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The Division of Europe: The Two Polands
The Division of Europe: Two Polands
Communist Propaganda of Comrade General Secretary Stalin and Comrade General Secretary Bierut or cover of steam erotic novel? You decide!
Nonetheless, by July - the parties got down to work. The central question of whether to negotiate one binding peace treaty that would apply to all participants or whether to just sign ceasefires and then negotiate each one. It was decided that the logistics of this were too complicated. Parties could negotiate among themselves or bilaterally or with a group as needed with one final document being signed off by all parties at the end.
The logical consequence of this and the Hull Compromise is that the current front-lines were assumed to be the status quo and negotiations would proceed on that basis.
In Europe, the first issue was the fate of Poland. Poland was currently split in two with a Polish People’s Republic, although it was initially based around Lublin, it had moved to Bialystok when the Axis liberated the city in late 1944. The Polish People’s Republic was nominally led by Marshal Rokossovsky but the real power in the land was Prime Minister Boleslaw Beirut. The other - the Second Polish Republic was based in Gdansk and led by Marshal Rommel.
While their patrons publicly supported each sides claim to rule over all of Poland, in reality both saw Polish land as bits and pieces to be bargained away. The first Soviet-German agreement was for Poland to be divided cleanly along the Vistula river - splitting the country in half as well as splitting the cities of Warsaw and Krakow into two. In return for Axis forces retreating beyond the Vistula (as opposed to the Lublin, Lwow, Gdansk line they currently held) - Germany would be returned East Prussia as well as Memmelland (held by the People’s Republic of Lithuania)
However, when the Polish delegation were informed, they went to work - lobbying not only their fellow Axis delegations from China, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Italy and many others but also discretely lobbying the Wehrmacht. They’d long resigned themselves to the post-war division of the country, but giving up everything East of the Vistula was too great a sacrifice. They wanted at least the present areas of military advance, and if that wasn’t possible - at least having a border at the Vistula and the San river.
Hungary, Slovakia and Romania were also opposed and alarmed at pushing the Soviet border so closely to their countries. Having had the taste of Soviet occupation once, they did not want to taste it again. The Wehrmacht and the Army High Command were also opposed to creating such a long salient to the North which could easily be cut off - which it had been earlier in the war - encircling millions of Axis troops.
The lobbying worked, along with Polish threats to boycott the process and to keep fighting the Soviets on their own (which would lead to the border being dangerously close to Berlin.) A revised border was agreed to along the Vistula and San rivers with East Prussia being returned, but Memmeland would not be ceded.
Even though both the Polish Republic and the Polish People’s Republic still claim jurisdiction over each other’s territories, much of the international community has accepted this division of borders as the current one.
Communist Propaganda of Comrade General Secretary Stalin and Comrade General Secretary Bierut or cover of steam erotic novel? You decide!
Nonetheless, by July - the parties got down to work. The central question of whether to negotiate one binding peace treaty that would apply to all participants or whether to just sign ceasefires and then negotiate each one. It was decided that the logistics of this were too complicated. Parties could negotiate among themselves or bilaterally or with a group as needed with one final document being signed off by all parties at the end.
The logical consequence of this and the Hull Compromise is that the current front-lines were assumed to be the status quo and negotiations would proceed on that basis.
In Europe, the first issue was the fate of Poland. Poland was currently split in two with a Polish People’s Republic, although it was initially based around Lublin, it had moved to Bialystok when the Axis liberated the city in late 1944. The Polish People’s Republic was nominally led by Marshal Rokossovsky but the real power in the land was Prime Minister Boleslaw Beirut. The other - the Second Polish Republic was based in Gdansk and led by Marshal Rommel.
While their patrons publicly supported each sides claim to rule over all of Poland, in reality both saw Polish land as bits and pieces to be bargained away. The first Soviet-German agreement was for Poland to be divided cleanly along the Vistula river - splitting the country in half as well as splitting the cities of Warsaw and Krakow into two. In return for Axis forces retreating beyond the Vistula (as opposed to the Lublin, Lwow, Gdansk line they currently held) - Germany would be returned East Prussia as well as Memmelland (held by the People’s Republic of Lithuania)
However, when the Polish delegation were informed, they went to work - lobbying not only their fellow Axis delegations from China, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Italy and many others but also discretely lobbying the Wehrmacht. They’d long resigned themselves to the post-war division of the country, but giving up everything East of the Vistula was too great a sacrifice. They wanted at least the present areas of military advance, and if that wasn’t possible - at least having a border at the Vistula and the San river.
Hungary, Slovakia and Romania were also opposed and alarmed at pushing the Soviet border so closely to their countries. Having had the taste of Soviet occupation once, they did not want to taste it again. The Wehrmacht and the Army High Command were also opposed to creating such a long salient to the North which could easily be cut off - which it had been earlier in the war - encircling millions of Axis troops.
The lobbying worked, along with Polish threats to boycott the process and to keep fighting the Soviets on their own (which would lead to the border being dangerously close to Berlin.) A revised border was agreed to along the Vistula and San rivers with East Prussia being returned, but Memmeland would not be ceded.
Even though both the Polish Republic and the Polish People’s Republic still claim jurisdiction over each other’s territories, much of the international community has accepted this division of borders as the current one.
- CCA
- Word Count: 560