Editing Great Patriotic War (section)

=== Nazis conflict with Britain (1939-1943) ===
The Nazis, representing the German national bourgeois, finally broke with the British Empire as they wanted more colonies for themselves, especially Poland.

The Soviet Union exploited this conflict between capitalist powers. Nazi Germany was ideologically fiercely anti-communist, and would eventually invade the USSR to distract its people from their real problems. But while the Nazis fought Britain, they could not risk war with the USSR, so they signed a Non-Aggression Treaty with the USSR.

The USSR signed the pact because Britain refused to work with it<ref name=":0">Grover Furr, links on WWII.https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/mlg09/page_of_links.html</ref>, Britain may even invade, and it wanted more time to industrialize and prepare.

==== Background: Poland 1917-1939 ====
With the destruction of the Russian Empire by the Bolsheviks in 1917, Lenin proclaimed the right of self-determination for all nations of the former empire.

The Polish national bourgeois used this opportunity to create the Second Polish Republic. It was backed by the Western capitalist powers in the civil war between bourgeois and workers. Communists were brutally repressed, sent to prisons worse than the Gulag.

During peace negotiations between Poland and the Bolsheviks, the British Lord Curzon drew a line to use as the border. To its west were Polish people, to its east were Belarusians and Ukrainians. However, due to Trotsky delaying the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, Poland was able to cross the Curzon Line and seize parts of Belarus and the Ukraine. Throughout the next 20 years, Poland sought to Polonize these areas, forcing the use of the Polish language.

In 1926, Poland became a military dictatorship under Josef Pilsudski. He claimed a centrist line, but in reality kept Poland in poor conditions, with many peasants effectively enslaved, while British capitalists made good profits there. He continued the silencing of communists. Rather than openly put his opponents on trial, he used his political movement Sanacja to make them disappear.

In 1935, Pilsudski died and the fascist party Endecja (meaning "National Democracy") took over. Endecja distracted its people from their horrible conditions by directing attacks on Jews and Belarusian and Ukrainian minorities.

The Second Polish Republic was effectively subservient to Britain, which became upset when Nazi Germany began to threaten to occupy it.

Poland also signed a Non-Aggression Treaty with Nazi Germany in 1935.

==== Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact ====
In 1939, the Soviets signed a Non-Aggression Pact with Nazi Germany. This enraged the Western capitalist press, accusing the Soviets of allying with Nazi Germany.

The pact contained a secret provision about spheres of influence. Romania was in the Nazi sphere of influence, while the Baltics were in the Soviet sphere of influence. "In the event of a territorial reorganization of the Polish state", Poland would be divided on the Curzon Line.

The secret provision did not require any invasion or destruction of the Polish Republic.

==== Nazi invasion of Poland (September 1939) ====
The Nazis invaded and destroyed the Second Polish Republic. The Polish leaders put up no serious resistance, fleeing to Romania - thereby saying "it's over".

Britain declared war on Nazi Germany. Poland and Britain repeatedly refused Soviet troops on Polish territory.<ref name=":0" />

After the Polish state was effectively destroyed, two weeks after the Nazi invasion, the USSR sent troops to claim its side of the Curzon Line, per the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Nazi troops had already crossed the line, seeking expansion, and had to be escorted out under the barrel of a gun. (This has been falsely reported as a "joint Soviet-Nazi military parade.")

The USSR sending its troops to push back the Nazis is called the "Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland" in Western revisionism.

Under international law, the USSR never invaded Poland.

The territory taken by the USSR was ethnically majority Belarusian and Ukrainian, and therefore split between the Belarusian SSR and Ukrainian SSR. The Russian SFSR played no role.

==== Katyn Massacre ====
In the occupation of Poland, the Nazis murdered up to 22,000 Polish officers and dumped their bodies in mass graves. They tried to blame this on the Soviets, a lie which has been maintained by Western capitalists.<ref>Saed Teymuri, Katyn.https://sovinform.net/Katyn.htm</ref> <ref>Grover Furr, The Official Version of the Katyn Massacre Disproven.https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/furr_katyn_preprint_0813.pdf</ref>

In 1990, Boris Yeltsin fabricated a letter, allegedly from Stalin to Beria ordering the Katyn Massacre. It has been debunked.<ref>Grover Furr, Discuss Katyn.https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/pol/discuss_katyn041806r.html</ref> Using this letter, Western bourgeois sources claim "the Soviets admitted their crime", even though Boris Yeltsin was no communist.