa plan. You will be pleased
‘There was no information…’
Within the Soviet hinterland the Russian Army was on the move. Lines and lines of tanks stood motionless on railway flatcars waiting in open fields near the frontier area. Some 4,216 wagons loaded with ammunition were threading their way towards the frontier network; 1,320 trainloads of lorries puffed and hissed their way towards border objectives. The LXIIIrd Rifle Corps, 200th and 48th Rifle Divisions were still in transit as were many other units in the middle of June. A huge consignment of maps alone filled 200 railway wagons in the Baltic, Western and Kiev Special Military Districts. Possibly the largest-scale train movement in Russian history was under way, much of it unnoticed by German reconnaissance, all of it moving westward.(1)
About 170 Soviet divisions were within operational distance of western Russia, from a total of perhaps 230-240 divisions under arms, but not all at war strength.(2) These belonged to the First Strategic Echelon; 56 were already deployed directly on the frontier and 114 further back. Ten Soviet armies were located within four Military Districts running north to south (see p.55). To the north was the Baltic Special Military District with the 26 divisions of Eighth and Eleventh Armies, which included six armoured divisions. Next in line south were Third, Tenth and Fourth Armies, belonging to the Western Special Military District. It had 36 divisions, of which 10 were armoured. The Kiev Special Military District with Fifth, Sixth, Twenty-sixth and Twelfth Armies had 56 divisions, of which 26 were armoured. To the south was the Odessa Special Military District with a further 14 divisions including two armoured. Behind these forces to the north lay the Leningrad Military District with the Fourteenth, Seventh and Twenty-third Armies. They faced a proposed new German front of 1,800km stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea.
On Friday, 13 June 1941, Moscow radio broadcast an unusual and incongruous TASS report which was printed in the Communist Party organ the next day. It stated:
‘The rumours of Germany’s intentions to tear up the [Russo-German Non-Aggression] pact and to undertake an attack on the USSR are without any foundation [and are] clumsy propaganda by forces hostile to the USSR and Germany and interested in an extension of the war.’(3)
On the day this communiqué was issued, 183 Soviet divisions were in transit. Between 12 and 15 June orders were given to the western military districts to move all divisions stationed within their interiors closer to the state frontier. The entire First Strategic Echelon of 114 divisions began to concentrate directly in the border belt; an additional 69 divisions belonging to the Second Strategic Echelon began preparations and movement in secrecy and under cover towards the western frontier. Maj-Gen N. I. Biryukov, the commander of the 186th Rifle Division stationed in the Ural Military District, recalled:
‘On 13 June 1941 we received a directive of special importance from District Staff according to which the division must move to “a new camp”. The address of the new quarters was not communicated even to me, the division commander. Only when passing through Moscow did I learn that our division was to be concentrated in woods to the west of Idritsa.’(4)
Happy New Year Stefan ✌🏻🫶🏻
Excellent description if what happened at that time. Certainly a topic that seems to have been largely ignored...until now!👍
Vraag mij af waarom men alleen nazi Duitsland de oorlog heeft verklaard en niet aan de USSR na de inval van Polen.
th-cam.com/video/jGZ3GsHESWM/w-d-xo.htmlsi=M7CgwsRUMxMp7cmv
For the same reason why actual war in Ukraine is consequently called Liberation and Special Operation by Russians. Russians are smart - they avoid to call war a war so they can not be held responsible for starting a war.
The western Democracies let Poland down after the war. The American government tossed their concerns aside and Britain also refused to stand up for Poland.
after the war? during the war, after everything was already clear during Tehran conference, and ofc in Yalta anyway
Roosvelt betrayed Poland. Winston tried to oppose him but hadn`t any say with Roosvelt and Stalin ganging up on him.
@danhubert-hx4ss The same UK that backstabbed Poland in 1939? The Americans cared nothing about the world at the time.
Germany: "JA!"
Russia: "DA!"
Ok Germany you do the heavy lifting invading 💪
Soviet repression affected almost 500,000 Polish citizens between 1939 and 1941, including imprisonments, shootings and mass deportations deep into the Soviet Union, mainly of Polish intellectuals and civil servants at all levels (including foresters).
