Allies declare war on the USSR when they invaded Poland

 beginning of World War 2 from the West

the German invasion began one week after

the signing of the Molotov Ribbentrop

pact between Germany and the Soviet

Union the Soviets invaded Poland from

the east on the 17th of September the

campaign ended on the 6th of October

with Germany and the Soviet Union

dividing and annexing the whole of

Poland under the terms of the German

Soviet frontier treaty at the beginning

of World War 2 although they were slow

in actually attacking Germany Great

Britain and France did declare war

against it

after Germany marched with its troops

into polish territory the reason for

this was the treaty where they

guaranteed Poland against foreign

invasion however the USSR also invaded

eastern Poland after two weeks but

neither France nor the United Kingdom

declared war on the Soviets because

there was no declaration of war issued

by Britain and France against the Soviet

Union or any direct help for Poland led

many Polish people to believe that they

had been betrayed by their Western

allies who guaranteed their borders the

question of today's video why did

Britain and France not declare war on

the Soviet Union when the Red Army

invaded Poland because you're a fan of

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a political alliance was signed between

France and Poland on February 1921 in

the background of the negotiations that

ended the polish-soviet war by the

Treaty of Riga France wanted to protect

the new countries that emerged after the

first world war even though this

protection was done more through

diplomacy the agreement assumed a common

foreign policy bilateral economic

contacts and even assistance in case one

of them became a victim of an unprovoked

attack

hence this was a defensive alliance

between the two countries a new alliance

started to be formed in 1939 the

convention was signed on may 19th 1939

in the French capital this was a

military convention a link between the

armies and was not enforced legally as

it was dependent on signing by the

politicians as tensions got higher in

Europe the agreement forced both armies

to provide help to each other in case of

a war with Germany the French even

promised a bold relief offensive within

three weeks of a German attack the

treaty was ratified by France on

September 4th 1939 on the fourth day of

German offensive on Poland however the

French army didn't attack Germany and

provided only small help during the war

in the form of the Saar offensive

technically France had no obligation to

come to Poland's defence against the

Soviet Union while Great Britain did in

1939 both nations had negotiated a

defense pact with Poland though the

agreement between Poland and France

specifically named Germany as a

potential aggressor whereas the British

agreement referred to hostilities with a

European power on the 25th of August two

days after the molotov-ribbentrop pact

the agreement of mutual assistance

between the United Kingdom and Poland

was signed

the agreement contained promises of

mutual military assistance between the

nations if either was attacked by some

European country due to the German

expansionism Great Britain sought to

discourage the German aggression to do

this

the British government wanted to show

solidarity to Poland in a secret

protocol of the pact the United Kingdom

offered assistance in the case of an

attack on Poland specifically by Germany

but in the case of attacked by other

countries the parties were required only

to consult together on measures to be

taken in common according to the Polish

British agreement on the other hand

Britain was legally obliged to attack

the Soviet Union literally at once

and provide all the support and

assistance in its power per the 1939 act

when the Soviet Union attacked the

Polish ambassador in London requested

help from Britain as soon as the Soviet

Union attacked Lord Halifax said as

regards Soviet aggression we were free

to take our own decision and to decide

whether to declare war on the USSR or

not the reason why the United Kingdom

didn't declare war on the Soviet Union

is a scheming one thus between Poland

and the UK was a secret protocol to the

1939 Anglo polish treaty that

specifically limited the British

obligation to protect Poland to

aggression from Germany because the

problem was very sensitive and it was

questioned why Britain did nothing when

the Red Army invaded eastern Poland the

British government considered showing

the secret part of the agreement however

they decided not to Sir Alexander

Cadogan of the Foreign Office explaining

privately that to do so would only

provoke curiosity about the existence of

similar secret protocols attached to

other treaties an answer given in the

House of Commons in October 1939

revealed only that the poles had

understood that the agreement should

only cover the case of aggression by

Germany the Soviet aggression was

treated differently to German aggression

however the British had already shown

that they could not defend Poland

against Germany and all they could do

was to put pressure and to avoid war as

much as possible in the 90

30s and when the situation got worse

they declared war together with France

but that was it the Soviet Union as well

as Germany was a totalitarian state the

Soviet Union was looking to expand

westward claiming that some former

territories of the previous Russian

Empire were taken unfairly and they

marched into Poland saying that some

ethnicities needed their protection the

British ambassador to Moscow Sir William

seeds wrote in a secret telegram on the

18th of September 1939 I do not myself

see what advantage war with the Soviet

Union would be to us and that a war aims

are not incompatible with reasonable

settlement on ethnographic and cultural

lines neither the United Kingdom nor

France were prepared for war of course

both of them were strong powers but

these countries were not looking for any

conflict however Germany believed both

France and Britain would not consider

going further with their actions and

they would back down even after

declaring war this could have been a

great chance for the Allies to end the

war with Germany sooner by invading from

the West

considering that Germany had a small

army for protection against a possible

attack but nothing happened except for

one small incursion into Germany

territory by the French army indeed the

Germans were right neither France nor

Britain actually came to Poland's aid

they were not prepared for a conflict

seeing the response the Allies had

against Germany during the first days of

the invasion of Poland it was certain

that Britain and France weren't going to

follow up with another empty declaration

of war against the Soviet Union

even if pacts between Allies and Poland

existed or not also speaking about

regimes Germany and the USSR were rivals

even in ideologies and the two countries

were also historic rivals just more than

20 years passed since their last fight

but somehow the two rival countries

managed to create economic treaties and

a surprising pact

in the 1930s the attention was put on

Germany and on their new expansionist

ideas and less on the Soviet Union there

was the fear that the Great War might

happen again and the pact between

Germany and the Soviet Union made the

situation worse it was known that this

was a non-aggression pact a neutrality

pact not a proper military alliance by

declaring war the Allies could have

pushed the German and Soviet authorities

to a military alliance or to a stronger

bond that might last longer

another reason to answer that question

was the Polish geography Poland had the

bad luck to be positioned on a huge

plane with almost no natural defense

between two undemocratic regimes that