Open main menu

The history of the Curzon Line, with minor variations, goes back to the period following World War I.[1] It was drawn for the first time by the Supreme War Council as the demarcation line between the newly emerging states, the Second Polish Republic and the Soviet Union. The proposal was put forward by British Foreign Secretary George Curzon,[2] to serve as a diplomatic basis for the future border agreement, and in that form, it never materialized because the war went on.[3]

Curzon Line
Historical demarcation line of World War II
Curzon line en.svg
Darker blue line: "Curzon" Line "A" as drawn by Lewis Namier in 1919.

The line became a major geopolitical factor during World War II, when Joseph Stalin invaded eastern Poland and split its territory along the Curzon Line with Adolf Hitler. The Western powers entered into negotiations with the Soviet Union following Operation Barbarossa. Throughout the war until the Tehran Conference, the Allies did not agree that Poland's future eastern border should be kept at the same Curzon Line drawn in 1939; but Churchill's position changed after the Soviet victory at the Battle of Kursk.[4]

Following a private agreement at the Tehran Conference, confirmed at the 1945 Yalta Conference, the Allied leaders Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Stalin issued a statement affirming the use of the Curzon Line, with some five-to-eight-kilometre variations, as the eastern border between Poland and the Soviet Union.[5] When Churchill proposed to add parts of East Galicia, including the city of Lviv, to Poland's territory (following Line B), Stalin argued that the Soviet Union could not demand less territory for itself than the British Government had reconfirmed previously several times. The Allied arrangement involved compensation for this loss via the incorporation of formerly German areas (the so-called Recovered Territories) into Poland. As a result, the current border between Poland and the countries of Belarus and Ukraine is an approximation of the Curzon Line.


Early historyEdit

At the end of World War I, the Second Polish Republic reclaimed its sovereignty following the disintegration of the occupying forces of three neighbouring empires. Imperial Russia was amid the Russian Civil War after the October Revolution, Austria-Hungary split and went into decline, and the German Reich bowed to pressure from the victorious forces of the Allies of World War I known as the Entente Powers. The Allied victors agreed that an independent Polish state should be recreated from territories previously part of the Russian, the Austro-Hungarian and the German empires, after 123 years of upheavals and military partitions by these.[6]




End of World War IEdit


The Supreme Council continued to debate the issue for several months. On 8 December, the Council published a map and description of the line along with an announcement that it recognized "Poland's right to organize a regular administration of the territories of the former Russian Empire situated to the West of the line described below."[13] At the same time, the announcement stated the Council was not "...prejudging the provisions which must in the future define the eastern frontiers of Poland" and that "the rights that Poland may be able to establish over the territories situated to the East of the said line are expressly reserved."[13] The announcement had no immediate impact, although the Allies recommended its consideration in an August 1919 proposal to Poland, which was ignored.[13][14]

Polish ethnographic map from 1912, showing the proportions of Polish population according to pre-WW1 censuses
Polish ethnographic map showing the proportions of Polish population (incorporates data from pre-WW1 censuses and the 1916 census)

Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1921Edit


Curzon's July 1920 proposal differed from the 19 December announcement in two significant ways.[16] The December note did not address the issue of Galicia, since it had been a part of the Austrian Empire rather than the Russian, nor did it address the Polish-Lithuanian dispute over the Vilnius Region, since those borders were demarcated at the time by the Foch Line.[16] The July 1920 note specifically addressed the Polish-Lithuanian dispute by mentioning a line running from Grodno to Vilnius (Wilno) and thence north to Daugavpils, Latvia (Dynaburg).[16] It also mentioned Galicia, where earlier discussions had resulted in the alternatives of Line A and Line B.[16] The note endorsed Line A, which included Lwów and its nearby oil fields within Russia.[17] This portion of the line did not correspond to the current line of battle in Galicia, as per Grabski's agreement, and its inclusion in the July note has lent itself to disputation.[15]


