1.
Second Polish Republic
–
The Second Polish Republic, also known as the Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland, refers to the country of Poland between the First and Second World Wars. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland and it had access to the Baltic Sea via a short strip of coastline either side of the city of Gdynia. Between March and August 1939, Poland also shared a border with the then-Hungarian governorate of Subcarpathia, the Second Republic was significantly different in territory to the current Polish state. It included substantially more territory in the east and less in the west, the Second Republics land area was 388,634 km2, making it, in October 1938, the sixth largest country in Europe. After the annexation of Zaolzie, this grew to 389,720 km2, according to the 1921 census, the number of inhabitants was 27.2 million. By 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, almost a third of population came from minority groups,13. 9% Ukrainians, 10% Jews,3. 1% Belarusians,2. 3% Germans and 3. 4% Czechs, Lithuanians and Russians. At the same time, a significant number of ethnic Poles lived outside the country borders, Poland maintained a slow but steady level of economic development. By 1939, the Republic had become one of Europes major powers, the victorious Allies of World War I confirmed the rebirth of Poland in the Treaty of Versailles of June 1919. It was one of the stories of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. Poland solidified its independence in a series of wars fought by the newly formed Polish Army from 1918 to 1921. The extent of the half of the interwar territory of Poland was settled diplomatically in 1922. In the course of World War I, Germany gradually gained overall dominance on the Eastern Front as the Imperial Russian Army fell back, German and Austro-Hungarian armies seized the Russian-ruled part of what became Poland. In a failed attempt to resolve the Polish question as quickly as possible, Berlin set up a German puppet state on 5 November 1916, with a governing Provisional Council of State, the Council administered the country under German auspices, pending the election of a king. A month before Germany surrendered on 11 November 1918 and the war ended, the Regency Council had dissolved the Council of State, with the notable exception of the Marxist-oriented Social Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, most Polish political parties supported this move. On 23 October the Regency Council appointed a new government under Józef Świeżyński, in 1918–1919, over 100 workers councils sprang up on Polish territories, on 5 November 1918, in Lublin, the first Soviet of Delegates was established. On 6 November socialists proclaimed the Republic of Tarnobrzeg at Tarnobrzeg in Austrian Galicia, the same day the Socialist, Ignacy Daszyński, set up a Provisional Peoples Government of the Republic of Poland in Lublin. On Sunday,10 November at 7 a. m, Józef Piłsudski, newly freed from 16 months in a German prison in Magdeburg, returned by train to Warsaw. Piłsudski, together with Colonel Kazimierz Sosnkowski, was greeted at Warsaws railway station by Regent Zdzisław Lubomirski, next day, due to his popularity and support from most political parties, the Regency Council appointed Piłsudski as Commander in Chief of the Polish Armed Forces
Second Polish Republic
–
Physical map of the Second Polish Republic (1939)
Second Polish Republic
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Flag
Second Polish Republic
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Józef Piłsudski,
Chief of State (Naczelnik Państwa) between November 1918 and December 1922
Second Polish Republic
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Edward Rydz-Śmigły receiving a
Marshal 's
buława from then-
President of Poland Ignacy Mościcki, Warsaw, 10 November 1936
2.
Soviet Union
–
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
Soviet Union
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Vladimir Lenin addressing a crowd with Trotsky, 1920
Soviet Union
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Flag
Soviet Union
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Stalin and
Nikolai Yezhov, head of the
NKVD. After Yezhov was executed, he was
edited out of the image.
Soviet Union
3.
Curzon line
–
The history of the Curzon Line, with minor variations, goes back to the period following World War I. It was drawn for the first time by the Supreme War Council as the line between the newly emerging states, the Second Polish Republic, and Bolshevik Russia. The line became a major factor during World War II. The western powers entered into negotiations with the Soviet Union following Operation Barbarossa, the Allied arrangement involved compensation for this loss via the incorporation of formerly German-held areas into Poland. As a result, the current border between the countries of Belarus, Ukraine and Poland is an approximation of the Curzon Line, at the end of World War I, Poland reclaimed its sovereignty in a military campaign following the disintegration of the occupying forces of three neighbouring empires. The Supreme War Council tasked the Commission on Polish Affairs with recommending Polands eastern border, the Allies forwarded it as an armistice line several times during the war, most notably in a note from the British government to the Soviets signed by Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon of Kedleston. Both parties disregarded the line when the situation lay in their favour. Instead, the final Peace of Riga provided Poland with almost 135,000 square kilometres of land that was, on average and its 1920 northern extension into Lithuania divided the area disputed between Poland and Lithuania. There were two versions of the portion of the line, A and B. Version B allocated Lwów to Poland, article 87 of the Versailles Treaty stipulated that The boundaries of Poland not laid down in the present Treaty will be subsequently determined by the Principal Allied and Associated Powers. The Commission issued its recommendation on 22 April, its proposed Russo-Polish borders were close to those of the 19th-century Congress Poland, the Supreme Council continued to debate the issue for several months. At the same time, the announcement stated the Council was not, the announcement had no immediate impact, although the Allies recommended its consideration in an August 1919 proposal to Poland, which was ignored. Polish forces pushed eastward, taking Kiev in May 1920, following a strong Soviet counteroffensive, Prime Minister Władysław Grabski sought Allied assistance in July. Under pressure, he agreed to a Polish withdrawal to the 1919 version of the line and, in Galicia, an armistice near the current line of battle. On 11 July 1920 Curzon signed a telegram sent to the Bolshevik government proposing that a ceasefire be established along the line, curzons July 1920 proposal differed from the 19 December announcement in two significant ways. The July 1920 note specifically addressed the Polish-Lithuanian dispute by mentioning a line running from Grodno to Vilnius and thence north to Daugavpils and it also mentioned Galicia, where earlier discussions had resulted in the alternatives of Line A and Line B. The note endorsed Line A, which included Lwów and its oil fields within Russia. This portion of the line did not correspond to the current line of battle in Galicia, as per Grabskis agreement, on 17 July, the Soviets responded to the note with a refusal
Curzon line
–
Mother tongue in interwar Poland, original map by
Central Statistical Office based on 1931 census
Curzon line
–
Lighter blue line: Curzon Line "B" as proposed in 1919. Darker blue line: "Curzon" Line "A" as proposed by the Soviet Union in 1940. Pink areas: Former pre-World War II provinces of
Germany transferred to Poland after the war. Grey area: Pre-World War II Polish territory east of the Curzon Line annexed by the Soviet Union after the war.
4.
Allies of World War II
–
The Allies of World War II, called the United Nations from the 1 January 1942 declaration, were the countries that together opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Allies promoted the alliance as seeking to stop German, Japanese, at the start of the war on 1 September 1939, the Allies consisted of France, Poland and the United Kingdom, and dependent states, such as the British India. Within days they were joined by the independent Dominions of the British Commonwealth, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Poland was a minor factor after its defeat in 1939, France was a minor factor after its defeat in 1940. China had already been into a war with Japan since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937. The alliance was formalised by the Declaration by United Nations, from 1 January 1942, however, the name United Nations was rarely used to describe the Allies during the war. The leaders of the Big Three – the UK, the Soviet Union, in 1945, the Allied nations became the basis of the United Nations. The origins of the Allied powers stem from the Allies of World War I, Germany resented signing Treaty of Versailles. The new Weimar republics legitimacy became shaken, by the early 1930s, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler became the dominant revanchist movement in Germany and Hitler and the Nazis gained power in 1933. The Nazi regime demanded the cancellation of the Treaty of Versailles and made claims to German-populated Austria. The likelihood of war was high, and the question was whether it could be avoided through strategies such as appeasement, in Asia, when Japan seized Manchuria in 1931, the League of Nations condemned it for aggression against China. Japan responded by leaving the League of Nations in March 1933, after four quiet years, the Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937 with Japanese forces invading China. The League of Nations condemned Japans actions and initiated sanctions on Japan, the United States, in particular, was angered at Japan and sought to support China. In March 1939, Germany took over Czechoslovakia, violating the Munich Agreement signed six months before, Britain and France decided that Hitler had no intention to uphold diplomatic agreements and responded by preparing for war. On 31 March 1939, Britain formed the Anglo-Polish military alliance in an effort to avert a German attack on the country, also, the French had a long-standing alliance with Poland since 1921. The Soviet Union sought an alliance with the powers. The agreement secretly divided the independent nations of eastern Europe between the two powers and assured adequate oil supplies for the German war machine, on 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany. Then, on 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, a Polish government-in-exile was set up and it continued to be one of the Allies, a model followed by other occupied countries. After a quiet winter, Germany in April 1940 invaded and quickly defeated Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Britain and its Empire stood alone against Hitler and Mussolini
Allies of World War II
–
Poland first to fight — British wartime poster supporting
Poland after the German invasion, 1939
Allies of World War II
–
Allied Powers (and their colonies)
Allies of World War II
–
British
Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft (left) flying past a German
Heinkel He-111 bomber aircraft (right) during the
Battle of Britain
Allies of World War II
–
British tanks during the
North African Campaign
5.