Why didn’t Great Britain and France declare war on the Soviet Union since they guaranteed Poland
Because they could do nothing against the USSR. They already had their hands full dealing with the Germans. They didn't need another strong enemy.
th-cam.com/video/jGZ3GsHESWM/w-d-xo.html
Cuz they didn't care for, is all about dividing and conquering. France was a cowardly country who surrender in what - 2 weeks ? And UK later sold Poland and Eastern countries to the URSS in exchange for Greece and Austria...
@@dragosstanciu9866 wrzesień 1939- jeszcze ani Anglia , ani Francja tak naprawdę nie zaangarz😅wsly się przeciw Niemcom.. Chaberlain postawił na konflikt ZSRR- Niemcy ( miał w koncu racje ale nie spodziewal sie ze Adolf poczyni takie postępy w 1940) ☝🏻i temat polski nie był mu na rękę w tym momencie wiec go „ wyciszono”😬🫵🏻.
Because Perfidious Albion. 😢
Few channels tell the story of the USSR’s 1939 invasion of Poland but instead focus solely on Germany’s invasion.
Few channels tell the story of Poland’s attack with Germany on Czechoslovakia in 1938/9, or of the Polish German non aggression pact of 1934 which greenlighted German rearmament and set the ball rolling towards WW2.
Few also mention the proposed anti Nazi Eastern pact of 1934 which the Poles rejected. Few also mention that Poland occupied Vilnius and the southern third of Lithuania.
@@rjames3981Of course you’re too stupid to know, that Poland:
1. Poland had nothing to do with German attack
2. Czechoslovakia brutally attacked Poland in 1919?
3. You think non- agression pacts are something unusual?😂 They were signed for hundreds of years before between many countries
4. Vilnius and territory around it was Polish with big majority of the population being Polish. 60-90%
The Soviet state fought against Poland in 1919-1921. Tukhachevsky's troops reached the outskirts of Warsaw and then retreated to Smolensk. The result of this two-year war was the conclusion of the Riga Peace Treaty on March 18, 1921. According to its terms, Poland received the lands of today's Grodno, Brest, and parts of the Minsk and Vitebsk regions. As well as Galicia, part of Volyn and Rivne regions in Ukraine. How Belarusians and Ukrainians lived for 18 years under Polish occupation, Western Belarus and Western Ukraine. And Poland increased its territory by almost 50 percent as a result of the Riga Peace Treaty.
Excellent. VERY good that you showed archival footage of Soviet cavalry and horse drawn artillery putting the lie to the idea the Polish army was somehow "backward" because it used horse drawn artillery and cavalry - as did the German, Italian and practically every other army in the early aort of the war. Even the UK had a cavalry unit during the invasion of Vichy Syria. Also, very pleased you used the Polish pronunciation for Lwow, which is after all a Polish city. As for the Lithuanians cooperation with the Soviets, the joke was on them.
As I understand from sources, the German army used nearly 750 thousand horses and mules in WW2 during the invasion of Russia (during Operations Barbarossa).
Good choice of topic!
👍
When the Soviet Union switched sides this alliance of Communism and Naziism was conveniently forgotten by the Allies. Much in the same way the Fins were lauded as heroes during the Winter War against Soviet Russia during this period only to find their cities bombed by the RAF a few years later. (Like the Italians and several other lesser powers, the Fins switched sides from the Axis to the Allies when it became apparent that the Axis would lose). Setting aside ex Posto facto moralism, WWII proves that nations have no permanent friends or enemies only permanent interests.
What about Britain and France in 1939? They guaranteed Poland's freedom but only against countries it suited them to.
Glorifying the Finns, did you know that they had their own death camps where they threw people based on ethnicity?Did you know that almost a third of all captured prisoners of war died in their camps? Did you know that they helped organize the siege of Leningrad, which killed almost a million civilians?
Glorifying the Finns, did you know that they had their own death camps where they threw people based on ethnicity?Did you know that almost a third of all captured prisoners of war died in their camps? Did you know that they helped organize the siege of Leningrad, which killed almost a million civilians?
Happy New Year to you and yours, Stefan!! I don't know if it's been said, but I think I speak for many subscribers and viewers that your meticulous research and efforts are greatly appreciated. Looking forward to more exciting and informative videos about obscure historical facts and events in 2025!!
The most important question is not asked at all here. Why didn't the UK declare war against USSR after its invasion of eastern Poland?🤔
No Polish declaration of war. In fact, it was a opposite: "don't fight the Soviets, unless they try to disarm you").
Because the pact was about invasion of Germany, not Russia
Happy New Year.
