Context: Belarus celebrates September 17 as National Unity Day. On this day in 1939, the Red Army entered Poland. The territories of Western Belarus were then incorporated into the Byelorussian SSR. In 2021, Aleksandr Lukashenko established the holiday by decree. Although the authorities rank it alongside Victory Day and Independence Day in terms of importance, no parade is held on September 17, and Belarusians do not receive an extra day off. Lukashenko explained this by saying that the country already has too many days off.
On September 15, 2026, Ksenia Lebedzeva, the host of the program This Is Different on the First News Channel*, stated that Western Belarus became part of the Byelorussian SSR as a result of a referendum.
“In September 1939, the Red Army entered eastern Poland after its government fled the country with its gold reserves and relocated to London. At that time, Poland had essentially ceased to exist, leaving the people — many of whom were Belarusians — unprotected from Hitler’s advancing forces. If not for the Red Army, the Wehrmacht would have been near Minsk as early as 1939. The USSR decided to protect its own people. These lands were incorporated into the Ukrainian and Byelorussian SSRs through a referendum.”
We previously examined the claim that, by the time of the Soviet invasion, Poland had virtually ceased to exist and its government had already left the country.
Shortly after the Soviet invasion, Polish President Ignacy Mościcki left the country. In a statement on September 17, he declared that the highest authorities had been forced to leave Poland because the country was under simultaneous attack from the west and the east.
The Polish military also offered armed resistance to Soviet troops. This was also documented in Soviet newsreels. The 1939 documentary film On the Events in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, produced by the Moscow Newsreel Studio, reported:
“Polish officers took refuge in barracks and churches and fired on Red Army units entering the cities with cannons and machine guns.”
There was also no referendum on incorporating Western Belarus into the BSSR. A referendum implies a nationwide vote in which citizens directly express their views on the issue at hand. In 1939, the procedure was different. The People’s Assembly of Western Belarus was convened one month and 11 days after the Red Army entered these territories. It consisted of deputies elected in the preceding elections. On October 29, the People’s Assembly adopted a declaration on incorporating Western Belarus into the Byelorussian SSR.
In early November, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR took the decision to annex the territories. In other words, the residents elected deputies, who then decided to incorporate Western Belarus into the USSR. No separate nationwide referendum on the annexation was held among the residents of Western Belarus or the USSR.
* The First News Channel is another name for News.by, a news outlet owned by Belteleradiocompany.
