History of Poland 1939–1945: Encyclopedia II - History of Poland 1939–1945 - Yalta and the Soviet Occupation 1943–45

History of Poland 1939–1945 - Yalta and the Soviet Occupation 1943–45

As the Soviets advanced through Poland in late 1944 the German administration collapsed. The Communist-controlled Committee of National Liberation (PKWN, Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego), headed by Bolesław Bierut, was installed by the Soviet Union in Lublin, the first major Polish city to be liberated, in July, and began to take over the administration of the country as the Germans retreated. The government in exile in London had only one card to play, the forces of the AK. This was why the government in exile was determined that the AK, and not the Soviets, would liberate Warsaw during the Operation Tempest. The failure of the Warsaw Uprising marked the end of any real chance that Poland would escape postwar Communist rule, especially given the unwillingness of the Western Allies to risk conflict with Soviets over Poland. Until 1946 there was regular civil war in Poland, and some of AK and NSZ soldiers continued to fight well into 1956.

At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, Stalin was able to present his Western Allies, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, with a fait accompli in Poland. His armed forces were in occupation of the country, and his agents, the Polish Communists, were in control of its administration. The USSR was in the process of incorporating the lands in eastern Poland, which it had occupied between 1939 and 1941 (see Polish areas annexed by Soviet Union), with some minor variations in Poland's favour (the most important of which allowed Poland to retain Bialystok). In compensation, the USSR awarded Poland all the German territories in Pomerania, Silesia and Brandenburg east of the Oder-Neisse Line, plus the southern half of East Prussia.

Stalin was determined that Poland's new government should be Communist, and therefore ultimately under his control. He had severed relations with the Polish government-in-exile in London in 1943, but to appease Roosevelt and Churchill he agreed at Yalta that a coalition government would be formed. The Prime Minister of the Polish government in exile, Stanisław Mikołajczyk, resigned his post and, with several other Polish exile leaders, went to Lublin in eastern Poland, where the Communist-controlled provisional government had been established. This government was headed by a Socialist, Edward Osóbka-Morawski, but the Communists held a majority of key posts. It was recognised by the Western Allies in July 1945. Stalin also agreed that Poland would receive a $US10 billion reparation payment from Germany.

In April 1945, the provisional government signed a mutual pact with the Soviet Union. The new Polish Government of National Unity was finally constituted on June 28, with Mikołajczyk as Deputy Prime Minister. The Communists' principal rivals were Mikołajczyk's Polish Peasant Party (Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe PSL), veterans of both the World War II resistance group Home Army (AK), and the Polish armies which had fought in the west. But at the same time, Soviet-oriented parties held the balance of power, especially the PPR, under Władysław Gomułka and Bolesław Bierut. Harry S. Truman and Winston Churchill were aware of the predominance of pro-Soviet parties and decided on a policy of strong resistance to Stalin.

The Western Allies (particularly Roosevelt) have been criticised, both by Polish writers and some western historians, for what most Poles see as the abandonment of Poland to Stalin. There is no doubt that Roosevelt was naive to accept Stalin's promises at Yalta. But it is difficult in retrospect to see what effective action the Allies could have taken, especially since Stalin had full control of Poland, even if they had intended to intervene.

Mikołajczyk and his colleagues in the Polish Government-in-Exile insisted on making a stand in defence of Poland's pre-1939 eastern border (Curzon line) as a basis for the future Polish-Soviet border, a position which could not be defended in practice because Stalin was in occupation of the territory in question, and he had already been promised those areas by Churchill and Roosevelt back in 1943. The Government-in-Exile's refusal to accept the proposed new Polish borders infuriated the Allies, particularly Churchill, making them less inclined to oppose Stalin on the question of the composition of the postwar government. In the end the exiles lost on both issues: Stalin annexed the eastern territories, and controlled the new Polish government. However, Poland preserved its status as an independent state: some influential communists such as Wanda Wasilewska were in favour of Poland becoming a republic of the Soviet Union.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Yalta and the Soviet Occupation 1943–45", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki