History of Poland (1939–1945) 350111 225483727 2008-07-13T22:52:07Z Gaius Cornelius 293907 Tidy, typos fixed: indpendent → independent using [[Project:AutoWikiBrowser|AWB]] {{POV|date=March 2008}} {{History of Poland}} The '''history of Poland from 1939 to 1945''' encompasses the [[German invasion of Poland]] through to the end of [[World War II]]. On [[September 1]], [[1939]], without a formal [[declaration of war]], Germany invaded Poland. Germany's pretext was that [[Gleiwitz incident|Polish troops had allegedly committed "provocations"]] along the German-Polish border, which was actually a staged attack by the Germans. Germany also used issues like the dispute between Germany and Poland over German rights to the [[Free City of Danzig]] and the freeing of a passage between East Prussia and the rest of Germany through the [[Polish Corridor]] as excuses for the invasion. Pursuant to the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact]], Poland was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union, [[Soviet invasion of Poland (1939)|which invaded eastern Poland]] on [[September 17]], [[1939]]. ==German, Slovak and Soviet invasions== {{details|Invasion of Poland (1939)}} [[Image:MolotovRibbentropStalin.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Soviet Foreign Minister [[Vyacheslav Molotov]] signs the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact]]. Behind him stand (left) German Foreign Minister [[Joachim von Ribbentrop]] and (right) Soviet Premier [[Joseph Stalin]]. The Pact creating in effect the Nazi-Soviet alliance sealed the fate of Poland.]] The [[Polish army order of battle in 1939|Polish armed forces]] resisted the German invasion, but their strategic position was hopeless because Poland was surrounded on three sides by German territories: Inner Pomerania, East Prussia (both parts of Germany), and German-controlled [[Czechoslovakia]]. The newly formed [[Slovak State]] assisted their German allies by attacking Poland from the south. The Soviet Union encroached from the other direction, and finally Polish forces were blockaded on the Baltic Coast by the German and Soviet navies. In Poland the Germans used the tactic of ''[[Vernichtungsgedanke]]'' that later evolved into the ''[[Blitzkrieg]]'' ("lightning war"): rapid advance of [[Panzer]] (armoured) divisions, dive bombing to break up troop concentrations, and aerial bombing of undefended cities to sap civilian morale. The Polish Army and Air Force had little modern equipment to match the onslaught. German forces were numerically and technologically superior to Polish armed forces. The Germans threw eighty-five percent of their armed forces at Poland. They commanded 1.6 million men, 250,000 trucks and other motor vehicles, 67,000 artillery pieces, 4,000 tanks and a cavalry division<!--this differs from info in Invasion of Poland (1939)-->. Some of the [[Luftwaffe]] pilots were the veterans of the elite [[Condor Legion]], which had seen action during the [[Spanish Civil War]] (1936-1939). The German air force comprised 1,180 fighter aircraft (mainly [[Messerschmitt Bf 109]]s), 290 [[Junkers Ju 87|Ju 87 Stuka]] dive bombers, 290 conventional bombers (mainly [[He 111]] type), and 240 assorted naval aircraft. The German navy positioned its old [[battleship]] ''[[German battleship Schleswig-Holstein|Schleswig-Holstein]]'' to shell [[Westerplatte]], a section of [[Free City of Danzig]], an exclave separate from the main city and awarded to Poland by [[Treaty of Versailles]] in 1919. The Polish forces found themselves severely outnumbered and outclassed. They managed to muster 800,000 troops, including eleven cavalry brigades, two motorized brigades, 30,000 artillery pieces, and 120 tanks of the advanced [[7-TP]] type. The Polish airforce consisted of 400 aircraft. 160 of them were [[PZL P.11]]c fighter aircraft, 31 [[PZL P.7]]a and 20 P.11a fighters, 120 [[PZL.23 Karaś]] reconnaissance-bombers, and 45 [[PZL.37 Łoś]] medium bombers. The navy consisted of four destroyers, one torpedo boat, one minelayer, two gunboats, six minesweepers, and five submarines. The Poles believed that the invasion was intended from the beginning as a war of extermination. Hitler allegedly said to his commanders: "I have issued the command &mdash; and I'll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad &mdash; that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formations in readiness &mdash; for the present only in the East &mdash; with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish race and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space (''Lebensraum'') which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" (There are some doubts about the authenticity of this quotation. See [[Armenian quote]]). Although the [[United Kingdom]] and [[France]] declared war on Germany, [[Western betrayal#Phony war|no direct military action was rendered]]. France was in direct violation of the [[Franco-Polish Military Alliance]] that was signed in [[May 19]], [[1939]], where France promised to attack Germany if Poland was attacked. Great Britain also refused to attack Germany, even though they had sworn to do so in the case of a German invasion. The [[Wehrmacht]] was occupied in the attack on Poland, and the French Army enjoyed decisive numerical advantage on their border with Germany, but the Allies failed to contribute solid assistance. Nine divisions (out of 102 that were ready for action) of the French army entered to the German area in [[Saarland]], advanced to a depth of eight kilometers and conquered about 20 abandoned villages, without any resistance. The [[Saar Offensive]] caused no German soldiers to be brought from Poland to the west. At the same time, the [[Royal Air Force]] dropped [[pamphlet]]s on German cities. Shortly after the French General Staff ordered retreat, and on [[October 4]] the French forces returned to their original positions. Many historians believed that had Great Britain and France honoured their pledge to Poland, the Nazis would have been contained and the war would not have had such a devastating impact on European nations. In the meanwhile, to the east of Poland, the Soviet Union was preparing its own military advance to occupy the eastern part of Poland in accordance with the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact]] concluded between the USSR and Germany in August 1939, just weeks before the German invasion. [[Image:Warsaw siege3.jpg|180px|thumb|right|Survivor of [[Bombing of Warsaw in World War II|bombing of Warsaw]].]] With Britain and France unwilling to follow on their military commitment to Poland, the Soviet Union, having its own reasons to fear the German expansionism towards the East, made several offers to Poland, as earlier to [[Czechoslovakia]], of an anti-German alliance. Such alliances would have likely been a meaningful deterrent to Hitler's expansionist plans since they were to be backed by the Soviet military might. However, the Poles feared [[Stalin]]'s Communism nearly as much as they feared Hitler's Nazism, during 1939 they had refused to agree to any arrangement which would allow Soviet troops to enter Poland. The dilemma, as Poles perceived it, is best illustrated by the famous quote of Marshall [[Edward Rydz-Śmigły]], the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish armed forces who is quoted to have said "With the Germans we run the risk of losing our liberty. With the Russians we will lose our soul" on the Polish refusal to the take up on the Soviet offer.<ref>Boris Meissner, "The Baltic Question in World Politics," The Baltic States in Peace and War (The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1978) , 139-148</ref> The Soviets then turned to concluding the treaty with Germany (the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact]]) which was signed in August, 1939, ending the possibility of Soviet aid. The Polish government feared that Germany would launch only a limited war, to seize the territories which it claimed, and then ask France and Britain for a ceasefire. To defend these territories, the Polish military command compounded their strategic weakness by massing their forces along their western border, in defence of Poland's main industrial areas around [[Poznań]] and [[Łódź]], where they could be easily surrounded and cut off. By the time the Polish command decided to withdraw to the line of the [[Vistula]], it was too late. By [[28 September]] [[Warsaw]] was surrounded. [[Image:Polish infantry.