Tehran conference
–
The Tehran Conference was a strategy meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943. It was held in the Soviet Unions embassy in Tehran, Iran and it was the first of the World War II conferences of the Big Three Allied leaders. It closely followed the Cairo Conference which had taken place on 22–26 November 1943, although the three leaders arrived with differing objectives, the main outcome of the Tehran Conference was the Western Allies commitment to open a second front against Nazi Germany. The conference also addressed the Allies relations with Turkey and Iran, operations in Yugoslavia and against Japan, a separate protocol signed at the conference pledged the Big Three to recognize Irans independence. As soon as the German-Soviet war broke out in June 1941, Churchill offered assistance to the Soviets, and an agreement to this effect was signed on 12 July 1941. Delegations had traveled between London and Moscow to arrange the implementation of this support and when the United States joined the war in December 1941, a Combined Chiefs of Staff committee was created to coordinate British and American operations as well as their support to the Soviet Union. There was the question of opening a second front to alleviate the German pressure on the Soviet Red Army on the Eastern Front, the question of mutual assistance. Also, neither the United States nor Britain were prepared to give Stalin a free hand in Eastern Europe and, lastly, communications regarding these matters between Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin took place by telegrams and via emissaries—but it was evident that direct negotiations were urgently needed. Stalin was reluctant to leave Moscow and was unwilling to risk journeys by air, while Roosevelt was physically disabled, in order to arrange this urgently needed meeting, Roosevelt tried to persuade Stalin to travel to Cairo. Stalin turned down this offer and also offers to meet in Baghdad or Basra, the conference was to convene at 16,00 on 28 November 1943. Stalin arrived well before, followed by Roosevelt, brought in his wheelchair from his accommodation adjacent to the venue, Roosevelt, who had traveled 7,000 miles to attend and whose health was already deteriorating, was met by Stalin. This was the first time that they had met, Churchill, walking with his general staff from their accommodations nearby, arrived half an hour later. The U. S. and Great Britain wanted to secure the cooperation of the Soviet Union in defeating Germany, Stalin pressed for a revision of Poland’s eastern border with the Soviet Union to match the line set by British Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon in 1920. In order to compensate Poland for the loss of territory. This decision was not formally ratified, however, until the Potsdam Conference of 1945, the leaders then turned to the conditions under which the Western Allies would open a new front by invading northern France, as Stalin had pressed them to do since 1941. It was agreed Overlord would occur by May 1944, Stalin agreed to support it by launching a concurrent major offensive on Germanys eastern front to divert German forces from northern France, Iran and Turkey were discussed in detail. In addition, the Soviet Union was required to support to Turkey if that country entered the war. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin agreed that it would also be most desirable if Turkey entered on the Allies side before the year was out, despite accepting the above arrangements, Stalin dominated the conference
Tehran conference
–
The "Big Three" at the Tehran Conference Left to right: Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.
Tehran conference
–
Life
6.
Yalta conference
–
The conference convened in the Livadia Palace near Yalta in Crimea, USSR. The goal of conference was to shape a post-war peace that represented not just a collective security order, the meeting was intended mainly to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of war-torn Europe. Within a few years, with the Cold War dividing the continent, to a degree, it has remained controversial. Yalta was the second of three wartime conferences among the Big Three and it had been preceded by the Tehran Conference in 1943, and was followed by the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, which was attended by Stalin, Churchill and Harry S. Truman, Roosevelts successor. All three leaders were attempting to establish an agenda for governing post-war Germany and they wanted to keep peace between post-world war countries. On the Eastern Front, the front line at the end of December 1943 remained in the Soviet Union but, by August 1944, Soviet forces were inside Poland, by the time of the Conference, Red Army Marshal Georgy Zhukovs forces were 65 km from Berlin. Stalins position at the conference was one which he felt was so strong that he could dictate terms. According to U. S. delegation member and future Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, t was not a question of what we would let the Russians do, moreover, Roosevelt hoped for a commitment from Stalin to participate in the United Nations. Stalin, insisting that his doctors opposed any long trips, rejected Roosevelts suggestion to meet at the Mediterranean and he offered instead to meet at the Black Sea resort of Yalta, in the Crimea. Stalins fear of flying also was a factor in this decision. Each leader had an agenda for the Yalta Conference, Roosevelt wanted Soviet support in the U. S, Poland was the first item on the Soviet agenda. Stalin stated that For the Soviet government, the question of Poland was one of honor, in addition, Stalin stated regarding history that because the Russians had greatly sinned against Poland, the Soviet government was trying to atone for those sins. Stalin concluded that Poland must be strong and that the Soviet Union is interested in the creation of a mighty, free, Roosevelt wanted the USSR to enter the Pacific War with the Allies. Stalin agreed that the Soviet Union would enter the Pacific War three months after the defeat of Germany, Stalin pledged to Truman to keep the nationality of the Korean Peninsula intact as Soviet Union entered the war against Japan. At the time, the Red Army had occupied Poland completely, the Declaration of Liberated Europe did little to dispel the sphere of influence agreements that had been incorporated into armistice agreements. They also agreed to give France a zone of occupation, carved out of the U. S. also, the Big Three agreed that all original governments would be restored to the invaded countries and that all civilians would be repatriated. The Declaration of Liberated Europe is a declaration that was created by Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and it was a promise that allowed the people of Europe to create democratic institutions of their own choice. The declaration pledged, the earliest possible establishment through free elections governments responsive to the will of the people and this is similar to the statements of the Atlantic Charter, which says, the right of all people to choose the form of government under which they will live
Yalta conference
Yalta conference
Yalta conference
–
A Big Three meeting room
Yalta conference
–
The military situation [
clarification needed] at the end of the conference
7.
Potsdam conference
–
The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 17 July to 2 August 1945. Participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States, the three powers were represented by Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin, Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and, later, Clement Attlee, and President Harry S. Truman. The goals of the conference included the establishment of post-war order, peace treaty issues. In the five months since the Yalta Conference, a number of changes had taken place which would affect the relationships between the leaders. Firstly, the Soviet Union was occupying Central and Eastern Europe, by July, the Red Army effectively controlled the Baltic states, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania, and fearing a Stalinist take-over, refugees were fleeing from these countries. Stalin had set up a communist government in Poland and he insisted that his control of Eastern Europe was a defensive measure against possible future attacks and claimed that it was a legitimate sphere of Soviet influence. Secondly, Britain had a new Prime Minister, a general election was held in the UK on 5 July, the results of which became known during the conference, with a Labour Party majority, Labour leader Clement Attlee became the new Prime Minister. During the war and in the name of Allied unity, Roosevelt had brushed off warnings of a potential domination by a Stalin dictatorship in part of Europe, while inexperienced in foreign affairs, Truman had closely followed the allied progress of the war. With the end of the war, the priority of allied unity was replaced with a new challenge, the two leading powers continued to sustain a cordial relationship to the public but suspicions and distrust lingered between them. As the suspicion grew between the two rising powers, Stalin proposed that America will use their advantage and success in order to entices other nations into expanding their U. S. policies. Truman became much more suspicious of communist moves than Roosevelt had been, Truman and his advisers saw Soviet actions in Eastern Europe as aggressive expansionism which was incompatible with the agreements Stalin had committed to at Yalta the previous February. However, the Potsdam Conference marks the first and only time Truman would ever meet Stalin in person, at the end of the conference, the three Heads of Government agreed on the following actions. All other issues were to be answered by the peace conference to be called as soon as possible. Allied Chiefs of Staff at the Potsdam Conference decided to temporarily partition Vietnam at the 16th parallel for the purposes of operational convenience. It was agreed that British forces would take the surrender of Japanese forces in Saigon for the half of Indochina. The Allies issued a statement of aims of their occupation of Germany, Germany and Austria were to be divided respectively into four occupation zones, and similarly each capital, Berlin and Vienna, was to be divided into four zones. It was agreed that the Nazi war criminals would be put to trial, all German annexations in Europe were to be reversed, including Sudetenland, Alsace-Lorraine, Austria, and the westernmost parts of Poland. Germanys eastern border was to be shifted westwards to the Oder–Neisse line, the territories east of the new border comprised East Prussia, Silesia, West Prussia, and two thirds of Pomerania
Potsdam conference
–
A picture of a conference session including
Clement Attlee,
Ernest Bevin,
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov,
Joseph Stalin,
William D. Leahy,
Joseph E. Davies,
James F. Byrnes, and
Harry S. Truman.
Potsdam conference
Potsdam conference
–
Clement Attlee, Harry Truman and Joseph Stalin at the Potsdam Conference, circa 28 July -- 1 August 1945
Potsdam conference
–
Cecilienhof today: site of the Potsdam Conference.
8.
Oder-Neisse line
–
The Oder–Neisse line is the international border between Germany and Poland. The small remainder, consisting of the surrounding the German city of Königsberg in northern East Prussia, was allocated to the Soviet Union after the war. The vast majority of the native German population in these territories fled, the Oder–Neisse line marked the border between the German Democratic Republic and Poland from 1950 to 1990. East Germany confirmed the border with Poland in 1950, while West Germany, after a period of refusal, in 1990 the newly reunified Germany and the Republic of Poland signed a treaty recognizing it as their border. The lower River Oder in Silesia was Piast Polands western border from the 10th until the 13th century, from around the time of World War I, some proposed restoring this line, in the belief that it would provide protection against Germany. One of the first proposals was made in the Russian Empire, later, when the Nazis gained power, the German territory to the east of the line was militarised by Germany with a view to a future war, and the Polish population faced Germanisation. The policies of Nazi Germany also encouraged nationalism among the German minority in Poland, before World War II, Polands western border with Germany had been fixed under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles of 1919. However Pomerelia and Upper Silesia had been divided, leaving areas populated by the Polish as well as other Slavic minorities on the German side, between the wars, the concept of Western thought became popular among some Polish nationalists. The Polish motherland territories were defined by scholars like Zygmunt Wojciechowski as the areas included in Piast Poland in the 10th century, some Polish historians called for the return of territories up to the river Elbe. After Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Poland, some Polish politicians started to see a need to alter the border with Germany, a secure border was seen as essential, especially in the light of Nazi atrocities. During the war, Nazi Germany committed genocide against Polands population, especially Jews, alteration to the western border was seen as a punishment for the Germans for their atrocities and a compensation for Poland. The border changes were to provide Poland with a border and to prevent the Germans from using Western Pomerania. Only with the situation during the war were these territorial proposals modified. While these territorial claims were regarded as megalomaniac by the Soviet ambassador in London, on 16 December 1941 Stalin remarked in a meeting with the British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden, though inconsistent in detail, that Poland should receive all German territory up to the river Oder. In May 1942 General Władysław Sikorski, Prime Minister of the Polish government in exile, sent two memoranda to the US government, sketching a postwar Polish western border along the Oder, however, the proposal was dropped by the government-in-exile in late 1942. In post-war Poland the government described the Oder–Neisse line as the result of negotiations between Polish Communists and Stalin. Stalins political goals as well as his desire to foment enmity between Poles and Germans influenced his idea of a swap of western for eastern territory, thus ensuring control over both countries. As with before the war, some fringe groups advocated restoring the old border between Poland and Germany, at the Tehran Conference in late 1943 the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin raised the subject of Polands western frontier and its extension to the River Oder
Oder-Neisse line
–
The
Oder and
Neisse rivers
Oder-Neisse line
–
The Oder–Neisse line
Oder-Neisse line
–
The Oder–Neisse line at
Usedom
Oder-Neisse line
–
Marking the new Polish-German Border in 1945
9.
Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union
–
Most of these territories remained within the Soviet Union in 1945 as a consequence of European-wide territorial rearrangements configured during the Tehran Conference of 1943. Poland was compensated for this loss with the prewar German eastern territories much of which had been devastated during the war. Communist Poland described the territories as the Recovered Territories, the post-World War II territory of Poland was significantly smaller than the pre-1939 land areas, shrinking by some 77,000 square kilometres. Early in the morning of August 24,1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a 10-year non-aggression pact, in the North, Finland, Estonia and Latvia were assigned to the Soviet sphere. Poland was to be partitioned in the event of its political rearrangement—the areas east of the Narev, Vistula, much of this rural territory had its own significant local non-Polish majority. Lithuania, adjacent to East Prussia, would be in the German sphere of influence, according to the secret protocol, Lithuania would retrieve its historical capital Vilnius, subjugated during the inter-war period by Poland. The Polish–Soviet border, as of 1939, had determined in 1921 at the Treaty of Riga peace talks. The total area, including the area given to Lithuania, was 201,015 square kilometres, with a population of 13.299 million, of which 5.274 million were ethnic Poles and 1.109 million were Jews. An additional 138,000 ethnic Poles and 198,000 Jews fled the German occupied zone, Soviet authorities immediately started a campaign of sovietization of the newly acquired areas. The Soviets organized staged elections, the result of which was to become a legitimization of Soviet annexation of eastern Poland, Soviet authorities regarded service for the pre-war Polish state as a crime against revolution and counter-revolutionary activity, and subsequently started arresting large numbers of Polish citizens. During the initial Soviet invasion of Poland, between 230,000 to 450,000 Poles were taken as prisoner, some of whom were executed. NKVD officers conducted lengthy interrogations of the prisoners in camps that were, in effect and this became known as the Katyn massacre. During 1939–19411.450 million of the people inhabiting the region were deported by the Soviet regime, of whom 63. 1% were Poles, previously it was believed that about 1. Territories around Wilno annexed by Poland in 1920, were transferred to Lithuania on the basis of Lithuania-Soviet Union agreement, Other northern territories were attached to Belastok Voblast, Hrodna Voblast, Navahrudak Voblast, Pinsk Voblast and Vileyka Voblast in Byelorussian SSR. The territories to the south were transferred to the Ukrainian SSR, Drohobych Oblast, Lviv Oblast, Rivne Oblast, Stanislav Oblast, Tarnopil Oblast and these areas were conquered by Nazi Germany in 1941 during Operation Barbarossa. During 1943–1944 ethnic cleansing took place in Ukraine which brought about an estimated 100,000 deaths. The Polish and Jewish language population of the regions in 1939 totaled about 6.7 million, during the war, an estimated 2 million persons perished. These numbers are included with Polish war losses,2 million became refugees to Poland or the West,1.5 million were in the territories returned to Poland in 1945 and 1.2 million remained in the USSR
Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union
–
Temporary borders created by advancing German and Soviet troops. The border was soon readjusted following diplomatic agreements.
Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union
–
Soviet annexation of territory of eastern Poland ceded to Ukrainian SSR (yellow), 1940
Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union
–
Soviet map of the newly expanded
Byelorussian SSR (yellow), 1940. Parts of prewar Poland invaded by the Nazis labeled area of state interests of Germany
10.
Invasion of Poland
–
The campaign ended on 6 October with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland under the terms of the German-Soviet Frontier Treaty. German forces invaded Poland from the north, south, and west the morning after the Gleiwitz incident, as the Wehrmacht advanced, Polish forces withdrew from their forward bases of operation close to the Polish–German border to more established lines of defence to the east. After the mid-September Polish defeat in the Battle of the Bzura, Polish forces then withdrew to the southeast where they prepared for a long defence of the Romanian Bridgehead and awaited expected support and relief from France and the United Kingdom. While those two countries had pacts with Poland and had declared war on Germany on 3 September, in the end their aid to Poland was very limited. The Soviet Red Armys invasion of Eastern Poland on 17 September, in accordance with a protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Facing a second front, the Polish government concluded the defence of the Romanian Bridgehead was no longer feasible, on 6 October, following the Polish defeat at the Battle of Kock, German and Soviet forces gained full control over Poland. The success of the invasion marked the end of the Second Polish Republic, the Soviet Union incorporated its newly acquired areas into its constituent Belarusian and Ukrainian republics, and immediately started a campaign of sovietization. In the aftermath of the invasion, a collective of underground resistance formed the Polish Underground State within the territory of the former Polish state. Many of the exiles that managed to escape Poland subsequently joined the Polish Armed Forces in the West. On 30 January 1933, the Nazi Party, under its leader Adolf Hitler, as part of this long-term policy, Hitler at first pursued a policy of rapprochement with Poland, trying to improve opinion in Germany, culminating in the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934. Earlier, Hitlers foreign policy worked to weaken ties between Poland and France, and attempted to manoeuvre Poland into the Anti-Comintern Pact, forming a front against the Soviet Union. The Poles feared that their independence would eventually be threatened altogether, the so-called Polish Corridor constituted land long disputed by Poland and Germany, and inhabited by a Polish majority. The Corridor had become a part of Poland after the Treaty of Versailles, many Germans also wanted the city of Danzig and its environs to be reincorporated into Germany. Danzig was a city with a German majority. It had been separated from Germany after Versailles and made into the nominally independent Free City of Danzig, the series of border violations, which are unbearable to a great power, prove that the Poles no longer are willing to respect the German frontier. Poland participated with Germany in the partition of Czechoslovakia that followed the Munich Agreement and it coerced Czechoslovakia to surrender the region of Český Těšín by issuing an ultimatum to that effect on 30 September 1938, which was accepted by Czechoslovakia on 1 October. This region had a Polish majority and had been disputed between Czechoslovakia and Poland in the aftermath of World War I, the Polish annexation of Slovak territory later served as the justification for the Slovak state to join the German invasion. Poland rejected this proposal, fearing that after accepting these demands, it would become subject to the will of Germany
Invasion of Poland
–
Vyacheslav Molotov signs the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a German–Soviet non-aggression pact.
Invasion of Poland
–
From left to right:
Luftwaffe preparing to bomb
Wieluń,
SMS Schleswig-Holstein attacking the port of
Danzig,
Wehrmacht soldiers destroying the Polish-German border post, German tank and armored car formation, German and Soviet troops shaking hands following the invasion,
Bombing of Warsaw.
Invasion of Poland
–
Polish Infantry
Invasion of Poland
–
Polish
PZL.37 Łoś medium bomber
11.
Territorial evolution of Poland
–
The total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the ninth largest in Europe. The first 20th-century incarnation of Poland, the Second Polish Republic, occupied 389,720 km2, while, since 1945, the Poles are the most numerous of the West Slavs and occupy what some believe to be the original homeland of the Slavic peoples. While other groups migrated, the Polanie remained in situ along the Vistula, there is no other European nation centred to such an extent on one river. The establishment of a Polish state is identified with the adoption of Christianity by Mieszko I in 966 CE. In 1025 CE, Poland became a kingdom, in 1569, Poland cemented a long association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin, forming the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was one of the largest and most populous countries in 16th-, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had many characteristics that made it unique among states of that era. This system was a precursor to the concepts of broader democracy. The two comprising states of the Commonwealth were formally equal, although in reality Poland was a dominant partner in the union, in the late 18th century, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth began to collapse. Its neighbouring states were able to dismember the Commonwealth. In 1795, Polands territory was partitioned among the Kingdom of Prussia, the Russian Empire. Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic in 1918 after World War I, but lost it in World War II through occupation by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Poland lost over six million citizens in World War II, emerging several years later as the socialist Peoples Republic of Poland within the Eastern Bloc, during the Revolutions of 1989, communist rule was overthrown and Poland became what is constitutionally known as the Third Polish Republic. Poland is a state made up of sixteen voivodeships. Poland is a member of the European Union, NATO, Poland currently has a population of over 38 million people, which makes it the 34th most populous country in the world and one of the most populous members of the European Union. Formidable foreign enemies and internal fragmentation eroded this initial structure in the 13th century, beginning with the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila, the Jagiellon dynasty ruled the Polish–Lithuanian union. The Lublin Union of 1569 established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as a player in European politics. In 1525, during the Protestant Reformation, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, Albert of Hohenzollern, secularized the orders Prussian territory, becoming Albert and his duchy, which had its capital in Königsberg, was established as a fief of the Crown of Poland. Mieszko I of Poland was the first historical ruler of the Polans and he was responsible for the introduction and subsequent spread of Christianity in Poland
Territorial evolution of Poland
–
The Seniorate Province of
Władysław II
Territorial evolution of Poland
Territorial evolution of Poland
–
Monarchy of the Silesian Henries.
