The Brest Peace, signed by the Entente countries and Germany on March 3, 1918, put an end to the First World War. This historic event took place in the Brest Fortress. According to the Brest Treaty, were determined state borders Poland and the RSFSR. The border was the Curzon Line, which was recommended by the governments of France and Great Britain. The provisions of the Riga Treaty of 1921 fixed the border line between Poland and the RSFSR.
Poland was building its own state, the same was done by the USSR. The peace process was disrupted by the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on Germany's non-aggression against the USSR. Together with the pact, a secret protocol was adopted on the division of the territory of Poland between Germany and the USSR. According to the protocol, in exchange for non-interference in the occupation of Poland by German troops, the Soviet Union was given large territories.

The beginning of the Second World War on September 1 was a signal for the activation of separatism. Poland was defeated by Nazi Germany. AT last days October 1939 the Red Army received an order to invade the eastern regions of Poland.

To ensure the legality of the annexation, a People's Assembly was held under the control of the NKVD troops. Western Ukraine, which adopted on October 27, the Declaration on the entry of Western Ukraine into the Ukrainian SSR.

The 5th Extraordinary Session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was promptly convened, which considered the Declaration of the People's Assembly of Western Ukraine and adopted the "Law on the inclusion of Western Ukraine into the USSR with its reunification with the Ukrainian SSR. The adoption of the law took place on November 1, 1939. On the next day of the session, a similar law was adopted on the entry of Western Belarus into the USSR.

Preparations for a farce with emergency "people's meetings" were carried out long before they were convened. All documents were carefully prepared. The obedient deputies had to play their part by raising mandates. The days of repressions have come for the population of Western Ukraine. Thousands of Western Ukrainian patriots were arrested, tried and executed. The legislative framework repressions came into effect in the annexed territories with the beginning of the Stalinist Constitution of 1936 and the Criminal Procedure Code of the USSR.

The beginning of the Great Patriotic War suspended the repression of the communist regime. The annexed territories were soon occupied by German troops.

The occupied territories of Western Ukraine and Belarus, annexed to the USSR in 1939, received an indefinite status. It was assigned to these territories as a result of the conclusion at the end of July 1941 of the so-called Sikorsky-Maisky Agreement. At the Tehran conference of the anti-Hitler coalition, Stalin raised the issue of these territories. Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill decided this issue in favor of Soviet Union. The coalition's decision was confirmed at conferences in Yalta and Potsdam. In August 1945 between the USSR and the Polish People's Republic An agreement was concluded defining the line of the border between the USSR and Poland. Some territories annexed to the USSR in 1939, such as Przemysl and Bialystok, returned to Poland. In the next ten years, the configuration of the borders was slightly adjusted.

The territories of Western Ukraine, annexed in 1939, remained in the USSR until its collapse in 1991. The Belovezhskaya Gathering in 1991 secured territories within the borders of the Ukrainian SSR for Independent Ukraine. Volhynia, Galicia and the Transcarpathian region, which were not previously part of the Russian Empire, remained part of modern independent Ukraine and are recognized by the world community.

Strengthening the combat capability and expansion of the western borders of the USSR.

The Soviet-German agreement frustrated the plans of the Western powers to direct Germany's aggression exclusively against the USSR. There was also a blow to German-Japanese relations. In the summer of 1939, Soviet troops on the Khalkhin Gol River in Mongolia defeated the Japanese. Later, Japan, despite German pressure, never started a war against the USSR.

Effective method Stalin saw the strengthening of the country's security in moving its borders to the West. September 17, 1939 began commissioning Soviet troops to Poland, which on that day, with the flight of its government, actually ceased to exist as an independent state. The lands of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, captured by Poland in 1920, were annexed to the Soviet Ukraine and Belarus.

At the end of 1939, the USSR stepped up pressure on Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland in order to conclude friendship treaties with them, which included clauses on the creation of Soviet military bases in them. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have signed such agreements. In addition, Finland was required to transfer to the Soviet Union a small territory on the Karelian Isthmus near Leningrad in exchange for vast lands elsewhere, including Petrozavodsk. Finland, hoping for the help of England, France and Germany, did not agree to these conditions. At the end of 1939, the Soviet-Finnish war broke out. It turned out to be difficult for the Soviet troops, who suffered heavy losses, but in March 1940 it ended in the defeat of Finland. A number of lands went to the USSR, including the city of Vyborg.

In the summer of 1940, the USSR achieved power in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania " people's governments", who made decisions on the entry of their countries into the USSR as union republics. At the same time, Romania returned Bessarabia, which became the Moldavian SSR.

There were economic and trade agreements between the USSR and Germany. They were necessary for the USSR, as its isolation from the countries of the West became more and more. By supplying mainly raw materials to Germany, the USSR received back advanced equipment and technologies.

tany new types of weapons. Since 1935, a program for the construction of the navy was launched.

In November 1936, Germany and Japan signed an agreement to fight against Communist International(Anti-Comintern Pact). But, having been defeated by the Soviet troops, the Japanese government preferred the "southern" expansion option to capture the possessions of the European powers and the United States in Asia.

The inevitability of the Second World War was also understood in the USSR.

The Soviet government made every effort to strengthen its positions both in the East and in the West. Special attention devoted to the accelerated development of the military industry. Large state reserves were created, backup enterprises were built in the Urals, the Volga region, Siberia, and Central Asia.

Great Britain and France took steps to redirect fascist aggression to the East. In June 1939, secret Anglo-German negotiations on an alliance began in London, but they were thwarted by serious disagreements over the division of world markets and spheres of influence.

Western Ukraine and Western Belarus within the borders of October 3, 1939 on the political and administrative map of the USSR of March 3, 1940

Accession of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus to the USSR(Reunification of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus with the Ukrainian SSR and BSSR) - the admission of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus to the USSR with the adoption of the Extraordinary V session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the Law of the USSR "On the inclusion of Western Ukraine into the Union of the SSR with its reunification with the Ukrainian SSR" (1 November 1939) and the Law of the USSR "On the inclusion of Western Belarus into the Union of the SSR with its reunification with the Byelorussian SSR" (November 2, 1939) based on petitions from the Plenipotentiary Commissions of the People's Assembly of Western Ukraine and the People's Assembly of Western Belarus. The decision to submit applications was stipulated in the Declaration "On the entry of Western Ukraine into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic", adopted by the People's Assembly of Western Ukraine in Lvov on October 27, 1939 and the Declaration "On the entry of Western Belarus into the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic", adopted by the People's Assembly Western Belarus in Bialystok on October 29, 1939, respectively.

On November 12, 1939, the third Extraordinary Session of the Supreme Council of the BSSR decided: "Accept Western Belarus into the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic and thereby reunite the Belarusian people in a single Belarusian state."

On November 14, 1939, the third Extraordinary Session of the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR decided: "Accept Western Ukraine into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and thereby reunite the great Ukrainian people in a single Ukrainian state."

Notes

see also

Literature

Makarchuk V.S. State-territorial status of Western Ukrainian lands during the Second World War. - M .: Fund " historical memory”, 2010. 520 p. ISBN 978-5-9990-0009-5

Categories:

• Political geography
• Territorial changes during World War II
• History of Belarus
• 1939 in the USSR
• History of Ukraine 1917-1991

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Two and a half weeks after the German attack, the USSR invades Poland. Moscow says it's coming to rescue western Ukrainians and western Belarusians and tries not to look like an ally of Berlin. Carefully coordinating their actions, the two powers divide the country located between them in accordance with the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - exactly in half

On the day of the German attack on Poland, September 1, universal conscription was introduced in the USSR, the draft age was lowered from 21 to 19 years, and it was decided to triple the number of Soviet divisions. In the European part of the country, military training has been appointed, the demobilization of retired soldiers has been postponed, and civilian rail traffic has been reduced in order to transfer trains for military needs. Future fronts will be formed on the basis of the Kyiv and Belorussian districts.

Berlin is expecting an early counter offensive by the Red Army. On September 3, when the new plenipotentiary of the USSR presented his credentials, Hitler speaks as if the matter had already been decided:

Russia and Germany will establish the borders that existed before the world war,

that is, without Poland. However, Molotov responded to Ribbentrop's urging on September 4 that "the moment for concrete action is not ripe." There is a considerable risk in delaying, and the People's Commissar specifically stipulates: if the Germans have to "temporarily cross the line of contact between the interests of both sides", then this should not interfere with "the exact implementation of the adopted plan." The next day, the Polish ambassador Yezhibovsky hears from Molotov in a personal conversation:

The Soviet Union does not want to be drawn into this war on the other side.