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Polish infantry in action.]] In accordance with a secret protocol annex to the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact]] Germany asked the Soviet Union on [[3 September]]<ref name="Schulenburg">{{en icon}} {{cite web | author=[[Joachim Ribbentrop]] | title=The Reich Foreign Minister to the German Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Schulenburg) | publisher=Yale Law School | year= | work=The Avalon Project | url=http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/nazsov/ns061.htm | accessdate= }}</ref> to engage its troops against the Polish state. The Soviet Union assured Germany that the Red Army advance into Poland would soon follow under the pretext of ''aiding the Ukrainians and the Byelorussians threatened by Germany''.<ref name="Schulenburg3">{{en icon}} {{cite web | author=[[Friedrich Werner von Schulenburg]] | title=The German Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Schulenburg) to the German Foreign Office | publisher=Yale Law School | year= | work=The Avalon Project | url=http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/nazsov/ns069.htm | accessdate= }}</ref><ref name="Schulenburg4">{{en icon}} {{cite web | author=[[Friedrich Werner von Schulenburg]] | title=The German Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Schulenburg) to the German Foreign Office | publisher=Yale Law School | year= | work=The Avalon Project | url=http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/nazsov/ns073.htm | accessdate= }}</ref> On [[17 September]] the Red Army marched its troops into Poland, which the Soviet Union now claimed to be non-existent. Also, concerns about the Soviets' own security were used to justify the invasion.<ref name="Piotrowski">{{en icon}} {{cite book | author =[[Tadeusz Piotrowski]] | coauthors = | title =Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide... | year =1997 | editor = | pages =295 | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =McFarland & Company | location = | id =ISBN 0786403713| url =http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0786403713&id=A4FlatJCro4C&pg=PA295&lpg=PA295&dq=1939+Soviet+citizenship+Poland&sig=qETeuFX3hbmM0VPSO13o0LmjgEc | format = | accessdate = }}</ref> The Red Army advance was coordinated with the movement of the German forces<ref name="Schulenburg6">{{en icon}} {{cite web | author=[[Friedrich Werner von Schulenburg]] | title=The German Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Schulenburg) to the German Foreign Office | publisher=Yale Law School | year= | work=The Avalon Project | url=http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/nazsov/ns074.htm | accessdate= }}</ref> and met little resistance from the Polish forces, who were ordered by Sikorski to avoid engagement into the armed fights with the Soviets although some fighting between Soviet and Hungarian units took place.<ref name="Militera">{{ru icon}} {{cite web | author=Мельтюхов М.И. | title=Упущенный шанс Сталина. Советский Союз и борьба за Европу: 1939-1941 (Dropped chance of Stalin: USSR and the struggle for Europe) | publisher=Moscow, Veche | year=2000 | work=Militera.ru | url=http://militera.lib.ru/research/meltyukhov/03.html | accessdate= }}</ref> The Polish government and high command retreated to the southeast [[Romanian bridgehead]] and eventually crossed into neutral [[Romania]]. There was no formal surrender, and resistance continued in many places. [[battle of Warsaw (1939)|Warsaw was bombed into submission]] on [[27 September]], and some Army units fought until well into October. In the more mountainous parts of the country, Army units began underground resistance almost at once. The Polish army lost 65,000 troops, 400 air crew, and 110 navy crew. The German losses were 16,000 troops, 365 air crew, and 126 navy crew. 285 German aircraft were destroyed, with 126 claimed by Polish fighter pilots. Ninety were shot down by anti-aircraft fire, and, due to the modesty of Polish pilots, there is a deficit of 70 unclaimed kills. Three hundred more German aircraft were so badly damaged they were written off. The Polish Air Force lost 327 aircraft, 260 of which were lost due to direct or indirect enemy action, with around 70 in air-to-air fighting. Anti-aircraft fire claimed the other 67. ==Occupation and dismemberment of Poland== {{main|Occupation of Poland (1939-1945)|Administrative division of Polish territories during WWII}} About one fifth of Polish citizens lost their lives in the war,<ref name="Piotrowski305">{{en icon}} {{cite book | author =[[Tadeusz Piotrowski]] | coauthors = | title =Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide... | year =1997 | editor = | pages =p. 305 | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =McFarland & Company | location = | id =ISBN 0786403713| url =http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN0786403713&id=A4FlatJCro4C&pg=PA305&lpg=PA305&dq=poland+second+world+war+losses&sig=obpXqNW40aSskoue-XWLfdoEZaI | format = | accessdate = }}</ref> most of the civilians targeted by various deliberate actions. Both occupants wanted not only to gain Polish territory, but to destroy Polish culture and nation. ===Treatment of Polish citizens under German occupation=== {{seealso|Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles|Holocaust in Poland}} [[Image:Karte viertepolnischeteilung.png|left|thumb|350px|[[:pl:V rozbiór Polski|Fifth Partition of Poland]] - [[Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact|The Nazi-Soviet Pact]].]] Under the terms of two decrees by Hitler ([[8 October]] and [[12 October]] [[1939]]), large areas of western Poland were annexed to Germany. These included all the territories which Germany had lost under the 1918 [[Treaty of Versailles]], such as the [[Polish Corridor]], [[West Prussia]] and [[Upper Silesia]], but also a large area of indisputably Polish territory east of these territories, including the city of [[Łódź]]. The Germans provided for the division of the annexed areas of Poland into the following administrative units: * [[Reichsgau Wartheland]] (initially Reichsgau [[Poznań|Posen]]), which included the entire Poznań voivodship, most of the [[Łódź]] voivodship, five counties of the [[Pomerania]]n voivodship, and one county of the [[Warsaw]] voivodship; * the remaining area of Pomeranian voivodship, which was incorporated into the [[Reichsgau Danzig-Westpreussen]] (initially Reichsgau Westpreussen); * [[Ciechanow]] District (Regierungsbezirk Zichenau) consisting of the five northern counties of Warsaw voivodship ([[Płock]], [[Płońsk]], [[Sierpc]], Ciechanow and [[Mława]]), which became a part of [[East Prussia]]; * [[Landkreis Kattowitz|Katowice District]] (Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz),or unofficially East [[Upper Silesia]] (Ost-Oberschlesien), which included [[Autonomous Silesian Voivodeship]], [[Sosnowiec]], [[Będzin]], [[Chrzanów]], [[Oświęcim]], and [[Zawiercie]] Counties, and parts of [[Olkusz]] and [[Żywiec]] Counties, which became a part of [[Province of Upper Silesia]]. The area of these annexed territories was 94,000 square kilometres and the population was about 10 million, the great majority of whom were Poles. Under the terms of the [[Ribbentrop-Molotov pact|Nazi-Soviet pact]], adjusted by agreement on [[28 September]] [[1939]], the [[Soviet Union]], annexed all Polish territory east of the line of the rivers [[Pisa (River)|Pisa]], [[Narew]], [[Bug (Rivers)|Bug]] and [[San River|San]], except for the area around [[Vilnius]] (known in Polish as Wilno), which was given to [[Lithuania]], and the [[Suwałki]] region, which was annexed by Germany. These territories were largely inhabited by [[Ukraine|Ukrainians]] and [[Belarus|Byelorussians]], with minorities of [[Poles]] and [[Jew]]s (see exact numbers in [[Curzon line]]). The total area, including the area given to Lithuania, was 201,000 square kilometres, with a population of 13.5 million. A small strip of land that was part of [[Hungary]] before 1914, was also given to [[Slovakia]]. After the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Polish territories previously occupied by the Soviet were organized as follows: * Bezirk Bialystok (district of [[Białystok]]), which included the Białystok, [[Bielsk Podlaski]], [[Grajewo]], [[Łomża]], [[Sokółka]], [[Volkovysk]], and [[Grodno]] counties, was "attached" to (but not incorporated into) East Prussia; * Bezirke Litauen und Weißrussland &ndash; the Polish part of White Russia (today western [[Belarus]]), including the Vilna province ([[Vilnius]] was incorporated into the [[Reichskommissariat Ostland]]); * Bezirk Wolhynien-Podolien &ndash; the Polish province of [[Volhynia]], which was incorporated into the Reichskommissariat [[Ukraine]]; and * East [[Galicia (Central Europe)|Galicia]], which was incorporated into the General-Government and became its fifth district. [[Image:ac.frank.jpg|thumb|200px|Hans Frank]] The future fate of Poland and Poles was decided in [[Generalplan Ost]], a Nazi plan to [[ethnic cleansing|ethnically cleanse]] the territories occupied by [[Germany]] in [[Eastern Europe]]. The remaining block of territory was placed under a German administration called the [[General Government]] (in German ''Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete''), with its capital at [[Kraków]]. The General Government was subdivided into four districts, [[Warsaw]], [[Lublin]], [[Radom]], and Kraków. (For more detail on the territorial division of this area see [[General Government]].) A German lawyer and prominent Nazi, [[Hans Frank]], was appointed Governor-General of the occupied territories on [[26 October]] [[1939]]. Frank oversaw the segregation of the [[Jew]]s into [[ghetto]]s in the larger cities, particularly [[Warsaw]], and the use of Polish civilians as forced and compulsory labour in German war industries. The population in the General Government's territory was initially about 12 million in an area of 94,000 square kilometres, but this increased as about 860,000 Poles and Jews were expelled from the German-annexed areas and "resettled" in the General Government. Offsetting this was the German campaign of extermination of the Polish [[intelligentsia]] and other elements thought likely to resist (e.g. [[Operation Tannenberg]]). From 1941 disease and hunger also began to reduce the population. Poles were also deported in large numbers to work as forced labour in Germany: eventually about a million were deported, and many died in Germany. ===Treatment of Polish citizens under Soviet occupation=== {{seealso|Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (1939-1946)}} By the end of Polish Defensive War the Soviet Union took over 52,1% of territory of Poland (circa 200,000 km²), with over 13,700,000 people. Although estimates vary the most throughout analysis gives the following numbers in regards to ethnic composition of these areas: 38% Poles (ca. 5,1 million people), 37% Ukrainians, 14,5% Belarussians, 8,4% Jews, 0,9% Russians and 0,6% Germans. There were also 336,000 refugees from areas occupied by Germany, most of them Jews (198,000).<ref name="Trela-Mazur">{{pl icon}} {{cite book | author =Elżbieta Trela-Mazur | coauthors = | title =Sowietyzacja oświaty w Małopolsce Wschodniej pod radziecką okupacją 1939-1941 (Sovietization of education in eastern Lesser Poland during the Soviet occupation 1939-1941) | year =1997 | editor =Włodzimierz Bonusiak, Stanisław Jan Ciesielski, Zygmunt Mańkowski, Mikołaj Iwanow | pages =294 | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =Wyższa Szkoła Pedagogiczna im. Jana Kochanowskiego | location =Kielce | id =ISBN 8371331002| url = | format = | accessdate = }}, also in ''Wrocławskie Studia Wschodnie'', Wrocław, 1997 </ref> Areas occupied by [[USSR]] were [[Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union|annexed to Soviet territory]], with the exception of [[Vilnius region|area of Vilnius]], which [[History of Lithuania#The deal with the Soviets .28Soviet armies are based in Lithuania.29.2C 1939|was transferred]] to [[Lithuania]], although [[History of Lithuania#First Soviet occupation .281940-1941.29|soon attached to USSR]], when [[Lithuanian SSR|Lithuania]] became a [[Soviet republic]]. While Germans enforced their policies based on [[racism]], the Soviet administration used slogans about [[class struggle]], and [[dictatorship of the proletariat]],<ref name="Roszkowski">{{pl icon}} {{cite book | author =[[Wojciech Roszkowski]] | coauthors = | title =Historia Polski 1914-1997 | year =1998 | editor = | pages =476 | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =[[Wydawnictwa Naukowe PWN]] | location =Warsaw | id =ISBN 8301126930| url = | format = | accessdate = }}</ref> which in Soviet reality were equal to [[Stalinism]] and [[Sovietization]]. Immediately after their conquest of eastern Poland, the Soviet authorities started a campaign of [[sovietization]]<ref name="Sowietyzacja">{{pl icon}} {{cite book | author =various authors | coauthors = | title =Sowietyzacja Kresów Wschodnich II Rzeczypospolitej po 17 września 1939 | year =1998 | editor =Adam Sudoł | pages =441 | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =Wyższa Szkoła Pedagogiczna | location =Bydgoszcz | id =ISBN 8370962815 | url = | format = | accessdate = }}</ref><ref name="Relocation">{{en icon}} {{cite book | author =various authors | coauthors = | title =Demography and National Security | year =2001 | editor =Myron Weiner, Sharon Stanton Russell | pages =308-315 | chapter =Stalinist Forced Relocation Policies | chapterurl =http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN157181339X&id=J9nuv7MGQ5MC&pg=PA309&lpg=PA309&dq=Sovietization&sig=QTVI52AN1LIHVn13mJYNqUyNCNw | publisher =Berghahn Books | location = | id =ISBN 157181339X| url = | format = | accessdate = }}</ref> of the newly-acquired areas. No later than several weeks after the last Polish units surrendered, on [[October 22]], [[1939]], the Soviets organized staged elections to the Moscow-controlled [[Supreme Soviet]]s (legislative body) of ''Western Byelorussia'' and ''Western Ukraine''.<ref name="Elections">{{pl icon}} {{cite web | author=Bartłomiej Kozłowski | title=„Wybory” do Zgromadzeń Ludowych Zachodniej Ukrainy i Zachodniej Białorusi | publisher=[[NASK]] | year=2005 | work=Polska.pl | url=http://wiadomosci.polska.pl/kalendarz/kalendarium/article.htm?id=132394 | accessdate = 2006-03-13}}</ref> The result of the staged voting was to become a legitimization of Soviet partition of Poland.<ref name="Revolution"> {{en icon}} {{cite book | author=[[Jan Tomasz Gross]] | coauthors = | title =Revolution from Abroad | year =2003 | editor = | pages =396 | publisher =Princeton University Press | location =Princeton | id =ISBN 0691096031 }} [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0691096031&id=XKtOr4EXOWwC&pg=PA71&lpg=PA71&dq=October+22+1939&sig=aUe9ogURXivTzuoeRRLlufmOCbQ]</ref> Subsequently, all institutions of the dismantled Polish state were being closed down and reopened with new mostly Russian directors and in rare cases<ref name="Trela-Mazur"> Ukrainian or Polish ones.<ref name="Trela-Mazur"/> [[Lviv University]] and other schools restarted anew as Soviet institutions. Studies were simply devoted to Soviet propaganda.