Territorial evolution of Poland
–
Poland in the times of Przemysł
12.
World War I
–
World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
World War I
–
Clockwise from the top: The aftermath of shelling during the
Battle of the Somme,
Mark V tanks cross the
Hindenburg Line,
HMS Irresistible sinks after hitting a
mine in the
Dardanelles, a British
Vickers machine gun crew wears
gas masks during the Battle of the Somme,
Albatros D.III fighters of
Jagdstaffel 11
World War I
–
Sarajevo citizens reading a poster with the proclamation of the
Austrian annexation in 1908.
World War I
–
This picture is usually associated with the arrest of
Gavrilo Princip, although some believe it depicts Ferdinand Behr, a bystander.
World War I
–
Serbian Army
Blériot XI "Oluj", 1915.
13.
Treaty of Versailles
–
The Treaty of Versailles was the most important of the peace treaties that brought World War I to an end. The Treaty ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers and it was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of World War I signed separate treaties, although the armistice, signed on 11 November 1918, ended the actual fighting, it took six months of Allied negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. The treaty was registered by the Secretariat of the League of Nations on 21 October 1919 and this article, Article 231, later became known as the War Guilt clause. The treaty forced Germany to disarm, make substantial territorial concessions, in 1921 the total cost of these reparations was assessed at 132 billion marks. On the other hand, prominent figures on the Allied side such as French Marshal Ferdinand Foch criticized the treaty for treating Germany too leniently, although it is often referred to as the Versailles Conference, only the actual signing of the treaty took place at the historic palace. Most of the negotiations were in Paris, with the Big Four meetings taking place generally at the Quai dOrsay, the First World War was fought across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Countries beyond the war zones were also affected by the disruption of trade, finance. In 1917, two revolutions occurred within the Russian Empire, which led to the collapse of the Imperial Government, the American war aim was to detach the war from nationalistic disputes and ambitions after the Bolshevik disclosure of secret treaties between the Allies. The existence of these treaties tended to discredit Allied claims that Germany was the power with aggressive ambitions. On 8 January 1918, United States President Woodrow Wilson issued a statement that became known as the Fourteen Points and this speech outlined a policy of free trade, open agreements, democracy and self-determination. After the Central Powers launched Operation Faustschlag on the Eastern Front and this treaty ended the war between Russia and the Central powers and annexed 1,300,000 square miles of territory and 62 million people. During the autumn of 1918, the Central Powers began to collapse, desertion rates within the German army began to increase, and civilian strikes drastically reduced war production. On the Western Front, the Allied forces launched the Hundred Days Offensive, sailors of the Imperial German Navy at Kiel mutinied, which prompted uprisings in Germany, which became known as the German Revolution. The German government tried to obtain a settlement based on the Fourteen Points. Following negotiations, the Allied powers and Germany signed an armistice, the terms of the armistice called for an immediate evacuation of German troops from occupied Belgium, France, and Luxembourg within fifteen days. In addition, it established that Allied forces would occupy the Rhineland, in late 1918, Allied troops entered Germany and began the occupation. Both the German Empire and Great Britain were dependent on imports of food and raw materials, primarily from the Americas, the Blockade of Germany was a naval operation conducted by the Allied Powers to stop the supply of raw materials and foodstuffs reaching the Central Powers
Treaty of Versailles
–
Cover of the English version
Treaty of Versailles
–
The borders of Eastern Europe, as drawn up in Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
Treaty of Versailles
–
The heads of the "
Big Four " nations at the Paris Peace Conference, 27 May 1919. From left to right:
David Lloyd George,
Vittorio Orlando , Georges Clemenceau, and
Woodrow Wilson.
Treaty of Versailles
–
German
Johannes Bell signs the Treaty of Versailles in the
Hall of Mirrors, with various Allied delegations sitting and standing in front of him.
14.
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919)
–
The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye was signed on 10 September 1919 by the victorious Allies of World War I on the one hand and by the Republic of German-Austria on the other. The treaty signing ceremony took place at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, already on 21 October 1918,208 German-speaking delegates of the Austrian Imperial Council had convened in a provisional national assembly of German-Austria at the Lower Austrian Landtag. While the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Army culminated at the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, in the course of the Aster Revolution on 31 October, the newly established Democratic Republic of Hungary under Minister President Mihály Károlyi declared the real union with Austria terminated. With the Armistice of Villa Giusti on 3 November 1918, the fate of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was sealed, moreover, South Tyrol and Trentino were occupied by Italian forces and Yugoslav troops entered the former Duchy of Carinthia, leading to violent fights. An Austrian Constitutional Assembly election was held on 16 February 1919, the Assembly re-elected Karl Renner state chancellor and enacted the Habsburg Law concerning the banishment of the House of Lorraine. When Chancellor Renner arrived at Saint-Germain in May 1919, he, upon an Allied ultimatum, Renner signed the treaty on 10 September. The Treaty of Trianon in June 1920 between Hungary and the Allies completed the disposition of the former Dual Monarchy, the treaty declared that the Austro-Hungarian Empire was to be dissolved. According to article 177, the Austrian side accepted responsibility for causing the war along with the Central Powers, the treaty included war reparations of large sums of money, directed towards the Allies. The Austrian Silesia province upon the Polish–Czechoslovak War of January 1919 was split between Czech Silesia and Polish Cieszyn Silesia incorporated into Silesian Voivodeship and these cessions concerned a large German-speaking population in German Bohemia and Sudetenland. The former Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, made up of the territory the Habsburg Monarchy had annexed in the 1772 First Partition of Poland, the adjacent Bukovina in the east passed to the Kingdom of Romania. Also Bosnia and Herzegovina was given to it, austria-Hungarys only overseas possession, its concession in Tianjin, was turned over to China. Burgenland, i. e. the predominantly German-speaking western parts of the Hungarian counties of Moson, Sopron, the affiliation of the Southern Carinthian territory with its Slovene-speaking share of population was to be decided in a Carinthian Plebiscite. Accordingly, the new republics initial self-chosen name of German-Austria had to be changed to Austria, many Austrians would come to find this term harsh, due to Austrias later economic weakness, which was caused by loss of land. The economic weakness of Austria would later lead to support for the idea of Anschluss with Nazi Germany, conscription was abolished and the Austrian Army was limited to a force of 30,000 volunteers. There were numerous provisions dealing with Danubian navigation, the transfer of railways, for a time, the countrys very unity was called into question. Unlike its former Hungarian partner, Austria had never been a nation in the sense of the word. While the Austrian state had existed in one form or another for over 700 years, it had no unifying force other than loyalty to the Habsburgs
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919)
–
Signing ceremony, Austrian chancellor Renner addressing the delegates
15.
Peace of Riga
–
The Peace of Riga, also known as the Treaty of Riga, Polish, Traktat Ryski was signed in Riga on 18 March 1921, between Poland, Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine. The treaty ended the Polish–Soviet War, the Soviet-Polish borders established by the treaty remained in force until the Second World War. They were later redrawn during the Yalta Conference and Potsdam Conference, World War I removed former imperial borders across Europe. The Polish-Soviet War ensued, culminating in the Polish victory in the Battle of Warsaw, Peace talks began in Minsk on 17 August 1920, but as the Polish counter-offensive drew near, the talks were moved to Riga, and resumed on 21 September. The Soviets proposed two solutions, the first on 21 September and the second on the 28th, the Polish delegation made a counter-offer on 2 October. Three days later the Soviets offered amendments to the Polish offer, an armistice was signed on 12 October and went into effect on 18 October 1920. The chief negotiators were Jan Dąbski for Poland and Adolph Joffe for the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Soviet side insisted, successfully, on excluding non-communist Ukrainian representatives from the negotiations. Due to their military setbacks, the Soviet delegation offered Poland substantial territorial concessions in the border areas. However, to observers, it looked like the Polish side was conducting the Riga talks as if Poland had lost the war. The Polish delegation was dominated by members of the National Democrat movement and this decision was also motivated by political objectives. The National Democrats base of support was among Poles in central. In the east of the country and in the disputed borderlands, so a border too far to the east was not just against the National Democrats ideological objective of minimising the minority population of Poland, but would also be an electoral disadvantage to them. War-weary public opinion in Poland also favoured an end to the negotiations, pressured by the National Democrat ideologue, Stanisław Grabski, the 100 km of extra territory was rejected, a victory for the nationalist doctrine and a stark defeat for Piłsudskis federalism. Regardless, the negotiations dragged on for months due to Soviet reluctance to sign. As a result of this situation, Lenin ordered the Soviet plenipotentiaries to finalise the treaty with Poland. The Peace of Riga was signed on 18 March 1921, partitioning the disputed territories in Belarus, the Treaty consisted of 26 articles. Poland was to receive compensation for its economic input into the Russian Empire during the Partitions of Poland. Under Article 14 Poland was also to receive railway materials with a value of 29 million gold roubles, Russia was to surrender works of art and other Polish national treasures acquired from Polish territories after 1772
Peace of Riga
–
Second page of the treaty, Polish version
Peace of Riga
–
Central and Eastern Europe after the Treaty of Riga
16.
