World War II: Moving Poland West


Figure 1.--.

The Battle of Kursk settled the question of who would win World War II (July 1943). Earlier German defeats (Moscow and Stalingrad) meant that German could not win the war. Kursk showed that the Soviets could conduct both successful winter and summer offensives and beat the Germans in massive armored engagements. With the Western Allies battering Germany from the air about to land in Italy and preparing a cross-Channel invasion, it was clear that Germany was defeated. The only question was how long it would take and at what price. A few months after Kursk, the Big Three ( Churchill, Roosevely, and Stalin) met in Tehran (November-December 1943). It was the first meeting of Churchill and Roosevelt with Stalin. And at Tehran and the subsequent conferences (Yalta and Potsdam), the future of Poland was a major subject of discussion. The War had begun with the German invasion of Poland. Poland was a member of the Allied coalition against Germany. Polish soldiers were fighting in the East with the Sovies and in the Wst with the British (North Africa and Italy). The future of Poland was complicated by the fact that while the Soviets were now fighting with the Allies, the began the War by figting with the Germans, invading Poland a few days after the Germans. And they committed terible attrocities in Poland, simukar to what the Germans were doing in their share of conquered Poland. The NKVD began a program of destroying the Polish inteligencia to make the country a more compliant colony. The Soviets also had territorial objectives. Most of Poland had been part of the Tsarist Empire and the eastern regions of pre-War Poland had large non-Polish populations (Lithuanians, Beylorussians, and Ukranians). Stalin was willing to permit a post-War Poland, but the question of the boundaries and the nature of the government became a major bone of contention between Stalin and the Western Allies. In the end, the Bigh Three agreed to move Poland west. Agreement was never reached on the future government. Stalin in possession of Poland imposed a Communist puppet government. Many Poles today bdelieve the Allies sold them out. In fact, the only way that the Americans and British could have prevented what occurred was to fight a war with the Soviets. That was neither politically feasible nor would it have necessarily been in the best interest of the Polish people.

Background

Poland in the medieval era had been one of the great powers of Europe. In union with Lithuania, Poland dominated much of eastern Europe including Beylorussia, the Ukraine, and parts of eastern Germany. A Polish Army had helped save Viennsa from the Turks. Poweful Polish nobels limited the powers of the monarchy abd Poland gradually declined, unable to resist the encroachments of neigboring states. The Polish state dippeared as a result of the Polish Partitions (18th century). Russia obtained most of Poland, including Warsaw, but Austria and Prussia obtained smaller shares. Napoleon who had a Polish mistress created the Duchy of Warsaw. And if the invasion of Russia (1812) had gone better msay have resurected Poland. The Congress of Vienna (1815) helped bring about Congress Poland, but the Rusians aupressed in after a Polish national rising. The Russians in the 19th century began a program of Russification, especially after the accession of Tsar Alexander III (1881). The Poles resisted the Russians as well as the Austrians and Prussians. The Russians in particular set out to destroy Polish national identity and Russify the Poles. Polish nationalism was largely preserved by the nobility and the Church. The Polish peasantry was largely a political.

World War I (1914-18)

Although there was no Polish state, Poles participated in the War as part of the armies of the three empires that had partioned the country. About 2.0 millions participated in the War. Nearly 0.5 million were killed. Polish nationalists were divided in the conflict. Many right-wing Poles led by Roman Dmowski's National Democrats promoted the Allied cause which on the Eastern Front meant the Russians. Dmowski thought that a grateful Russia might agree to autonomy for Poland, perhaps even independence in the future. Josef Pilsudski led the Polish Socialists. He also commanded the Polish Legion in the Austrian Army. He thought that Russia might be knocked out of the War. Austria which had gained Galicia in the partition had been the most willing to allow a measure of Polish autonomy. The poor performance of the Austrian Army on the Eastern Front resulted the Germans assuming command. Marshal Pilsudski refused to take an an oath of allegiance to the Kaiser. German authorities arrested him and imprisoned him in Magdenburg Castle. Russian collapse changed the political situation in the East. America had joined the war. President Wilson promoted the 14 Points wgich included national self determination. With Russia no longer in the war Britain and France came out for Polish self-determination. Although the Germans had achieved their goals in the East reverses in the West changed the political landscape. Revolts broke out in German cities. The Kaiser abdigated and fled to Holland. German authorities released Pilsudski Magdenburg (November 10, 1918). He immeditely headed for Warsaw. He arrived there on the same day the Armistice on the Western Front went into effect (November 11). The Germans had set up a Regency Council in Warsaw. Understanding that a Polish national rising was about to take place, the Regency Council turned to Marshal Pilsudski. The German garrison in Warsaw chose to evacuate by train. The Allies recognized the new Polish state set up by Pilsudski.The boundaries of the new Polish nation were only established by diplomacy and military engagements (1919-21).

