Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (1939–1946)
In the aftermath of the German and Soviet invasion of Poland, which took place in September 1939, the territory of Poland was divided between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The Soviets had ceased to recognise the Polish state at the start of the invasion. Since 1939 German and Soviet officials coordinated their Poland-related policies and repressive actions. For nearly two years following the invasion, the two occupiers continued to discuss bilateral plans for dealing with the Polish resistance during Gestapo-NKVD Conferences until Germany's Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union, in June 1941.
Bodies of Polish prisoners-of-war by the mass graves of the Katyn massacre, awaiting forensic examination, 30 April 1943
Exhumation of the Katyń forest massacre victims, murdered in 1940 by order of Soviet authorities
The "Road of Bones" constructed by inmates of the Soviet Gulag prison camps, including those of Polish citizenship
Soviet troops led by cavalry enter Wilno which was unable to launch its own defence
Soviet invasion of Poland
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. Subsequent military operations lasted for the following 20 days and ended on 6 October 1939 with the two-way division and annexation of the entire territory of the Second Polish Republic by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. This division is sometimes called the Fourth Partition of Poland. The Soviet invasion of Poland was indirectly indicated in the "secret protocol" of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed on 23 August 1939, which divided Poland into "spheres of influence" of the two powers. German and Soviet cooperation in the invasion of Poland has been described as co-belligerence.
Soviet parade in Lwów, September 1939, following the city's surrender
Hitler watching German soldiers marching into Poland in September 1939
Advancing Red Army troops, Soviet invasion of Poland, 1939
Instructions of Józef Beck, Polish minister of foreign affairs for Wacław Grzybowski, Polish ambassador to the Soviet Union concerning the Soviet invasion of Poland, 17.09.1939