Peace of RigaEdit


At the March 1921 Treaty of Riga the Soviets conceded[20] a frontier well to the east of the Curzon Line, where Poland had conquered a great part of the Vilna Governorate (1920/1922), including the town of Wilno (Vilnius), and East Galicia (1919), including the city of Lwów, as well as most of the region of Volhynia (1921). The treaty provided Poland with almost 135,000 square kilometres (52,000 sq mi) of land that was, on average, about 250 kilometres (160 mi) east of the Curzon line.[21][22] The Polish-Soviet border was recognised by the League of Nations in 1923 and confirmed by various Polish-Soviet agreements. Within the annexed regions, Poland founded several administrative districts, such as the Volhynian Voivodeship, the Polesie Voivodeship, and the Wilno Voivodeship.


World War IIEdit


In 1944, the Soviet armed forces recaptured eastern Poland from the Germans. The Soviets unilaterally declared a new frontier between the Soviet Union and Poland (approximately the same as the Curzon Line). The Polish government-in-exile in London bitterly opposed this, insisting on the "Riga line". At the Tehran and Yalta conferences between Stalin and the western Allies, the allied leaders Roosevelt and Churchill asked Stalin to reconsider, particularly over Lwów, but he refused. During the negotiations at Yalta, Stalin posed the question "Do you want me to tell the Russian people that I am less Russian than Lord Curzon?"[24] The altered Curzon Line thus became the permanent eastern border of Poland and was recognised by the western Allies in July 1945. The border was later adjusted several times, the biggest revision being in 1951.


Ethnicity east of the Curzon Line until 1939Edit

Mother tongue in Poland in 1931: red/green = Polish/other languages

The ethnic composition of these areas proved difficult to measure, both during the interwar period and after World War II. A 1944 article in The Times estimated that in 1931 there lived between 2.2 and 2.5 million Poles east of the Curzon Line.[25] According to historian Yohanan Cohen's estimate, in 1939 the population in the territories of interwar Poland east of the Curzon Line gained via the Treaty of Riga totalled 12 million, consisting of over 5 million Ukrainians, between 3.5 and 4 million Poles, 1.5 million Belarusians, and 1.3 million Jews.[26] During World War II, politicians gave varying estimates of the Polish population east of the Curzon line that would be affected by population transfers. Winston Churchill mentioned "3 to 4 million Poles east of the Curzon Line".[27] Stanisław Mikołajczyk, then Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile, counted this population as 5 million.[28]

Ukrainians and Belarusians if counted together composed the majority of the population of interwar Eastern Poland.[29] The area also had a significant number of Jewish inhabitants. Poles constituted majorities in the main cities (followed by Jews) and in some rural areas, such as Vilnius region or Wilno Voivodeship.[29][30][31]

After the Soviet deportation of Poles and Jews in 1939–1941 (see Polish minority in Soviet Union), The Holocaust and the ethnic cleansing of the Polish population of Volhynia and East Galicia by Ukrainian Nationalists, the Polish population in the territories had decreased considerably. The cities of Wilno, Lwów, Grodno and some smaller towns still had significant Polish populations. After 1945, the Polish population of the area east of the new Soviet-Polish border was in general confronted with the alternative either to accept a different citizenship or to emigrate. According to more recent research, about 3 million Roman Catholic Poles lived east of the Curzon line within interwar Poland's borders, of whom about 2.1 million[32] to 2.2 million[33] died, fled, emigrated or were expelled to the newly annexed German territories.[34][35] There still exists a big Polish minority in Lithuania and a big Polish minority in Belarus today. The cities of Vilnius, Grodno and some smaller towns still have significant Polish populations. Vilnius District Municipality and Sapotskin region have a Polish majority.

Ukrainian nationalists continued their partisan war and were imprisoned by the Soviets and sent to the Gulag. There they revolted, actively participating in several uprisings (Kengir uprising, Norilsk uprising, Vorkuta uprising).