Russia in Poland before WW2: "Their bullets will run out faster than our men !"
Russia in Ukraine before WW3: "Their bullets will run out faster than our men !"
If it ain't broke, don't fix it, huh ?
I don't understand the thinking that the Soviet Union would be taking Poland's side after the two parties were always fighting eachother since the Russian civil war.
I wish they did help Poland in 39 but it doesn't actually make sense given the context.
The reason for that was the fact that communism and fascism were in fierce opposition to one another. Soviets and Germans supported opposite sides of the civil war in Spain. German communists were wiped out by the nazis and Hitler frequently described the bolsheviks as a threat to all civilization in his speeches. In fact, one reason why the western powers were initially kinda relieved that it's the nazis raither than communists who took power in Germany was because they felt it would stop the spread of the revolution and Germany could become a bulwark against bolshevism. It seemed unbelievable that Hitler and Stalin could possibly become allies - and yet that's exactly what happened. They may have hated each other's guts but that didn't stop them from carving up eastern Europe.
@@liquidrock8388I could see the bulwark against communism thing consider all the fascist dictatorship supported by America in the cold war.
But an alliance is not the same as a non aggression pact.
It is over looked beacuse narrative says that ww2 begun beacuse Poland could not have been left to the wolfes but after "victory" for the side of Poland it was left to Stalin.
2 nations invaded Poland. One was declared war upon, the other allied with. This tells us that the war was not about Poland. The final clue to the real cause of the Great European Slave Revolt of 1933-45, is that Poland mobilized its vast army, as large as Germany's, in March 1939 and sent it all to its western border....
@@TheBelrick So what would the short explanation be like? Desire to split europe in 2 between "east" and "west"?
@@juhopuhakka2351 We are ruled by an antihuman cult that gained power millennia ago through the same method. Banking.
Germany was literally a state that broke away from the dystopian evil that people are witnessing today.
WW2 was the hidden ruling elites stacking their slave states one by one to crush the rebellion.
RIP
To the 3,000-7,000 Polish troops and 1,475-3,000 Soviet troops who were killed in the Soviet invasion of Poland
RIP to those almost 200 000 soviets who liberated Poland in 1945, and the nazi concentration camps in Poland ! But obvious illiterate idiots who will try to falsify the history will only "remember" of those " 3,000-7,000 Polish troops and 1,475-3,000 Soviet troops "...
The Soviet invasion of Poland is often overshadowed by Germany's actions in 1939. Do you think this campaign deserves more attention when discussing the start of World War II and its impact on Poland?
ahhhh, the famous Russian training exercises :)
What the video to find out to what extent that was the case 👍
@@HistoryHustle Dank je voor het werk wat je doet.
It's not talked about much because it points to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact which proves that the USSR had at least equal guilt in starting WW2. "At least" since the Soviets started invading Finnland and the Baltics before the invasion of Poland.
Nice movie :) gretings from Poland. More about history polish cavalry ....szablotłuk polski
Cheers from Poznań, Poland.
I think it's better to say the German Russo-Polish War than the German-Polish War.
There was also Slovakia.
@@jacekszkutnik6294 To be brutally honest, Slovakia technically fits into the same category as the Protectorate of Bohemia. Basically Slovakia in 1939 is in the same position Belarus was in 2022, functionally a puppet of another power.
Very interesting facts of WWll Thank you 👍
👍👍👍
Poland invaded Zaolzie from Czechoslovakia in 1938, after our country lost Sudetenland to Germany because of Munich Agreement. The Poles made a fatal mistake that ensured their own doom a year later by attacking their neighbours for piece of lands, something the Germans and Soviets recognised and exploited. Let's hope what happened will be a lesson for future cooperation between Poland and Czechia.
Ano, a nezapomeňme účast Slovenské armády na útoku na Polsko, již 1. září 1939, a nakonec, že i malá Litva utrhla kousek z kořisti...........
During battle of Kock in October 1939 Polish forces had on their się się some Red Army prisoners. They decided, after surrending to Polish Army in earlier battles, to fight alongside the Poles claiming that they have no sympathy to communist regime. I don't know about their future. I hope, that they weren't sent back to Red Army.
The families of Russians who escaped during bolschevik revolution to Poland an lived there until 1939 were strongly sought, arrested and propably executed or sent to Gulags.
