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Soviet annexation of Polish lands in 1939 (in red), superimposed on a modern map of Ukraine. On the basis of a secret clause of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union invaded Poland on September 17, 1939, capturing the eastern provinces of the Second Polish Republic.
Today these territories are part of Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania. Poland received former German territory east of the Oder–Neisse line, which it previously lost in the Partitions of Poland or earlier, consisting of the southern two thirds of East Prussia, most of Pomerania and Silesia, right-bank Lubusz Land and Lusatia, and northern and ...
The borders of Poland resembled the borders of the German-Russian gains in World War 2, with the exception of the city of Bialystok. This is called the Curzon line. The small area of Trans-Olza, which had been annexed by Poland in late 1938, was returned to Czechoslovakia on Stalin's orders. [citation needed]
Temporary borders created by advancing German and Soviet troops. The border was soon readjusted following diplomatic agreements. Seventeen days after the German invasion of Poland in 1939, which marked the beginning of the Second World War, the Soviet Union entered the eastern regions of Poland (known as the Kresy) and annexed territories totalling 201,015 square kilometres (77,612 sq mi) with ...
The eastern part of Poland was annexed by the Soviet Union; Volhynia and Eastern Galicia were attached to the Ukrainian SSR. After the annexation, the Soviet NKVD started eliminating the predominantly Polish middle and upper classes, including social activists and military leaders. Between 1939 and 1941, 200,000 Poles were deported to Siberia.
1940 USSR postage stamp celebrating the "liberation" of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. On the basis of a secret clause of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union invaded Poland on September 17, 1939, capturing the eastern provinces of the Second Polish Republic.
Fighting was concentrated in south-eastern areas of the Second Polish Republic and western Ukraine. The occupation of Poland by Germany and Soviet Union in September 1939 led to demands by Ukrainian nationalists for a new Ukrainian state which would include the Polish areas of Eastern Galicia and Volhynia.
The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military conflict by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west.