<ref name="Trela-Mazur"/> Polish literature and language studies ware dissolved by Soviet authorities. . Simultaneously Soviet authorities attempted to remove all signs of Polish existence in the area by eliminating much of what had any connection to the Polish state or even Polish culture in general, as well as removing the Polish population<ref name="Trela-Mazur"/> On [[December 21]], [[1939]], the [[Polish złoty|Polish currency]] was withdrawn from circulation without any exchange to the newly-introduced rouble, which meant that the entire population of the area lost all of their life-time savings overnight.<ref name="Lanckoronska">{{pl icon}}{{cite book | author =[[Karolina Lanckorońska]] | coauthors = | title =Wspomnienia wojenne; 22 IX 1939 - 5 IV 1945 | year =2001 | editor = | pages =364 | chapter =I - Lwów | chapterurl =http://www.lwow.com.pl/karolina.html | publisher =ZNAK | location =Kraków | id =ISBN 8324000771}}</ref> In schools Polish language books were burned down.<ref name="Trela-Mazur"/> All the media became controlled by Moscow. Soviet occupation implemented a political regime similar to [[police state]]<ref name="Dutton">{{en icon}} {{cite book | author =Craig Thompson-Dutton | coauthors = | title =The Police State: What You Want to Know about the Soviet Union | year =1950 | editor = | pages =88-95 | chapter =The Police State & The Police and the Judiciary | chapterurl = | publisher =Dutton | location = | id = | url = | format = | accessdate = }}</ref><ref name="Parrish">{{en icon}} {{cite book | author =[[Michael Parrish]] | coauthors = | title =The Lesser Terror: Soviet State Security, 1939-1953 | year =1996 | editor = | pages =99-101 | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =Praeger Publishers | location = | id =ISBN 0275951138 | url =http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN0275951138&id=NDgv5ognePgC&q=Soviet+Union+police+state+NKVD&dq=Soviet+Union+police+state+NKVD | format = | accessdate = }}</ref>,<ref name="Rutland">{{en icon}} {{cite book | author =[[Peter Rutland]] | coauthors = | title =The Politics of Economic Stagnation in the Soviet Union | year =1992 | editor = | pages =9 | chapter =Introduction | chapterurl =http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0521392411&id=NZfqktloGCgC&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9&dq=Soviet+Union+police+state+NKVD&sig=tHrAdFgY6mVtTV43y3TuOQy3vw0 | publisher =[[Cambridge University Press]] | location =Cambridge | id =ISBN 0521392411| url = | format = | accessdate = }}</ref><ref name="Kravchenko">{{en icon}} {{cite book | author =Victor A. Kravchenko | coauthors = | title =I Chose Justice | year =1988 | editor = | pages =310 | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =Transaction Publishers | location = | id =ISBN 088738756X | url=http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN088738756X&id=6KK8guKbfqkC&pg=PA310&lpg=PA310&dq=Soviet+Union+police+state+NKVD&sig=MrQ01VRirGpe1xhVyvo2tfRj7yA | format = | accessdate = }}</ref> based on terror. All Polish parties and organisations were disbanded. Only the [[Communist Party of Ukraine|Communist Party]] was allowed to exist with organisations subordinated to it. Soviet teachers in schools encouraged children to spy on their parents proposing money as bribes<ref name="Trela-Mazur"/> All organized religions were persecuted. Most churches were closed, priest were discriminated by authorities regardless of their faith, forms of discirmination included high taxes, forced draft into military, arrests and deportations.<ref name="Trela-Mazur"/> Children were told that they should pray to painting of Stalin instead of cross, and were rewarded with sweets and candy for this.<ref name="Trela-Mazur"/> All enterprises were taken over by the state, while [[agriculture]] was made [[Collective farming|collective]].<ref name="PWN OKUPACJA SOWIECKA W POLSCE 1939–41">{{pl icon}} [[Encyklopedia PWN]], "OKUPACJA SOWIECKA W POLSCE 1939–41", last accessed on [[1 March]] [[2006]], [http://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/53025_1.html online], Polish language</ref> The results of Soviet economic policy were quickly seen, in winter locals faced new problems, as shops lacked goods, there was scarce food and they had to face famine.<ref name="Trela-Mazur"/> According to the Soviet law, all residents of the annexed area, dubbed by the Soviets as citizens of ''former Poland'',<ref name="KARTA">{{pl icon}} {{cite book | author = various authors | coauthors = [[Stanisław Ciesielski]], [[Wojciech Materski]], [[Andrzej Paczkowski]] | title = Indeks represjonowanych | url = http://www.indeks.karta.org.pl/represje_sowieckie_1.html | accessdate = 2006-03-24 | edition = 2nd | year = 2002 | publisher = Ośrodek KARTA | location = Warsaw | id = ISBN 8388288318 | pages = | chapter = Represje 1939-1941 | chapterurl = http://www.indeks.karta.org.pl/represje_sowieckie_5.html }}</ref> automatically acquired the Soviet citizenship. However, since actual conferral of citizenship still required the individual consent, residents were strongly pressured for such consent<ref name="Gross-citizenship">{{cite book | author=[[Jan Tomasz Gross]] | coauthors = | title =Revolution from Abroad | year =2003 | editor = | pages =396 | publisher =Princeton University Press | location =Princeton | id =ISBN 0691096031 }} [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0691096031&id=XKtOr4EXOWwC&pg=PA71&lpg=PA71&dq=October+22+1939&sig=aUe9ogURXivTzuoeRRLlufmOCbQ]</ref> and the refugees who opted out were threatened with repatriation to Nazi controlled territories of Poland<ref name="Piotrowski">{{en icon}} {{cite book | author =[[Tadeusz Piotrowski]] | coauthors = | title =Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide... | year =1997 | editor = | pages =p. 295 | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =McFarland & Company | location = | id =ISBN 0786403713| url =http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0786403713&id=A4FlatJCro4C&pg=PA295&lpg=PA295&dq=1939+Soviet+citizenship+Poland&sig=qETeuFX3hbmM0VPSO13o0LmjgEc | format = | accessdate = }}</ref>.<ref name="Revolution-2">Jan T. Gross, op.cit., p.[http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN0691096031&id=XKtOr4EXOWwC&pg=PA188&lpg=PA188&dq=1939+Soviet+citizenship+Poland&sig=9pD36P3bWRpeIyrHoQnJE3Z0ZPE 188]</ref><ref name="Gitelman">{{en icon}} {{cite book | author =[[Zvi Gitelman]] | coauthors = | title =A Century of Ambivalence: The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union, 1881 to the Present | year =2001 | editor = | pages =116 | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =[[Indiana University|Indiana University Press]] | location = | id =ISBN 0253214181 | url =http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN0253214181&id=crBhRHqSlJYC&pg=PA116&lpg=PA116&dq=1939+Soviet+citizenship+Poland&sig=_6hV7XUdr2zEfdQUeJgRbRmd2cM | format = | accessdate = }}</ref> In addition, the Soviets exploited past ethnic tension between Poles and other ethnic groups, inciting and encouraging violence against Poles calling the minorities to "rectify the wrongs they had suffered during twenty years of Polish rule".<ref name="Gross_p35">[[Jan Tomasz Gross]], ''Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland's Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia'', Princeton University Press, 2002, ISBN 0691096031, [http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN0691096031&id=XKtOr4EXOWwC&pg=PA35&lpg=PA35&dq=October+22+1939&vq=%22allegedly+read+the+text%22&sig=h_f0MvIm_A9-tQ_nLvBW0-kxg7Y p. 35]</ref> Pre-war Poland was portrayed as a capitalist state based on exploitation of the working people and ethnic minorities. Soviet officials openly incited mobs to perform killings and robberies against Polish population, going as far as stating that Red Army will help to kill and pillage.<ref name="Gross_terror">Gross, op.cit., [http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN0691096031&id=XKtOr4EXOWwC&dq=to+poles+dog's+death&lpg=PA35&pg=PA36&sig=sWYx6uBDns9rAO0V0jqgLfV3QY4 page 36]</ref> A brutal bloodbath ensued.<ref name="Sowieckie represje">"O Sowieckich represjach wobec Polaków" IPN Bulletin 11(34) 2003 page 4-31</ref> Such events made an everlasting influence on Polish attitude towards Soviet occupation.