September 17th: Entry of the Red Army into Poland
On September 17th, 1939, Joseph Stalin fulfilled his commitments to Nazi Germany as outlined in the secret protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. On that day, the Red Army attacked Poland along the entire length of its eastern border.
During the night, Wacław Grzybowski, the Polish ambassador in Moscow, was summoned to the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, where he received a note containing the assertion that Poland had ceased to exist. Moscow authorities argued that the Red Army needed to enter Polish territory under the pretext of defending Belarusians and Ukrainians. The Polish diplomat’s strong objections to these absurd claims were ignored, and the Soviets attacked with full force, sealing Poland’s tragic fate.
The collections of the Museum of the Second World War include a white-and-red armband belonging to a Polish official from the Volhynia region, who was responsible for matters related to mobilization and war preparedness. The armband was hidden after September 17th, 1939, and was taken by the family during their resettlement in 1945.
