Skidal uprising

Skidal uprising (term used in Soviet historiography) or Skidel revolt (Powstanie skidelskie) was an anti-Polish and anti-state rebellion of Jewish and ethnic Belarusian inhabitants of Skidal (now Skidzyel’, Belarus); helped and organized by the Soviet-armed squads representing the Communist Party of Western Belarus. The uprising, which lasted for two days, started on 18 September 1939, one day after the Soviet Army attacked Poland from the east. The Jews and Belarusian civilians began the uprising by attacking and killing members of the ethnic Polish minority. Around 100 Polish soldiers and policemen sent to the area took control of the town. The traitors against the nation, all Polish citizens guilty of murder were summarily executed.

The events
A Polish soldier, walking through Skidel alone, was one of the first to be killed in the rebellion. The pogrom of the Polish population included burying alive (see Massacre of Brzostowica Mała), mass killing in the forest (Lerypol on the outskirts of Skidal), and torture murder (Budowla) of dozens of mostly Polish nationals by Jewish and Belarussian-based partisan squads. Tens if not hundreds of such incidents took place in Grodno county, wrote historian Marek Wierzbicki of the Institute of National Remembrance.

Although the uprising was put down by the Polish troops soon afterwards, the anti-Polish violence spread to other locations including Jeziory, Wiercieliszki, Wielka Brzostowica, Dubno, Wołpa, Indura (near Grodno), Sopoćkinie, Zelwa, Wołkowysk, Ostryna, Zdzięcioł (near Nowogródek), Janów Poleski, Horodec, Antopol, Drohiczyn Poleski and Motol nearby, among numerous other locations. The attackers were aided by the Soviets in the first hours of invasion, but also conducted welcoming celebrations as soon as the area was overrun by the Red Army. Notably, in some locations, the withdrawal of Polish administration ahead of the Soviet forces prompted Jews to form self-defence groups against Bielarussian raids which further complicated the issue; some of them were driven by deep-seated patriotism.

Five months before the uprising, the local Poles (20% of the population) paid for CKM wz.30 and gifted the weapon to the 76th Infantry Regiment from Grodno. The event was captured by a film crew. The soldiers from the same regiment saved the Poles from death during the revolt.

When Soviet forces entered Skidel, many Poles were immediately arrested. Some time later, in 1940 there was a show trial in Skidel of 15 individuals including three women, two Tartars and two Polish Russians, accused of crimes against the Soviet Union. There is no historical record of what happened to them, although their admittance of guilt extracted during interrogations, was widely popularized by Soviet propaganda as proof of Polish subversion.