<ref name="Sowieckie represje"/> Some parts of the Ukrainian population initially welcomed the end of Polish rule.<ref name="Piotr_p199>{{cite book | last = Piotrowski | first = Tadeusz | title = Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918-1947 | year = 1988 | publisher = McFarland | id = ISBN 0-784-0371-3 | pages = 177-259 | chapter = Ukrainian Collaborators | quote =How are we ... to explain the phenomenom of Ukrainians rejoicing and collaborating with the Soviets? Who were these Ukrainians? That they were Ukrainians is certain, but were they communists, Nationalists, unattached peasents? The Answer is "yes" - they were all three}}</ref> This was even strengthened by a [[land reform]] in which the owners of large lots of land were labeled "[[kulak]]s" and dispossessed of their land which was then divided among poorer peasants. However, soon afterwards the Soviet authorities started a campaign of forced [[collectivisation]], which largely nullified the earlier gains from the land reform as the peasants generally did not want to join the [[Kolkhoz]] farms, nor to give away their crops for free to fulfill the state imposed quotas. At the same time, there were large groups of pre-war Polish citizens, notably Jewish youth and, to a lesser extent, the Ukrainian peasants, who saw the Soviet power as an opportunity to start political or social activity outside of their traditional ethnic or cultural groups. Their enthusiasm however faded with time as it became clear that the Soviet repressions were aimed at all groups equally, regardless of their political stance.<ref name="From_Peace">{{en icon}} {{cite book | author =[[Militargeschichtliches Forschungsamt]] (corporate author) | coauthors =[[Gottfried Schramm]], [[Jan T. Gross]], [[Manfred Zeidler]] et al. | title =From Peace to War: Germany, Soviet Russia and the World, 1939-1941 | year =1997 | editor =Bernd Wegner | pages =47-79 | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =Berghahn Books | location = | id =ISBN 1571818820| url =http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN1571818820&id=7odfDAlO64UC&dq=Norman+Davies&lpg=PA78&pg=PA76&sig=G54lMoz9T0FrM5ItIPfmbYrF9lw | format = | accessdate = }}</ref> The organisation of Ukrainians desiring independent Ukraine called [[OUN]] was persecuted as "anti-soviet". An inherent part of the Sovietization was a rule of terror started by the [[NKVD]] and other Soviet agencies. The first victims of the new order were approximately 250,000 Polish [[prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] captured by the USSR during and after the [[Polish Defensive War]].<ref name="PWN_KW">[[Encyklopedia PWN]] [http://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/33490_1.html 'KAMPANIA WRZEŚNIOWA 1939'], last retrieved on [[10 December]] [[2005]], Polish language</ref> As the Soviet Union did not sign any international convention on [[rules of war]], they were denied the status of prisoners of war and instead almost all of the captured officers and a large number of ordinary soldiers<ref name="IPN_decision">Out of the original group of Polish prisoners of war sent in large number to the labour camps were some 25,000 ordinary soldiers separated from the rest of their colleagues and imprisoned in a work camp in [[Równe]], where they were forced to build a road. See: {{en icon}} {{cite web | author = | coauthors = | year = 2004 | url = http://www.ipn.gov.pl/eng/eng_news_high_katyn_decision.html | title = Decision to commence investigation into Katyn Massacre | format = | work = Institute of National Remembrance website | publisher = [[Institute of National Remembrance]] | accessdate = 2006-03-15}}</ref> were then murdered (see [[Katyn massacre]]) or sent to [[Gulag]].<ref name="Chodakiewicz">{{en icon}} {{cite book | author =[[Marek Jan Chodakiewicz]] | coauthors = | title =Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics in Poland, 1939-1947 | year =2004 | editor = | pages = | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =Lexington Books | location = | id =ISBN 0739104845| url = | format = | accessdate = }}</ref> Similar policies were applied to the civilian population as well. The Soviet authorities regarded service for the pre-war Polish state as a "crime against revolution"<ref name="Grudzinski">{{en icon}} {{cite book | author =[[Gustaw Herling-Grudziński]] | coauthors = | title =A World Apart: Imprisonment in a Soviet Labor Camp During World War II | year =1996 | editor = | pages =284 | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =[[Penguin Books]] | location = | id =ISBN 0140251847| url = | format = | accessdate = }}</ref> and "counter-revolutionary activity",<ref name="Anders">{{pl icon}} {{cite book | author =[[Władysław Anders]] | coauthors = | title =Bez ostatniego rozdziału | year =1995 | editor = | pages =540 | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =Test | location =Lublin | id =ISBN 8370381685 | url = | format = | accessdate = }}</ref> and subsequently started arresting large numbers of Polish [[intelligentsia]], politicians, civil servants and scientists, but also ordinary people suspected of posing a threat to the Soviet rule. Schoolchildren as young as 10 or 12 years old that laughed at Soviet propaganda presented in schools were sent into prisons, sometimes for as long as 10 years.<ref name="Trela-Mazur"/> The prisons soon got severely overcrowded<ref name="From_Peace" /> with detainees suspected of anti-Soviet activities and the NKVD had to open dozens of ad-hoc prison sites in almost all towns of the region.<ref name="Revolution" /> The wave of arrests led to forced resettlement of large categories of people ([[kulak]]s, Polish civil servants, forest workers, university professors or [[osadnik]]s, for instance) to the [[Gulag]] [[labour camps]].<ref name="Relocation" /> Altogether roughly a half a million people were sent to the east in four major waves of deportations.<ref name="Number_of_deportees">The actual number of deported in the period of 1939-1941 remains unknown and various estimates vary from 350,000 ({{pl icon}} [[Encyklopedia PWN]] [http://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/53025_1.html 'OKUPACJA SOWIECKA W POLSCE 1939–41'], last retrieved on [[March 14]], [[2006]], Polish language) to over 2 millions (mostly WWII estimates by the underground. The earlier number is based on records made by the NKVD and does not include roughly 180,000 prisoners of war, also in Soviet captivity. Most modern historians estimate the number of all people deported from areas taken by Soviet Union during this period at between 800,000 and 1,500,000. See also: {{cite journal | author = Marek Wierzbicki, Tadeusz M. Płużański | year = 2001 | month = March | title = Wybiórcze traktowanie źródeł | journal = [[Tygodnik Solidarność]] | volume = | issue = [[March 2]], [[2001]] | pages = | id = | url = }} and {{pl icon}} {{Conference reference | Author = Albin Głowacki | Year = 2003 | Month = September | Title = Formy, skala i konsekwencje sowieckich represji wobec Polaków w latach 1939-1941 | Booktitle = Okupacja sowiecka ziem polskich 1939–1941 | Editor = Piotr Chmielowiec | Others = | Edition = | Publisher = [[Instytut Pamięci Narodowej]] | Location = Rzeszów-Warsaw | Pages = | URL = http://www.ipn.gov.pl/a_140803_przemysl_konf.html | ID = ISBN 8389078783}}</ref> According to [[Norman Davies]],<ref name="Playground">{{en icon}} {{cite book | author =[[Norman Davies]] | editor = | title =[[God's Playground]]. A History of Poland, Vol. 2: 1795 to the Present | url = | format = | year = 1982 | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]] | location = Oxford | language = English | id = ISBN 0199253404 | pages = 449-455 | chapter = | chapterurl = | quote =}}</ref> almost half of them were dead by the time the [[Sikorski-Mayski Agreement]] had been signed in 1941. == Government in exile == [[Image:ac.sikorski.jpg|thumb|Władysław Sikorski]] {{details|Polish government in exile}} {{seealso|Polish Forces in the West|Polish Forces in the