Silesian Uprisings
–
In the latter-day history of Poland after World War II, the insurrections were celebrated as centrepieces of national pride. Much of Silesia had belonged to the Polish Crown in medieval times, frederick the Great of Prussia seized Silesia from Maria Theresa of Austria in 1742 in the War of Austrian Succession, after which it became a part of Prussia and in 1871 the German Empire. Although the province had by now become overwhelmingly German speaking, a large Polish minority remained in Upper Silesia, Upper Silesia was bountiful in mineral resources and heavy industry, with mines and iron and steel mills. The Silesian mines were responsible for almost a quarter of Germanys annual output of coal,81 percent of its zinc and 34 percent of its lead, the area in Upper Silesia east of the Oder was dominated by ethnic Poles, most of whom were working class. Most spoke a dialect of Polish, but many felt they were a Slavic group of their own called Silesians. In contrast, most of the middle and upper classes – the landowners, businessmen, factory owners, local government, police. There was a division along religious lines. The German Silesians were almost all Protestant, while the Polish Silesians were invariably Roman Catholic, in the German census of 1900, 65% of the population of the eastern part of Silesia was recorded as Polish speaking, which decreased to 57% in 1910. This was partly a result of forced Germanization, but was due to the creation of a bilingual category. The Treaty of Versailles had ordered a plebiscite in Upper Silesia to determine whether the territory should be a part of Germany or Poland. Thus the plebiscite took place in all of Upper Silesia, including the predominantly Polish-speaking areas in the east, the Upper Silesian plebiscite was to be conducted on March 20,1921. In the meantime, the German administration and police remained in place, meanwhile, propaganda and strong arm tactics by both sides led to increasing unrest. The German authorities warned that those voting for Poland might forfeit their jobs, pro-Polish activists argued that, under Polish rule, Silesian Poles would no longer be discriminated against. Poland also promised to honour their German state social benefits, such as the old age pensions, however, many German Army veterans joined the Freikorps, a paramilitary organization whose troops fought any pro-Polish activists. The pro-Poland side employed the Polish Military Organisation – a secret military organisation, eventually, the deteriorating situation resulted in Upper Silesian Uprisings conducted by Poles in 1919 and 1920. The right to vote was granted to all aged 20 and older who either had been born in or lived in the plebiscite area, a result was the mass migration of both Germans and Poles. The German newcomers accounted for 179,910, the Polish newcomers numbering over 10,000, without these new voters, the pro-German vote would have had a majority of 58,336 instead of the final 228,246. The plebiscite took place as arranged on March 20, two days after the signing of the Treaty of Riga, which ended the Polish–Soviet War of 1919/1920, a total of 707,605 votes were cast for Germany and 479,359 for Poland
Silesian Uprisings
–
Polish
armored car Korfanty in 1920 made by Polish fighters in Woźniak foundry. It was one of the two created, the second was named Walerus – Woźniak.
Silesian Uprisings
–
Silesian Insurgents Monument in
Katowice. The largest and heaviest monument in Poland, constructed in 1967.
17.
Polish Corridor
–
The Free City of Danzig was separate from both Poland and Germany. A similar territory, also referred to as a corridor, had been connected to the Polish Crown as part of Royal Prussia during the period 1466–1772. Internationally the term was used in the English language already as early as March 1919 and whatever its origins, the equivalent German term is Polnischer Korridor. Polish names include korytarz polski and korytarz gdański, however, reference to the region as a corridor came to be regarded as offensive by interwar Polish diplomats. Among the harshest critics of the corridor was Polish Foreign Minister Józef Beck. The word corridor is an idea, as this land has been Polish for centuries. Poles would commonly refer to the region as Pomorze Gdańskie or simply Pomorze, or as województwo pomorskie, in the 10th century, Pomerelia was settled by Slavic Pomeranians, ancestors of the Kashubians, who were subdued by Boleslaw I of Poland. In the 11th century, they created an independent duchy, in 1116/1121, Pomerania was again conquered by Poland. In 1138, following the death of Duke Bolesław III, Poland was fragmented into several semi-independent principalities, the Samborides, principes in Pomerelia, gradually evolved into independent dukes, who ruled the duchy until 1294. Before Pomerelia regained independence in 1227, their dukes were vassals of Poland, since 1308, following succession wars between Poland and Brandenburg, Pomerelia was subjugated by the Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights in Prussia. In 1466, with the second Peace of Thorn, Pomerelia became part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as a part of autonomous Royal Prussia. After the First Partition of Poland in 1772 it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia and named West Prussia, and became a constituent part of the new German Empire in 1871. Thus the Polish Corridor was not a new creation, the territory assigned to Poland had been an integral part of Poland prior to 1772. After the First World War, Poland was to be re-established as an independent state, since a Polish state had not existed since the Congress of Vienna, the future republics territory had to be defined. Giving Poland access to the sea was one of the proposed by United States President Woodrow Wilson in his Fourteen Points of 1918. The following arguments were behind the creation of the corridor, Ethnic situation was one of the reasons for returning the area to the restored Poland, the majority of the population in the area was Polish. The Prussian census of 1910 showed that there were 528,000 Poles in the region compared with 385,000 Germans, … It is only fair that the claim of the river-basin should prevail against that of the seaboard. The Poles held the view that without direct access to the Baltic Sea, around 60. 5% of Polish import trade and 55. 1% of exports went through the area
Polish Corridor
–
Density of Polish population according to the materials and documents of the last years 1914-1920.Geograficzno-Statystyczny Atlas Polski, Dr.
Eugeniusz Romer, 1921.
Polish Corridor
–
The Polish Corridor in 1923–1939
Polish Corridor
–
A Polish language poster, illustrating the drop in German population in selected cities of western Poland in the period 1910-1931 [
citation needed]
18.
World War II
–
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
World War II
–
Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the
Battle of Wanjialing, Australian
25-pounder guns during the
First Battle of El Alamein, German
Stuka dive bombers on the
Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the
Lingayen Gulf,
Wilhelm Keitel signing the
German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the
Battle of Stalingrad
World War II
–
The
League of Nations assembly, held in
Geneva,
Switzerland, 1930
World War II
–
Adolf Hitler at a German
National Socialist political rally in
Weimar, October 1930
World War II
–
Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
19.
Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany
–
The rest of Nazi occupied Poland was renamed as the General Government district. The annexation was part of the partition of Poland by Nazi Germany. Some smaller territories were incorporated directly into the existing Gaue East Prussia and Silesia, while the bulk of the land was used to create new Reichsgaue Danzig-West Prussia, of those, Reichsgau Wartheland was the largest and the only one comprising solely the annexed territory. The official term used by the Nazi authorities for these areas was the incorporated Eastern territories and they planned for a complete Germanization of the annexed territories, considering them part of their lebensraum. The local Polish population was to be enslaved, exterminated. The Polish elite especially became subject to murder, and an estimated 780,000 Poles were subject to expulsion. The remaining Polish population was segregated from the German population. These included forced labour and their exclusion from all political and many aspects of society. After Vistula-Oder offensive in early 1945, the Soviet Union took control over the territories, the ethnic German population either fled the Red Army or were later expelled and the territories became part of the Peoples Republic of Poland. Already in the fall of 1933 Adolf Hitler revealed to his closest associates his intentions to annex western Poland into an envisioned Greater Germany. After the invasion of Poland in September 1939, the Third Reich, the remainder of the Polish territory was either annexed by the Soviet Union or made into the German-controlled General Government occupation zone. A tiny portion of pre-war Poland was annexed by Nazi Slovakia, since 1935, Nazi Germany was divided into provinces which had replaced the former German states and Prussian provinces. Of the territories annexed, some were attached to the already existing Gaue East Prussia and Silesia, while from others new Reichsgaue Danzig-West Prussia, Wartheland was the only Gau constituted solely from annexed territory, Danzig-West Prussia comprised also former German areas and the former Free City of Danzig. The occupied General Government remained outside the Third Reich, Nazi Germanys officials discussed the convention and tried to circumvent it by declaring the war against Poland over prior to the annexation, which in their view made the convention non-applicable. Based on laws of 21 May 1935 and 1 June 1938, Hitler appointed Arthur Greiser to become the CdZ of the Posen military district, and Danzigs Gauleiter Albert Forster to become the CdZ of the West Prussian military district. Frank was at the time appointed supreme chief administrator for all occupied territories. A decree issued by Hitler on 8 October 1939, provided for the annexation of western Polish areas, a separate by-law stipulated the inclusion of the area around Suwalki. These government regions were named after the German language names of their cities, Hohensalza, Posen, Kalisch, Bromberg, Danzig
Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany
–
Arthur Greiser in German occupied
Poznań, 2 October 1939
Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany
–
Fourth
Partition of Poland –
The Nazi-Soviet Pact
Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany
–
"The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied Poland", by the
Polish government-in-exile addressed to the
wartime allies of the then-
United Nations, 1942
Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany
–
Nazis assemble in
Posen (Poznań) on 4 November 1939
20.
