Why did Poland's border change so much after World War 2? (Short Animated Documentary)

when World War II began Poland had these borders and when the dust had settled they looked like this with this area being permanently lost to Warsaw and all of these former German lands becoming a part of the reborn Polish state but given how different Poland looked just 6 years earlier it raises the question why so throughout the second world war the major Allied Powers not you were constantly in negotiations about what was to happen to Poland after they were victorious at first the British had hoped for the restoration of the pre-war polish government who everyone would then negotiate with but as the Red Army swept across Eastern Europe it became clear that Stalin had other plans as such Britain and the United States had to make sure that the Polish postwar settlement aligned with Soviet security needs the Soviets wanted more buffer between Moscow and Berlin and as such that meant two things Soviet gains to the west and German losses to the east a significant chunk of Poland's pre-World population were ruthenians Russians ukrainians or bellerians and so Stalin wanted to incorporate them into the USSR of course much of this has previously been done under the molotov ribbon trop PCT but many weren't too happy with that agreement persevering and so Stalin opted to negotiate with the Polish government in Exile they weren't willing to give him everything he wanted and so he just made his own polish government who soon agreed to Britain and the us because getting Stalin on side was the most important part of putting the war behind them they threw Poland under the bus the agreement between Stalin and the new polish government was that Poland would lose most of the lands that the Soviets gained in 1939 and in return Stalin would push for Poland to expand Westward into Germany now the reason why Stalin returned the these two areas to Poland wasn't because he was a standup guy it was because he didn't want the changes to look like a dictat it was of course but it was enough that Britain and the United States could pretend that they hadn't just caved to a dictator during the Potsdam Conference in 1945 the Allies agreed that Poland's Western borders would go up to here until a permanent solution could be negotiated so why these lands in particular well for a start giving them to Poland meant that any potential resurgent Germany would have to fight a much more industrialized Nation with a large river as a natural border furthermore by destroying East Prussia and giving Poland Gdansk the territorial tensions which led to war in the first place were now gone for good as were the Germans living there now Poland's new found lands were to be populated by the Polish who were already at that point living in the USSR and Those whom Stalin had arrested over the previous decades and by settling millions of people there West Germany or later a unified Germany wouldn't have much of a claim to the lands and the Cold War soon meant that there was no further Allied conference on formalizing Poland's borders but of course it wasn't long until temporary borders became permanent ones thereby completing Poland's movement Westward I hope you enjoyed this episode with a special thanks to my patrons James Bizet Kelly Money Maker Sky Chappelle kitka Andy McGee Anthony Becket Alex Schwin rodie Martin Udan Wang AF Firefly Spencer lighfoot Marcus arner W and hockey Captain PG Marvin CAU kimon Yun the mcer Gustav Swan Maggie Paskowski calling Dr Howard Dr Fine Dr Howard spinning three plates copper tone shuen in words about books podcast Ked Alder Wood Winston kwood Jim strew Berg Charles I and Miss is it

Channel: History Matters

Views: 635,681

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Id: Y8FIJobxbtw

Length: 3min 3sec (183 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 18 2023