East}} The Polish government re-assembled in [[Paris]] and formed a [[Polish government in exile, 1939-1990|government in exile]]. [[Władysław Raczkiewicz]] was sworn in as President and chose General [[Władysław Sikorski]] as Prime Minister. Most of the Polish Navy escaped to the United Kingdom, and thousands of other Poles escaped through Romania or across the [[Baltic Sea]] to continue the fight. Many Poles took part in the defence of France, in the [[Battle of Britain]], and in other operations beside British forces (see [[Polish contribution to World War II]]). This government in exile, based first in Paris and then in [[London]], was recognised by all the Allied governments. When Germany attacked the Soviet Union in 1941, the Polish government in exile established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, despite Stalin's role in the destruction of Poland. Hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers who had been taken prisoner by the Soviet Union in eastern Poland in 1939, and many other Polish prisoners and deportees, were released and were allowed to leave the country via [[Persia]]. (Among them was the future Prime Minister of [[Israel]], [[Menachem Begin]].) They formed the basis for the Polish Army led by General [[Władysław Anders]] that fought alongside the Allies at [[World War II/Monte Cassino|Cassino]], [[Battle of Arnhem|Arnhem]] and other battles. But in April 1943 the Germans announced that they had discovered the graves of 4,300 Polish officers who had been taken prisoner in 1939 and murdered by the Soviets, in a mass grave in [[Katyn Massacre|Katyń Wood]] near [[Smolensk]]. The Germans invited the [[International Red Cross]] to visit the site, which confirmed both that the graves contained Polish officers and that they had been killed with Soviet weapons. The Soviet government said that the Germans had fabricated the discovery. The Allied governments, for diplomatic reasons, formally accepted this, but the Polish government in exile refused to do so. Stalin then severed relations with the London-based Poles. Stalin immediately set up [[Union of Polish Patriots|the nucleus of a Soviet-controlled Communist Polish government]], and began recruiting for a Communist Polish Army. By July 1943 this army, led by General [[Zygmunt Berling]], had 40,000 members. Since it was clear that it would be the Soviet Union, not the western Allies, who would enter Poland and drive off from Nazi Germans, this breach had fateful consequences for Poland. In a seemingly unfortunate coincidence, Sikorski, the most talented of the Polish exile leaders, was killed in an aircrash near [[Gibraltar]] in July. Sikorski was succeeded as head of the government in exile by [[Stanisław Mikołajczyk]]. [[Image:Z niewoli.JPG|thumb|left|Polish volunteers to the Anders Army, released from Soviet POW camp.]] During 1943 and 1944 the Allied leaders, particularly [[Winston Churchill]], tried to bring about a resumption of talks between Stalin and the London Poles. But these efforts broke down over several issues. One was the massacre at Katyń and the fate of many other Poles who had disappeared into Soviet prisons and labour camps since 1939. Another was Poland's postwar borders. Stalin insisted that the territories annexed in 1939, should remain in Soviet hands, and that Poland should be compensated with lands to be annexed from Germany. The London Poles, led by Mikołajczyk, refused to this proposition, even when Churchill threatened to cut off relations with them. A third issue was Mikołajczyk's insistence that Stalin not set up a Communist government in postwar Poland. Fundamentally, the issue was that the Poles wanted to preserve their independence, while Stalin was determined that he would be in control of Poland. Eventually, the Poles believed, the UK and US firmly supported Stalin on all three issues. In 1944, the Polish government in exile considered its position boosted, as the Polish forces in the West were making [[Polish contribution to World War II|a substantial contribution to the war]]: in May, the Second Corps under general [[Władysław Anders]] [[Battle of Monte Cassino|stormed the fortress]] of [[Monte Cassino]] and opened a road to Rome, in August general [[Stanisław Maczek]]'s [[Polish 1st Armoured Division|1st Armored Division]] distinguished itself at the [[battle of Falaise]], in September general [[Stanisław Sosabowski]]'s [[Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade|Parachute Brigade]] fought hard at the [[battle of Arnhem]]. At the same time, however, the [[Red Army]] was marching into Poland defeating the Nazis and Stalin toughened his stance against the Polish exiled government in London, now demanding not only the recognition of the [[Curzon Line]] as the border, but the resignation from the government of all 'elements hostile to the Soviet Union', which meant in practice president [[Władysław Raczkiewicz]] and most of the Polish ministers.<ref name=Lukowski>{{en icon}} {{cite book | author =[[Jerzy Lukowski]] | coauthors =[[Hubert Zawadzki]] | title =A Concise History of Poland | year =2001 | editor = | pages = | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =[[Cambridge University Press]] | location =Cambridge | id =ISBN 0521559170| url =http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN0521559170&id=NpMxTvBuWHYC&d | format = | accessdate = }}</ref> == Resistance in Poland == {{details|Polish resistance movement in World War II}} {{Polish Underground State}} <!-- Unsourced image removed: [[Image:Tadeusz Bor Komorowski.jpg|left|thumb|Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski]] --> [[Polish resistance movement in World War II|Polish resistance]] to the German occupation began almost at once, although there is little terrain in Poland suitable for [[guerrilla]] operations. The [[Armia Krajowa|Home Army]] (in Polish ''Armia Krajowa'' or AK), loyal to the [[Polish government in exile]] in [[London]] and a military arm of the [[Polish Secret State]], was formed from a number of smaller groups in 1942. From 1943 the AK was in competition with the [[People's Army]] (Polish ''Armia Ludowa'' or AL), backed by the Soviet Union and controlled by the [[Polish Workers' Party]] (Polish ''Polska Partia Robotnicza'' or PPR). By 1944 the AK had some 380,000 men, although few arms: the AL was much smaller. The Polish resistance organizations ([[Leśni]]) killed about 150,000 Germans during the occupation. In August 1943 and March 1944 the Polish Secret State announced their long-term plan, partially designed to counter attractivness of some of the Communists' proposals. Their plan promised [[land reform]], [[nationalisation]] of the industrial base, demands for territorial compensation from Germany, as well as re-establishment of the pre-1939 eastern border. Thus the main difference between the Secret State and the Communists, in terms of politics, amounted not to radical economic and social reforms, which where advocated by both sides, but to their attitudes towards national sovereignty, borders, and Polish-Soviet relations.