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German–Soviet military parade in Brest-Litovsk

April 18, 2023

The German–Soviet military parade in Brest-Litovsk (German: Deutsch-sowjetische Siegesparade in Brest-Litowsk, Russian: Парад вермахта перед частями РККА в Бресте) was an official ceremony held by the troops of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union on September 22, 1939, during the invasion of Poland in the city of Brest-Litovsk (Polish: Brześć nad Bugiem or Brześć Litewski, then in the Second Polish Republic, now Brest in Belarus). It marked the withdrawal of German troops to the demarcation line secretly agreed to in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, and the handover of the city and its fortress to the Soviet Red Army.

German troops passing the platform with the officers on September 22, 1939

Background

 
German motorcyclists giving a way to rolling Soviet tanks
 
German officers Generalleutnant Mauritz von Wiktorin (left), General der Panzertruppe Heinz Guderian (centre) and Soviet Kombrig Semyon Krivoshein (right) standing on the platform

The secret protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, signed on August 23, 1939, defined the boundary between the German and Soviet "spheres of influence". However, during the invasion of Poland, some German forces, especially Heinz Guderian's XIX Corps, advanced beyond this line in pursuit of their tactical goals.[1]

The XIX Corps approached Brest on September 13, 1939, and defeated the Polish resistance in the ensuing battle by September 17, establishing their base of operations in the city. During the following days, Guderian was informed, much to his chagrin, that the demarcation line between German and Soviet-controlled regions was drawn along the Bug River and that his forces were to withdraw behind this line by September 22.[2]

On September 17, after Vasily Chuikov's 4th Army received the order to cross the Polish border, its 29th Tank Brigade, led by Kombrig Semyon Krivoshein, entered the town of Baranowicze.[3] After taking the town and capturing a few thousand Polish soldiers, who were stationed there, his units kept on moving westward and reached the village of Prużany on 19 September.[4]

On September 20, advance units of the 29th Tank Brigade encountered Guderian's forces at the village of Widomla, three days after the Soviet invasion of Poland and twenty days after the German invasion of Poland.[4] The Soviet Brigade had seen little combat, as most of the fighting had already been over by this time.

 
A German and a Soviet officer shaking hands.

According to Krivoshein, a reconnaissance unit returned with a group of 12 German officers, who identified themselves as part of Guderian's XIX Corps and explained that they too were moving in the direction of Brest. They were invited to Krivoshein's tent, who then proposed a toast to both commanders and invited the attending German officers to Moscow after they achieved a quick victory over "capitalist England".[5] Through them, Krivoshein also sent warm greetings to the German general and made sure to approach the city from the opposite direction to that taken by the Wehrmacht.[3]

Upon approaching the town on the morning of September 22, Krivoshein realized that Guderian had already established his headquarters there.[3] Soon afterwards, Guderian's representatives arrived and greeted the "glorious Red Army" and its general. Following a short exchange of formalities, Krivoshein offered to visit Guderian and pay his respects to him personally. The offer was accepted, and Krivoshein was taken to the German headquarters to share breakfast with the German general.[6]

During the meeting, Guderian proposed a joint parade of Soviet and German troops through the town, including a lineup of soldiers from both armies on the central square. Because the Soviet troops were tired after a long march, Krivoshein declined but promised to supply a military band and a few battalions and agreed to Guderian's request for both to stand and review the parade together.[3][4][6]

Parade

 
German and Soviet personnel amid Soviet propaganda material.
 
"Victory Arches" with swastikas and red stars

According to the initial agreement, the procedure included German and Soviet troops marching before their commanding officers followed by changing the flag, accompanied by national anthems of Germany and the Soviet Union.[7] However, the Soviet commanding officer, kombrig Semyon Krivoshein, wrote in his memoirs that he did not allow Soviet troops to pass alongside the German forces because he was afraid that Soviet troops, weary after a long march to Brest, would look inferior in comparison with the Germans, who had been in the city for several days. Instead, he suggested that the Soviet columns would enter the city separately and salute the leaving Germans whenever they meet.[6]

