It’s not so much the non aggression part that people have a problem with, it’s more the let’s together invade Poland and hold a celebratory victory parade after that normal people find not so nice.
Germany invaded Poland, and in response, the USSR went into Poland to keep Germany from occupying all of Poland, which would have broken the agreement regarding “spheres of influence.” In fact, Germany did break that agreement, and the “parade” was about Germany withdrawing from its overreach into the USSR’s “sphere.”
It marked the withdrawal of German troops to the demarcation line secretly agreed to in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, and the handover of the city and its fortress to the Soviet Red Army.
Once Germany entered Poland, all of Poland would have been occupied by the Nazis if the USSR did nothing, and that would have put the German forces right on the USSR’s border.
And why did generous general Stalin agree to that whole spheres of influence thing in the first place? If he wanted to protect poor Poland from the evil Germanz, surely telling the world about Hitler’s evil plans would have been even better? Or at least warning Poland.
But hm, strange, nothing of the sort was done. One could get the impression generous general Stalin didn’t care for the plight of the common polish citizen that was just to be unleashed on them.
He literally did try to warn about the fascist threat repeatedly and was constantly rebuked by the west due to anti-communism and “appeasement” politics.
They also weren’t in a position to go on an offensive against Germany all alone if that’s what you’re gonna suggest next.
Their only option was a deal along these lines to buy time for themselves to build up productive forces.
In other words, appeasement from the West is good policy, appeasement from the East is bad policy.
If he wanted to protect poor Poland from the evil Germanz, surely telling the world about Hitler’s evil plans would have been even better? Or at least warning Poland.
This assumes that 1) Poland was somehow unaware of what its neighbor was up to and 2) the USSR was aware and chose not to tell them. Those are some big assumptions.
Wait, just to confirm: you really believe that signing a pact to partition Poland isn’t a sign that in fact Poland will be invaded?