<ref name=Lukowski/> In April 1943 the Germans began deporting the remaining Jews from the Warsaw ghetto, provoking the [[Warsaw Ghetto|Warsaw Ghetto Rising]] from [[April 19]] to [[May 16]], one of the first armed uprisings against the Germans in Poland. Some units of the AK tried to assist the Ghetto rising, but for the most part the Jews were left to fight alone. The Jewish leaders knew that the rising would be crushed but they preferred to die fighting than wait to be deported to their deaths in the camps. During 1943 the Home Army built up its forces in preparation for a national uprising. The plan was code-named [[Operation Tempest]] and began in late 1943. Its most widely known elements were [[Operation Ostra Brama]] and the [[Warsaw Uprising]]. In August 1944, as the Soviet armed forces approached Warsaw, the government in exile called for an uprising in the city, so that they could return to a liberated Warsaw and try to prevent a Communist takeover. The AK, led by [[Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski]], launched the [[Warsaw Uprising]]. Soviet forces were less than 20 kilometres away, but on the orders of Soviet High Command, they gave no assistance. Stalin described the rising as a "criminal adventure." The Poles appealed for the western Allies for help. The [[Royal Air Force]], and the Polish Air Force based in [[Italy]], dropped some arms but, as in 1939, it was almost impossible for the Allies to help the Poles without Soviet assistance. The fighting in Warsaw was desperate, with selfless valour being displayed in street-to-street fighting. The AK had between 12,000 and 20,000 armed soldiers, most with only small arms, against a well-equipped German Army of 20,000 [[SS]] and regular Army units. Bór-Komorowski's hope that the AK could take and hold Warsaw for the return of the London government was never likely to be achieved. After 63 days of savage fighting the city was reduced to rubble, and German reprisals were savage. The SS and auxiliary units recruited from Soviet Army deserters were particularly brutal. After Bór-Komorowski's surrender the AK fighters were treated as prisoners-of-war by the Germans, much to the outrage of Stalin, but the civilian population were ruthlessly punished. Overall, Polish casualties are estimated to be between 150,000 and 300,000 killed, with 90,000 civilians being sent to labour camps in the [[Reich]], while 60,000 were shipped to death and concentration camps such as [[Ravensbrück]], [[Auschwitz]], [[Mauthausen]], and others. The city was almost totally destroyed after German bombers systematically demolished the city. The Warsaw Rising allowed the Germans to destroy the AK as a fighting force, but the main beneficiary was Stalin, who was able to impose a Communist government on postwar Poland with little fear of armed resistance. == End of the War: Yalta and the Soviets == [[Image:AK-soldiers Parasol Regiment Warsaw Uprising 1944.jpg|200px|left|thumb|[[Batalion Zośka]] soldiers in [[Wola]] during Warsaw Uprising]]<!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:27DPAK OsnowaGrp forced LWP.jpg|thumb|250px|Soldiers of the [[Home Army]]'s "Osnowa" group before forced draft into the [[Polish People's Army]], 1944.]] --> As the Soviets advanced through Poland in late 1944 the German administration collapsed. The Communist-controlled [[Committee of National Liberation]] ([[PKWN]], ''[[Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego]]''), headed by [[Bolesław Bierut]], was installed by the Soviet Union in July in [[Lublin]], the first major Polish city to be seized by Soviets from the Nazis, and began to take over the administration of the country as the Germans retreated. The government in exile in London had only one card to play, the forces of the AK. This was why the government in exile was determined that the AK would cooperate with the advancing Red Army on a tactical level, while Polish civil authorities from underground took power in Allied-controlled Polish territory (see [[Operation Tempest]]) to ensure that Poland would remain an independent country after the war. The failure of the [[Warsaw Uprising]] marked the end of any real chance that Poland would escape postwar Communist rule, especially given the unwillingness of the Western Allies to risk conflict with Soviets over Poland. Soviets performed executions, deportations and arrests of Home Army members that assisted them in fights against the Germans[http://www.warsawuprising.com/paper/nkvd.htm], [http://www.ipn.gov.pl/a_091105_grot_rogut.html]. Until 1946 Soviet forces fought against the Polish independence movement, and some former AK and NSZ soldiers continued to fight well into 1956.<ref>[http://www.ipn.gov.pl/bep_pub_int_warszawa_wytycznepkb.html]{{Dead link|date=March 2008}}</ref> [[Image:Map of Poland (1945) corr.png|left|thumb|300px|Poland's old and new borders, 1945]] At the [[Yalta Conference]] in February 1945, [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] was able to present his [[Western Allies]], [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and [[Winston Churchill]], with a ''[[fait accompli]]'' in [[Poland]]. His armed forces were in control of the country, and his agents, the [[Polish Communists]], were in control of its administration. The [[USSR]] was in the process of incorporating the lands in eastern Poland ([[Kresy]]), which it had occupied and annexed in 1939 (see [[Polish areas annexed by Soviet Union]]), with some minor border adjustments in Poland's favour (the most important of which allowed Poland to retain [[Białystok]]). In compensation, the USSR awarded Poland all the German territories in [[Pomerania]], [[Silesia]] and [[Brandenburg]] east of the [[Oder-Neisse Line]], plus the southern half of [[East Prussia]] (those would be known as the [[Recovered Territories]]). The entire country had shifted to the west, and now resembled the territory of Medieval Poland. This entailed the [[Expulsion of Germans after World War II|expulsion of 8 million Germans]] who were forced to relocate their families to the new Germany. Approximately 1000 Germans were certified as "Poles" and were given Polish citizenship. These territories were repopulated with Poles expelled from the eastern regions by the Soviet Union and other territories. The new Poland emerged 20% smaller by 77,500 square kilometres (29,900 sq mi). [[Image:Polish 2nd Army on the Eastern Front.jpg|thumb|250px|Soldiers of the Polish Second Army in the area of [[Nysa Łuzycka]] River after forcing it in April 1945.]] Most of the ethnic Polish population was expelled from the territories incorporated into Soviet Ukraine and Belarus in the population exchange that included the transfer of the Ukrainian and Belarusian population from Poland into these republics. The Soviet-controlled Polish government not wishing to entertain the recreation of Belarusian and Ukrainian minorities within the postwar boundaries of Poland, withdrew the citizenship of those [[displaced person]]s (DPs) and political refugees who found themselves in western Europe, leaving them stateless, and collaborated actively in 1947 in the expulsion of remaining Belarusians and especially Ukrainians from the southwestern region of postwar Poland, expelling thousands of Ukrainians into Soviet Ukraine ([[Operation Vistula]]), thereby undercutting the ongoing Ukrainian nationalist resistance to Soviet rule ([[Ukrainian Insurgent Army]] (UPA)) and ensuring that postwar Poland would not have any significant minorities to contend with. [[Image:Destroyed Warsaw, capital of Poland, January 1945.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Destroyed Warsaw, capital of Poland, January 1945]] Stalin was determined that Poland's new government should be Communist, and therefore ultimately under his control. He had severed relations with the Polish government-in-exile in London in 1943 in the aftermath of the [[Katyn Massacre]], but to appease Roosevelt and Churchill he agreed at Yalta that a coalition government would be formed. The Prime Minister of the [[Polish government in exile]], [[Stanisław Mikołajczyk]], resigned his post and, with several other Polish exile leaders, went to [[Lublin]] in eastern Poland, where the Communist-controlled provisional government had been established. This government was headed by a Socialist, [[Edward Osóbka-Morawski]], but the Communists held a majority of key posts. It was recognized by the Western Allies in July 1945. Stalin also agreed that Poland would receive a $US10 billion reparation payment from Germany. The attitude of the Polish population towards Soviet entry was generally hostile, while some cases existed of welcoming them, they soon turned into hatred and despise as Red Army soldiers engaged in plunder, rape, banditry, while NKVD implemented a reign of political terror. In the eyes of Polish society which wasn't yet under the Soviet occupation in 1939-1941 the Soviets became a new occupiers, and soon protests and demands of their withdrawal have spread among the country. A popular belief was that Western Allies will soon defeat Soviets using atomic weapons and free Poland from the Soviets.