Kształtowanie nowych granic państwa polskiego po II wojnie światowej a przyszłość polityczna, gospodarcza i kulturowa Rzeczypospolitej

Abstract

The main goal of this article is to show how important for the emigration authorities of the Polish state was the issue of the shape of the borders of post-war Poland. Declaring the willingness to fight for independence, from the earliest days of the war they thought not only about defeating the enemies but also about determining the future borders of the Polish state in such a way as to ensure the best geopolitical position, protection against the neighbours, and the best living conditions for the citizens. This stemmed from the belief that the development of the post-war state would depend on its territorial resources. The territorial postulates formulated in the Polish environments, both emigrant and in the country, were repeatedly presented to the political leaders of the anti- Hitler coalition when they were planning the postwar world. The Poles demanded from the allies explanation of their stand on the issue of the Polish borders, seeing in it an important part of the mobilization of the society to survive under conditions of occupation and terror against all actions for independence. Polish postulates differed in that they included various political projects but they all agreed concerning the essential preservation of the eastern borders of the Polish Republic set out several years before in the Treaty of Riga. The idea of Polish acquisitions at the expense of Germany, put forward since October 1939, was accepted by the Western powers, though not without a variety of concerns and doubts with regard to their shape and extent; at the same time, they were in favor of the Stalinist demands to keep the lands of the Polish Republic, annexed in 1939, within the borders of the Soviet Union. The outline of the Soviet proposals of the political order in this part of Europe as disclosed in Tehran was developed and strengthened at the Yalta conference and confirmed by the Potsdam Agreement. Discussions which in 1945 were carried out between the political leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition on Polish matters only obscured the dictate of the Stalinist concepts of ensuring the dominance of the Soviet state in this part of Europe, worked out in Moscow during the war. The new territorial shape of Poland was regarded by the governing forces as beneficial for economic development and conditions for the defence in the event of another war. It was, however, paid for with the loss of national freedom and sovereignty, progressive Sovietization of all areas of public and private life.