Soviet official position camouflaged as neutral until the middle of the 10th of September. In the meantime, propaganda is being rebuilt. Stalin summons the head of the executive committee of the Comintern, Dimitrov, and orders Germany not to be considered an aggressor. As a result, the directive to the communist parties of the world calls Poland a fascist state. AT Soviet press a campaign begins against the "pansky" power, which "oppressed other nationalities." The editorial of Pravda, "On the Internal Causes of Poland's Military Defeat," was prepared by the Party ideologue Zhdanov and corrected by Stalin. It is about the incapacity of the neighboring state, which “began to disintegrate at the first military failures”, and about “half-brothers” waiting for liberation. Moscow and Berlin are trying to agree in advance on a communiqué about the start of Soviet hostilities. The Germans propose a joint document about " common task Germany and the USSR "in their natural spheres of influence", but the Kremlin does not want to be equally involved and reveal its agreement with the Nazis. In the Soviet one-sided project, the “fraternal peoples” are named not only as oppressed Poles in the past, but also as “at risk of falling under German domination” in the present. So the intervention of the USSR looks much more plausible, but this is unacceptable for the Germans.

September 9 Berlin announces the fall of Warsaw. Molotov sends congratulations. Now the Kremlin is in a hurry, intending to speak on the 12th. But the news turned out to be false, they are waiting further. Another week passes, the Wehrmacht crosses the "line of interest" everywhere. It is impossible to delay, and the desired is passed off as real - in a note of the USSR government of September 17, it was announced:

Warsaw as the capital of Poland no longer exists,

although the capitulation of the Polish capital will be signed only on 28 September. But from this statement follows the main Soviet argument:

The Polish state and its government actually ceased to exist. Thus, the treaties concluded between the USSR and Poland ceased to be valid.

That is, even before the Soviet intervention, there was no country to which now there can be no obligations. But they are before consanguineous peoples, and the Red Army was ordered to cross the border and take under its protection "the life and property of the population of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus."

The operation starts on September 17 at 5 am. About half a million people, 4 thousand tanks, 5.5 thousand guns, 2 thousand aircraft were involved. This is more than the entire Polish Army, for which the invasion is a complete surprise. It is impossible to build a front of defense from the east, besides, at first the offensive of the Red Army was perceived as anti-German. Soviet troops are advancing almost unhindered, making up to 100 km a day. Already on the 18th, Rovno was taken by the Ukrainian Front, and Vilna (Vilnius) by the Belorussian Front. Stalin, having rejected another version of the text sent by the German Foreign Ministry, himself draws up a joint statement. It is immediately announced by Moscow and Berlin: the troops of the two powers are "operating in Poland" in order to

to restore order and tranquility, disturbed by the disintegration of the Polish state, and to help the people of Poland to reorganize the conditions of their state existence.

For the Kremlin, this campaign is also a continuation civil war. In 1920, during the previous Polish campaign, Stalin himself was the commissar of the Red Front, which Lvov could not take. Then the powers of the Entente demanded from Soviet Russia to stop at the turn of the Ukrainian and Belarusian majority of the population, recognizing this "Curzon Line" - by the name of the head of the British Foreign Office, from which the note came - as the eastern Polish border. Lenin rejected the ultimatum, hoping to sovietize all of Poland, and then start a revolution in Germany. They hurried with the offensive - until the West intervened. As a result, the Red Army near Warsaw was then defeated, retreated, and the Poles even occupied Minsk. I had to conclude a peace treaty, ceding Western Ukraine and Western Belarus.

