Kresy

The name Kresy (Polish for "borderlands", or more correctly Kresy Wschodnie, Eastern Borderlands) is used by Poles, mostly in historical context, to refer to Western Ukraine and Western Belarus that were anexed by Poland after a series of wars- Polish-Ukrainian War 1918-1919, Polish-Lithuanian War 1920 and Polish-Soviet War 1919-1921 - with the Peace of Riga 1921. These territories bordered the Soviet Union on the east, Lithuania and Latvia on the north, and Romania on the south.

Kresy approximately correspond to the territory to the East of the Curzon line.

During 1921鈥"1939 (Second Polish Republic), Kresy comprised of the following voivodeships (from North to South and then to the West, see the 1939 map in the Voivodeships of Poland article).
*Wilno Voivodeship, capital Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania)
*Nowogr贸dek Voivodeship, capital Nowogr贸dek (now Navahradak, Belarus)
*Polesie Voivodeship, capital Brze艣膰 nad Bugiem (now Brest, Belarus)
*Wolhynian Voivodeship, capital 艁uck (now Lutsk, Ukraine)
*Tarnopol Voivodeship, capital Tarnopol (now in Ukraine)
*Stanis艂aw贸w Voivodeship, capital Stanis艂aw贸w (now Ivano-Frankivs'k, Ukraine)
*Lw贸w Voivodeship, capital Lw贸w (now Lviv, Ukraine)

The territory of Kresy constituted over 40% of Polish territory during the Second Republic.

While the majority of Western Ukraine in the south was Ukrainian and the majority of Western Belarus in the north was Belarusian the Polish - the majority of urban population was polish - were the largest ethnic group in the combined region. Other groups included Lithuanian and Jewish. Polish inhabitants of this region, known in Polish as Kresowiacy, constituted approximately 40% of the population and had their distinct culture with accent and customs influenced by the presence of ethnic minorities. Among these about 150,000 constituted osadnicy, or veterans of Polish army given free land during 1921-1939.

As a consequence of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, on September 17, 1939 the territory was annexed by Soviet Union, and a significant part of the Polish population was deported to other areas of the country.

After the German invasion, a significant part of the Kresy population was transferred to Germany as workforce (Ostarbeiter, "Eastern workers"). By the end of the WWII they were placed in camps for displaced persons in the post-war Germany. Soviet representatives attempted to filter out persons of Belarusian and Ukrainian nationality from camps located in the Western occupation zones, in order to transfer them to the Soviet Union. Many of those from Kresy who already have had an experience of Soviet life sought to avoid this kind of "repatriation". In particular, some camps that hosted Belarusians used terms White Ruthenians and Krivichs in their documentation.

After the Second World War the Kresy territory was officially ceded to the Soviet Union (Ukrainian, Byelorussian and Lithuanian Socialist Soviet Republics) and most of the Polish population was transferred to Poland's Recovered Territories.

See also

*Curzon line
*Dzikie Pola
*Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union
*Kresy Zachodnie

External links

*http://www.kresy.co.uk/