The parade began at 16:00,[6] and the "Victory Arches" were erected which the Soviet troops decorated with swastikas and red stars and through which German troops marched.[8] The Soviets fielded the 4th Battalion of 29th Light Tank Brigade, which was the first unit of the Red Army to roll into the city. The Soviet and German generals paid homage to each other's armies and their respective victories over Polish forces.[9]

Aftermath

After the parade, which Niall Ferguson described as amicable,[10] the Germans withdrew to the western bank of the Bug, and the Soviets took control over the city, as well as the rest of Eastern Poland (Western Belarus and Western Ukraine).[1][11]

German–Soviet parades in other Polish cities

Several historic works published in the 1980s and 1990s[12] discuss joint military parades of the Red Army and German Wehrmacht in other cities of occupied Poland such as Białystok, Grodno, Lwow and others.

For example, Russian historian Mikhail Semiryaga writes in his 1992 work Secrets of Stalin's diplomacy without citing any sources: "Joint parades with militaries of both countries as participants took place In Grodno, Brest, Pinsk and several other cities (Germans called them 'victory parades'). The parade in Grodno was supervised by Kombrig Vasily Chuikov."[13] Another author, Alexander Nekrich, made a similar claim, taking some "photographs" as evidence: "The conclusion of military operations against Poland was marked by joint parades of German and Soviet militaries in Brest and Lwow in the first days of October [1939]."[14]

In later works, Russian historians such as Mikhail Meltyukhov and Oleg Vishlyov dismiss the parades in other cities as "a myth", pointing to the fact that virtually no evidence has been found to confirm that those parades actually took place.[15] In Lwow, Vishlyov states, it was impossible to organize a joint parade, as the Soviet troops were ordered to move to a distance of 20 km (12 mi) from the Germans after an accidental exchange of fire between the two sides, and no German units were present there at the time when the city capitulated to the Soviets. Vishlyov also disputes that the events in Brest were a military parade and writes that what is often mistakenly regarded as a parade was in fact a "ceremonial departure of German forces under the supervision of Soviet representatives". That is, before leaving the city and handing it to the Soviet Union, the Germans marched through the streets greeted by their command and supervised by a Soviet military representative, whose role was to sign an agreement with the German command and monitor the implementation of that agreement. It was only after their withdrawal that the Soviet troops entered the city and held their own parade.[15]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Steven J. Zaloga, Howard Gerrard. Poland 1939: The Birth of Blitzkrieg, p. 83.
  2. ^ Heinz Guderian. Erinnerungen eines Soldaten (Panzer Leader). – Heidelberg, 1951, p. 73.
  3. ^ a b c d (in Polish) Janusz Magnuski, Maksym Kolomijec, "Czerwony Blitzkrieg. Wrzesien 1939: Sowieckie Wojska Pancerne w Polsce" ("Red Blitzkrieg. September 1939: Soviet armored troops in Poland"). Wydawnictwo Pelta, Warszawa 1994 ISBN 83-85314-03-2, Scan of p. 72 of the book.
