A line of territorial demarcation between Russia and Poland proposed in 1920 by the British foreign secretary, Lord Curzon. Poland rejected the proposal, subsequently gaining larger territories. In September 1939 a boundary similar to the Curzon Line became the border between German- and Soviet-occupied Poland, and in 1945 was recognized as the frontier between Poland and the USSR.
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This article is part of the series: Territorial changes of Poland in the 20th century History of Poland |
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| Lines |
| Curzon Line |
| Oder-Neisse line |
| Areas |
| Kresy Wschodnie |
| Kresy Zachodnie |
| Recovered Territories |
| Historical Eastern Germany |
| Zaolzie |
| See also |
| History of Poland |
The Curzon Line was a demarcation line proposed in 1919 by British Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon of Kedleston as a possible armistice line between Poland to the west and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR) to the east during the Polish-Soviet War of 1919–20. The final peace treaty in Riga (1921) provided Poland with almost 135,000 km² (52,000 sq mi) of land east of the line (on average about 200 km east from the Curzon line). The line separating the German and Soviet zones of occupation following the defeat of Poland in 1939 followed the Curzon Line in places, while diverging from it around Białystok in the north and in the southern region of Galicia.
It is sometimes said that the Curzon Line represented an ethnic border between Roman Catholic Poland to the west and Russian Orthodox Ukraine and Belarus to the east.
History of the Curzon Line
At the end of World War I, the Allies agreed that an independent Polish state should be formed from territories previously part of the Russian Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany. Lord Curzon of Kedleston, on behalf of the Triple Entente, in 1920 suggested a line running from Grodno through Brest-Litovsk to Lwów, awarding this city to Poland (Line "B" - see map). That left Poland in legal possession of the territories that Poland had held before the Partitions of Poland in 1772.
In December 1919, the Allied powers made the following declaration: "The Principal Allied and Associated Powers, recognising that it is important as soon as possible to put a stop to the existing conditions of political uncertainty in which the Polish nation is placed and without prejudging the provisions, which must in the future define the eastern frontiers of Poland, hereby declare that they recognize the right of the Polish Government to proceed, according to the conditions previously provided by the Treaty with Poland of June 28, 1919, to organise a regular administration of the territories of the former Russian Empire situated to the West of the line described below. At the Treaty of Riga in March 1921 the Soviets had to concede a frontier well to the east of the Curzon Line, giving Poland both Lwów and Wilno (today Vilnius). In September, after the military defeat of Poland, the Soviet Union annexed all territories east of the Curzon Line plus Białystok and Eastern Galicia. The Soviets unilaterally declared the former Soviet-German border (approximately the Curzon Line) to be the new frontier between the Soviet Union and Poland. The altered Curzon Line thus became the permanent eastern border of Poland and was recognised by the western Allies in July 1945.
When the Soviet Union ceased to exist in 1991, the Curzon line became Poland's eastern border with Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine.
Ethnography to the east of the Curzon Line
The territory which lay between the Curzon Line and the 1921 eastern border of Poland had a population of about 12 million people in an area of 188,000 square kilometres. According to statistics from the Polish census of 1931 (which was unlikely to underestimate the number of Poles), the population of these territories by mother-tongue was:
| Poles | 4,794,000 | 39.9% |
| Ukrainians and Ruthenians | 4,139,000 | 34.4% |
| Jews | 1,045,000 | 08.4% |
| Belarusians | 993,000 | 08.5% |
| Russians | 120,000 | 01.0% |
| Lithuanians | 76,000 | 00.6% |
| Others and not given | 845,000 | 06.4% |
(The majority from "Others and not given" were Poleszuks from Polesie.)
By religion the population was classified as follows:
| Roman Catholics | 4,016,000 | 33.4% |
| Greek Catholics or Uniates | 3,050,000 | 25.4% |
| Orthodox | 3,529,000 | 29.3% |
| Other Christians: | 180,000 | 01.5% |
| Jewish | 1,222,000 | 10.2% |
It can be seen from these figures (ten years after the Treaty of Riga) that none of the ethnic and national groups in the region formed a majority.
Ethnography to the west of the Curzon Line
Similar problems pertained to West of the Curzon line.
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