Tehran Conference
–
The Tehran Conference was a strategy meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943. It was held in the Soviet Unions embassy in Tehran, Iran and it was the first of the World War II conferences of the Big Three Allied leaders. It closely followed the Cairo Conference which had taken place on 22–26 November 1943, although the three leaders arrived with differing objectives, the main outcome of the Tehran Conference was the Western Allies commitment to open a second front against Nazi Germany. The conference also addressed the Allies relations with Turkey and Iran, operations in Yugoslavia and against Japan, a separate protocol signed at the conference pledged the Big Three to recognize Irans independence. As soon as the German-Soviet war broke out in June 1941, Churchill offered assistance to the Soviets, and an agreement to this effect was signed on 12 July 1941. Delegations had traveled between London and Moscow to arrange the implementation of this support and when the United States joined the war in December 1941, a Combined Chiefs of Staff committee was created to coordinate British and American operations as well as their support to the Soviet Union. There was the question of opening a second front to alleviate the German pressure on the Soviet Red Army on the Eastern Front, the question of mutual assistance. Also, neither the United States nor Britain were prepared to give Stalin a free hand in Eastern Europe and, lastly, communications regarding these matters between Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin took place by telegrams and via emissaries—but it was evident that direct negotiations were urgently needed. Stalin was reluctant to leave Moscow and was unwilling to risk journeys by air, while Roosevelt was physically disabled, in order to arrange this urgently needed meeting, Roosevelt tried to persuade Stalin to travel to Cairo. Stalin turned down this offer and also offers to meet in Baghdad or Basra, the conference was to convene at 16,00 on 28 November 1943. Stalin arrived well before, followed by Roosevelt, brought in his wheelchair from his accommodation adjacent to the venue, Roosevelt, who had traveled 7,000 miles to attend and whose health was already deteriorating, was met by Stalin. This was the first time that they had met, Churchill, walking with his general staff from their accommodations nearby, arrived half an hour later. The U. S. and Great Britain wanted to secure the cooperation of the Soviet Union in defeating Germany, Stalin pressed for a revision of Poland’s eastern border with the Soviet Union to match the line set by British Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon in 1920. In order to compensate Poland for the loss of territory. This decision was not formally ratified, however, until the Potsdam Conference of 1945, the leaders then turned to the conditions under which the Western Allies would open a new front by invading northern France, as Stalin had pressed them to do since 1941. It was agreed Overlord would occur by May 1944, Stalin agreed to support it by launching a concurrent major offensive on Germanys eastern front to divert German forces from northern France, Iran and Turkey were discussed in detail. In addition, the Soviet Union was required to support to Turkey if that country entered the war. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin agreed that it would also be most desirable if Turkey entered on the Allies side before the year was out, despite accepting the above arrangements, Stalin dominated the conference
Tehran Conference
–
The "Big Three" at the Tehran Conference Left to right: Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.
Tehran Conference
–
Life
21.
Yalta Conference
–
The conference convened in the Livadia Palace near Yalta in Crimea, USSR. The goal of conference was to shape a post-war peace that represented not just a collective security order, the meeting was intended mainly to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of war-torn Europe. Within a few years, with the Cold War dividing the continent, to a degree, it has remained controversial. Yalta was the second of three wartime conferences among the Big Three and it had been preceded by the Tehran Conference in 1943, and was followed by the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, which was attended by Stalin, Churchill and Harry S. Truman, Roosevelts successor. All three leaders were attempting to establish an agenda for governing post-war Germany and they wanted to keep peace between post-world war countries. On the Eastern Front, the front line at the end of December 1943 remained in the Soviet Union but, by August 1944, Soviet forces were inside Poland, by the time of the Conference, Red Army Marshal Georgy Zhukovs forces were 65 km from Berlin. Stalins position at the conference was one which he felt was so strong that he could dictate terms. According to U. S. delegation member and future Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, t was not a question of what we would let the Russians do, moreover, Roosevelt hoped for a commitment from Stalin to participate in the United Nations. Stalin, insisting that his doctors opposed any long trips, rejected Roosevelts suggestion to meet at the Mediterranean and he offered instead to meet at the Black Sea resort of Yalta, in the Crimea. Stalins fear of flying also was a factor in this decision. Each leader had an agenda for the Yalta Conference, Roosevelt wanted Soviet support in the U. S, Poland was the first item on the Soviet agenda. Stalin stated that For the Soviet government, the question of Poland was one of honor, in addition, Stalin stated regarding history that because the Russians had greatly sinned against Poland, the Soviet government was trying to atone for those sins. Stalin concluded that Poland must be strong and that the Soviet Union is interested in the creation of a mighty, free, Roosevelt wanted the USSR to enter the Pacific War with the Allies. Stalin agreed that the Soviet Union would enter the Pacific War three months after the defeat of Germany, Stalin pledged to Truman to keep the nationality of the Korean Peninsula intact as Soviet Union entered the war against Japan. At the time, the Red Army had occupied Poland completely, the Declaration of Liberated Europe did little to dispel the sphere of influence agreements that had been incorporated into armistice agreements. They also agreed to give France a zone of occupation, carved out of the U. S. also, the Big Three agreed that all original governments would be restored to the invaded countries and that all civilians would be repatriated. The Declaration of Liberated Europe is a declaration that was created by Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and it was a promise that allowed the people of Europe to create democratic institutions of their own choice. The declaration pledged, the earliest possible establishment through free elections governments responsive to the will of the people and this is similar to the statements of the Atlantic Charter, which says, the right of all people to choose the form of government under which they will live
Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
–
A Big Three meeting room
Yalta Conference
–
The military situation [
clarification needed] at the end of the conference
22.
Potsdam Conference
–
The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 17 July to 2 August 1945. Participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States, the three powers were represented by Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin, Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and, later, Clement Attlee, and President Harry S. Truman. The goals of the conference included the establishment of post-war order, peace treaty issues. In the five months since the Yalta Conference, a number of changes had taken place which would affect the relationships between the leaders. Firstly, the Soviet Union was occupying Central and Eastern Europe, by July, the Red Army effectively controlled the Baltic states, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania, and fearing a Stalinist take-over, refugees were fleeing from these countries. Stalin had set up a communist government in Poland and he insisted that his control of Eastern Europe was a defensive measure against possible future attacks and claimed that it was a legitimate sphere of Soviet influence. Secondly, Britain had a new Prime Minister, a general election was held in the UK on 5 July, the results of which became known during the conference, with a Labour Party majority, Labour leader Clement Attlee became the new Prime Minister. During the war and in the name of Allied unity, Roosevelt had brushed off warnings of a potential domination by a Stalin dictatorship in part of Europe, while inexperienced in foreign affairs, Truman had closely followed the allied progress of the war. With the end of the war, the priority of allied unity was replaced with a new challenge, the two leading powers continued to sustain a cordial relationship to the public but suspicions and distrust lingered between them. As the suspicion grew between the two rising powers, Stalin proposed that America will use their advantage and success in order to entices other nations into expanding their U. S. policies. Truman became much more suspicious of communist moves than Roosevelt had been, Truman and his advisers saw Soviet actions in Eastern Europe as aggressive expansionism which was incompatible with the agreements Stalin had committed to at Yalta the previous February. However, the Potsdam Conference marks the first and only time Truman would ever meet Stalin in person, at the end of the conference, the three Heads of Government agreed on the following actions. All other issues were to be answered by the peace conference to be called as soon as possible. Allied Chiefs of Staff at the Potsdam Conference decided to temporarily partition Vietnam at the 16th parallel for the purposes of operational convenience. It was agreed that British forces would take the surrender of Japanese forces in Saigon for the half of Indochina. The Allies issued a statement of aims of their occupation of Germany, Germany and Austria were to be divided respectively into four occupation zones, and similarly each capital, Berlin and Vienna, was to be divided into four zones. It was agreed that the Nazi war criminals would be put to trial, all German annexations in Europe were to be reversed, including Sudetenland, Alsace-Lorraine, Austria, and the westernmost parts of Poland. Germanys eastern border was to be shifted westwards to the Oder–Neisse line, the territories east of the new border comprised East Prussia, Silesia, West Prussia, and two thirds of Pomerania
Potsdam Conference
–
A picture of a conference session including
Clement Attlee,
Ernest Bevin,
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov,
Joseph Stalin,
William D. Leahy,
Joseph E. Davies,
James F. Byrnes, and
Harry S. Truman.
Potsdam Conference
Potsdam Conference
–
Clement Attlee, Harry Truman and Joseph Stalin at the Potsdam Conference, circa 28 July -- 1 August 1945
Potsdam Conference
–
Cecilienhof today: site of the Potsdam Conference.
23.
Treaty of Zgorzelec
–
The Treaty of Zgorzelec between the Republic of Poland and East Germany was signed on 6 July 1950 in Polish Zgorzelec, since 1945 the eastern part of the divided city of Görlitz. The agreement was signed under Soviet pressure by Otto Grotewohl, prime minister of the government of the GDR. It recognized the Oder-Neisse line implemented by the 1945 Potsdam Agreement as the border between the two states, thereby the East German government also accepted the division of Küstrin, Frankfurt, Guben and Görlitz. The treaty was worded as a declaration and was not recognised as an international treaty by West Germany insisting on its exclusive mandate. So although the treaty was binding on the two states, it was not seen by many members of the international community as such. Reunited Germany accepted the Polish annexations with the German–Polish Border Treaty, the community centre in which the treaty was signed is one of Zgorzelecs main sights and is found in a park beside the road bridge border crossing. Built in typical style, it was originally opened as Upper Lusatian memorial hall. Görlitzer Vertrag at the German-Polish Association
Treaty of Zgorzelec
–
Grotewohl (l.) and Cyrankiewicz walking to the Zgorzelec community centre to sign the treaty
Treaty of Zgorzelec
–
1951 East German stamp commemorative of the Treaty of Zgorzelec featuring the presidents
Wilhelm Pieck (GDR) and
Bolesław Bierut (Poland)
Treaty of Zgorzelec
–
East German stamp commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Treaty of Zgorzelec, issued in 1970
24.
