Polish-Soviet Union Agreements : July 30, 1941

[Jim O]

Also known as the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement. Stalin was a crafty one. In the first paragraph he renounces the territorial changes in Poland that occurred as a result of the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 in order to gain the alliance of Poles. He didn't mention the thousands of dead in Katyn Forest, in Gnezdovo, and at the Kozelsk Prisoner of War camp, nor did he mention his intentions to keep those parts of Poland he had taken in September 1939.

1. The Government of the U.S.S.R. recognizes the Soviet-German treaties of 1939 as to territorial changes in Poland as having lost their validity. The Polish Government declares Poland is not bound by any agreement with any third power which is directed against the U.S.S.R.

2. Diplomatic relations will be restored between the two governments upon the signing of this agreement, and an immediate exchange of Ambassadors will be arranged.

3. The two governments mutually agree to render one to another aid and support of all kinds in the present war against Hitlerite Germany.

4. The Government of the U.S.S.R. expresses its consent to the formation on territory of the U.S.S.R. of a Polish Army under a commander appointed by the Polish Government in agreement with the Soviet Government, the Polish Army on territory of the U.S.S.R. being subordinated in an operational sense to the Supreme Command of the U.S.S.R., in which the Polish Army will be represented. All details as to command, organization and employment of this force will be settled in a subsequent agreement.

5. This agreement will come into force immediately upon signature and without ratification. The present agreement is drawn up in two copies, in the Russian and Polish languages. Both texts have equal force.

The Soviet Government grants amnesty to all Polish citizens now detained on Soviet territory either as prisoners of war or on other sufficient grounds, as from the resumption of diplomatic relations.

Moscow, July 30, 1941

In 1943, after these bodies were discovered, Poland's government in exile broke off diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.

Katyn3.jpg
A mass grave in the Katyn Forest, 1943 (German propaganda photo)