The line of Polish cities

[Samuel Von Straßburg]

This is for a scenario I am working on, where post WW2 the shift of Poland's boarder is different. I won't go into much detail but Poland gains no land from Germany and Stalin still takes Polish land in the East. My idea is that a plan is drawn for Poland called "The line of Polish cities". It is the last polish cities Eastwards that will become Poland's new boarder. The cities in red boxes are the cities which I think could make up this line, with the black being a rough boarder. This is a sought of how far can Stalin push the boarder with Poland with no compensation to Germany.

What do you think, thoughts, ideas???

 

[Franz Josef II]

I like it, it "satisfies" Poland's need for territorial integrity, Russia still gets some gains, and the German expulsion is avoided. Hard to see how that could be avoided, but in any case, I think that would be great. Konigsberg might be able to stay German (would East Prussia become its own SSR, or be joined to the East German state) but at the very least Russian forces would be garrisoned there, and the Navy would have extensive rights.

 

[Tom Colton]

If you want to make life simple for yourself, you could have the border be the M-R one except for the annexed bits of Galicia in the General Government, which remain part of Poland, and it'd roughly be the same shape.

 

[Franz Josef II]

Question: did not Lwow have a large Ukrainian population? Hard to see how it would be allowed to remain Polish.

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

Question: did not Lwow have a large Ukrainian population? Hard to see how it would be allowed to remain Polish.

Yes, it did. And, IIRC, the countryside around it even more so.

I knew a woman whose family emigrated from there but their documents show exit from 3 different countries, depending on the decade they left!

 

[Samuel Von Straßburg]

Question: did not Lwow have a large Ukrainian population? Hard to see how it would be allowed to remain Polish.

To the best of my Knowledge it had a large Polish population, which it was included in on of the plans for post WW2 Poland(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curzon_Line#/media/File:Curzon_line_en.svg). But I think like most of these things it was probably mixed culturally.

 

[Samuel Von Straßburg]

I like it, it "satisfies" Poland's need for territorial integrity, Russia still gets some gains, and the German expulsion is avoided. Hard to see how that could be avoided, but in any case, I think that would be great. Konigsberg might be able to stay German (would East Prussia become its own SSR, or be joined to the East German state) but at the very least Russian forces would be garrisoned there, and the Navy would have extensive rights.

I am thinking of East Prussia being a Prussian SSR, and a sought of extreme Balkenization of Germany.

 

[Magnificate]

It is the last polish cities Eastwards that will become Poland's new boarder.

What's considered a Polish city in this scenario? Over 50% Poles? Polish majority even if under 50%? Other?

Wilno, and to lesser degree smaller cities like Stanisławów, might prove quite problematic in this scenario. You could end up with some very stringy borders.

 

[Simon]

I knew a woman whose family emigrated from there but their documents show exit from 3 different countries, depending on the decade they left!

And everyone called it something different. To quote an article from several years back that was in The Economist about tiresome Eastern European name disputes that amused me,

Ukraine/Poland Anyone who spells the capital of Galicia as Lwów is a Polish nationalist who bayonets Ukrainian babies for fun. Anyone who says it is spelled Lviv is a Ukrainian fascist who bayonets Polish babies for fun. Anyone who spells it Lvov is a Soviet mass murderer. And anyone who calls it Lemberg is a Nazi. See you in Leopolis for further discussion.

 

[Samuel Von Straßburg]

What's considered a Polish city in this scenario? Over 50% Poles? Polish majority even if under 50%? Other?

Wilno, and to lesser degree smaller cities like Stanisławów, might prove quite problematic in this scenario. You could end up with some very stringy borders.

I want to avoid a stringy boarder, so what is needed is the line to be along the lines of several cities that have a majority Polish population, but there can be cities with majorities of Poles or Ukrainians on both sides.

 

[Analytical Engine]

There were a whole load of different proposals for the post-war Soviet-Polish border IOTL. This might work - perhaps the borders around Lvov is tweaked a bit, and some "population transfer" could smooth things out.