Kresy Zachodnie
–
Kresy Zachodnie is a term used by Poles, mostly in a historical context, to refer to the western parts of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that in the partitions were annexed by Prussia. This name refers specifically to the regions of Eastern Pomerania, Great Poland, Warmia and this term, styled after Kresy Wschodnie, was first used by Jan Chryzostom Zachariasiewicz in his novel Na kresach published in 1860, but it did not enter common usage. The 19th century history of regions was quite different from the rest of the former Commonwealth. There were uprisings in 1806,1846, and 1848 but the battle between the Polish majority and large German minority was for economic domination in these provinces. After World War I, most of this became part of the Second Polish Republic as a result of the Greater Poland and Silesian Uprisings. During the interwar period interbellum most inhabitants of this supported the politics of Narodowa Demokracja political movement. Polish leader Józef Piłsudski was treated with considerable reserve or with open enmity and this despite the fact that the 1919-1939 western Kresy had a higher percentage of ethnic Poles than the eastern Kresy. Former eastern territories of Germany Greater Poland Uprising Kulturkampf German Eastern Marches Society Settlement Commission Western Institute
Kresy Zachodnie
–
Border changes in history of Poland
25.
Recovered Territories
–
The rationale for the term Recovered was the Piast Concept that these territories were once part of the traditional Polish homeland. They had been part of, or fiefs of, a Polish state during the medieval Piast dynasty, several different West Slavic tribes inhabited most of the area of present-day Poland from the 6th century. His realm roughly included all of the area of what would later be named the Recovered Territories, except for the Warmian-Masurian part of Old Prussia and eastern Lusatia. Mieszkos son and successor, Duke Bolesław I Chrobry, upon the 1018 Peace of Bautzen expanded the part of the realm. On Bolesławs death in 1138, Poland for almost 200 years was subjected to fragmentation, being ruled by Bolesławs sons and by their successors, who were often in conflict with each other. Władysław I the Elbow-high, crowned king of Poland in 1320, achieved partial reunification, in the course of the 12th to 14th centuries, Germanic, Dutch and Flemish settlers moved into East Central and Eastern Europe in a migration process known as the Ostsiedlung. In Greater Poland and in Eastern Pomerania, German settlers formed a minority, despite the loss of several provinces, medieval lawyers of the Kingdom of Poland created a specific claim to all formerly Polish provinces that were not reunited with the rest of the country in 1320. They built on the theory of the Corona Regni Poloniae, according to which the state, because of that no monarch could effectively renounce Crown claims to any of the territories that were historically and/or ethnically Polish. Those claims were reserved for the state, which in theory still covered all of the territories that were part of, or dependent on, some of the territories reunited with Poland during the 15th and 16th centuries. However all Polish monarchs until the end of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795 had to promise to do everything possible to reunite the rest of those territories with the Crown, Mieszkos son Bolesław I established a bishopric in the Kołobrzeg area in 1000–1005/07, before the area was lost again. Despite further attempts by Polish dukes to control the Pomeranian tribes. Successful Christian missions ensued in 1124 and 1128, however, by the time of Bolesławs death in 1138, over the following centuries the area was largely Germanized, although a small Slavic or Polish minority remained.7 million inhabitants. After the death of the last Samboride in 1294, the region was ruled by kings of Poland for a short period, after the Teutonic takeover in 1308 the region became part of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights. A small area in the west of Pomerelia, the Lauenburg and Bütow Land was granted to the rulers of Pomerania, the medieval Lubusz Land on both sides of the Oder River up to the Spree in the west, including Lubusz itself, also formed part of Mieszkos realm. Poland lost Lubusz when the Silesian duke Bolesław II Rogatka sold it to the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg in 1248, Brandenburg also acquired the castellany of Santok from Duke Przemysł I of Greater Poland and made it the nucleus of their Neumark region. The Bishopric of Lebus remained a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Gniezno until 1424, the present-day Polish Lubusz Voivodeship comprises most of the former Brandenburgian Neumark territory east of the Oder. After World War I, those parts of the former Province of Posen, Piast dukes continued to rule Silesia following the 12th-century fragmentation of Poland. The Silesian Piasts retained power in most of the region until the early 16th century, the first German colonists arrived in the late 12th century, and large-scale German settlement started in the early 13th century during the reign of Henry I
Recovered Territories
–
Map (published in 1917 in the United States) showing Poland at the death of
Boleslaw III in 1138
Recovered Territories
–
Map showing Poland's borders pre-1938 (includes grey area representing the
Kresy) and post-1945. The "Recovered Territories" are those marked pink.
Recovered Territories
–
Lubusz Land during the Piast period (marked in yellow).
Recovered Territories
–
Polish city names in Silesia; from a 1750 Prussian official document published in
Berlin during the
Silesian Wars.
26.
Former eastern territories of Germany
–
The former eastern territories of Germany are those provinces or regions east of the current eastern border of Germany which were lost by Germany after World War I and then World War II. All territories lost in both World Wars account for 33% of the former German Empire, while land ceded by Germany after World War II constituted roughly 25% of its pre-war Weimar territory. The post-war border between Germany and Poland along the Oder–Neisse line was recognized by East Germany in 1950 by the Treaty of Zgorzelec. In 1952, recognition of the Oder–Neisse line as a permanent boundary was one of Stalins conditions for the Soviet Union to agree to a reunification of Germany, the offer was rejected by West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. In 1970, West Germany recognised the line as a de facto boundary in the Treaty of Warsaw, with this repeal the post-1990 boundaries of Germany are closed to further expansion. In German there is only one term, Ostdeutschland, meaning East Germany or Eastern Germany. The rather ambiguous German term never gained prevailing use for the GDR as did the English term, since Ostdeutschland has been used to denote the post-war and the respective five states of the reunited Germany. At the time of the foundation of the German Empire in 1871, prussian territory east of the Oder-Neisse line included West Prussia and Posen, also Silesia, East Brandenburg, and Pomerania. Later, these territories would come to be called in Germany Ostgebiete des deutschen Reiches, the territories ceded to Poland in 1919 were those with an apparent Polish majority, such as the Province of Posen, the east-southern part of Upper Silesia and the Polish Corridor. The city of Danzig with the delta of the Vistula river at the Baltic Sea, was made the Free City of Danzig under the League of Nations, however, as distinct from other lost Czechoslovakian domains, it was not attached to Sudetengau but to Prussia. By late 1938, Lithuania had lost control over the situation in the Memel Territory, between the two world wars, many in Germany claimed that the territory ceded to Poland in 1919–1922 should be returned to Germany. This claim was one of the justifications for the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Third Reich annexed the former German lands, comprising the Polish Corridor, West Prussia, the Province of Posen, and parts of eastern Upper Silesia. The council of the Free City of Danzig voted to become a part of Germany again, although Poles and Jews were deprived of their voting rights, in addition to taking territories lost in 1919, Germany also took additional land that had never been German. These territories had an area of 94,000 km2 and a population of 10,000,000 people, the remainder of Polish territory was annexed by the Soviet Union or made into the German-controlled General Government occupation zone. The open question was whether the border should follow the Eastern or Lusatian Neisse rivers, and whether Stettin, originally, Germany was to retain Stettin while the Poles were to annex East Prussia with Königsberg. Eventually, however, Stalin decided that he wanted Königsberg as a warm water port for the Soviet Navy. The wartime Polish government in exile had little to say in these decisions, at the Yalta Conference, it was agreed to split Germany into four occupation zones after the war, with a quadripartite occupation of Berlin as well, prior unification of Germany. The status of Poland was discussed, but was complicated by the fact that Poland was at this time under the control of the Red Army and this effectively excluded the Polish government-in-exile that had evacuated in 1939
Former eastern territories of Germany
–
Oder-Neisse line at
Usedom
Former eastern territories of Germany
–
German territories lost in both World Wars are shown in black, present-day Germany is marked dark grey on this 1914 map.
Former eastern territories of Germany
–
Polish atlas showing ethnic groups in 1918.
Former eastern territories of Germany
–
Marking the
new Polish-German border in 1945.
27.
Zaolzie
–
Zaolzie is the Polish name for an area now in the Czech Republic which was disputed between interwar Poland and Czechoslovakia. The name means lands beyond the Olza River, it is also called Śląsk zaolziański, equivalent terms in other languages include Zaolší in Czech and Olsa-Gebiet in German. The Zaolzie region was created in 1920, when Cieszyn Silesia was divided between Czechoslovakia and Poland, Zaolzie forms the eastern part of the Czech portion of Cieszyn Silesia. The division did not satisfy any side, and persisting conflict over the region led to its annexation by Poland in October 1938, after German invasion of Poland in 1939, the area became a part of Nazi Germany until 1945. After the war, the 1920 borders were restored, historically, the largest specified ethnic group inhabiting this area were those identifying as Poles. Under Austrian rule, Cieszyn Silesia was initially divided into three, and later into four districts, one of them, Frýdek, had a mostly Czech population, the other three were mostly inhabited by Poles. During the 19th century the number of ethnic Germans grew, another significant ethnic group were the Jews, but almost the entire Jewish population was exterminated during World War II. In addition to the Polish, Czech and German national orientations there was another group living in the area, the Ślązakowcy, the term Zaolzie is used predominantly in Poland and also commonly by the Polish minority living in the territory. In Czech it is referred to as České Těšínsko/Českotěšínsko, or as Těšínsko or Těšínské Slezsko. The Czech equivalent of Zaolzie is rarely used, the term of Zaolzie is also used by some foreign scholars, e. g. American ethnolinguist Kevin Hannan. The term Zaolzie denotes the territory of the districts of Český Těšín and Fryštát. It makes up the part of the Czech portion of Cieszyn Silesia. However, Polish historian Józef Szymeczek notes that the term is often used for the whole Czech part of Cieszyn Silesia. Since the 1960 reform of administrative divisions of Czechoslovakia, Zaolzie has consisted of Karviná District, after the Migration Period the area was settled by Slavs, which were later organized into the Golensizi tribe. The tribe had a large and important gord situated in contemporary Chotěbuz, after the fall of Great Moravia in 907 the area could have been under the influence of Bohemian rulers. In the late 10th century Poland, ruled by Bolesław I Chrobry, began to contend for the region, from 950 to 1060 it was under the rule of the Duchy of Bohemia, and from 1060 it was part of Poland. The castellany was then a part of Duchy of Silesia, in 1172 it became a part of Duchy of Racibórz, and from 1202 of Duchy of Opole and Racibórz. In order to strengthen the border Władysław of Opole decided to found Orlová monastery in 1268, upon the death of Elizabeth Lucretia, its last ruler from the Polish Piast dynasty in 1653, it passed directly to the Czech kings from the Habsburg dynasty
Zaolzie
–
Map of the plebiscite area of Cieszyn Silesia with various demarcation lines
Zaolzie
–
"For 600 years we have been waiting for you (1335–1938)." Ethnic Polish band welcoming the annexation of Zaolzie by the Polish Republic in
Karviná, October 1938.
