Quote Originally Posted by Hanna View Post
Came across this by chance and wanted to share...

Very noble!
In hindsight, maybe the Soviet Union shouldn't have bothered with this.
These people could have been stayed with Poland if that was preferable. It might be that it was wishful thinking on part of the USSR, that these regions wanted to be liberated. Or just plain geopolitics disguised as ideology. LOL, the rhetoric! Never heard anything like it in my life.

PS - people from Ukraine or Russia probably know all about this, but it might be interesting for others...!

When I was in Belarus, I visited an area where a lot of the old people spoke Polish between themselves, and worshipped in Catholic churches.
I.e. I guess that makes them Poles (?). Everything was completely integrated though, there didn't seem to be any schism about it.
That was quite a surprise to me, I had not been aware of the history there, or had forgotten it.
Needless to say that in 1939-1940 the Soviets and Hitler's Germany were best friends and allies, and actually cooperated on their military actions, like that simultaneous occupation of Poland in 1939. Neither the nazi ideology nor Hitler's plans to take over the rest of Europe were deterioration for that cooperation. The Soviets only changed their mind a few years later, as they were explicitly attacked by their ally.