When: Beginning of WWII (1939-1941)
Where: Eastern Poland / Western USSR
What: In a surprise move on the 17th day of the German
invasion of Poland, the Soviet Union invaded from the east. The Nazis and Soviets
had secretly agreed the month before to divide the country. Because the Polish military leadership had ordered the Polish forces not to engage the Soviets, the Red Army advanced rapidly with
little opposition.
Problem:
Stalin and the NKVD (the secret police and forerunner of the KGB) planned
to quickly transform the eastern portion of Poland into a communist society and
incorporate it into the USSR, but the educated classes stood in the way.
![]() |
urdumovies.net |
Lvov, the third
largest city in Poland, was under German attack when Soviet troops arrived on
September 19, 1939. Polish General Langner rejected German demands to surrender
and abdicated to the Soviets. The negotiated agreement called for the 30,000
Polish troops in the city to surrender at 15:00 hours on September 22. The
soldiers would be allowed to return home and the officers to cross the border
into Romania or Hungary. The officers assembled at the designated time and laid
down their arms,
but the Soviets surrounded them and marched them off to be transported
around the country for four days without food or water.
At station stops the
soldiers scrounged for roots in unharvested gardens and strangers thrust food at them. They eventually landed in prison camps to the east.
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Polish prisoners of war captured by the Red Army after the Soviet invasion of Poland - Wikipedia |
Before the war, the Polish government had required every
nonexempt university graduate to become a military reserve officer. University professors, physicians, lawyers, engineers,
teachers, writers, journalists, pilots, and chaplains made up the pool of reservists
mobilized when Germany invaded. Those that weren’t captured in the initial
surrender were easily rounded up later and transferred into the custody of the NKVD,
including police officers, border guards, landowners, refugees, and a prince.
From October
1939 through February 1940, the prisoners endured lengthy interrogations
and
constant political agitation in concentration camps established on the former
grounds of orthodox monasteries in the western USSR. If the captives showed
resistance to the Soviet government, they were condemned to die as enemies of
the state. In March of 1940,
Stalin signed the death warrant for over 20,000
officers, soldiers, and civilians. They were secretly shot and buried in mass graves.
One
such grave site was in Katyn, Russia. Although the captives were
executed and buried in various locations, “Katyn Forest” became the symbol of
the atrocity. In all, the NKVD annihilated almost half of the Polish Officer Corp.
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Katyn Memorial in UK - Wikimedia Commons |
Professor
Stanislaw Swianiewicz was condemned to die at Katyn, but a NKVD colonel pulled
him out of line while he was waiting to board a bus which would have taken him to be executed.
The professor had studied in Moscow before the Russian Revolution, was an
internationally recognized expert on forced labor in Soviet Russia and Nazi
Germany, and had written books on the Soviet economy. He was sent to various
prisons, interrogated, and eventually imprisoned in Siberia.
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General Anders - Wikipedia |
General Wladyslaw Anders commanded a cavalry brigade which engaged in heavy
fighting with the Germans. While fleeing to the Hungarian border in late
September of 1939, he and his troops fought the Soviets. He was injured, captured, and eventually sent to prison in Moscow,
avoiding the same fate as his fellow officers.
The NKVD arrested, tortured and killed thousands of other Poles, Jews, Ukrainians, and Belorussians from 1940 to 1941. Estimates vary among historians who’ve stated that
300,000 to 1.2 million Poles were deported to Siberia and Central
Asia during this time period.
Many died in transit or in exile.
After the
Germans overran Eastern Poland and attacked the Soviet Union in 1941, the
Soviets formed an alliance with Great Britain and the Polish government-in-exile
in London. As part of their agreement,
Stalin released all surviving Polish
prisoners with the understanding they would assist in the fight against the
Nazis.
General Anders was freed and given command of the Polish
Army in the east. It was his responsibility to gather and train the recently released Polish prisoners to form the new army. When inquiries were made regarding the whereabouts of the thousands of missing
Polish officers, Stalin claimed that he had lost track of them in Manchuria.
Germany
discovered and exposed the Katyn atrocity to the world in 1943. The Soviets
denied responsibility, claiming the Germans had killed the soldiers found in
the mass graves. The Polish government-in-exile objected, so Stalin broke off
relations with them. Great Britain and the United States chose to accept the
Soviet explanation of Germany’s guilt rather than rouse the ire of their ally. It
wasn’t until 1990 that
Russia admitted responsibility for the massacre and
expressed “profound regret” for its actions.
General
Anders led his freed Polish troops through Iran and Iraq to Palestine where he successfully
organized and trained them to fight the Germans. The Anders Army went on to fight in
the Italian Campaign, capturing Monte Cassino in 1944. He and his soldiers engaged in other major
battles before the war ended. He died in London in 1970.
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The Polish War Cemetery at Monte Cassino - Wikimedia Commons |
Professor Swianiewicz
was released from Siberia, and left the Soviet Union in
1942. He worked with the Polish government-in-exile in London and informed them
of the number of Polish officers that were held in the Soviet Union in the spring of
1940. Later he wrote about the Katyn Massacre and lectured at numerous
universities around the world. He died near London in 1997 at the age of 97.
The Soviets
also released thousands of Polish civilians . . .
who left the Soviet Union with the Anders Army,
including many women and children. Their miraculous stories of survival and
escape will be shared in future blog posts.
*****
Sources:
Poland Betrayed by David G. Williamson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn massacre
www.britannica.com/event/Katyn-Massacre
www.katyn.org.au/
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for.../art6.html
*****
Cindy Stewart, a high school teacher, church pianist, and
inspirational historical fiction author, was the historical category winner for
ACFW’s 2014 First Impressions writing
contest, a 2014 Bronze medalist in My Book Therapy’s Frasier contest, and tied for second place in the 2015 South
Carolina ACFW First Five Pages
contest. Cindy is passionate about revealing God’s handiwork in history. She
resides in North Georgia with her college sweetheart and husband of thirty-five years and near her married daughter, son-in-law, and three adorable
grandchildren. She’s currently polishing her first novel, Abounding Hope, set in Eastern Europe at the start of WWII.
What a fascinating post! And if I'm remembering correctly, General Patton advised that we should invade Russia and take care of the Communist issue at the end of WWII, but General Eisenhower did not heed his advice. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Golden! The US and Britain made many concessions to the Soviet Union which only led to the expansion of communism after WWII.
DeleteFascinating post. I look forward to reading more. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Debbie! There are many more stories to come.
ReplyDelete