If the United Kingdom was legally obliged to defend Poland from foreign invasion in 1939, then why wasn't war declared against the USSR along with Germany?

by Loftus902

Seriously this is bugging me, the USSR invaded simultaneously with the Germans. Why is it that the UK didn't go after both aggressors?

Exostrike

The main reason Britain did not declare war on the USSR was because while the Anglo-Polish defence pact officially protected Poland from attack by any "European country", secret parts of the treaty specified Germany.

When the USSR invaded and the Poles argued that Britain should declare war on Russia because of the treaty the British were able dodge the issue by pointing to the sections specifying Germany only.

In practise Britain and France could do little to help Poland directly and Russian invasion basically destroyed the best strategy the poles had of falling back to the Romanian border and waiting to be resupplied/reinforced through Romania.

With Poland a lost cause and people not entirely expecting the war to become the next world war it didn't make that much sense to escalate the war and hand Germany a major ally.

JoshuaKevinPerry

Is the treaty part of why Poland wasn't freed from Soviet control post war?