  4. ^ a b c (in Russian) Mikhail Meltyukhov Советско-польские войны. Военно-политическое противостояние 1918–1939 гг. Часть третья. Сентябрь 1939 года. Война с запада (Soviet-Polish wars. A Politico-military Confrontation 1918–1939. Part three. September 1939. The War from the West.) – Moscow, 2001.
  5. ^ Schmidt, George. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-11-22.
  6. ^ a b c d (in Russian) Krivoshein S.M. Междубурье. (Between the Storms) Voronezh, 1964, pp. 250−262
  7. ^ "Agreement on the handover of the city of Brest-Litovsk and further actions of Russian troops" 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine (page 1; Bundesarchiv BA-MA RH21-2/21,40–41, 21.09.1939)
  8. ^ Richard C. Raack, "Stalin's drive to the West, 1938–1945: the origins of the Cold War", Stanford University Press, 1995, p. 39
  9. ^ Raack, p. 58
  10. ^ Niall Ferguson, The War of the World, The Penguin Press, New York 2006, p. 418
  11. ^ Secret Additional Protocol of the Treaty of Nonaggression Between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, clause 2.
  12. ^ See, for example, (in German) Heller M., Nekrich A. Geschichte der Sowjetunion. Bd. 2. (History of the Soviet Union. Vol. 2) Königstein, 1982. pp. 29–30; (in German) Pietrow B. Stalinismus. Sicherheit. Offensive: Das «Dritte Reich» in der Konzeption der sowjetischen Außenpolitik. (Stalinism. Security. Offensive: The Third Reich in the Concept of Soviet Foreign Policy) Melsungen, 1983.; (in Russian) Berezhkov V. M. Просчет Сталина (Stalin's Blunder), Mezhdunarodnaya zhizn'. 1989. № 8. p. 19; (in Russian) Semiryaga M. I. Тайны сталинской дипломатии. 1939–1941 гг. (Secrets of Soviet Diplomacy. 1939–1941) Moscow, 1992. p. 101; (in Russian) Lebedeva N. S. Катынь: преступление против человечества. (Katyn: A Crime Against Humanity) p. 34.; (in Russian) Nekrich A. M. 1941, 22 июня. (1941, June, 22nd. Soviet-German cooperation, 1939–1941) – Moscow.: Pamyatniki istoricheskoy mysli, 1995.
  13. ^ (in Russian) Semiryaga M. I. Тайны сталинской дипломатии. 1939–1941 гг. (Secrets of Soviet Diplomacy. 1939–1941) Moscow, 1992. p. 101
  14. ^ (in Russian) Nekrich A. M. 1941, 22 июня. Советско-германское сотрудничество, 1939–1941. (1941, June, 22nd. Soviet-German cooperation, 1939–1941) – Moscow.: Pamyatniki istoricheskoy mysli, 1995.
  15. ^ a b (in Russian) Vishlyov O. V. Накануне 22 июня 1941 года. Документальные очерки. (On the Eve of 22 June 1941. Documentaries.) Moscow., 2001. pp. 108–109.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to German and Soviet parade in 1939.
  • (in German) Text of the "Agreement on the handover of the city of Brest-Litovsk and further actions of Russian troops" (page 1) 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, (page 2) 2010-03-01 at the Wayback Machine
  • A collection of photos illustrating Soviet-Nazi cooperation in September 1939. 2012-10-14 at the Wayback Machine Official web page of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance
  • (In German) Footage of the parade and handover of Brest, recorded for German audiences [1]

