Why Did Stalin Hate Poland So Much? #OOTF #shorts

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Why did Joseph Stalin hate Poland so much? The answer goes back to the Polish-Soviet War of 1919–1921, long before World War II. In 1920, the Red Army attempted to defeat Poland and spread the Bolshevik revolution westward. But Polish forces stopped the Soviet advance at the Battle of Warsaw, delivering a humiliating defeat. Stalin, who served on the Military Council of the Soviet Southwestern Front, became embroiled in controversy over decisions that weakened Soviet coordination during the campaign. But Stalin's hostility toward Poland went far beyond personal resentment. Independent Poland stood in the way of Soviet ambitions in Eastern Europe. Under Stalin, Soviet authorities increasingly portrayed ethnic Poles as potential spies, saboteurs, and enemies of the state. During the NKVD Polish Operation of 1937–1938, nearly 140,000 people were arrested and more than 111,000 executed in one of the deadliest campaigns of Stalin's Great Terror. Then, in September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany. But what about Soviet Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky, whom Stalin had executed in 1937? Was his downfall the result of Nazi deception, or was the truth more complicated? Watch our original World War Two in Real Time episode, published eight years ago this week, to explore the evidence. #WW2 #Stalin #Poland #SovietUnion #GreatTerror #NKVD #WorldWar2 #Shorts Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory Or joi

Published 2026-11-05 · Watch on YouTube ↗
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