Editing Great Patriotic War (section)

==== 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.