April 18, 2023
german, soviet, military, parade, brest, litovsk, german, deutsch, sowjetische, siegesparade, brest, litowsk, russian, Парад, вермахта, перед, частями, РККА, Бресте, official, ceremony, held, troops, nazi, germany, soviet, union, september, 1939, during, invas. The German Soviet military parade in Brest Litovsk German Deutsch sowjetische Siegesparade in Brest Litowsk Russian Parad vermahta pered chastyami RKKA v Breste was an official ceremony held by the troops of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union on September 22 1939 during the invasion of Poland in the city of Brest Litovsk Polish Brzesc nad Bugiem or Brzesc Litewski then in the Second Polish Republic now Brest in Belarus It marked the withdrawal of German troops to the demarcation line secretly agreed to in the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact and the handover of the city and its fortress to the Soviet Red Army German troops passing the platform with the officers on September 22 1939 Contents 1 Background 2 Parade 3 Aftermath 4 German Soviet parades in other Polish cities 5 See also 6 References 7 External linksBackground Edit German motorcyclists giving a way to rolling Soviet tanks German officers Generalleutnant Mauritz von Wiktorin left General der Panzertruppe Heinz Guderian centre and Soviet Kombrig Semyon Krivoshein right standing on the platform The secret protocol of the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact signed on August 23 1939 defined the boundary between the German and Soviet spheres of influence However during the invasion of Poland some German forces especially Heinz Guderian s XIX Corps advanced beyond this line in pursuit of their tactical goals 1 The XIX Corps approached Brest on September 13 1939 and defeated the Polish resistance in the ensuing battle by September 17 establishing their base of operations in the city During the following days Guderian was informed much to his chagrin that the demarcation line between German and Soviet controlled regions was drawn along the Bug River and that his forces were to withdraw behind this line by September 22 2 On September 17 after Vasily Chuikov s 4th Army received the order to cross the Polish border its 29th Tank Brigade led by Kombrig Semyon Krivoshein entered the town of Baranowicze 3 After taking the town and capturing a few thousand Polish soldiers who were stationed there his units kept on moving westward and reached the village of Pruzany on 19 September 4 On September 20 advance units of the 29th Tank Brigade encountered Guderian s forces at the village of Widomla three days after the Soviet invasion of Poland and twenty days after the German invasion of Poland 4 The Soviet Brigade had seen little combat as most of the fighting had already been over by this time A German and a Soviet officer shaking hands According to Krivoshein a reconnaissance unit returned with a group of 12 German officers who identified themselves as part of Guderian s XIX Corps and explained that they too were moving in the direction of Brest They were invited to Krivoshein s tent who then proposed a toast to both commanders and invited the attending German officers to Moscow after they achieved a quick victory over capitalist England 5 Through them Krivoshein also sent warm greetings to the German general and made sure to approach the city from the opposite direction to that taken by the Wehrmacht 3 Upon approaching the town on the morning of September 22 Krivoshein realized that Guderian had already established his headquarters there 3 Soon afterwards Guderian s representatives arrived and greeted the glorious Red Army and its general Following a short exchange of formalities Krivoshein offered to visit Guderian and pay his respects to him personally The offer was accepted and Krivoshein was taken to the German headquarters to share breakfast with the German general 6 During the meeting Guderian proposed a joint parade of Soviet and German troops through the town including a lineup of soldiers from both armies on the central square Because the Soviet troops were tired after a long march Krivoshein declined but promised to supply a military band and a few battalions and agreed to Guderian s request for both to stand and review the parade together 3 4 6 Parade Edit German and Soviet personnel amid Soviet propaganda material Victory Arches with swastikas and red stars According to the initial agreement the procedure included German and Soviet troops marching before their commanding officers followed by changing the flag accompanied by national anthems of Germany and the Soviet Union 7 However the Soviet commanding officer kombrig Semyon Krivoshein wrote in his memoirs that he did not allow Soviet troops to pass alongside the German forces because he was afraid that Soviet troops weary after a long march to Brest would look inferior in comparison with the Germans who had been in the city for several days Instead he suggested that the Soviet columns would enter the city separately and salute the leaving Germans whenever they meet 6 The parade began at 16 00 6 and the Victory Arches were erected which the Soviet troops decorated with swastikas and red stars and through which German troops marched 8 The Soviets fielded the 4th Battalion of 29th Light Tank Brigade which was the first unit of the Red Army to roll into the city The Soviet and German generals paid homage to each other s armies and their respective victories over Polish forces 9 Aftermath EditAfter the parade which Niall Ferguson described as amicable 10 the Germans withdrew to the western bank of the Bug and the Soviets took control over the city as well as the rest