Curzon Line - Ethnography To The East of The Curzon Line

Ethnography To The East of The Curzon Line

The ethnic composition of these areas proved difficult to measure, both during the interwar period and after World War II. A 1944 article in The Times estimated that in 1931 there lived between 2.2 and 2.5 million Poles east of the Curzon Line. A similar contemporary estimate (under 2.5 million Poles) was given by historian E. H. Carr. According to historian Yohanan Cohen's estimate, in 1939 the population in the territories east of the Curzon Line gained via the Treaty of Riga totalled 12 million, consisting of over 5 million Ukrainians, between 3.5 and 4 million Poles, 1.5 million Belarusians, and 1.3 million Jews. During World War II, politicians gave varying estimates of the Polish population east of the Curzon line that would be affected by population transfers. Winston Churchill mentioned "3 to 4 million Poles east of the Curzon Line". Stanisław Mikołajczyk, then Prime Minister of the Polish government in exile, counted this population as 5 million.

Ukrainians and Poles formed the largest ethnic groups. Ukrainians and Belarussians outnumbered Poles in the combined southern sections. Other Eastern Slav groups such as the Rusyns and Belarusians were often included as Poles in the statistics. Encouraged by the Polish resettlement policies, much of the urban population were either ethnic Poles or Polish speaking Jews, while the rural population continued to speak Ukrainian or Belarusian. As a result, the countryside was Belarusian or Ukrainian in character, whereas the cities had a Polish flavour.

Around the beginning of the 20th century Ukrainians and Belorussians had formed the plurality populations in the rural regions of the Kresy, where some towns, in particular Lviv and Vilnius had Polish majority. After the deportation of Poles and Jews in 1939–1941 (see Polish minority in Soviet Union) and the Holocaust the Polish population in the territories had decreased considerably. The cities of Wilno, Lwów, Grodno and some smaller towns still had significant Polish populations. After 1945, the Polish population of the area east of the new Soviet-Polish border was in general confronted with the alternative either to accept a different nationality or to emigrate. According to more recent research, about 3 million Poles lived east of the Curzon line, of which about 2.1 million to 2.2 million persons died, fled, emigrated or were expelled to the newly annexed German territories. The area today is almost entirely Belarusian (in the north) or Ukrainian (in the south). Despite the emigrations and expulsions, there were about 500,000 Poles in Belarus in 2000 (5% of the Belarus population). The cities of Vilnius, Grodno and some smaller towns still have significant Polish populations. Sapotskin village remains almost entirely Polish to this day.