Curzon Line
Sign in to savehistorical demarcation line between territories kept by post-WW2 Poland and territories given to the Soviet Union
Article
The Curzon Line was a proposed demarcation line between the Second Polish Republic and the Soviet Union, two new states emerging after World War I. Based on a suggestion by Herbert James Paton, it was first proposed in 1919 by Lord Curzon, the British Foreign Secretary, to the Supreme War Council as a diplomatic basis for a future border agreement.
The line became a major geopolitical factor during World War II, when the USSR invaded eastern Poland, resulting in the split of Poland's territory between the USSR and Nazi Germany roughly along the Curzon Line in accordance with final rounds of secret negotiations surrounding the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. After the German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, Operation Barbarossa, the Allies did not agree that Poland's future eastern border should be changed from the pre-war status quo in 1939 until the Tehran Conference. Churchill's position changed after the Soviet victory at the Battle of Kursk.
Gallery (9)
Connections
Categories
Aftermath of World War II in PolandAftermath of World War I in PolandBelarus–Poland borderEponymous border linesForeign relations of the Soviet UnionGeorge Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of KedlestonHistorical geography of BelarusHistorical geography of PolandHistorical geography of UkraineMilitary history of LvivPoland–Soviet Union borderPoland–Ukraine border