of Eastern Poland Western Belarus and Western Ukraine 1 11 German Soviet parades in other Polish cities EditSeveral historic works published in the 1980s and 1990s 12 discuss joint military parades of the Red Army and German Wehrmacht in other cities of occupied Poland such as Bialystok Grodno Lwow and others For example Russian historian Mikhail Semiryaga writes in his 1992 work Secrets of Stalin s diplomacy without citing any sources Joint parades with militaries of both countries as participants took place In Grodno Brest Pinsk and several other cities Germans called them victory parades The parade in Grodno was supervised by Kombrig Vasily Chuikov 13 Another author Alexander Nekrich made a similar claim taking some photographs as evidence The conclusion of military operations against Poland was marked by joint parades of German and Soviet militaries in Brest and Lwow in the first days of October 1939 14 In later works Russian historians such as Mikhail Meltyukhov and Oleg Vishlyov dismiss the parades in other cities as a myth pointing to the fact that virtually no evidence has been found to confirm that those parades actually took place 15 In Lwow Vishlyov states it was impossible to organize a joint parade as the Soviet troops were ordered to move to a distance of 20 km 12 mi from the Germans after an accidental exchange of fire between the two sides and no German units were present there at the time when the city capitulated to the Soviets Vishlyov also disputes that the events in Brest were a military parade and writes that what is often mistakenly regarded as a parade was in fact a ceremonial departure of German forces under the supervision of Soviet representatives That is before leaving the city and handing it to the Soviet Union the Germans marched through the streets greeted by their command and supervised by a Soviet military representative whose role was to sign an agreement with the German command and monitor the implementation of that agreement It was only after their withdrawal that the Soviet troops entered the city and held their own parade 15 See also Edit Soviet Union portal Germany portal World War II portal Poland portalPolish territories annexed by Nazi Germany Polish territories annexed by the Soviet UnionReferences Edit a b Steven J Zaloga Howard Gerrard Poland 1939 The Birth of Blitzkrieg p 83 Heinz Guderian Erinnerungen eines Soldaten Panzer Leader Heidelberg 1951 p 73 a b c d in Polish Janusz Magnuski Maksym Kolomijec Czerwony Blitzkrieg Wrzesien 1939 Sowieckie Wojska Pancerne w Polsce Red Blitzkrieg September 1939 Soviet armored troops in Poland Wydawnictwo Pelta Warszawa 1994 ISBN 83 85314 03 2 Scan of p 72 of the book a b c in Russian Mikhail Meltyukhov Sovetsko polskie vojny Voenno politicheskoe protivostoyanie 1918 1939 gg Chast tretya Sentyabr 1939 goda Vojna s zapada Soviet Polish wars A Politico military Confrontation 1918 1939 Part three September 1939 The War from the West Moscow 2001 Schmidt George The Report from Hell excerpt p 10 PDF Archived from the original PDF on 2009 11 22 a b c d in Russian Krivoshein S M Mezhdubure Between the Storms Voronezh 1964 pp 250 262 Agreement on the handover of the city of Brest Litovsk and further actions of Russian troops Archived 2016 03 04 at the Wayback Machine page 1 Bundesarchiv BA MA RH21 2 21 40 41 21 09 1939 Richard C Raack Stalin s drive to the West 1938 1945 the origins of the Cold War Stanford University Press 1995 p 39 Raack p 58 Niall Ferguson The War of the World The Penguin Press New York 2006 p 418 Secret Additional Protocol of the Treaty of Nonaggression Between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics clause 2 See for example in German Heller M Nekrich A Geschichte der Sowjetunion Bd 2 History of the Soviet Union Vol 2 Konigstein 1982 pp 29 30 in German Pietrow B Stalinismus Sicherheit Offensive Das Dritte Reich in der Konzeption der sowjetischen Aussenpolitik Stalinism Security Offensive The Third Reich in the Concept of Soviet Foreign Policy Melsungen 1983 in Russian Berezhkov V M Proschet Stalina Stalin s Blunder Mezhdunarodnaya zhizn 1989 8 p 19 in Russian Semiryaga M I Tajny stalinskoj diplomatii 1939 1941 gg Secrets of Soviet Diplomacy 1939 1941 Moscow 1992 p 101 in Russian Lebedeva N S Katyn prestuplenie protiv chelovechestva Katyn A Crime Against Humanity p 34 in Russian Nekrich A M 1941 22 iyunya 1941 June 22nd Soviet German cooperation 1939 1941 Moscow Pamyatniki istoricheskoy mysli 1995 in Russian Semiryaga M I Tajny stalinskoj diplomatii 1939 1941 gg Secrets of Soviet Diplomacy 1939 1941 Moscow 1992 p 101 in Russian Nekrich A M 1941 22 iyunya Sovetsko germanskoe sotrudnichestvo 1939 1941 1941 June 22nd Soviet German cooperation 1939 1941 Moscow Pamyatniki istoricheskoy mysli 1995 a b in Russian Vishlyov O V Nakanune 22 iyunya 1941 goda Dokumentalnye ocherki On the Eve of 22 June 1941 Documentaries Moscow 2001 pp 108 109 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to German and Soviet parade in 1939 in German Text of the Agreement on the handover of the city of Brest Litovsk and further actions of Russian troops page 1 Archived 2016 03 04 at the Wayback Machine page 2 Archived 2010 03 01 at the Wayback Machine A collection of photos illustrating Soviet Nazi cooperation in September 1939 Archived 2012 10 14 at the Wayback Machine Official web page of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance In German Footage of the parade and handover of Brest recorded for German audiences 1 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title German Soviet military parade in Brest Litovsk amp oldid 1143746687, wikipedia, 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