In Europe, Stalin with Soviet Union made actually Slavic state close to borders which were 1300 years ago or even 2000 years ago before Roman conquer. Only east Austria, Yugoslavia and north Greece (Macedonia, Thrace) were missing.
Poland never had a chance period. With supposed allies like France and England the battle was lost.
The battle was lost long before any of allies could muster any sort of help.
And there were no better allies than GB and France. Not that they were fantastic, but best. Sad but true.
Awesome!
a gruesome voice and snarly tone is great ?
😊
The soviet army had everything tanks such as t26 bt7 including armored cars such as ba 20 ba 10 heavy tanks such as t35 soldiers they had boots and rifles and other stuff to name a few
Some historians say WW2 started in 1931 with the invasion of Manchuria.
There never was a WW2, WW1 is continuing till today. It just takes a breather now and then.
Katyń pomścimy!
Happy new year to all more learning for 2025
🎇🎇🎇
Britain aand France vowed to protect Poland's sovereignty yet allowed the soviets to invade
They allowed it because there was nothing they could do against the USSR, the main enemy was Germany, they didn't need another strong enemy.
th-cam.com/video/jGZ3GsHESWM/w-d-xo.html
Nothing new, later Churchill "sold" Poland, Romania and many other countries in exchange for Greece and Austria..
@@mirandela777 Churchill had no choice, by 1944-1945 the Soviets had full control of Romania, Bulgaria and Poland.
@@dragosstanciu9866 - BS, Greece was communist at that time, full commie gov, and military, Stalin sold them to get full control of countries in East ! Stalin had full power in Austria, Finland, and full Germany - in fact in FULL Europe, since all the allies combined forces were just 1/4 of the soviet ones. The deal is on paper, as a historical document. Do your research, read about Yalta Treaty. They negotiated countries like cattle.
Жаль автор не начал с истории отношений СССР\Польша, а то опять создается впечатление что на бедного дрожащего ягненка напали, но Польша того времени тот еще зверь не стоит его не дооценивать.
Please explain.
You'll have a better chance asking for a cookie recipe
Вы, русские, вторглись, покорили, завоевали и издевались над людьми, находящимися под вашим правлением. И каким-то образом вы утверждаете, что освобождаете?
Польша напала на Советы и воевала с 19-21 год, увеличив свою территорию на 50% за счёт земель Украины и Беларуси.
@@chechenknightslaillaillall2047это куда мы вторглись? Можно название местности?
As a general comment I would like to add that the Soviet Union denied even the existence of the Molotov Ribbentrop pact after they had been attacked by Germany and also after the war.(I suppose that it was held secret also during the invasion of Poland). I have even met people here in Canada who had immigrated from the former Soviet Union and did not know about the pact because it was not taught in schools in Russia (I wonder if it is today?) and they had not bothered to learn the truth after they had come to the West. I once tried to explain the history to a Russian who would be about 50 today and somehow he would not believe me until he had checked it out for himself. He also could not understand why all the people in Eastern Europe did not want the Red Army to stay since they had liberated them from the Germans.
Niewiarygodne jest również to, jak wielu Rosjan do dziś nie wie, że IIWW wybuchła w 1939 roku i że Rosja była agresorem wraz z Niemcami. Uważają, że zaczęła się w 1941 roku (kiedy to Niemcy zdradziły rosyjskiego sojusznika), nie mają pojęcia co działo się wcześniej. Uważają się też za jedynych walczących i zwycięzców nad Niemcami. Nic nie wiedzą o koalicji antyhitlerowskiej i wojnie na całym świecie.
Thank you for addressing this unpopular history.
Поляки в 1921 увеличили свою территорию н 50% напав на Советы, воспользовавшись слабостью власти и революцией.
Советы в 1939 пришли за своим. Русские всегда приходят за своей землей.
Be careful how you treat others because you will be treated the same way.
@ I am Polish, for your information, and if the Poles were neutral, I would speak Polish, so you are right, we should not interfere with the Russians, so as not to give away land and people.
@@Банкивасограбят I don't think much of Polan'ds inter-war government... or the current one... but I still respect Poland for protecting young babies in a way which most European countries (including Russia) don't.
How chaotic Europe was.
Crazy times.
Delighted you are getting sponsors. Very little in English on the Russian invasion of Poland.
Thanks my friend!
I enjoy your videos. However, the sound quality is not very good for much of this video.