Polish Boundaries (1918-39)

President Wilson's Fourteen Points proclimed the principle of National Self determination. This meant that there would be reserected Poland after the War. Earlier the Allies had dithered on this because Tsarist Russia were an important part of the Allied coalition. After the Bolsheviks withdrew Russia from the War (1917), there was no objection to a future Polish nation. And the terms of the Armistice (November 1918) required the Germans to withdraw from Poland. Even as they were doing so, the Poles proclaimed a new Polish government. The borders of Poland were another question. At at the Versailles Peace Conference (1919) the Poles demanded the boundaries of Poland before the 18th century partitions. The Allies helped determine the western border with Germany. They were disappointed. The Allies did establish a Polish corridor so the country would have access to a port. Other decesions on the border would largely decided by League of Nations referendums. The eastern border was a different matter. As part of the Russian Civil War, fighting broke out between the Poles and Bolshevik Red army--the Polish Soviet war (1919-21). British Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon of Kedleston attempted to mediate, proposing a compromise border (1919). Curzon attempted to draw a line marking an approximate ethnic divide between Roman Catholic Poland to the west and Russian Orthodox Ukraine and Belarus to the east. The line became known as the Curzon Line. The border was finally decided by the outcome of the War finalized by the Treaty on Riga (1921). Poland acquired a large area of the former Tsarist Empire in the East with a substantial non-Polish population (Lithuanians, Jews, Beylorussians, and Ukranians). The resulting border extened an average of 200 kilometers (km) east of the Curzon Line. Thus Inter-War Poland included a German minority in the west and eastern areas where Lithuanians, White Russians, and Ukranians outnimbered Poles. Poland also had boundary disputes with neighboring Czechoslovakia. Poland took advantage of Hitler's dismantaling of Czexhoslovakia to seize the disputed area (March 1939).

World War II (1939)

World War II began with the German invasion of Poland (1939). The Germans more than any other military, correctly assessed the lessons of World War II. The War in Europe began in 1939 when the German blitzkrieg smashed Poland in only a few weeks. The invasion was made possible the preceeding week when Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler. The Panzers crossed the Polish frontier on September 1 along with a devestating strike by the Luftwaffe. The Polish Army and Air Force was shattered. Over 1 million German soldiers surged into Poland. Hitler emerged from the Reich Chancellery in a new grey uniform with his World War I Iron Cross. In a speech at the Reichstag before cheering NAZIs he declared, "I myself am today, and will be from now on, nothing but the soldier of the German Reich." Whithin 6 days Cracow, the center of Polish nationhood, fell. Pincer movements began on September 9 to encirle the major remaining Polish forces. Once certain of Polish defeat, Stalin ordered the Red Army to attack from the East. German and Russian forces met at Brest-Litovsk on September 18. Warsaw fell a few days later after a ruthless bombing assault. The Blitzkrieg tactics that were to prove so devestaing in the West during 1940 were all on display in 1939. Neither the British or French showed much attention, abscribing Polish defeat to military incompetance. The French had promissed the Poles an offensive in the West. It never came. [Fest, pp. 602-603.]

Soviet Occupation of Poland (1939-41)

The shattered Polish forces fall back east and attempt to organize a new defensive line. Once certain of Polish defeat, Stalin seeing that the Polish Army was unable to resist the Germans and that the British and French were not intervening, ordered the Red Army to attack from the East (September 17). A Red Army force of 1 million men enters Poland, Soviet propaganda claims it was necessary to "protect it's Byelorussian and Ukrainian population." This was an attempt to follow the NAZI success at claiming to protect the German minority in Czexhoslovakia and Poland. The demoralized Polish Army which valiantly fought the Germans, offers little resistance to the Soviets. The Soviets took 240,000 Polish soldiers and 15,400 officers prisioner German and Russian forces met at Brest-Litovsk (September 18). The boder agreed to by the Soviets and NAZIs line roughly followed the Curzon Line in places, diverging from it around Białystok in the north and in the southern region of Galicia. World War II accounts usually focus on the NAZI invasion and occupation of Poland. In fact the Soviet occupation was also horific, although it did not include the biological genocide of the NAZI occupation. Stalin like Hitler, however, was at this stage of the War intent on destroying the Polish nation. Polish soldiers were internened in camps by the Soviets. Soviet actions in eastern Poland were extremely brutal. An estimated 0.1 million Poles were killed by the Soviets (1939-41). The most publicized killings were the Polish officers shot by the NKVD in the Katyn Forrest, but this was only a part of the wide spread executions of Poles by the Soviets. Some estimates suggest that 2.0 million Poles were deported to Siberia and other areas in the Soviet Union.

Soviet Objectives


Military Sitution

The Battle of Kursk settled the question of who would win World War II (July 1943). Earlier German defeats in the East (Moscow and Stalingrad) meant that German could not win the war. Kursk showed that the Soviets could conduct both successful winter and summer offensives and beat the Germans in massive armored engagements. With the Western Allies battering Germany from the air about to land in Italy and preparing a cross-Channel invasion, it was clear that Germany was defeated. The only question was how long it would take and at what price.

