The Border Agreement between Poland and the USSR of 16 August 1945 established the borders between the

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until it dissolved in 1991. During its existence, it was the largest country by are ...

(USSR) and the

Republic of Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. It was signed by the

Provisional Government of National Unity The Provisional Government of National Unity (, TRJN) was a puppet government formed by the decree of the State National Council (, KRN) on 28 June 1945 as a result of reshuffling the Soviet-backed Provisional Government of the Republic of Pola ...

(Tymczasowy Rząd Jedności Narodowej) formed by the

Polish communists Communism in Poland can trace its origins to the late 19th century: the Marxist First Proletariat party was founded in 1882. Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919) of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (''Socjaldemokracja Króle ...

. According to the treaty, Poland officially accepted the ceding its pre-war Eastern territory to the USSR (

Kresy Eastern Borderlands (), often simply Borderlands (, ) was a historical region of the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic. The term was coined during the interwar period (1918–1939). Largely agricultural and extensively multi-ethnic with ...

) which was decided earlier in Yalta already. Some of the territory along the Curzon line, established by Stalin during the course of the war, was returned to Poland. The treaty also recognised the division of the former German

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...

and ultimately approved the finalised

delimitation Electoral boundary delimitation (or simply boundary delimitation or delimitation) is the drawing of boundaries of electoral precincts and related divisions involved in elections, such as Federated state, states, counties or other municipalities ...

line between the Soviet Union and Poland: from the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

, to the border tripoint with

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

in the

Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains ...

.Sylwester Fertacz
"Krojenie mapy Polski: Bolesna granica" (Carving of Poland's map).
''Alfa.'' Retrieved from the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

on 14 November 2011.J.A.S. Grenville
''The major international treaties, 1914–1973.''
A history with guide and text. ''Taylor & Francis.'' 572 pages.Pro-rector Bogdan Kawałko
"Prostowanie granicy" (The fixing of border).
''Dziennik Wschodni'', 2006-02-03. ''Wyższa Szkoła Zarządzania i Administracji w Zamościu''. Retrieved 15 November 2011. The agreement entered into force on 5 February 1946.

Prelude

Prior to the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, within the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

Polish territories were administered by a

Vistula Land Vistula Land, also known as Vistula Country (; ), was the name applied to the lands of Congress Poland from 1867, following the defeats of the November Uprising (1830–1831) and January Uprising (1863–1864) as it was increasingly stripped of ...

, whose eastern frontier roughly mirrored the ethnic border between the

Polish people Polish people, or Poles, are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation who share a common History of Poland, history, Culture of Poland, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Central Europe. The preamble t ...

on the west, and the Ukrainians and

Belarusians Belarusians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Belarus. They natively speak Belarusian language, Belarusian, an East Slavic language. More than 9 million people proclaim Belarusian ethnicity worldwide. Nearly 7.99&n ...

(then referred to as Little and White Russians respectively) on the east. In

Austrian Galicia The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, also known as Austrian Galicia or colloquially Austrian Poland, was a constituent possession of the Habsburg monarchy in the historical region of Galicia in Eastern Europe. The crown land was established ...

there was no administrative border which marked the ethnic one between the Polish and the Galician Ukrainians (

Ruthenians A ''Ruthenian'' and ''Ruthene'' are exonyms of Latin language, Latin origin, formerly used in Eastern and Central Europe as common Ethnonym, ethnonyms for East Slavs, particularly during the late medieval and early modern periods. The Latin term ...

). Ukrainian territories were also heavily infiltrated by Polish increpancies. During the

, the Russian Civil, the Polish-Soviet and Polish-Ukrainian wars, the territory passed hands several times, and each of the controlling powers tried to create its own administration on the region. During the conflict, the Supreme War Council, tried several times to intervene and create an agreeable border between the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...

and Bolshevik Russia, the most notable outcome, was the border presented by the British Foreign Secretary George Curzon, after whom the proposed line was named. The line mostly followed the 19th century border between the

, but also extended further south and portioned Galicia along the rough ethnic border between Poles and Ukrainians. Though accepted by the Bolshevik government, the line was ignored by Poland, and after the Polish-Soviet War's conclusion, on the

Treaty of Riga The Treaty of Riga was signed in Riga, Latvia, on between Poland on one side and Soviet Russia (acting also on behalf of Soviet Belarus) and Soviet Ukraine on the other, ending the Polish–Soviet War (1919–1921). The chief negotiators of ...

, Bolshevik Russia recognised a new border almost 250 km east of the Curzon Line. The border was recognised by the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

in 1923, and confirmed by numerous Polish-Soviet treaties and delimited in due course.

World War II partitions

The

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact and the Nazi–Soviet Pact, was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Ge ...

of August 1939 provided for the partition of the

between the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

. Following the corresponding invasions, a new border was drawn up, though based on the Curzon Line, deviated west of it in several regions. Most notably, was the

Belastok Region Belastok Region, also known as Belastok Voblasts or Belostok Oblast, was a short-lived region (''oblast'') of the Byelorussian SSR during World War II, lasting from September 1939 until Operation Barbarossa in 1941, and again for a short period ...

, that was added to the

Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, Byelorussian SSR or Byelorussia; ; ), also known as Soviet Belarus or simply Belarus, was a Republics of the Soviet Union, republic of the Soviet Union (USSR). It existed between 1920 and 19 ...

, although most of the region was populated by Poles. After Germany's invasion of the USSR, the territory in question was also re-partitioned by the Nazis. Ukraine and Belarus were administered by the occupation Ostland and

Reichskommissariat Ukraine The ''Reichskommissariat Ukraine'' (RKU; ) was an administrative entity of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories of Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1944. It served as the German civilian occupation regime in the Ukrainian SSR, and ...

