Re: Start of war

"Peter" <peterburns01@xxxxxxxxxxx> ha scritto nel messaggio
news:1156484796.194615.286610@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
When Germany invaded Poland and Soviet Union a few weeks later, why did
UK and France not declare war on Soviet Union too ??


And why should they?

Yours is an old question, and it presumes the Soviet invasion of Eastern
Poland was the equivalent of the German invasion of the rest of Poland.
From a practical POV, they largely were.
From the POV of the treaties between Poland on the one hand, Great Britain
and France on the other hand, they weren't.

Those treaties required Poland to become "engaged in hostilities" with an
aggressor. In other words, they explicitly required Poland to fight back.
Poland of course actively resisted the German invasion.
Also, local Polish commanders did fight Soviet troops here and there - but
they did so against their own government's orders. The Polish government had
explicitly ordered not to fight the Soviets.
Moreover, the Polish government did acknowledge the state of war with
Germany; OTOH they never declared war on the Soviet Union.

It would have been a tad extravagant for France and Great Britain to declare
war on the Soviet Union because of their treaty with Poland, when Poland
itself had chosen not to declare war.

.

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