USSR invasion of Poland query...

Germany attacked Poland on 9/1/39. That prompted the UK and France to declare war on Germany.

The USSR attacked Poland about two weeks later.

So why didn't the UK and France declare war on the USSR?

This is a serious question - i don't know the answer.

This is a good question and has been discussed extensively on this newsground, only a month or so ago. Use Google's deja news machine to look for those postings.

all the best

I asked this question not too long ago. Do a google groups search for: Hitler & Stalin

My question got about 50 insightful and enlightening replies.

{snip}

Haven't we just had this thread?

In fact the Allies did come up with various half baked schemes to attack Russia, including sending aid to Finland and bombing the oilfields at Baku. All they in fact managed to accomplish during the Sitzkrieg was the partial construction of the mini-Maginot line along the Belgian frontier and a plan to invade Norway which was forestalled by the Germans own invasion.

After the Russo-Polish War I'm not sure that Russia ever regarded itself as 'at peace' with Poland in any case, in which case it was just a resumption of former hostilities.

Cheers

If I understood my history correctly, Russia invaded Poland under the pretext of protecting her own borders from being overrun. While it was a ridiculous excuse even then, it allowed France and England to avoid declaring a war against Russia, since a Russia allied with Germany on the battlefield was assumed by most countries to be unbeatable. The invasion of Poland was one of the reasons that Churchill was so untrusting of Stalin throughout the war....

Yes.

No. They had a non-aggression treaty. The curious thing is that they did not consider themselves at war against Poland in 1939.