One of your best. BZ
Happy New Year
🎇🎇🎇
So...WHY didn't "the Allies" declare war on Germany's ally, the Soviet Union?
Britain And France were already at war with Germany, they didn't need another strong enemy, They would have lost the war. There was nothing Britain and France could do.
th-cam.com/video/jGZ3GsHESWM/w-d-xo.html
Nazi (National Socialist) and Communist ideologies are not so different in practice. This is how we see it in Poland. Thank you for this high quality content!
Well, there is the Socialism common denominator.
Poland fought invaded and occupied Lithuania and Czechoslovakia between the wars and in 1938/9. They slso colluded with the Nazis in the extermination of many Jewish people in the 1940s.
More recently Poland invaded Iraq and Afghanistan
@@rjames3981 It is patently untrue what you say. Poland did not occupy Lithuania. Vilnius was inhabited by an overwhelming majority of Poles, Jews and Byelorussians with a very small Lithuanian minority before 1939. Poles there were descendants of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania and as such wanted to be united with Poland. The Lithuanian nationalists supported by the Germans wanted to create a separate, mono-nationalist country and decided to control Vilnius received from Soviet hands in 1920. The Polish residents did not accept such an arrangement and arranged a change. Thus, the city was returned to the Poles. Poland did not fight against Czechoslovakia (except in 1919). Not a single Czech was killed during the takeover of Zaolzie in 1938. The land was Polish and was seized by the Czechs in 1919, when Poland was busy fighting a war in the east against Soviet aggression. Nevertheless, Poland's seizure of Zaolzie in 1939 was a political mistake by the Polish government. Almost all European nations collaborated with the Nazis in the extermination of the Jews, except the Polish nation. Therefore, your comment is a great manipulation and lie.
Reported for spreading disinformation.@
Thank you for posting this. Contrary to the common misconception, WW2 was not started by the Nazi Germany alone. They had an ally, Soviet Russia. They did not just invade Poland, the first country to try to stand up to the Nazis - soon after came Finland, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. Over all by 1941 Stalin had gobbled up more land than Hitler. They also genocided more people than Hitler, not with gas chambers, but with Siberia. Only after June 22nd 1941 did the Russians miraculously transformed into a 'holy crusader against fascism'. Beyond disgusting.
Thanks for watching.
I thought the Poles just surrendered to the Soviets without anyone of both sides firing a single shot.
I wonder if history would've changed much if France and Britain declared war on the USSR in the aftermath of the invasion. A few things I think would've happened.
- Finland would've been an Allied nation. After the Soviet invasion in 1939 France and Britain mulled about sending Finland aid they could spare. They ultimately didn't as Norway found itself invaded. In this scenario Britain and France would've had the justification to invade Norway and Sweden to support Finland if they didn't allow passage.
- The Red Army would likely have still invaded Iran forcing Britain to send forces to secure India and the Suez Canal from a possible Soviet attack. There would be less forces facing Rommel in North Africa although the Afrika Korps would probably still stall due to logistical issues
- The UK might have sought peace in 1940/41. With their French ally defeated and facing the two most powerful (on paper) militaries in the world in both North Africa and the Middle East, the British war cabinet might seek peace with. They would have been overstretched to the point that when Japan attacks in late 1941 the Front in Burma collapses and the Japanese make significant headway into India.
- Although Barbarossa might be delayed until 1942 the result would be catastrophic for the Soviets. With a large portion of the Red Army engaged in the Middle East against the British, the Western armies of the USSR would completely crumble under the weight of the German assault. There would also be no lend lease program making Soviet materiel shortages all the more pronounced. It would be likely that Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad would fall. The Soviets would seek peace with Britain and withdraw from the Middle East but the damage will have already been done. The German advance would be stopped probably around Kazan and Astrakhan due to logistical issues and the insane amount of manpower needed to be left behind for occupation. The Soviet forces in Iran would be at risk of being cut off as the Germans approach and possibly take Baku.
- Red Army counterattacks against the Germans would be less effective. While cities such as Saratov or Kazan would be retaken it wouldn't change the strategic picture too much. With more of their industrial, population and resource base occupied the Soviet war economy would take longer to rebuild than irl east of the Urals. This would lead to a lack of new equipment for the Red Army.
- With Anglo-American attacks against Vichy territories in North Africa the Afrika Korps would retreat back to Italy with the majority of its force intact. Operation Husky would not be as successful . Mussolini might still be overthrown but with a larger German force in Italy they wouldn't surrender and switch sides.