Tehran Conference

A few months after Kursk, the Big Three ( Churchill, Roosevely, and Stalin) met in Tehran (November-December 1943). It was the first meeting of Churchill and Roosevelt with Stalin. And at Tehran and the subsequent conferences (Yalta and Potsdam), the future of Poland was a major subject of discussion.

Polish Role in the War

The War had begun with the German invasion of Poland. Poland was a member of the Allied coalition against Germany. Polish soldiers were fighting in the East with the Sovies and in the Wst with the British (North Africa and Italy).

Complication

The future of Poland was complicated by the fact that while the Soviets were now fighting with the Allies, the began the War by figting with the Germans, invading Poland a few days after the Germans. And they committed terible attrocities in Poland, simlar to what the Germans were doing in their share of conquered Poland. The NKVD began aprogram of destroying the Polish inteligencia to make the country a more compliant colony. The Soviets also had territorial objectives. Most of Poland had been part of the Tsarist Empire and the eastern regions of pre-War Poland had large non-Polish populations (Lithuanians, Beylorussians, and Ukranians). Stalin was willing to permit a post-War Poland, but the question of the boundaries and the nature of the government became a major bone of contention between Stalin and the Western Allies. In the end, the Bigh Three agreed to move Poland west. Agreement was never reached on the future government.

Two Polish Governments


Boundaries

Stalin was willing to consede a Polish nation after the War. He insisted, however, that he intended to keep the area of eastern Poland, beyond the Curzon line, which they had obtained when as their share of Poland as a result of the NAZI-Soviet Pact (August 1939) and invasion of Poland (September 1939). The Curzon Line had some validity as it was a rough ethnic frontier and was in fact drawn up by a British foreihn minister. Stalin proposed that the Poles be compensated with areas in eastern Germany (East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia). President Roosevelt and Prime-minister Churchill ascented to the Soviet idea of "moving Poland West at both Teheran and Yalta. It is not entirely clear why Churchill and Roosevelt consented to Stalin's demands. There are several factors at play. One was that the Soviets had done most of the fighting up to the Tehran Conference and taken most of the casualties and the Allies had disappointed him by not launching the Cross-Channel invasion in 1943. Churchill appears to have hoped that placating him with Eastern Poland might make him more amenable to a post-War independent and democratic Poland. Roosevelt was interesting in developing a positive rekatiinship with Stalin so that the Soviets woukd enter the War against Japan and participate in the United Nations and a future peaceful post-War settlement. Weakening Germany may have been anotgher factor. In the end, however, there were not a lot of options available to America and Britain. It would be the Red Army that would liberate Poland and be in possession of the territory of Poland. This in the end, the Soviets would be able to deaw the new frontiers. Churchill and Roosevelt decided that there was more to be gained with cooperation than rejecting Stalin's demands. There were some disagreement as to the exact border. The Soviets wanted Poland's western frontier to be the Oder and Western Neisse rivers. The Americans and British wanted the Oder and Eastern Neisse. When agreement was not reached, they decided at Potsdam to postpone a final decesion on the Polish-German frontier until the final peace treaty with Germany. In the interim they agreed that the disputed territory should be left in the hands of the Poles. As a result of the Cold War and the delay in negotiating a peace treaty, the Oder and Western Neisse rivers became the final border. Poles decided, Poland should have the real estate. The Poles were not part of the conversations over their future. The Polish government in exile headquartered in London demurred about the decesions taken. Churchill in response bluntly told the House of Commons that henceforth Poland "must honestly follow a policy friendly to Russia".

Population Transfers

Moving Poland west mean massive population transfers. We do not know to what extent this aspect of shifting the boundaries west was discussed at Thehran and Yalta. Nor do we yet have details on what the Soviets did in the East. The Poles in the West proceeded to expel the entire German population of the "recovered territories". The exact number of people involved is unknown. We have seen estimtes of 4.8-5.8 million Germans forcibly removed. Some Germans had fled with the Wehrmacht when the Red Army advanced. But many remained, especially in the German-majority areas that had been German for centuries. Most went to West Germany. When confronted with what was being done, Labor Party Leader Clement Attlee and New Primeminister declared that the Germans "are not entitled to appeal on the basis of moral laws that they have disregarded."

Government

Stalin in possession of Poland imposed a Communist puppet government.

Assessment

Many Poles today bdelieve the Allies sold them out. In fact, the only way that the Americans and British could have prevented what occurred was to fight a war with the Soviets. That was neither politically feasible nor would it have necessarily been in the best interest of the Polish people.







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Created: 2:30 AM 5/15/2009
Last updated: 2:31 AM 5/15/2009