Soon after the division of Poland between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939, Poles became victims of the occupiers' repressions. In 1940 and the first half of 1941, the Soviets deported more than 1,200,000 Poles in four waves of mass deportations from the Soviet-occupied Polish territories, while in Western Poland the Nazis and their collaborators murdered ethnic Poles who opposed German rule. The first major operation took place on 10 February 1940, with more than 220,000 people sent to northern European Russia.