<ref name="Obdarci">Łukasz Kamiński "Obdarci,głodni,żli, Sowieci w oczach Polaków 1944-1948" Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej” 2002, nr 7; </ref> In April 1945, that [[provisional government]] signed a mutual pact with the Soviet Union. The new Polish [[Government of National Unity]] was finally constituted on [[June 28]], with Mikołajczyk as Deputy Prime Minister. The Communists' principal rivals were Mikołajczyk's [[Polish People's Party]] (''Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe'' PSL), veterans of both the World War II resistance group [[Home Army]] (AK), and the Polish armies which had fought in the west. But at the same time, Soviet-oriented parties, especially the PPR, under [[Władysław Gomułka]] and [[Bolesław Bierut]], held the balance of power, controlling Polish army and police, and being supported by the Red Army. Potential political opponents of Communists were subject to Soviet terror campaigns, with many of them arrested, executed or tortured[http://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/58502_1.html]. At least 25,000 people lost their lives in labour camps created by Soviets as early as 1944 [http://www.wprost.pl/ar/?O=12571]. [[Harry S. Truman]] and Winston Churchill were aware of the predominance of Soviet controlled parties and decided on a policy of strong resistance to Stalin. The Western Allies in the persons of Roosevelt and Churchill have been criticised, both by Polish writers and some western historians, for what most Poles see as [[Western Betrayal|the abandonment of Poland to Stalin]]. Well before Yalta, they secretly consigned Eastern Europe and the Baltics to the Soviet Union. At the [[Teheran Conference]] in 1943, Roosevelt committed that Stalin could have Romania, Bulgaria, Bukovina, eastern Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, and Finland,<ref name="Bullitt">Bullitt, Orvile H. (Ed.). <u>For the President: Personal and Secret</u>. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1972, p.601</ref> in addition to making changes to the Polish frontier.<ref name="FRUS_T"><u>Foreign Relations of the United States, The Conferences of Cairo and Teheran</u>, 1943, p. 594-6. U.S. Government publication.</ref> Meeting with Stalin in Moscow on [[October 9]], [[1944]], Churchill penciled a list of which power was to have what degree of "dominance" in each country lying between the Soviet Union and western Europe.<ref name="WC_SWW">Churchill, Winston. <u>The Second World War</u> (6 volumes), Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1953, VI, pgs 227/8</ref> This bifurcation of secret versus public diplomacy (viz. [[Stimson Doctrine]], [[Atlantic Charter]]) sealed the post-war fate of Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe. Yalta merely confirmed prior Western commitments. [[Image:PKWN manifest.jpg|thumb|250px|A propaganda photo of a citizen reading the [[PKWN Manifesto]], issued on [[July 22]], [[1944]]]] Mikołajczyk and his colleagues in the [[Polish Government-in-Exile]] insisted on making a stand in defence of Poland's pre-1939 eastern border ([[Curzon line]]) as a basis for the future Polish-Soviet border, a position which could not be defended in practice because Stalin was in control of the territory in question, and he had already been promised those areas by Churchill and Roosevelt back in 1943. The Government-in-Exile's refusal to accept the proposed new Polish borders irritated the Allies, particularly Churchill, making them less inclined to oppose Stalin on the question of the composition of the postwar government. In the end the exiles lost on both issues: Stalin annexed the eastern territories, and gained control over the new Polish government. Whilst Poland avoided the fate of becoming a [[Republics of the Soviet Union|republic of the Soviet Union]], as was proposed by some influential Polish communists such as [[Wanda Wasilewska]][http://www.archiwum.uj.edu.pl/stalinizm/wasilewska.htm], it was to remain under heavy Soviet control until the mid-1950s. Hans Frank was captured by American troops in May 1945 and was one of the defendants at the [[Nuremberg Trials]]. During his trial he converted to Catholicism. Frank surrendered forty volumes of his diaries to the Tribunal and much evidence against him and others was gathered from them. He was found guilty of [[war crime]]s and [[crimes against humanity]] and on [[1 October]] [[1946]] he was [[capital punishment|sentenced to death]] by [[hanging]]. Of all the countries involved in the war, Poland lost the highest percentage of its citizens: over seven million perished, three million of them Polish Jews. == Notes and references == <!--This article uses the Cite.php citation mechanism. If you would like more information on how to add references to this article, please see http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cite/Cite.php --> <div class="references-small"> <references/> * {{cite book | author =[[Keith Sword]] | coauthors = | title =The Soviet Takeover of the Polish Eastern Provinces, 1939-41 | year =1991 | editor = | pages = | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =Palgrave Macmillan | location = | id =ISBN 0312055706| url = | format = | accessdate = }} </div> == Further reading == * [[Norman Davies|Davies, Norman]] (1982). ''God's Playground''. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231053533 and ISBN 0231053517. *[[Jan Tomasz Gross]], ''Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland's Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia'', Princeton University Press, 2002, ISBN 0691096031, [http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN0691096031&id=XKtOr4EXOWwC&dq Google Print] *[[John Hiden]] (ed.), .), ''The Baltic and the Outbreak of the Second World War'', Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN 0521531209 *[[Olgierd Terlecki]] (1972). ''Poles in the Italian Campaign, 1943-1945'', Interpress Publishers. *[[Timothy Snyder]], ''Sketches from a Secret War: A Polish Artist's Mission to Liberate Soviet Ukraine'', Yale University Press, 2005, ISBN 030010670X *Marek Jan Chodakiewicz. [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=154561122407785 ''Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics in Poland, 1939-1947.''] Lanham: Lexington Books, 2004 ISBN 0-7391-0484-5. == External links == * [http://www.poland.gov.pl/ww2/ The Poles on the Fronts of World War II] * [http://www.polishresistance-ak.org/ Polish Resistance in World War II] * [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/franktest.html Testimony of Hans Frank at Nuremberg] * [http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/web/history/WWII/index.shtml University of New York in Buffalo Info Poland: World War II] * [http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~sarmatia/498/losses.html Polish Losses in World War II], [[Witold J. Lukaszewski]], Sarmatian Review, April 1998 * [http://felsztyn.tripod.com/index.html The Soviet Invasion of Poland During the World War II] * [http://www.republika.pl/unpack/1/dok07a.html The Polish-Russian Controversy] * [http://www.atsnotes.com/articles/article-contibution-en.html History of Warsaw's contributions levied by the German Occupation Authority during the Second World War] <br/>{{WWII history by nation}} <!--Categories--> [[Category:History of Poland (1939–1945)| ]] [[Category:World War II national military histories|Poland]] [[Category:World War II occupied territories|Poland]] [[Category:Politics of World War II]] <!--Other languages--> [[et:Poola Teises maailmasõjas]] [[fr:Pologne pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale]] [[he:היסטוריה של פולין: מלחמת העולם השנייה]] [[nl:Polen tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog]] [[pl:Wojna w Polsce - rok 1939]] [[ro:Istoria Poloniei (1939-1945)]]