- With Italy still in the fight the Wehrmacht could concentrate more forces across Northern France and the Low Countries in preparation for Allied landings. Operation Dragoon would still take the Germans by surprise an lead to a hurried withdrawal to Germany and Northern Italy.
- With the eventual collapse of Germany (probably as late as 1948 after a few atomic strikes) the Allied armies would continue east liberating Poland, Belarus, the Baltics and large swathes of Ukraine before the Soviets would arrive. Should the USSR still be at war with the Allies we could see American amphibious invasions of the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin and the Kamchatka Peninsula. With all this and the Americans shiny atomic checkmate Stalin would sue for peace.
- The USSR would be a shell of its irl self having lost Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltics and possibly some Pacific territories. They would be forced to pay huge reparations. With a much weakened USSR the communists lose in China and Vietnam while Korea is fully occupied by the Americans.
The Allies would have lost the war if they declared war on the USSR too in 1939. Britain and France would have been defeated. No hope for Allied victory.
I cannot overstate how good this guy is. Subscribe to him!
Thanks! Feel free to share.
"the dispute with Japan" was culminated in the Battle of Khalkin gol that Japan had lost: this made it possible to move red army westwards in the end on 17 september 1939
Poland paid the price for their non aggression pact with Germany in 1934, their joint attack with Germany of Czechoslovakia in 1938/9 and their rejection of the proposed anti Nazi Eastern pact.
When the Polish leadership ran away to the Romanian corridor, the Soviets had little choice but to protect the eastern borderlines.
You need to seriously work on your knowledge of history because so far you're just repeating lies.
1. Poland had non-aggression pacts with most of its neighbors. It signed such a pact with the USSR on July 25, 1932 and if the USSR hadn't broken it on September 17, 1939, this pact would have been in force until 1945, I think.
2. There was no joint attack with Germany on Czechoslovakia in 1938.
3. As for the pact with the USSR against Germany, Poland and Romania were not naive enough to let the Red Army into their territory because, as experience shows, the Red Army would never have left.
4. The Polish government fled to Romania only after and as a result of the Red Army entering Polish territory.
The Hitler Pilsudski Polish German Pact of 1934 was the most important non aggression pact of the 1930s. It secured Germany’s eastern border and facilitated its rearming in contravention of the Versailles Treaty signed at the end of WW1.
This treaty had restricted the German Navy, restricted its army to 100,000, forbidden German from having an Air Force, and demilitarised the Rhineland. With the signing of the Pact Hitler was confident he could break these arrangements and rearm.
This later enabled Germany to take Czechoslovakian territory simultaneously with Poland.
Poland then took on Germany (effectively alone) in a war they couldn’t win. The Polish leadership moved their headquarters close to the Romanian corridor to ‘save their own skins’. This was before the Soviets moved into the eastern borderlines.
@@rjames3981 "The most important non-aggression pact..." no, you're exaggerating a bit. It wasn't even a pact, just a declaration of mutual non-use of violence for 10 years. In 1934, everyone still thought that Mr. Hitler is a normal politician and Poland wanted to have all its borders secured. In later years, Poland firmly rejected all attempts by Germany to draw it into an alliance against the USSR. It was the passivity of the Western Powers that led to the growth of Germany's power, not the attitude of such a relatively weak country as Poland.
As for Czechoslovakia in 1938, Poland acted here invoking the provisions of the Munich Treaty and not together with Germany. Of course, this does not bring us glory, but why does no one mention, for example, Hungary, which took much more.
In September 1939, our government moved near the border with Romania, but this was related to the defense plan based on the so-called "romanian bridgehead" and the hope for supplies from France through the port of Constanța. The idea was to hold out for a few more weeks so that France could strike from the west, but when the USSR struck from the east everything collapsed.
France (or Britain) had no realistic plan to help Poland. They deceived Poland.