According to the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the demarcation with Germany mainly takes place along the "Curzon Line". In addition to Lvov, there is a large ledge to the West, in favor of the USSR. Perhaps this is Stalin's personal trophy. Never entered into Russian empire, until 1918, the Austrian Lemberg, Lviv, and during the Civil War, and by the beginning of World War II - the city of the Polish majority, Ukrainians are only third there, after the Jews. On the 19th of September, the Red Army finds itself at the local suburbs. Lviv is already surrounded by the Germans. It comes to a clash between German and Soviet units. The command of the Wehrmacht insists: we will take the city and hand it over to the Russians. Then a joint assault is proposed. Moscow is adamant, and Hitler personally orders his generals to withdraw 10 km to the west. The German blockade is changed to the Red Army one, and on September 22 Lvov surrenders to the Soviets. On the same day, the Belorussian Front captured Grodno, where the Poles fiercely resisted.

Everywhere begins withdrawal German troops back to the "line of interest". By agreement, the vanguard of the Red Army should follow 25 km after the German tail column. A military delegation arrives from Berlin to Moscow to clarify the demarcation line with People's Commissar of Defense Voroshilov and Chief of the General Staff Shaposhnikov. And on September 27-29, Ribbentrop was again received in the Kremlin, signing the Treaty of Friendship and Border with the Reich Minister. Germany receives the lands of the Warsaw and Lublin Voivodeships, previously intended for the USSR, in exchange for Lithuania, together with Vilna (Vilnius). Stalin does not need Poles in Ukraine and Lithuanians in Belarus, because soon he will get all of Lithuania.

In the new Soviet cities, the Wehrmacht and the Red Army hold several joint parades: in Grodno, Pinsk and the most famous - in Brest, which is received by General Guderian and brigade commander Krivoshein. The USSR received 50.4% of the Polish territory, almost 200 thousand km 2 with a population of about 13 million people. There are many refugees from the zone of German occupation, especially Jews. In the north they form five regions of Belarus. Of these, Bialystok after the war will be returned to socialist Poland, and the rest will be enlarged. According to the latest administrative division these are the entire Brest and Grodno regions and the western parts of the Minsk and Vitebsk regions. In the south - six new regions of Ukraine, of which Khmelnytsky, Rivne, Ternopil, Volyn, Lvov and Ivano-Frankivsk will continue to be preserved. The Supreme Council accepts these lands as part of the USSR, and Molotov at the session says:

It turned out that a short blow to Poland, first by the German army, and then by the Red Army, was enough to leave nothing of this ugly offspring of the Treaty of Versailles.

The fifth partition of Poland, carried out by participants in all previous ones (three in the 18th century, the fourth in 1815, after Napoleonic Wars), causes the guarantors of Versailles - Britain and France - a restrained official reaction. A full-fledged Soviet-German military alliance would be much worse, so there is no question of breaking off relations. The Polish government in exile was advised not to declare war on the USSR. Public opinion may be indignant: the Red Army "stabbed Poland in the back" (the expression "Times"), politicians are inclined to believe that Moscow "took its own". Churchill, then Lord of the Admiralty, said:

The fact that the Russian armies had to stand on this line was absolutely necessary for the security of Russia against the Nazi threat. The conferences of the heads of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition in 1943-1945 will decide that a rebuilt Poland will receive compensation for the territory at the expense of Germany.

Captured Polish soldiers - Ukrainians and Belarusians are sent home, most of the natives of the Polish lands proper will be handed over to Germany. In March 1940, the head of the NKVD, Beria, will appeal to the Politburo about the Poles kept by his department - former officers, policemen, "members of the nationalist counter-revolutionary parties", as well as "former landowners, manufacturers, officials." As "hardened, incorrigible enemies of the Soviet regime," it was decided to shoot them. Nearly 22,000 people are executed in the Katyn forest near Smolensk, in camps and prisons.

Indeed, having suffered from the Poles, many Ukrainians and Belarusians, especially in the villages, are happy with the Red Army. In the cities, the attitude is wary. Even in Moscow, the standard of living is lower than in pre-war Lvov and Bialystok, to say nothing of Soviet Ukraine and Belarus. The "soldiers-liberators" are in a hurry to acquire watches, clothes, button accordions, etc., which unpleasantly impresses the local inhabitants. Soon they themselves will learn about Soviet commodity shortages. The Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks decides to hold "people's assemblies from the elected ones" - Western Ukrainian in Lvov and Western Belarusian in Bialystok. Their delegates are selected as deputies of the Supreme Soviet. The meetings approve the declarations written in the Central Committee of the Union republics: we are entering the USSR, we are liquidating landownership, we are nationalizing industry and banks. On November 1-2, relevant federal laws were adopted.

