German–Soviet military parade in Brest-Litovsk

(left), General der Panzertruppe Heinz Guderian (centre) and Soviet Kombrig Semyon Krivoshein (right) standing on the platform The secret protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, signed on August 23, 1939, defined the boundary between the German and Soviet "spheres of influence". However, during the invasion of Poland, some German forces, especially Heinz Guderian's XIX Corps, advanced beyond this line in pursuit of their tactical goals. On September 17, after Vasily Chuikov's 4th Army received the order to cross the Polish border, its 29th Tank Brigade, led by Kombrig Semyon Krivoshein, entered the town of Baranowicze. On September 20, advance units of the 29th Tank Brigade encountered Guderian's forces at the village of Widomla, three days after the Soviet invasion of Poland and twenty days after the German invasion of Poland. Through them, Krivoshein also sent warm greetings to the German general and made sure to approach the city from the opposite direction to that taken by the Wehrmacht. ==Parade==

s and red stars According to the initial agreement, the procedure included German and Soviet troops marching before their commanding officers followed by changing the flag, accompanied by national anthems of Germany and the Soviet Union. However, the Soviet commanding officer, Kombrig Semyon Krivoshein, wrote in his memoirs that he did not allow Soviet troops to pass alongside the German forces because he was afraid that Soviet troops, weary after a long march to Brest, would look inferior in comparison with the Germans, who had been in the city for several days. Instead, he suggested that the Soviet columns would enter the city separately and salute the leaving Germans whenever they meet. The parade began at 16:00, The Soviets fielded the 4th Battalion of 29th Light Tank Brigade, which was the first unit of the Red Army to roll into the city. The Soviet and German generals paid homage to each other's armies and their respective victories over Polish forces. ==Aftermath==

After the parade, which Niall Ferguson described as amicable, the Germans withdrew to the western bank of the Bug, and the Soviets took control over the city, as well as the rest of Eastern Poland (Western Belarus and Western Ukraine). ==German–Soviet parades in other Polish cities==

Several historic works published in the 1980s and 1990s discuss joint military parades of the Red Army and German Wehrmacht in other cities of occupied Poland such as Białystok, Grodno, Lwow and others. For example, Russian historian Mikhail Semiryaga writes in his 1992 work ''Secrets of Stalin's diplomacy'' without citing any sources: "Joint parades with militaries of both countries as participants took place In Grodno, Brest, Pinsk and several other cities (Germans called them 'victory parades'). The parade in Grodno was supervised by Kombrig Vasily Chuikov." Another author, Alexander Nekrich, made a similar claim, taking some "photographs" as evidence: "The conclusion of military operations against Poland was marked by joint parades of German and Soviet militaries in Brest and Lwow in the first days of October [1939]." In later works, Russian historians such as Mikhail Meltyukhov and Oleg Vishlyov dismiss the parades in other cities as "a myth", pointing to the fact that virtually no evidence has been found to confirm that those parades actually took place. In Lwow, Vishlyov states, it was impossible to organize a joint parade, as the Soviet troops were ordered to move to a distance of from the Germans after an accidental exchange of fire between the two sides, and no German units were present there at the time when the city capitulated to the Soviets. Vishlyov also disputes that the events in Brest were a military parade and writes that what is often mistakenly regarded as a parade was in fact a "ceremonial departure of German forces under the supervision of Soviet representatives". That is, before leaving the city and handing it to the Soviet Union, the Germans marched through the streets greeted by their command and supervised by a Soviet military representative, whose role was to sign an agreement with the German command and monitor the implementation of that agreement. It was only after their withdrawal that the Soviet troops entered the city and held their own parade. == See also ==