Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union

After the Soviet invasion of Poland following the corresponding German invasion that marked the start of World War II in 1939, the Soviet Union annexed eastern parts (so-called "Kresy") of the Second Polish Republic, totaling 201,015 km² and a population of 13.299 million. Most of those territories became part of the Soviet Union in 1945 as part of the Europe-wide territorial rearrangement caused by the World War II. Poland was partially compensated by the Soviet Union with former German territories, the so called "Recovered Territories".

oviet occupation 1939-1941

Under the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, adjusted by agreement on 28 September 1939, the Soviet Union annexed all Polish territory east of the line of the rivers Pisa, Narew, Western Bug, and San, except for Wilno Voivodship with its capital Wilno (Vilnius), which was given to Lithuania, and the Suwałki region, which was annexed by Nazi Germany. Initially captured by Poland in a series of wars between 1918 and 1921 (primarily the Polish-Soviet War), these territories had mixed population of different nationalities with Poles and Ukrainians being the most numerous ethnic groups, as well as large minorities of Belarusians and Jews.pl icon"Among the population of Eastern territories were circa 38% Poles, 37 % Ukrainians, 14,5 % Belarusians, 8,4 % Jewish, 0,9 % Russians and 0,6 % Germans"
cite book | author = Elżbieta Trela-Mazur | coauthors = | title =Sowietyzacja oświaty w Małopolsce Wschodniej pod radziecką okupacją 1939-1941 (Sovietization of education in eastern Lesser Poland during the Soviet occupation 1939-1941) | year =1997 | editor =Włodzimierz Bonusiak, Stanisław Jan Ciesielski, Zygmunt Mańkowski, Mikołaj Iwanow | pages =294 | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =Wyższa Szkoła Pedagogiczna im. Jana Kochanowskiego | location =Kielce | id =ISBN 83-7133-100-2| url = | format = | accessdate = , also in "Wrocławskie Studia Wschodnie", Wrocław, 1997 ] However, as the different national groups were located in a patchwork of mixed settlement patterns, much of the territory had its own significant local non-Polish majority (Ukrainians in the south and Belarusians in the North), especially in the rural areas."Ukrainians made up a clear majority in the total population of Stanisławów, Tarnopol, and Lwów Voivodships constituting Eastern Galicia. Add the coniguous territory of Wolyn Voivodship (70 percent Ukrainian) and the Ukrainian majority in the area becomes overwhelming... The eastern half of Poland could be divided into three zones north to south. A clear Ukrainian majority resided in the south, except in some areas where Poles more or less equaled their Ukrainian neighbors; in the central part, in Polesie and Wołyń, a small Polish minority (14 and 16 percent respectively) faced a mostly Orthodox peasantry (Ukrainian to the south, then "local" and finally, on the northern fringe increasingly Belarusian); and in the northern part, in Białystok, Wilno and Nowogródek voivodships, Poles were in majority, confronted by a numerically strong Belarusian minority. Jews constituted the principal counterpart of the Poles in Urban areas"
Jan Tomasz Gross, "Revolution from Abroad", pp. 4, 5, Princeton, 2005, ISBN 0-691-09603-1 ( [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0691096031 Google books link)] ] The "need to protect" the Ukrainian and Belarusian population was used as a pretext for Soviet invasion of Eastern Poland (including Western Ukraine and Belarus) carried out in the wake of Poland's falling apart under the Nazi invasion with Warsaw being besieged and Poland's government being in the process of evacuation."...the Soviet Government intended to motivate its procedure as follows: the Polish State had collapsed and no longer existed; therefore all agreements concluded with Poland were void; third powers might try to profit by the chaos which had arisen; the Soviet Union considered itself obligated to intervene to protect its Ukrainian and White Russian brothers and make it possible for these unfortunate people to work in peace.(...) Molotov conceded that the projected argument of the Soviet Government contained a note that was jarring to German sensibilities but asked that in view of the difficult situation of the Soviet Government we not let a trifle like this stand in our way. The Soviet Government unfortunately saw no possibility of any other motivation, since the Soviet Union had thus far not concerned itself about the plight of its minorities in Poland and had to justify abroad, in some way or other, its present intervention. "Telegram of the German Ambassador in the Soviet Union, (Schulenburg) to the German Foreign Office Moscow, Moscow, September 16 [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/nazsov/ns073.htm] .] 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.Concise statistical year-book of Poland, Polish Ministry of Information. London June 1941 P.9 & 10 ] An additional 138,000 ethnic Poles and 198,000 Jews fled the German occupied zone and became refugees in the Soviet occupied regionPoland's Holocaust, Tadeusz Piotrowski, 1998 ISBN 0-7864-0371-3 P.14]

