|
Under the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, adjusted by agreement on 28 September 1939, the Soviet Union annexed all Polish territory east of the line of the rivers Pisa, Narew, Western Bug, and San, except for Wilno Voivodship with its capital Wilno (Vilnius), which was given to Lithuania, and the Suwałki region, which was annexed by Germany. These territories had mixed population of different nationalities with Poles and Ukrainians being the most numerous ethnic groups, as well as large minorities of Belarusians and Jews. However, as the different national groups were located in a patchwork of mixed settlement patterns, much of the territory had its own significant local non-Polish majority (Ukrainians in the south and Belarusians in the North), especially in the rural areas. The "need to protect" the Ukrainian and Belarusian population was used as a pretext for Soviet invasion of Eastern Poland (including Western Ukraine and Belarus) carried out in the wake of Poland's falling apart under the Nazi invasion with Warsaw being besieged and Poland's government being in the process of evacuation. The total area, including the area given to Lithuania, was 201,000 square kilometres, with a population of 13.5 million, of which about 5.2-6.5 million were ethnic Poles. During 1939-1941 at least 1.8 million of the people inhabiting the region were killed or deported by the Soviet regime, from which at least 60% were Poles, and the second largest group were Jews. Recently few Polish historians, based mostly on queries in Soviet archives, reduced that number to about half a million people repressed in 1939-1945. These areas were conquered by the Nazi Germany in 1941 during Operation Barbarossa. The Nazis divided them up as follows: After the end of World War II, the Soviet Union kept most of the territories annexed in 1939, while only some territories were returned its Polish ally, notably the areas near Białystok and Przemyśl.
See also | ||||||||
|
| |||||||||
 |
|
| |