Leseprobe

The legacy of the territorial changes in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk The Polish Eastern Border 1918–1921 JACEK TEBINKA At the time when World War I broke out, the territorial order on the Polish lands was regulated by the provisions of the Congress of Vienna, which had introduced a new security system in Europe. From the moment when the Congress created the Kingdom of Poland in 1815, the eastern border of this autonomous polity was viewed in Europe as the borderland between the Polish lands and Russia. With time, the term “Russian Poland” came to be used in reference to the Polish lands ruled by the Romanov Empire. This name referred only to the territory of the Kingdom of Poland, excluding the areas of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth annexed by Russia in the aftermath of the Partitions of Poland. 1 The political map of Europe before the outbreak of World War I in 1914 differed markedly from the ethnic map. Many nations which had experienced their rebirth in the nineteenth century did not have their own independent states. The Polish people were one of such nations. World War I, in which Poland’s partitioners (Austria-Hungary, Germany and Russian) found themselves on opposing sides, brought about deep territorial changes in Eastern Europe. The offensive of the Central Powers in 1915 resulted in their armies seizing Warsaw on 5 August, followed by the occupation of the whole King- dom of Poland. It was divided into two occupation zones, an Austrian and a German one. The armies of the Central Powers reached the Riga-Dvinsk-Baranavichy-Pinsk-Tarnopol line. 2 Germany and Austria-Hungary’s announcement (5 November 1916) of the declaration which prom- ised to reincarnate the Kingdom of Poland was the first genuine step in the process of internationalis- ing the Polish independence cause during World War I. It was also a reflection of the German Empire seizing the initiative and playing an increasingly stronger role in the alliance with Austria-Hungary. 3 The February Revolution, which abolished tsarism, opened up new possibilities of a German expansion in the East. On 29 March 1917, the Russian Provisional Government, created in Petrograd, 1 Sakowicz, Iwona: The British Press and the Polish Question (1865–1914). In: Polish and Irish Struggles for Self-de- termination. Living near Dragons. Ed. by Galia Chimiak and Bozena Cierlik. Cambridge 2020, 53–67. 2 Buttar, Prit: Germany Ascendant. The Eastern Front 1915. Oxford 2015, 300–319, 353–360; for the German policy on the Polish question in the first phase of the war see Mikietyński, Piotr: Niemiecka droga ku Mitteleuropie: polityka II Rzeszy wobec Królestwa Polskiego (1914–1916). [The German Path Towards Mitteleuropa. The Second Reich’s Policy Regarding the Kingdom of Poland (1914–1916)] (Studia z historii XX wieku 6). Kraków 2009. 3 On the exploitation of the occupied Kingdom of Poland by the Germans see Kauffman, Jesse: Elusive Alliance. The German Occupation of Poland inWorld War I. London 2015, 58–66; on the concepts of German politics in Central and Eastern Europe see: Meyer, Henry C.: Mitteleuropa in German Thought and Action 1815–1945. The Hague 1955; Brech- tefeld, Jörg: Mitteleuropa and German Politics 1848 to the Present. Basingstoke 1996.