During 1939-1941 1.450 million.of the people inhabiting the region were deported by the Soviet regime, of whom 63.1% were Poles, and 7.4% were Jews. Previously it was believed that about 1.0 million Polish citizens died at the hands of the Soviets,Franciszek Proch, Poland's Way of the Cross, New York 1987 P.146] however recently Polish historians, based mostly on queries in Soviet archives, estimate the number of deaths at about 350,000 people deported in 1939-1945.Project In Posterum [http://www.projectinposterum.org/docs/european_WWII_casualties.htm] (go to note on Polish Casualties by Tadeusz Piotrowski)]

Polish northern territories, around Wilno (now Vilnius), were annexed by Lithuania (and soon afterwards, Lithuania was annexed by Soviet Union and became the Lithuanian SSR). Other northern territories were attached to Belastok Voblast, Hrodna Voblast, Navahrudak Voblast (soon renamed to Baranavichy Voblast), Pinsk Voblast and Vileyka (later Maladzyechna) Voblast in Byelorussian SSR. Ukrainian SSR divided the territories in the south it received from Poland's annexation into: Drohobych Oblast, Lviv Oblast, Rivne Oblast, Stanislav (later known as Ivano-Frankivsk) Oblast, Tarnopil Oblast and Volyn Oblast,

German occupation 1941-1944

These areas were conquered by the Nazi Germany in 1941 during Operation Barbarossa. The Nazis divided them up as follows:
* "Bezirk Bialystok" (district of Białystok), which included the Białystok, Bielsk Podlaski, Grajewo, Łomża, Sokółka, Vaukavysk, and Hrodna counties and was "attached to" (not incorporated into) East Prussia;
* "Bezirk Litauen und Weissruthenien" — the Polish parts of White Ruthenia (today western Belarus), including the Vilnius (Vilna) province of Lithuania, which was incorporated into the Reichskommissariat Ostland;
* "Bezirk Wolhynien-Podolien" — the Polish province of Volhynia, which was incorporated into the Reichskommissariat Ukraine; and
* "District Galicia", East Galicia, which was incorporated into the General Government and became its fifth district.

During 1943-1944 ethnic cleansing operations in Ukraine (commonly known as the Massacres of Poles in Volhynia) caused about 100,000 deaths and the mass exodus of Poles from this territory.

The Polish and Jewish language population of the annexed regions totaled about 6.7 million in 1939. During the war 2 million perished (including 1.2 million Jews) and are included with Polish war losses, 2 million (including 250,000 Jews) 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.Krystyna Kersten, Szacunek strat osobowych w Polsce Wschodniej. Dzieje Najnowsze Rocznik XXI- 1994, p. 46 & 47] Contemporary Russian historians also include the war losses of Poles and Jews from this region with Soviet war dead.Rossiiskaia Akademiia nauk. "Liudskie poteri SSSR v period vtoroi mirovoi voiny:sbornik statei". Sankt-Peterburg 1995 ISBN 5-86789-023-6 P.84]

oviet annexation 1945

At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union kept most of the territories it had annexed in 1939, although territories with an area of 21,275 square kilometers with 1.5 million inhabitants were returned to Poland, notably the areas near Białystok and Przemyśl." U.S. Bureau of the Census "The Population of Poland" Ed. W. Parker Mauldin, Washington- 1954 P.140]

On August 16, 1945 the communist dominated Polish government signed a treaty with the USSR to formally cede these territories. The total population of the territories annexed by the USSR, not including the portion returned to Poland in 1945, had a population of 10,653,000 according to the 1931 Polish census. In 1939 this had increased to about 11.6 million. The composition by language group was Ukrainian 37.1%, Belarusian 15.1%, Polish 36.5%, Yiddish 8.3%, Other 3%. Religious affiliation: Russian Orthodox 31.6%,Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church 26.7% Roman Catholic 30.1%, Jewish 9.9%, Other 1.7%." U.S. Bureau of the Census "The Population of Poland" Ed. W. Parker Mauldin, Washington- 1954 P.148-149]

From 1944 until 1952 the Ukrainian Insurgent Army continued an armed struggle against the communists. As a result the Soviets deported 600,000 people from these territories and in the process 170,000 of the local population were killed in the fighting (See also Akcja Wisła).Vadim Erlikman. "Poteri narodonaseleniia v XX veke : spravochnik". Moscow 2004. ISBN 5-93165-107-1 P.22 & P.34 ]

See also

* Curzon Line
* Oder-Neisse line
* Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany
* General Government
* Historical demographics of Poland
* Kresy
* Occupation of Poland (1939-1945)
* Polish operation of the NKVD
* Polish Autonomous District
* NKVD prisoner massacres

References