Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union
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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 Germany. 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.[1] 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.[2] 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.[3] The total area, including the area given to Lithuania, was 201,000 square kilometres, with a population of 13.5 million, of which about 5.2-6.5 million were ethnic Poles.
During 1939-1941 at least 1.8 million[citation needed] of the people inhabiting the region were killed or deported by the Soviet regime, from which at least 60% were Poles, and the second largest group were Jews. Recently few Polish historians, based mostly on queries in Soviet archives, reduced that number to about half a million people repressed in 1939-1945.[citation needed]
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
- East Galicia, which was incorporated into the General Government and became its fifth district.
After the end of World War II, the Soviet Union kept most of the territories annexed in 1939, while only some territories were returned its Polish ally, notably the areas near Białystok and Przemyśl.
[edit] References
- ^ (Polish)"Among the population of Eastern territories were circa 38% Poles, 37 % Ukrainians, 14,5 % Belarussians, 8,4 % Jewish, 0,9 % Russians and 0,6 % Germans"
Elżbieta Trela-Mazur (1997). Włodzimierz Bonusiak, Stanisław Jan Ciesielski, Zygmunt Mańkowski, Mikołaj Iwanow: Sowietyzacja oświaty w Małopolsce Wschodniej pod radziecką okupacją 1939-1941 (Sovietization of education in eastern Lesser Poland during the Soviet occupation 1939-1941). Kielce: Wyższa Szkoła Pedagogiczna im. Jana Kochanowskiego, 294. ISBN 83-7133-100-2., also in Wrocławskie Studia Wschodnie, Wrocław, 1997 - ^ "Ukrainians made up a clear majority in the total population of Stanisławów, Tarnopol, and Lwów Voivodships consituting 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 ir 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 Belorussian 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 (Google books link) - ^ ...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[1].