South-Eastern Poland 2,249,703 (1,765,765)[36] 1931 Polish census[37]   Ukraine
North-Eastern Poland 1,663,888 (1,358,029)[38][39] 1931 Polish census   and  
Soviet Ukraine 476,435 1926 Soviet census   Ukraine
Soviet Belarus 97,498 1926 Soviet census   Belarus
Soviet Russia 197,827 1926 Soviet census   Russia
rest of the USSR 10,574 1926 Soviet census
Lithuania 65,599 [Note 1] 1923 Lithuanian census   Lithuania
Latvia 59,374 1930 Latvian census[40]   Latvia
Estonia 1,608 1934 Estonian census   Estonia

Largest cities and townsEdit

In 1931 according to the Polish National Census, the ten largest cities in the Eastern Borderlands were: Lwów (pop. 312,200), Wilno (pop. 195,100), Stanisławów (pop. 60,000), Grodno (pop. 49,700), Brześć nad Bugiem (pop. 48,400), Borysław (pop. 41,500), Równe (pop. 40,600), Tarnopol (pop. 35,600), Łuck (pop. 35,600) and Kołomyja (pop. 33,800). The ethnolinguistic structure of 22 largest cities was:


Poles east of the Curzon Line after expulsionEdit


Republic of the USSR Ethnic Poles in 1959 census
Belarusian SSR 538,881
Ukrainian SSR 363,297
Lithuanian SSR 230,107
Latvian SSR 59,774
Estonian SSR 2,256
rest of the USSR 185,967
TOTAL 1,380,282


Ethnicity west of the Curzon Line until 1939Edit

According to Piotr Eberhardt, back in year 1939 the population of all territories between the Oder-Neisse Line and the Curzon Line - so all territories which formed post-1945 Poland - amounted to 32,337,800 inhabitants, of whom around 2/3 were ethnic Poles, around 1/4 ethnic Germans, 7% Jews (2,254,300), while the total number of Ukrainians to the west of the Curzon Line was 657,500 (2%); there were also 140,900 Belarusians and 47,000 people of all other ethnic groups.[42] Much of the Ukrainian population was forcibly resettled after World War II to Soviet Ukraine or scattered in the new Polish Recovered Territories of Silesia, Pomerania, Lubusz Land, Warmia and Masuria in a military operation called Operation Vistula.

See alsoEdit


  3. ^ R. F. Leslie, Antony Polonsky (1983). The History of Poland Since 1863. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-27501-9.
  6. ^ Henryk Zieliński (1984). "The collapse of foreign authority in the Polish territories". Historia Polski 1914-1939 [History of Poland 1918-1939] (in Polish). Warsaw: Polish Scientific Publishers PWN. pp. 84–88. ISBN 83-01-03866-7.
  29. ^ a b Anna M. Cienciala. The foreign policy of Józef Piłsudski and Józef Beck 1926-1939: Misconceptions and interpretations. The Polish Review. Vol. LVI, Nos 1-2. 2011. p. 112.
  30. ^ Rafal Wnuk. "The Polish underground under Soviet occupation, 1939-1941". Stalin and Europe: Imitation and Domination, 1928-1953. Oxford University Press. 2014. p. 95.
  31. ^ Piotr Eberhardt, Jan Owsinski (2003). Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth Century Eastern Europe: History, Data and Analysis. Routledge. p. 29.
  36. ^ "Liczba i rozmieszczenie ludności polskiej na części Kresów obecnie w granicach Ukrainy". Konsnard. 2011.
  37. ^ a b "Polish census of 1931".
  38. ^ "Liczebność Polaków na Kresach w obecnej Białorusi". Konsnard. 2011.
  39. ^ "Liczba i rozmieszczenie ludności polskiej na obszarach obecnej Litwy". Konsnard. 2011.
  41. ^ "Population census 2009". Archived from the original on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 4 October 2013.
  42. ^ Eberhardt, Piotr (2000). "Przemieszczenia ludności na terytorium Polski spowodowane II wojną światową" (PDF). Dokumentacja Geograficzna (in Polish with English summary). Warsaw. 15: 75–76 – via Repozytorium Cyfrowe Instytutów Naukowych.CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link)




Further readingEdit

External linksEdit