On August 23rd, 1939, Adolf Hitler shocked the world with the announcement of a non-aggression pact signed with Joseph Stalin's U.S.S.R.
That pact cleared the way for Case WHITE, the German invasion of Poland nine days later.
In addition to the published texts of the agreement, there were a series of secret protocols that were part of the pact. Those protocols basically divided Eastern Europe, either physically, or by sphere of influence between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Part of that division encompassed Poland.
The success and speed of the German blitzkrieg surprised not only the Poles but the Russians. Prodded by Stalin himself, the Red Army began moving into eastern Poland on September 17th. The Poles, already severely savaged by the Germans were taken by surprise, and although fighting tenaciously in spots, they were unable to mount a concerted defense. Within two weeks, Poland surrendered, and the Germans began to pull back from areas they had occupied, but that were in the Soviet zone.[ Guderian handed over Brest-Litovsk, which he would be forced to re-take in June, 1941].
After final adjustment, and land swaps, the Germans took the Polish corridor, and western areas of Poland into the Reich. A rump area around Cracow, under the German administration of Hans Frank, called the Government-General was formed. The Soviets incorporated their areas into the Beylorussian and Ukrainian Republics.
The Soviet invasion of Poland was raised once more, at the Nuremburg trials by several of the defendants charged with 'planning to wage aggressive war". A copy of the Secret Protocols wound up in the hands of one of the defense counsel. Its use was precluded by the Court. In many areas, the Soviet invasion of a country Stalin had hated since 1920, has faded from memory. But it happened on this date 76 years ago.
