Peace of Riga - Consequences

Consequences

The treaty contributed to the failure of Józef Piłsudski's plans to create a Polish-led Intermarium federation of Eastern European countries, as portions of the territory proposed for the federation were ceded to the Soviets. Lenin also considered the treaty unsatisfactory; he had to postpone his plans for exporting revolution to the West.

While the Treaty of Riga led to a two-decade stabilization of the Soviet-Polish conflict, the conflict was renewed during World War II and the treaty's borders were overridden by decision of that war's Allied powers. In the view of some observers, the treaty's incorporation of significant minority populations into Poland did not serve Poland's best interests, since these minorities persistently pursued independence and borders passing through ethnically-mixed areas would prove difficult to defend.

See also: Polish minority in the Soviet Union, Belorussian minority in Poland, Ukrainian minority in Poland, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, and Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

The populations separated by the division suffered varying degrees of repressions under their respective governments, particularly in the 1930s. Ethnic Poles left within Soviet borders were subjected to persecution and repressions, their property confiscated. Most Poles left in the Soviet Union by the Treaty of Riga would be deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan in the 1930s. Belarussians and Ukrainians, having failed to create their own states, faced difficult situation or outright persecution on both sides of the border. In Soviet Union, they were subject to Sovietization, with their cultural institutions suppressed, many communities forcibly resettled, and increasing economic hardships (culminating in the Holodomor in the Ukraine). Several hundred thousand Belorussians, Poles, Ukrainians and members of other minorities were executed or deported by the Soviet government during the 1930s. The Polish portion of Belarus and Ukraine were in turn subjected to Polonization; the minorities, particularly Ukrainians, resisted, leading to the adoption of terrorist tactics by the Ukrainian extremists (OUN). During government anti-guerrilla operations minority members were arrested or even executed, and cultural institutions lost much support.

The Soviet Union, thwarted in 1921, would see its sphere of influence expand after World War II, with its control over the People's Republic of Poland and border changes that unified Belorussian and Ukrainian territory within the USSR. In 1989, however, Poland would regain its full sovereignty, and soon afterward, with the fall of the Soviet Union, Belarus and Ukraine would go on to become independent nations.