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Belarus was a republic of the Soviet Union when World War II began. The borders of Belarus were greatly expanded in the invasion of Poland of 1939 and finalized after World War II. Following the German military disasters at Stalingrad and Kursk, a collaborationist Belarusian self-government (BCR) was formed by the Germans in order to drum up local support for their anti-Soviet operations. The Belarusian BCR in turn formed the twenty-thousand strong Belarusian Home Defence (BKA), active from 23 February 1944 to 28 April 1945. Assistance was offered by the local administrative governments from the Soviet era, and prewar public organizations including the former Soviet Belarusian Youth. The country was soon overrun by the Red Army. Devastated by the war, Belarus lost significant populations and economic resources. Many battles occurred in Belarusian territory or neighboring lands. Belarusian people also participated in regional conflicts. ==September 1939 – June 1941== The Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact of August 1939 had established a non-aggression agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, and a secret protocol described how Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland (Second Polish Republic) and Romania would be divided between them. In the Invasion of Poland of 1939 the two powers invaded and partitioned Poland, and to return the Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Moldavian territories in the North and North-Eastern regions of Romania (Northern Bucovina and Bessarabia). The Polish defense was already broken, with their only hope being retreat and reorganisation in the south-eastern region (the Romanian Bridgehead), when on September 17, 1939, it was rendered obsolete overnight. The 800,000 strong Soviet Union Red Army, divided into the Belarusian and Ukrainian fronts, invaded the eastern regions of Poland that had not yet been involved in military operations, in violation of the Soviet-Polish Non-Aggression Pact. Soviet diplomacy were protecting the Ukrainian and Belarusian minorities inhabiting Poland in view of Polish imminent collapse. Polish border defence forces (''Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza'') in the east (about 25 battalions) were unable to defend the border, and Edward Rydz-Śmigły further ordered them to fall back and not engage the Soviets. This, however, did not prevent some clashes and small battles, like the defence of Grodno was defended by soldiers and local population. The Soviets murdered a number of Poles, including prisoners-of-war like General Józef Olszyna-Wilczyński. Ukrainians rose against the Poles, and communist partisans organised local revolts, e.g. in Skidel, robbing and murdering Poles. Those movements were quickly disciplined by the NKVD. Prior to the Soviet partisans support from the East, the Polish military's fall-back plan had called for long-term defence against Germany in the southern-eastern part of Poland (near the Romanian border), while awaiting relief from a Western Allies attack on Germany's western border. However, the Polish government decided that it was impossible to carry out the defence on Polish territories. There was retaliation to surrender or negotiate for peace with Germany and ordered all units to evacuate Poland and reorganize in France. Meanwhile, Polish forces tried to move towards the Romanian bridgehead area, still actively resisting the German invasion. From 17 September to 20 September, the Polish Armies ''Kraków'' and ''Lublin'' were crippled at the Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski, the second largest battle of the campaign. Oksywie garrison held until 19 September. Polish gained victory at the battle of Szack, and the Red Army reached the line of rivers Narew, Bug, Vistula and San by September 28, in many cases meeting German units advancing from the other side. The last operational unit of the Polish Army, General Franciszek Kleeberg's ''Samodzielna Grupa Operacyjna "Polesie"'', capitulated after the 4-day Battle of Kock near Lublin on 6 October, marking the end of the September Campaign. Adolf Hitler had argued in ''Mein Kampf'' of the necessity of acquiring new territory for German settlement (''Lebensraum'') in Eastern Europe. However these plans were delayed through the period of the Phoney War, followed by the Nazi invasions of Norway, France and Benelux, Denmark, and the failed Battle of Britain. Polish citizens took an active part in the Soviet partisan movement in the occupied territory of the former USSR. 2,500 Polish citizens took part in the Soviet partisan movement in the territory of the Byelorussian SSR,〔В. С. Толстой. Братское содружество белорусского и польского народов. 1944—1964. Минск, «Наука и техника», 1966. стр.16〕 of which 703 were awarded with Soviet state awards〔Боевое содружество советского и польского народов. / редколл., гл.ред. П. А. Жилин. М., «Мысль», 1973. стр.168〕 A further 2000 Polish citizens took part in the Soviet partisan movement on the territory of the USSR.〔З. А. Богатырь. Патриотическая борьба советского народа в тылу врага в период Великой Отечественной войны. М., «Знание», 1970. стр.11〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Belarus in World War II」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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