For the Kremlin, even the communist parties of Poland, Western Ukraine and Western Belarus are not loyal enough - their organizations have been disbanded, regional committees of the CP (b) U and CP (b) B are being established. Communists are sent from eastern regions these republics, demobilize party Ukrainians and Belarusians from the army. local indigenous rural population in comparison with the Soviet collective farmers - completely anti-socialist: religious, with a large "kulak stratum", "infected with nationalism." Immediate collectivization is difficult. At the end of 1940, the NKVD will report on the "cleansing of the enemy element" of the annexed regions: in total, over 400 thousand people were arrested, 275 thousand of them were deported, over 300 "counter-revolutionary organizations" and 150 "bandit groups" were liquidated. Deportations will continue even before the war itself, in June 1941. Under the Nazi occupation, Western Ukraine will turn out to be a zone of mass collaborationism, the insurgent underground will be destroyed only in the 1950s (see "Forest Brothers"; "Bandera was killed"). In the post-Soviet period, the "defenders" are the most active supporters of the pro-Western course of Ukraine.

In the Soviet Union, the "reunification" of the Ukrainian people will end with the inclusion in the Ukrainian SSR of the Romanian Northern Bukovina before the war and after the war - the Czechoslovak Subcarpathian Rus (Transcarpathian region with the center in Uzhgorod).

Phenomena mentioned in the text

German attack on Poland. World War II 1939

On September 1, Germany attacked Poland. Britain and France declare war on the aggressor. They do not conduct active hostilities, but there is no return to the previous state - the Second World War

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact 1939

On the eve of the inevitable war in Europe, Stalin chooses Nazi Germany as a partner for the USSR. According to the secret annex to the non-aggression pact, the two powers divide "spheres of influence" - they determine the boundaries of their seizures. By the next treaty and secret protocols to it, the parties clarify the boundaries and exchange territories

1939

Two and a half weeks after the German attack, the USSR invades Poland. Moscow says it's coming to save western Ukrainians and western Belarusians and tries not to look like an ally of Berlin. Carefully coordinating their actions, the two powers divide the country located between them in accordance with the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - exactly in half

Battle of Britain 1940

After defeating all the forces that opposed him on the European continent, Hitler approves a plan to attack the last enemy - Great Britain. But, not having achieved air superiority, landings from the sea will have to be abandoned.

Beria 1938

The heads of the NKVD were replaced every two years, but the next people's commissar would remain near Stalin until the death of the leader. Lavrenty Beria was first instructed to curtail Great terror(see 1937)

Katyn 1990

On April 13, TASS publishes a statement about the execution of captured Polish officers in the Katyn forest in Smolensk region. Until now, the USSR insisted that the Germans did it in 1941. Now it is recognized: the Poles were executed by the Soviet NKVD in 1940

Deputies to the Soviet parliament of a new model are elected with pomp - as fictitious as the former All-Russian Central Executive Committee

Forest brothers 1948

The authorities cannot finally defeat the anti-Soviet resistance in the Baltic States and, in order to eradicate its social base, conducts the first mass deportation of "hostile elements" after the war

Bandera killed 1959

Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Ukrainian nationalists, who lives in Germany under a false name, was liquidated by a KGB agent. But the killer, awarded in Moscow, will then flee to the West, and the world will learn about the methods of work of the Soviet special services.

Orange Revolution 2004

Having mobilized half of the country's electorate, the united opposition under the orange banners disrupts Operation Successor in Ukraine. The outgoing president, Leonid Kuchma, tried to keep incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych in his place. Russia is helping the Ukrainian authorities in word and deed. The opposition is supported by the West. As a result of the third round of voting, the Orange leader Viktor Yushchenko was elected president. The second “revolution” in the CIS after Georgia looks like a wave of new democratization, which seriously scares the Kremlin

Having seized Western Belarus, the Polish bourgeoisie and landowners turned it into an agrarian and raw material appendage of the industrial regions of Poland. 95% of the population was employed in agriculture, many industrial enterprises closed. The Polish leaders pursued the goal of forcibly colonizing 4 million Belarusian people - to Polish them, to destroy the Belarusian culture.