Reichskommissariats. Galician territory east of the 1939 border and the Belastok Region plus adjacent territory to the east of this were transformed respectively into the Distrikt Galizien and

Bezirk Bialystok Bialystok District (German language, German: ''Bezirk Bialystok'') was an administrative unit of Nazi Germany created during the World War II invasion of the Soviet Union. It was to the south-east of East Prussia, in present-day northeastern Pola ...

, and subjugated directly to the

Reich ( ; ) is a German word whose meaning is analogous to the English word " realm". The terms and are respectively used in German in reference to empires and kingdoms. In English usage, the term " Reich" often refers to Nazi Germany, also ca ...

Borders of Poland and Belarus after August 1945

Following the Soviet Union's liberation of Ukraine and Belarus, in 1943/1944 the

Tehran conference The Tehran Conference (codenamed Eureka) was a strategy meeting of the Allies of World War II, held between Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943. It was the first of the Allied World Wa ...

and

Yalta conference The Yalta Conference (), held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the postwar reorganization of Germany and Europe. The three sta ...

discussed upon the future of the Polish-Soviet borders, and the Allied leaders recognised the Soviet right to the territory east of the 1939 border. However, after the liberation of Western Ukraine and Belarus in summer of 1944, a Polish committee formed in the town of Sapotskin sent a letter to Moscow asking that they remain part of Poland. Stalin agreed, and on 29 September, administration of 17 (of the 23) districts of Belastok Region (including the city of

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the List of cities and towns in Poland, tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Biał ...

) and an additional three (

Siemiatycze Siemiatycze ( ''Siamiatyčy'') is a town in eastern Poland, with 14,391 inhabitants (2019). It is the capital of Siemiatycze County in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. History The history of Siemiatycze dates back to the mid-16th century, when the vil ...

, Hajnówka and Kleszczele) of the Brest Region were passed to the

Polish Committee of National Liberation The Polish Committee of National Liberation ( Polish: ''Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego'', ''PKWN''), also known as the Lublin Committee, was an executive governing authority established by the Soviet-backed communists in Poland at the la ...

from the BSSR. In October 1944 these were joined by a further transfer of Lubaczów, Horyniec, Laszki, Uhnów and Sieniawa raions of the

Lviv Oblast Lviv Oblast (, ), also referred to as Lvivshchyna (, ), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast in western Ukraine. The capital city, capital of the oblast is the city of Lviv. The current population is History Name The region is named ...

from the

Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

. In March 1945, an additional batch of land, the Bieszczady, Lesko, and most of Przemyśl raions (including Przemyśl city) were transferred to Poland from the Drohobych Oblast of Ukraine to the now

Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland The Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland (, RTRP) was created by the State National Council () on the night of 31 December 1944.Norman Davies, 1982 and several reprints, ''God's Playground'' 2 vols. New York: Columbia Univ. Press. a ...

. Soon afterwards World War II finished, and as the Provisional Government continued to transfer administration from military to civil bodies, it also finalised its new borders with its neighbors, and in particular, the Soviet Union. Soviet claims, which became the main problem preventing cooperation between the Polish government in London and Moscow during the war, were then accepted by PKWN activists in July 1944. Their consent to the Curzon line signed on 27 July 1944 (Relinquishing half of the

Białowieża Forest Białowieża Forest is a large forest complex on the border between Poland and Belarus. It is one of the last and the largest remaining part of the immense primeval forest that once stretched across the European Plain. The forest is home to more ...

was Stalin's only concession, and representatives of the

were afraid to mention the return of Lviv which became part of the

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

) was a condition for sending these activists to Lublin and Chełm. On 16 August 1945, the border agreement was officially signed by Edward Osóbka-Morawski, on behalf of the

and

Vyacheslav Molotov Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov (; – 8 November 1986) was a Soviet politician, diplomat, and revolutionary who was a leading figure in the government of the Soviet Union from the 1920s to the 1950s, as one of Joseph Stalin's closest allies. ...

, the Soviet Minister of Foreign affairs. The exchange of ratified documents occurred on 5 February 1946 in Warsaw, and from that date the agreement was in force.

Aftermath

Although the treaty finalised the 1939 line, with the 1944/45 adjustments, the border would receive a few more alterations. On 15 May 1948, the raion of Medyka was transferred from the Drohobych Oblast of Ukraine to the

. And finally a 1951 Polish–Soviet territorial exchange, saw Poland return its pre-1939 territory of Ustrzyki Dolne raion from the Drohobych Oblast, and instead it passed the USSR part of the Lublin Voivodship, with the cities of

Belz Belz (, ; ; ) is a small city in Lviv Oblast, western Ukraine, located near the border with Poland between the Solokiya River (a tributary of the Bug River) and the Richytsia stream. Belz hosts the administration of Belz urban hromada, one of ...

, Uhniv, Chervonohrad and Varyazh, (all of which after the Nazi and Soviet Axis invasion of Poland in September 1939 became a part of Poland occupied by the USSR and was allocated to Ukraine in 1939 until 1941 when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union. It was occupied again in 1944–1945 after the Soviet advance to Berlin). The border between Poland and Belarus, and Poland and Ukraine has remained the same since.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Border Agreement Between Poland And The Ussr Of 16 August 1945 Poland–Soviet Union border Poland–Soviet Union relations Treaties of the Soviet Union Treaties concluded in 1945 Treaties entered into force in 1946 1945 in the Soviet Union 1945 in Poland Treaties involving territorial changes Polish-Soviet Belarus–Poland border Treaties of the Polish People's Republic August 1945 in Europe