The Release and Rehabilitation of Victims of Stalinist Terror in Poland
Journal: Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks
Year: 2015

Stalinism made its mark on Poland twice. The first phase began on 17 September 1939 when the Red Army marched into the eastern part of the country as part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and ended in 1941 with the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union. The second period lasted from January 1944, when the Eastern Front in the Second World War again reached pre-war Polish territory, until the 'Thaw' following the death of Stalin in 1953. In 1945, the borders of Poland shifted dramatically towards the we