As for Poland’s (and Hungary’s) occupation of Czechoslovakian lands in 1938/9, that was never part of the Munich agreement. Just opportunism (as subsequently with Germany’s occupation of Czechoslovakia)
See also below re the German Polish non aggression pact of 1934
‘In Czechoslovakia the agreement angered the Czechoslovak political elite.[27] Announcement of the declaration came just four days after discussions between Jozef Beck and the Czech foreign minister, Edvard Beneš. Beneš, speaking to Joseph Addison (the British ambassador in Prague), claimed that the agreement was a "stab in the back" and went on to say that it showed that Poland was a "useless country" that deserved another partition.[28] At the time Beneš was particularly angered by reports in the Polish government-controlled and right-wing press accusing the Czechs of mistreating Poles in the Trans-Olza region and perceived Polish encouragement of Slovak nationalists.[29]’
@@rjames3981 " France (or Britain) had no realistic plan to help Poland..." - we know it now, but not then.
" ...that was never part of the Munich agreement..." - I didn't say that. Poland referred to the rights of self-determination of nations mentioned in the pact. It did not act together with Germany.
As for the Polish-German declaration of non-violence of 1934, its conclusion was partly caused by a change in France's policy towards the USSR and it certainly could not have been liked by Czechoslovakia, which had been Poland's open enemy since 1919 and in 1920 had taken Cieszyn Silesia, taking advantage of the fact that the Red Army was then standing near Warsaw.
And now look at your first post and see how far you've strayed from your original conclusions. I'm glad our discussion led somewhere, but now I have to go to bed ;)
I had heard (possibly from this program) that the Soviet authorities sent in troikas of judges to try people as if to give them the illusion of legality. Many of these "judges" were Soviet Jews who had been promoted from being simple lawyers to judges overnight. Some of these people survived the war and formed a core of people who went to Israel after the Israeli Independence. Apparently the Soviet Union was the first foreign power to declare their support for Israel. Can anyone confirm this story? Thanks.
It`s fact, not story.
@danhubert-hx4ss Please tell me more and give some details. I would like to learn more. Thanks.
Sorry most of the time I came cross that everyone is talking about ussr and germans but no one talking about Munich agreement why???
What do you mean?
@HistoryHustle I mean the 1938 Czech Republic germans and Polish soldiers
@@HistoryHustle seriously? You respond to a question about the Polish connivance in the destruction of Czechoslovakia (they blocked a Franco-Soviet attempt to defend the country in 1938 in collusion with Germany and the UK) with "what do you mean?"
What is your academic specialty again? 🙄
Let us pause for a moment to reflect on the "courage" of the Red Army, which attacked Poland only after the Germans had decimated the Polish forces.
Were there any provisions made for the evacuation of the German minority before the outbreak of hostilities or were they left to their own devices? I think that the German minorities in Estonia, Latvia and possibly Lithuania had been evacuated according to agreements in the pact but I could be wrong.
SO WHO AND WHAT SAVED DENMARK AND HOLLAND FROM FALLING IN TO RUSSIANS HANDS AT THE END OF THE WW2 .😮😊
British and Canadian soldier reached Denmark before the Russians. It was close.
If Russia was 2 days faster Denmark would have been in the USSR and Warsaw Pact.
There weren't Russians, don't be ignorant. Besides the zones were already delimited in Yalta conference, so it makes no sense to advance more for the Red Army.
Ayn Rand, whose father was a busi-nessman who was constantly harmed by the communists, may not have always understood economics[ monopoly, big enough, is a way you can almost print $] but understood underneath tyrants are all the same. So she eschewed 'statism' which she called BOTH communism and fascism. I don't think she could see the upcoming American antithesis-thesis- synthesis.
Was always curious why the Allied didn't declare war on uncle joe too .
They couldn't, they were already at war with Germany, they didn't need another enemy, they would have lost the war.
Kanał usuwa komentarze. To nieuczciwe. Zadaniem prowadzącego jest zamęt informacyjny. I ta angielszczyzna ...Jakiej narodowości jesteś ?
Chciales bronic Kacapow?
Niekoniecznie kanal, raczej algorytm.
Did not the Lithuanians see the writing on the wall? Did they not realize that the "gift" of Wilno and surrounding area came with a price? Or were they just taking advantage of the immediate situation?
The Lithuanians had no choice, they had a small army, they could not oppose any Soviets plans against them. The USSR wanted to take Lithuania with or without Wilno.
@@dragosstanciu9866 Mordowanie Polaków przez Litwinów też było w umowie ?
Why did the Germans even bother about Lvov since it was to be in the Soviet zone? Could they not understand that or were they driven by their sense of superiority mixed with cruelty?
Ponieważ od początku planowali późniejszy atak na Rosję. I Niemcy i Rosja nigdy nie miały honoru, pożeranie innych to ich natura.