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Poland's borders after World War II. Blue line: Curzon Line of 8 December 1919. Pink areas: Parts of Germany in 1937 borders. Grey area: Territory annexed by Poland between 1919 and 1923 and held until 1939, which after World War II was annexed by the Soviet Union.
The map below traces the history of Poland’s borders from 1635 right through to the present day. Watch as the borders shrink from their peak during the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to the partitions of Poland at the end of the 18th century to the massive shift west during the 20th.
The prewar eastern Polish territories of Kresy, which the Red Army had overrun during the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 (excluding the Białystok region) were permanently ceded to the USSR by the new Polish communist government, and most of their Polish inhabitants expelled.
The history of interwar Poland comprises the period from the revival of the independent Polish state in 1918, until the Invasion of Poland from the West by Nazi Germany in 1939 at the onset of World War II, followed by the Soviet Union from the East two weeks later.
The borders are shifted to the east relative to present-day Poland, including parts of what is now Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belarus. This territory that was part of Poland between the World Wars, but is excluded from today’s Poland, is known as the Kresy .
Poland regained Poznania as well as portions of Prussia and Upper Silesia. Gdańsk, which was Polish land before the Second Partition, became a free city. The Polish free state lasted for 20 years, until September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany launched a blitzkrieg invasion against Poland from the west.
Discover Poland's shifting borders and geopolitical challenges from 1945 to 1947. Explore the dynamic changes in Eastern Europe after World War II on The Map as History platform.
The boundary of Poland was redrawn again after World War II, with territories East of the Curzon Line, a huge part of the pre-war territory, given to the Soviets and German territory, East of the Oder and Nesse Rivers, given to Poland in reparation.
Democracy at dawn : notes from Poland and points East / Frederick Quinn. Forgotten land : journeys among the ghosts of East Prussia / Max Egremont. The Polish Campaign, 1939 / by Steven Zaloga & Victor Madej.
Invasion of Poland. The signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in August 1939 removed the threat from the Soviet Union, allowing Hitler to invade Poland on 1 September. Two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany. The Second World War had begun. About this map.