Zaolzie
–
Decree on the official language on the annexed territory
Zaolzie
–
"Zaolzie is ours!" – Polish newspaper Ilustrowany Kuryer Codzienny on 3 October 1938.
28.
Curzon Line
–
The history of the Curzon Line, with minor variations, goes back to the period following World War I. It was drawn for the first time by the Supreme War Council as the line between the newly emerging states, the Second Polish Republic, and Bolshevik Russia. The line became a major factor during World War II. The western powers entered into negotiations with the Soviet Union following Operation Barbarossa, the Allied arrangement involved compensation for this loss via the incorporation of formerly German-held areas into Poland. As a result, the current border between the countries of Belarus, Ukraine and Poland is an approximation of the Curzon Line, at the end of World War I, Poland reclaimed its sovereignty in a military campaign following the disintegration of the occupying forces of three neighbouring empires. The Supreme War Council tasked the Commission on Polish Affairs with recommending Polands eastern border, the Allies forwarded it as an armistice line several times during the war, most notably in a note from the British government to the Soviets signed by Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon of Kedleston. Both parties disregarded the line when the situation lay in their favour. Instead, the final Peace of Riga provided Poland with almost 135,000 square kilometres of land that was, on average and its 1920 northern extension into Lithuania divided the area disputed between Poland and Lithuania. There were two versions of the portion of the line, A and B. Version B allocated Lwów to Poland, article 87 of the Versailles Treaty stipulated that The boundaries of Poland not laid down in the present Treaty will be subsequently determined by the Principal Allied and Associated Powers. The Commission issued its recommendation on 22 April, its proposed Russo-Polish borders were close to those of the 19th-century Congress Poland, the Supreme Council continued to debate the issue for several months. At the same time, the announcement stated the Council was not, the announcement had no immediate impact, although the Allies recommended its consideration in an August 1919 proposal to Poland, which was ignored. Polish forces pushed eastward, taking Kiev in May 1920, following a strong Soviet counteroffensive, Prime Minister Władysław Grabski sought Allied assistance in July. Under pressure, he agreed to a Polish withdrawal to the 1919 version of the line and, in Galicia, an armistice near the current line of battle. On 11 July 1920 Curzon signed a telegram sent to the Bolshevik government proposing that a ceasefire be established along the line, curzons July 1920 proposal differed from the 19 December announcement in two significant ways. The July 1920 note specifically addressed the Polish-Lithuanian dispute by mentioning a line running from Grodno to Vilnius and thence north to Daugavpils and it also mentioned Galicia, where earlier discussions had resulted in the alternatives of Line A and Line B. The note endorsed Line A, which included Lwów and its oil fields within Russia. This portion of the line did not correspond to the current line of battle in Galicia, as per Grabskis agreement, on 17 July, the Soviets responded to the note with a refusal
Curzon Line
–
Mother tongue in interwar Poland, original map by
Central Statistical Office based on 1931 census
Curzon Line
–
Lighter blue line: Curzon Line "B" as proposed in 1919. Darker blue line: "Curzon" Line "A" as proposed by the Soviet Union in 1940. Pink areas: Former pre-World War II provinces of
Germany transferred to Poland after the war. Grey area: Pre-World War II Polish territory east of the Curzon Line annexed by the Soviet Union after the war.
29.
Territorial evolution of Germany
–
The territorial changes of Germany include all changes in the borders and territory of Germany from its formation in 1871 to the present. Modern Germany was formed in 1871 when Otto von Bismarck unified most of the German states, with the exception of Austria. After the First World War Germany lost about 10% of its territory to its neighbours and this republic included territories to the east of todays German borders. The period of Nazi rule from the 1930s through the end of the Second World War brought significant territorial losses for the country, Nazi Germany initially expanded the countrys territory dramatically and conquered most of Europe, though not all areas were added to Germany proper. The Nazis fortunes changed after the failure of the invasion of Soviet Union, the Nazi regime eventually collapsed, and the Allies occupied Germany. The former eastern territories of Germany were ceded to Poland and the Soviet Union, in the west, the Saar area formed a French-controlled protectorate with limited autonomy, but its own citizenship laws. With the onset of the Cold War, the part of Germany was unified as the Trizone. Western-occupied West Berlin declared its accession to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 but was denied by the occupying powers, the Soviet zone, including the Soviet sector of Berlin, became the communist German Democratic Republic in October the same year. Effective 1 January 1957 the Saar Protectorate declared its accession to the Federal Republic of Germany, part of the motivation behind the territorial changes is based on historical events in Germany and Western Europe. Migrations that took place more than a millennium led to pockets of Germans living throughout Central. The existence of these enclaves was sometimes used by German nationalists, such as the Nazis, the territorial changes of Germany after World War II can be interpreted in the context of the evolution of global nationalism and European nationalism. The latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century saw the rise of nationalism in Europe, previously, a country consisted largely of whatever peoples lived on the land that was under the dominion of a particular ruler. As principalities and kingdoms grew through conquest and marriage, a ruler could wind up with different ethnicities under his dominion. The concept of nationalism was based on the idea of a people who shared a bond through race, religion, language. Furthermore, nationalism asserted that people had a right to its own state. Many interior conflicts were a result of more or less pressurising citizens of alternative ethnicities and/or other native languages to assimilate to the ethnicity dominant in the state, switzerland was the bright exception showing that patriotism only needs civic pride and legal equality, not a common native language. Much conflict would arise when one nation asserted territorial rights to land outside its borders on the basis of a bond with the people living on the land. Yet another source of conflict was the desire of some nations to expel people from territory within its borders because people did not share a bond with the majority of people of that nation
Territorial evolution of Germany
–
World War I Allied propaganda poster showing German expansionist ambitions
Territorial evolution of Germany
–
The Kingdom of Prussia (dark blue) within the German Empire (beige) 1871–1918
Territorial evolution of Germany
–
Territorial expansion of Germany proper from 1933 to 1941 as explained to Wehrmacht soldiers, a Nazi era map in German.
30.
Territorial changes of the Baltic states
–
Territorial changes of the Baltic states refers to the redrawing of borders of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia after 1940. After a two-front independence war fought against both Bolshevist Russian and Baltic German nationalist forces, the countries concluded peace and border treaties with Soviet Russia in 1920 and this has been the source of political tensions after they regained their independence with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Some of the disputes remain unresolved, in addition, some territories that were not controlled by the independent Baltic republics were also annexed during the Soviet era. Most notable case is Vilnius taken from Poland by the USSR to become the capital of Lithuania, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union the issue of these territories was raised by the Estonian and Latvian governments. Lithuania has never raised the question of its borders and has border treaties with all its neighbors. Only marginal political groups use the issue of borders in their political rhetoric and this is a list of actual territorial changes that happened when Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were incorporated into the Soviet Union and became the Baltic Soviet Socialist Republics. All the boundaries established by these changes exist up to modern days, the Russian-Estonian boundary that used to run in the middle of Lake Peipus did not change, while the boundary south of Lake Peipus was also moved westwards. Overall, about 2000 km² of land changed hands, including Ivangorod, the town of Pechory, and areas in and around Izborsk, Lavry, and Rotovo, and the Kolpina Island in southern Lake Peipus. In the late 1944, a territory in northeastern Latvian SSR of about 1,300 square kilometers was ceded to Russian SFSR and this area includes towns of Pytalovo and four rural districts. All these areas during the interwar constituted the eastern part of the Abrene district of Latvia and they were added to Pskov Oblast of Russian SFSR. Russian-Latvian boundary in the southeastern Latvia did not change, after the annexation of Lithuania into the Soviet Union in 1940, a new eastern boundary of Lithuania was delimited. Lithuania, however, continued to claim the 1920 border as official, in 1940, when Lithuania was incorporated into the Soviet Union, a new boundary was drawn, enlarging the de facto Lithuanian territory, though not to the full extent of the republics claim. The notable gain was the city of Vilnius, which again became Lithuanias capital, the control of the Vilnius region was partitioned between the Lithuanian SSR, the Belarusian SSR and Nazi Germany. Main cities that were recognised by Soviets as a part of Lithuania by the 1920 treaty but were not added to Lithuanian SSR include Hrodna, Lida, Smarhon, Pastavy, Ašmiany, Brasłaŭ, Suwałki. In Latvia and Estonia, territories which had not belonged to the Governorate of Estonia, unlike Soviet Socialist Republics, however, imperial gubernyas were not based on ethnicity, so this historical reasoning is not accepted by Latvians and Estonians. In Lithuanias case, the detaching did not have any historical foundation and they saw a significant migration of Russian-speaking people. In some of the territories became part of Poland Lithuanian language schools existed. The territories were not returned to the Baltic states after they gained independence and remain parts of Russia, Belarus and it was assumed that the Russian-Latvian border treaty would be signed in year 2005
Territorial changes of the Baltic states
–
Border changes of
Estonia and
Latvia after
World War II