The anti-people policy of the Polish government ended in a national catastrophe. Hitler's Germany on September 1, 1939, having a huge military superiority in manpower and equipment, attacked Poland, rapidly moving towards the territory of Western Belarus. The Belarusian population faced the danger of a fascist invasion. On September 17, 1939, the Polish ambassador in Moscow was told: “In view of the current situation, the Soviet government ordered the Red Army troops to cross the border and take under protection the population of Western Ukraine and Belarus.” The workers of the liberated towns and villages greeted the Red Army with joy. In a number of places, even before her arrival, the workers and peasants disarmed the police, the besiegers, and took power into their own hands. The members of the former KPZB who came out of the underground and prisons were part of the temporary administration, headed the peasant committees, organized the workers' guards and the police.

The Soviet leadership, having decided to send troops into the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, drew up an act historical justice, which put an end to the division of these republics, allowed the restoration of territorial integrity, the reunification of the Belarusian and Ukrainian peoples as part of the USSR. It is important to see another aspect in this situation. During the outbreak of World War II, pressure on the USSR increased. The German leadership sought to draw him into a military conflict with Poland as quickly as possible. However, Moscow tried in every possible way to play for time so as not to be compromised in direct aggression against Poland and not to appear in the eyes of the international community as drawn into direct support of German policy. The Nazi leaders resorted to political blackmail. The Ribbentrop department sent an urgent dispatch to Moscow, which stated that if the Red Army did not start hostilities against Poland, the German offensive against Poland would be suspended, and buffer states (Belarusian, Ukrainian, Polish) would be created on its eastern lands.

The prospect, as we see, was then extremely bad: the Belarusian and Ukrainian population could end up in puppet states - limitrophes - actual protectorates Nazi Germany. Obviously, our crossing of the western border on September 17, 1939 was more than a forced measure. “You should pay attention to the order, which was read to all the personnel of the troops of the Western and Ukrainian fronts. The troops were strictly forbidden to bomb from the air and fire artillery settlements. The military personnel were required to be loyal to the soldiers of the Polish army, who do not offer resistance, observe the laws of war. The Belorussian Front was commanded by the commander of the 2nd rank M.P. Kovalev. The front included the 3rd, 4th, 10th and 11th armies, as well as the 23rd rifle corps, the Dzerzhinsky cavalry-mechanized group and the Dnieper military flotilla, numbering over 200 thousand soldiers and officers. They were opposed by a 45,000-strong Polish group. The most stubborn resistance was near Grodno, where the 15th Soviet tank corps lost up to 16 tanks, 47 people were killed and 156 wounded. In the period from September 17 to September 30, 1939, the losses of the troops of the Belorussian Front amounted to 996 people killed and 2002 wounded. Complete release territory ended by 25 September.

After the arrival of Soviet troops in the western regions, preparations began for elections to the People's Assembly of Western Belarus. Elections were held on October 22, 1939. On October 28, 1939, the People's Assembly of Western Belarus began its work in Bialystok, which was opened by oldest deputy S.F. Strug, a peasant from the village of Moiseevichi, Volkovysk district.

Among 926 deputies People's Assembly Western Belarus were 621 Belarusians, 127 Poles, 72 Jews, 43 Russians, 53 Ukrainians and 10 representatives of other nationalities. The issues of state power, the entry of Western Belarus into the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, the confiscation of landowners' lands, the nationalization of banks and large-scale industry were considered.

The People's Assembly elected a Plenipotentiary Commission of 66 people to transfer to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Supreme Soviet of the BSSR its decision on the desire of the population of Western Belarus to join the Soviet Union and the BSSR. On November 2, 1939, an extraordinary session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the first convocation, after hearing a statement from the Plenipotentiary Commission of the People's Assembly of Western Belarus, decided to satisfy this request and include the western regions of Belarus into the USSR with their reunification with the Byelorussian SSR.

