The Polish question
Who governed Poland, and where its western frontier lay. Yalta had left both unsettled, and Potsdam had to either honour that ambiguity or end it. It ran through more days than any other argument.
12Days it ran
35Passages
22 JulyRan hottest
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Day by day
The strongest passage on each day, with a link into the record at that exact point.
- PreludeIntroduction
Furthermore, the future of Poland would dominate much of the discussion at Yalta as it would months later at Potsdam. The Big Three agreed for the time that Poland’s western frontier would have to be revisited after the war was over, but that ‘considerable’ territorial compensation from Germany should be made. Stalin also pledged to permit free and democratic elections and support a so-called “Provisional Government of National Unity” that would be made up of the Polish…
Read it in place → - 17 July 1945The Big Three
“We hope the Marshal and the President will recognize that England was made the home of the Polish government which fought against the Axis,” Churchill announced. “With regard to Poland, Britain attaches great importance to the election that should give the people an opportunity to realize their wishes.”
Read it in place → - 18 July 1945Dividing The Spoils
At Yalta, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill had agreed that a line drawn after World War I would be Poland’s eastern border with the Soviet Union once Nazi Germany had been defeated. However, the three three leaders had also decided that Poland should be compensated with ‘substantial’ German territory to its west. Stalin felt that Poland essentially deserved all of Germany east of the Oder River and Neisse River, forcing millions of Germans westward and depriving Germany of…
Read it in place → - 21 July 1945The Polish Question
Truman: The question is not who occupies the country, but how we stand on the question as to who is to occupy Germany. I want it understood that the Soviet [Union] is occupying this zone and is responsible for it. I don’t think we are far apart on our conclusions. Stalin: On paper it is formerly German territory but in fact it is Polish territory. There are no Germans left. The Soviet [Union] is responsible for the territory. Truman: Where are the nine million Germans?…
Read it in place → - 22 July 1945Poland Betrayed
It is important to understand that there were two Polish representing bodies that were ready to form a new government in Poland. On the one hand there was the pro-Soviet Lublin Committee that had been established by communists in Poland toward the end of WWII in the summer of 1944. Formally recognized by the Soviet Union, it was de facto serving as the official provisional government in Poland. On the other hand were the American and British backed ‘London Poles’ who had…
Read it in place → - 23 July 1945Königsberg & Prussia
Months later in October 1944, Churchill flew to Moscow for a conference with Stalin. While discussing the Lublin Committee’s recent arrival in Poland and the future of Germany, Stalin reiterated his claim for Königsberg, but ended up agreeing with Churchill that no firm decision could be made without Roosevelt’s participation at another summit. When the three leaders met a few months later at Yalta, Stalin once again brought up the topic of Königsberg while discussing the…
Read it in place → - 24 July 1945The Nuclear Age Begins
By this point, the Polish question had dominated much of the roundtable talks between the Big Three. Stalin had clashed bitterly with Churchill and Truman over Germany’s borders to the east and believed that Poland should get a large chunk of Germany’s eastern frontier. Since valuable territory – rich in mineral resources – was at stake and given the fact that millions of ethnic Germans lived in the region, so much debate had ensued that Stalin suggested that the Poles, who…
Read it in place → - 25 July 1945Churchill Departs
“We must at sometime discuss the question of the transfer of populations. There are a large number of Germans to be moved from Czechoslovakia. We must consider where they are to go.”“The Czechs have already evicted them,” Stalin replied.“The two and a half million of them?” asked Churchill. “Then there are the Germans from the new Poland. Will they go to the Russian zone? We don’t want them. There are large numbers still to come from the Sudetenland.”Stalin replied, “As far…
Read it in place → - 28 July 1945The New Big Three
Of course, ‘just the two things to settle”’ that Truman was alluding to were – as Leahy pointed out – reparations and Germany’s eastern frontier as it related to the Polish question. These were two issues that had been exhaustively discussed both on and off the record for nearly two weeks, resulting in no progress whatsoever now eleven days into the Potsdam Conference. It was now time for the new British Prime Minister to try his luck at heading his delegation’s negotiations.
Read it in place → - 29 July 1945Stalin Takes Ill
After much consideration and many hours of debate, Byrnes handed Molotov a document that illustrated how Poland’s western frontier should be defined according to the United States. The proposal conceded German territory by moving the border between Germany and Poland in 1937 – the starting point upon which Churchill, Stalin, and Truman agreed at the second plenary session on July 18th – west. It would start and cut through the Baltic city of Swinemünde in the north, then…
Read it in place → - 31 July 1945Settling The Polish Question
“I have been instructed to hold for the eastern Neisse. Does it mean that the zone will be handed over to the Poles entirely and that the Soviet troops will be withdrawn? I have met the Poles on this question and in the light of the declaration in the United States document, I have asked them what their intention really is because any change of a territory must be defended in Parliament. That defense will be affected but what will happen in the new Poland? I asked the Poles…
Read it in place → - 2 August 1945The Conference Ends
The Red Army had pushed Poland’s western frontier all the way to the Oder River and the Western Neisse River and the Americans and British just accepted it for the time being. Furthermore, Poland was given the southern portion of East Prussia, including the port of Danzig, while the Soviet Union was granted the northern portion. As for free elections in Poland, something for which the British had argued multiple times during the Conference, it was agreed only that they…
Read it in place →
How this thread is matched
A passage joins this thread when its terms score two or more. Naming the subject outright scores two on its own; a word merely consistent with it scores one, so two are needed. Repeated use adds, with diminishing effect.
Polish frontierwestern frontierLublinBierutCurzonLondon PolesPolish provisionalPolandPolishPolesWarsawOderNeisseprovisional governmentfree electionsfrontier