Table of contents:
- When the USSR began to resolve territorial and ethnic issues with Poland
- Why countries decided to exchange plots of state territories
- Which parts of state territories passed to Poland, and which to the USSR by agreement of 1951
- What happened to the population of these territories
Video: Why did the USSR exchange territories with Poland, and what happened to their population
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
In the last month of the winter of 1951, a large-scale peaceful exchange of state territories in history took place. According to the agreement concluded in Moscow, the Soviet state transferred 480 sq. kilometers of land, having received ownership of a territory identical in size. The agreement resulted in a revision of state borders and massive displacement, affecting nearly 50,000 citizens of both countries.
When the USSR began to resolve territorial and ethnic issues with Poland
The Soviet government began to resolve territorial and ethnic issues in the early autumn of 1944, when the document “On the evacuation of the Ukrainian population from the territory of Poland and Polish citizens from the territory of the Ukrainian SSR” was published. By mutual consent, it was signed by the official representatives of the Ukrainian SSR and the Polish Committee for National Liberation.
Three months after the end of the war, another treaty entered into force. According to it, 17 regions of the Bialystok region and three regions of the Brest region of the Byelorussian SSR departed to Poland in exchange for the supply of cheap coal. The decision was made due to the numerical predominance of Polish residents in these territories.
However, the most resonant deal between the Soviet state and the Polish Republic is considered the agreement on territorial exchange, concluded on February 15, 1951. According to this agreement, the countries had to exchange absolutely equal in size lands, observing the principle of "km per km". In post-war European practice, this was the largest exchange, which entailed a revision of internationally recognized borders: the area of each territory was equal to 480 square meters. km.
Why countries decided to exchange plots of state territories
Officially, the initiator of the exchange was the Polish side, which sought to possess the oil fields of the Nizhne-Ustrytsky region of the Ukrainian SSR. The Soviet state received a "convenient railway connection", which made it possible to reduce travel time, and, consequently, to save on freight and passenger transportation.
However, according to an unspoken version, the government of the USSR attracted the Lvov-Volynskoe coal deposit more than the railway communication. It is unofficially believed that it was because of him that the Soviet state, which occupied a leading position among the socialist countries, decided to initiate the process of territorial exchange.
Which parts of state territories passed to Poland, and which to the USSR by agreement of 1951
Under the agreement, Poland received part of the territory in the Drohobych region, at the same time an identical in size plot in the Lublin Voivodeship was transferred to the Soviet Union. Simultaneously with the lands, the real estate located on them was transferred to the states, for which none of the countries was obliged to pay compensation.
Real estate transferred from the territory into the ownership of Poland: an idle oil refinery, on the territory of which a timber processing plant, a sawmill, an oil field with a daily productivity of up to 85-85 tons of "black gold", two power plants with a total capacity of 400 kW, mechanical a workshop consisting of a forge, as well as a locksmith and welding workshop, 76 km of highway and 17 km of railway tracks, railway stations Krossenko and Ustriky Dolny, more than 7,500 residential buildings, household and admin.buildings, five hospitals, more than 15 cultural institutions, over 40 schools, a telephone exchange, etc.
Of the 48 thousand hectares of the territory transferred to Poland, more than 20 thousand were arable land, almost 2 thousand were occupied by pasture lands, 15.5 - forests and 9,000 hectares - orchards.
The Soviet state, as a result of an exchange by agreement, received, together with the lands, an alcohol production plant that produces about 80 decaliters of alcohol daily, almost 80 km of highways and 65 km of railway tracks, a 44 km section equipped with high-voltage lines, loading points (Ostrov, Korchev, Ulvuvek), over 9,000 private houses and admin. buildings, two operating brick factories (each up to 1 million pieces per year), a granary, a hospital, an outpatient clinic, a post office, clubs, schools, libraries, etc.
Together with 48 thousand hectares of territory, the USSR acquired 33 thousand hectares of arable land, over 9 thousand - pasture meadows, more than 3 thousand - forests and about 21 thousand hectares of orchards.
For the transfer and acceptance of real estate, a special commission was established: on the part of the USSR, there were senior commissioner M. Tishchenko, commissioners M. Tenkovsky and I. Sirosh. The Polish side was represented by the senior plenipotentiary V. Konopka, plenipotentiaries L. Paul and S. Nowak.
What happened to the population of these territories
According to the agreement, residents who settled in the exchange area were subject to deportation. The resettlement affected over 32 thousand Ukrainians who lived in the city of Nizhniye Ustriki and in several dozen villages with farms. The families of the collective farmers were transported to the Odessa, Stalin (now Donetsk), Kherson and Nikolaev regions, arranging for a new place of residence in other collective farms. The workers, along with employees, most of whom worked on the railway, in the social sphere and in the oil industry, were transferred to similar enterprises in the Drohobych region.
About 14,000 Polish citizens who lived in the territory transferred to the USSR were sent partly deep into Poland, partly to the territories acquired after the exchange. Each side was given the right to remove their movable property, as well as unidentified and backup equipment.
The resettlement work was carried out at an accelerated pace and by the middle of autumn 1951 was considered fully completed. The signing of documents fixing the transfer of real estate took place on October 20, and 5 days later the border troops were withdrawn to new positions. The point in the exchange process was set by the final agreement, which the parties signed on November 17, 1951 in Lviv.
Another deportation went down in history - expulsion of part of the inhabitants of the Baltic states to Siberia.
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