Large areas of western Poland were annexed by Germany.[16] The Soviets had attempted to deceive the Poles into believing that they had invaded eastern Poland to help Poland fight Germany[17] and took over some 52% of Poland's territory. The entire Kresy (eastern Poland's borderlands) macroregion – inhabited by between 13.2 and 13.7 million people,[16][18] including majority-Ukrainian and -Belarusin populations and 1,300,000 Jews – was annexed by the Soviet Union in an atmosphere of terror surrounding a mock referendum staged by the NKVD and the Red Army.[19][20] Within months, Polish Jews in the Soviet zone who refused to swear allegiance were deported deep into the Soviet interior along with ethnic Poles.