Curzon Line
1 . Interwar Poland Polish mother tongue ( of whom Roman Catholics ) Source ( census ) Today part of :
South-Eastern Poland 2,249,703 ( 1,765,765 ) 1931 Polish census Ukraine
North-Eastern Poland 1,663,888 ( 1,358,029 ) 1931 Polish census and
2 . Interwar USSR Ethnic Poles according to official census Source ( census ) Today part of :
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
3 . Interwar Baltic states Ethnic Poles according to official census Source ( census ) Today part of :
Lithuania 65,599 1923 Lithuanian census Lithuania
Latvia 59,374 1930 Latvian census Latvia
Estonia 1,608 1934 Estonian census Estonia
TOTAL ( 1. , 2. , 3 . ) 4 to 5 million ethnic Poles
Ethnicity east of the Curzon Line until 1939
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 between 2.2 and 2.5 million Poles lived 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 ) . Polish population east of the Curzon Line before World War II can be estimated by adding together figures for Former Eastern Poland and for pre-1939 Soviet Union :
The history of the Curzon Line, with minor variations, goes back to the period following World War I. 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, to serve as a diplomatic basis for the future border agreement, and in that form, it never materialized because the war went on. 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. 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. 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.