As a result of the reunification, the border of the USSR moved 300 km to the west, the population of Belarus increased to 10 million people. However, one cannot ignore such important issue as "forced deportation of the population". The bodies of the NKVD of the BSSR (People's Commissar V. Tsanava, a close associate of L. Beria) in February 1940, with a direct order from above, tens of thousands of people were evicted from the territory of Western Belarus from among the former siegemen, forest guards, employees of former state institutions, bodies, legal bodies, the army, merchants, artisans with their families deep into the USSR, in April 1940 the same fate befell almost 27 thousand people from among the prisoners of war of the Polish army. Together with their families, those who expressed a desire to go to Germany, but were not received by the German authorities, were sent beyond the Urals.

The fraternal assistance of the working people of the USSR, which was rendered to the reunited regions, cannot be belittled. In just one year, industrial output increased 2.5 times. Unemployment is gone. Landless and land-poor peasants received over 1 million hectares of land. Everyone is the leader of Belarus prewar years actually was Ponomarenko P.K.

3Preparation by Germany for war against the USSR. Plan "Barbarossa"

German aggression against the Soviet Union began to prepare as early as the mid-1930s. The war against Poland, and then the campaign in the North and Western Europe temporarily switched the German headquarters thought to other problems. But even then the preparation of the war against the USSR remained in the field of view of the Nazis. It intensified after the defeat of France, when, according to the fascist leadership, the rear of the future war was provided and Germany had enough resources at its disposal to wage it.

On December 18, 1940, Hitler signed Directive 21 under the code name Plan Barbarossa, which contained the general plan and initial instructions for waging war against the USSR.

The strategic basis of the plan "Barbarossa" was the theory of "blitzkrieg" - lightning war. The plan called for the defeat of the Soviet Union in a fleeting campaign within a maximum of five months, even before the war against Great Britain was over. Leningrad, Moscow, the Central Industrial Region and the Donets Basin were recognized as the main strategic objects. A special place was given to the capture of Moscow. It was assumed that with the achievement of this goal, the war would be won.

To wage war against the USSR, an aggressive military coalition was created, the basis of which was tripartite pact concluded in 1940 between Germany, Italy and Japan. Romania, Finland, Hungary were involved in active participation in the aggression. The Nazis were assisted by the reactionary ruling circles of Bulgaria, as well as by the puppet states of Slovakia and Croatia. Spain, Vichy France, Portugal, Turkey, and Japan collaborated with fascist Germany. To implement the Barbarossa plan, the aggressors mobilized the economic and human resources of the captured and occupied countries, and the economy of the neutral states of Europe was largely subordinated to their interests.

Hitler’s general G. Blumentritt wrote in a report prepared for a meeting of the top leadership of the ground forces on May 9, 1941: “The history of all wars involving Russians shows that the Russian fighter is staunch, immune to bad weather, very undemanding, neither afraid nor bloody, no loss. Therefore, all the battles from Frederick the Great to the World War were bloody. Despite these qualities of the troops, the Russian Empire never achieved victory. At present, we have a large numerical superiority ... Our troops are superior to the Russians in combat experience ... We will have stubborn battles for 8-14 days, and then success will not be long in coming, and we will win.

The most important military-political goal of the war in the plans of the Nazis was the destruction of the main enemy of fascism - the Soviet Union, the world's first socialist state, in whose face they saw the main obstacle to gaining world domination.

The political goals of the war against the USSR were at the heart of the Barbarossa plan. At first they were formulated in the general form: "settle accounts with Bolshevism", "defeat Russia", etc., but then the wording became more and more specific. Right before completion of development strategic plan war, Hitler defined its goal as follows: "Destroy vitality Russia. There should be no political formations capable of revival.” The task of defeating the “state with its center in Moscow” was put forward in the first place. Dismember it and form a number of German colonial possessions on Soviet territory.

Thus, the main political goals of the war of fascist Germany and its allies against the USSR were: the elimination of the socialist public and Soviet political system

With a war against the USSR, the ruling circles of fascist Germany intended to solve not only political problems that expressed the common class interests of international imperialism. They also considered their own enrichment, the capture of huge national wealth and natural resources of the Soviet Union, a significant increase in the economic potential of Germany, opening up favorable prospects for claims to world domination. “Our goal should be the conquest of all areas of special military and economic interest for us,” Hitler argued.

Lecture 4 USSR on the eve of the Great Patriotic War

1Socio-economic and political situation in the USSR.

2Measures to strengthen the country's defense capability.