Had the Soviet Union managed to conquer eastern Poland (the Kresy) in its 1919-1921 war against Poland, what would the alternative Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact borders dividing Europe into Hitler's and Stalin's sphere of influence have been? In such a scenario, would Hitler have gotten all of (rump) Poland while Stalin would have gotten the Baltics, Bessarabia, and maybe Bukovina as well? Would Stalin insist on anything else, such as Kars region in Turkey? Or would Stalin also insist on his own slice of Poland even if the Soviet Union already has a western border along the Curzon Line? In such a scenario, could the General Gouvernment, either with or without Warsaw, have went to Stalin while the rest of Poland would have went to Hitler? And what effects would an alternative Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact have had on Soviet-Western relations? If the Soviet Union will conquer and annex the General Gouvernment, for instance, then recreating an independent Poland would be impossible without either Soviet consent or Soviet defeat in a war against the Western Powers. This would be a worse situation for the Poles in comparison to real life, where an independent Poland could have still been recreated in the territories west of the Curzon Line, with expanded territories at Germany's expense. (Such a Poland would not have even necessarily needed to be a Soviet satellite had France not fallen in 1940!)
Anyway, any thoughts on this?
Anyway, any thoughts on this?
