With the anniversary of D Day recently, there have been some letters in The Scotsman regarding the omission of Russia from the comemoration (I am personally 100% convinced D Day would not have been possible or successful had the USSR not been absorbing the bulk of Nazi aggression on the Eastern Front). These letters inevitably led to arguments on the Soviet invasion of Poland (and I discovered when I visited Russia about twenty years ago that there's still an element of needle between the two countries).
I think it's worth highlighting this little known conflict so that people understand that there was a bit of history between Poland and the USSR long before WW2. Indeed, some historians argue that Russia's failure in this conflict prevented Lenin from exporting his brand of Communism across the world. Also, Pilsudski (the Polish leader) felt it was time to expand Poland's borders eastward (and this - to me - sounds remarkably similar to Hitler's ambition in the east).
It's also been argued that simmering resentment from this earlier conflict was a factor in Poland being carved up by the USSR and Germany in september 1939 and made Poland's defeat inevitable given the strength of aggressors on either front.
en.wikipedia.org
I think it's worth highlighting this little known conflict so that people understand that there was a bit of history between Poland and the USSR long before WW2. Indeed, some historians argue that Russia's failure in this conflict prevented Lenin from exporting his brand of Communism across the world. Also, Pilsudski (the Polish leader) felt it was time to expand Poland's borders eastward (and this - to me - sounds remarkably similar to Hitler's ambition in the east).
It's also been argued that simmering resentment from this earlier conflict was a factor in Poland being carved up by the USSR and Germany in september 1939 and made Poland's defeat inevitable given the strength of aggressors on either front.
