Everything about Kresy totally explained
The term
Kresy, meaning
Outskirts or
Borderlands, was first used to define the
Polish eastern frontier. The Borderlands referred to the eastern frontiers of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. During the period of the
Second Polish Republic, The Borderlands were roughly equated with the lands to the east of
Curzon line. In September 1939 the Borderlands were occupied by the
Soviet Union and after World War II they were incorporated as a part of the
Soviet republics of
Ukraine,
Belarus and
Lithuania. When the
Soviet Union dissolved the Borderlands were included in the territories of countries which gained
independence.
Etymology
According to the “Dictionary of the Polish Language” by
Samuel Bogumil Linde from 1807,
Kresy referred to the Polish eastern frontier. The
Tatar Horde settled on the Lower
Dnieper River in the Borderlands. For the first time in literature, this term was probably used by
Wincenty Pol in his poems entitled “Mohort” from 1854 and in “Pieśń o ziemi naszej”. Pol claimed that it was the line from Dniester to Dnieper River so the land of Tatar borderland. At the beginning of the 20th century the meaning of the term Borderlands expanded to include the lands of the former eastern provinces of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, to the east of Lviv-Vilnius line, and in the period of the
Second Polish Republic the Borderlands were equated with the land to the east of
Curzon line. Currently the term Eastern Borderlands describes former, eastern lands of the
Second Polish Republic.
History
Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the Eastern Borderlands was the area situated on the lower Dnieper River under so-called ‘porohy’ in the then Kijov province. After the union of Lublin of 1569 the Wild Fields were incorporated into the boundaries of the Republic of the Two Nations. At the beginning those areas were uninhabited.
Partitioned between Austria and Russia
The year 1772 is the beginning of the Russian and the Austrian territorial trophies at the cost of areas of the
Republic of the Two Nations which today are named Eastern Borderlands (areas situated to the east of today’s
Polish border). This process was held in three stages (
annexations). In the first partition (1772) Russia annexed
Polish Inflanty, the northern part of
Polotsk province,
Vitebsk province,
Mscislaw province and the southeast part of
Minsk province (about 92 thousand km², 1,3 million people).
Austria annexed
Galicia, regions near
Zamosc and northern
Lesser Poland (about 83 thousand km² and 2,65 million people). During the second partition in 1793
Russia took
Belarusian and
Ukrainian lands to the east of Druja-Pinsk-Zbrucz line, for example:
Kiev,
Bratslav, part of
Podolia, east part of
Volhynia and
Brest,
Minsk and part of
Vilnius (about 250 thousand km²) provinces. The third partition took place in 1795 and
Lithuanian,
Belarusian and
Ukrainian areas to the east of the Bug River and Niemirow-Grodno line (about 120 thousand km²) were occupied.
This period in the history of
Poland, especially in its eastern part, was a time of national rebellions (
November Uprising,
January Uprising), persecutions, deportations to
Siberia and
denationalization of
Poles. The eastern borderlands belonged to the last regions in Europe where serfdom was abolished: In 1848 it was eliminated in the Austrian partition and in 1864 in the Russian partition.
March 1919
March 1919 was especially turbulent for the Eastern Borderlands of Poland, as it was the time of the rebirth of the Polish state and the formation of the border. At that time, Poland was involved in three wars for its Eastern borders: with
Ukraine,
Soviet Russia, and
Lithuania. As a result Poland incorporated a great part of the land that was under Russian rule situated to the east of the
Curzon line. This terrain formed the Eastern provinces of the Second Republic of Poland: eastern part of
Lwów Voivodeship,
Nowogrodek Voivideship,
Polesie Voivodeship,
Stanis%C5%82aw%C3%B3w Voivodeship,
Tarnopol Voivodeship,
Wilno Voivideship,
Volhynia Voivideship and eastern part of
Białystok Voivideship.
Kresy and its population in the interbellum
While the majority of the population of the southern part of the Kresy was
Ukrainian and that of the northern part was
Belarusian, overall Poles were the largest ethnic group, and were by far the largest in Kresy's cities. Other groups included
Lithuanians (in the north),
Jews (scattered in cities and towns across the area),
Czechs (in Volhynia), also some
Russians. The Polish inhabitants of this region, known in Polish as
Kresowiacy, constituted approximately 40% of the population and had a distinct culture, with different accents (see:
Lw%C3%B3w dialect) and customs influenced by the presence of ethnic minorities. Among, these about 150,000 constituted
osadnicy, or
veterans of the Polish army given free land during 1921-1939.
Main cities
In 1931, according to the National Census, the largest cities in Polish Eastern Borderlands Voivodeships were:
As a consequence of the
Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, on
September 17,
1939 the territory was invaded by the
Soviet Union, (see
Soviet invasion of Poland). After its occupation by the
Red Army a significant part of the Polish population
was deported to other areas of the Soviet Union including
Siberia and
Kazakhstan.
The Soviet and the German occupation
When
Nazi Germany and
Soviet Union signed the
Non-aggression treaty on 23rd of August 1939 in
Moscow, it included a secret protocol regulating the course of the demarcation line between Germany and the
Soviet Union. The Soviet Union invaded Poland on the 17th of September moving fast to the Western border. Already on the 22nd of September both aggressors celebrated the success of their armies in a joint parade of victory in Brest-Litovsk (today's
Brest). In the end the course of the border was designated by the agreement on borders and friendship between the
Third Reich and the
Soviet Union signed on the 28th of September. Simultaneously Communist governments for
Western Ukraine and
Western Belarus were formed and announced their "intention" of joining the respective republics in the Soviet Union. Polish command and government were completely surprised by the Soviet attack and for three months, until the 18th of December, they couldn't announce that Poland was in a state of war with the USSR or even give clear orders to their soldiers.
After the
German invasion of the USSR which took place the 22nd of June 1941, the Germans moved approximately a thousand kilometers eastwards in the first weeks, breaking apart or taking Soviet troops into capture. Afterwards part of the territory was included in the
Greater Germany, whilst the rest was passed to the
Reichskommisariats.
By january 1944, Soviet troops reached the Polish Kresy that had previously occupied in 1939. Till the end of July the Red Army occupied again brought the whole territory of the Polish Kresy.
The Post war period
Already during the
Teheran Conference in 1943, a new Eastern Polish border was established, in effect sanctioning the Soviet territorial occupation of September 1939 and ignoring protests from the Polish emigre government in
London.
The Potsdam conference gave consent to the deportation of the Poles from the eastern Polish borderlands, but the issue with the Polish western border was still unsolved. As compensation for the Kresy occupied by the Sovier Union, the Allies decided to hand to Poland the territories of Germany situated east of the
Oder and the
Lusatian Neisse River (excluding northern part of former
Eastern Prussia, which was occupied by the Soviet Union, and became part of Russia as
Kaliningrad Oblast).
After the Second World War, the Polish eastern boundaries were incorporated into
Soviet Union as part of the republics of
Ukraine SSR,
Belarus SSR and
Lithuanian SSR. The annexation of these territories was celebrated in the former
Soviet Union and is also currently celebrated in independent
Belarus as the “unification of Belarus”.
The official name of the attack on Poland was “the Red Army freedom campaign”. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, these territories remained within the borders of the newly independent states of Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania.
Further Information
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