Dmowski's Line (Polish : Linia Dmowskiego) was a proposed border of Poland after World War I. It was proposed by the Polish delegation at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and it was named after Roman Dmowski, Polish foreign minister. Poland wanted Upper Silesia, Pomerelia including Danzig, Warmia and Masuria, all of Lithuania, and western parts of Belarus, Polesia, Volhynia and Podolia.
The boundary line to the east was Polish by the notes from the Polish Delegation as follows: [1]
... ranging from the Baltic coast east of Łabiawy boundary line follows the coast to the north of Klaipėda and Palanga. ... From the coast to the north of Libawa proceed to the east boundary line of the historic border between the Poland 1772, and Courland. It comes in this way to the Iłłukszta county in Courland. This county is recovered by Poland due to its geographical position and the advantage of the Polish element in the population. From here, border proceeds along the limit of Iłłukszta county to Daugava river and passes on its right bank (Vitebsk Governorate) in order to proceed eastward parallel to the river, and approximately 30 kilometers to the borders of the Dryświaty county, including same, along with the Polock county. Next it passes the north-west from Horodka, returns to the left bank of the Daugava River about 30 miles west of Vitebsk and goes toward the south, passing west of the Sienna to the point where it meets the boundary between Minsk and Mohylow Gouvernement, proceeding from the boundary line towards the south until the Berezina in place where it touches the northern border of the Rzeczyca county, then crossing the Berezina, goes in a southwesterly direction to the marshes to the east of Mazyr. From there, crossing Pripyat, the boundary follows the dividing line between the Rzeczyca and Mazyr counties, then, is still proceeding in a south west, passes to the west to the cities of Zwiahel and Ovruch in Volhynia and arrives at the point where the borders of Zaslaw, Ostrog and Zwiahel counties meet. Then, heading south, the frontier line is progressing along the eastern border of Zaslaw and Starokonstantynów counties, to the point where it meets boundaries of Latyczów and Ploskirów counties in Podolia, there is still in a southerly direction until it reaches the river Uszyca near Zińków and goes along its course to the Dniester, which is at this point the southern border between Poland and Romania.
This proposal was rejected, and later withdrawn by the author, Roman Dmowski, who, during the negotiations ending the Polish-Bolshevik war, spoke out against the inclusion of Minsk. He explained the desire to build a country without ethnic minorities; the de facto theme was the desire to prevent the concept of federation (Międzymorze) of Jozef Pilsudski, even to a limited extent. Consequently, in the Treaty of Riga the Polish-Soviet border was demarcated in the distance of about 30 km to the west and north of Minsk. Polish territory according to Dmowski's proposal was supposed to be equal to 447,000 km2. [2]
The Curzon Line was a proposed demarcation line between the Second Polish Republic and the Soviet Union, two new states emerging after World War I. Based on a suggestion by Herbert James Paton, it was first proposed in 1919 by Lord Curzon, the British Foreign Secretary, to the Supreme War Council as a diplomatic basis for a future border agreement.
Podolia or Podilia is a historic region in Eastern Europe, located in the west-central and south-western parts of Ukraine and in northeastern Moldova.
The Polish–Soviet War was fought primarily between the Second Polish Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic before it became a union republic in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution, on territories which were previously held by the Russian Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy following the Partitions of Poland.
Roman Stanisław Dmowski was a Polish politician, statesman, and co-founder and chief ideologue of the National Democracy political movement. He saw the Germanization of Polish territories controlled by the German Empire as the major threat to Polish culture and therefore advocated a degree of accommodation with another power that had partitioned Poland, the Russian Empire. He favoured the re-establishment of Polish independence by nonviolent means and supported policies favourable to the Polish middle class. While in Paris during World War I, he was a prominent spokesman for Polish aspirations to the Allies through his Polish National Committee. He was an instrumental figure in the postwar restoration of Poland's independent existence. Throughout most of his life, he was the chief ideological opponent of the Polish military and political leader Józef Piłsudski and of the latter's vision of Poland as a multinational federation against German and Russian imperialism.
Volhynia, is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between southeastern Poland, southwestern Belarus, and western Ukraine. The borders of the region are not clearly defined, but the territory that still carries the name is Volyn Oblast, in western Ukraine.
Right-bank Ukraine is a historical and territorial name for a part of modern Ukraine on the right (west) bank of the Dnieper River, corresponding to the modern-day oblasts of Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad, as well as the western parts of Kyiv and Cherkasy. It was separated from the left bank during the Ruin.
Švitrigaila was the Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1430 to 1432. He spent most of his life in largely unsuccessful dynastic struggles against his cousins Vytautas and Sigismund Kęstutaitis.
Intermarium was a post-World War I geopolitical plan conceived by Józef Piłsudski to unite former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth lands within a single polity. The plan went through several iterations, some of which anticipated the inclusion of neighboring states. The proposed multinational polity would have incorporated territories lying between the Baltic, Black and Adriatic Seas, hence the name Intermarium.
Minsk Voivodeship was a unit of administrative division and local government in Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1566 and later in Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, until the partitions of the Commonwealth in 1793. Centred on the city of Minsk and subordinate to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the region continued the traditions – and shared the borders – of several previously existing units of administrative division, notably a separate Duchy of Minsk, annexed by Lithuania in the 13th century. It was replaced with Minsk Governorate in 1793.
Western Krai was an unofficial name for the westernmost parts of the Russian Empire, excluding the territory of Congress Poland. The term encompasses the lands annexed by the Russian Empire in the successive partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the late 18th century – in 1772, 1793, 1795 and located east of Congress Poland. This area is known in Poland as Ziemie Zabrane but is most often referred to in Polish historiography and common parlance as part of Zabór Rosyjski. Together with Bessarabia and the former Crimean Khanate, the territory roughly overlapped also with the Jewish Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire, and included much of what is today Belarus, Ukraine, and Lithuania.
Semigallia, also spelt Semigalia, is one of the Historical Latvian Lands located to the south of the Daugava river and to the north of the Saule region of Samogitia. The territory split between Latvia and Lithuania, previously inhabited by the Semigallian Baltic tribe. They are noted for their long resistance (1219–1290) against the German crusaders and Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades. Semigallians had close linguistic and cultural ties with Samogitians.
The Belarusian Ridge is a line of terminal moraines in the northwest of Belarus. The feature is part of the East European Plain.
Pyetrykaw or Petrikov is a town in Gomel Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Pyetrykaw District. At the 2009 census, its population was 10,591. As of 2023, it has a population of 10,303.
Following three consecutive partitions of Poland carried out between 1772 and 1795, the sovereign state known as the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth disappeared from the map of Europe. In 1918 following the end of World War I, the territories of the former state re-emerged as the states of Poland and Lithuania among others. In the intervening period, the territory of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was split between the Austrian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia and the Russian Empire. These powers subdivided the territories that they gained and created new toponyms for the territories conquered. The subdivisions created were complicated by changes within those empires as well as by the periodic establishment of other forms of the quasi-Polish provinces led by a foreign head of state.
The Treaty of Warsaw of April 1920 was a military-economical alliance between the Second Polish Republic, represented by Józef Piłsudski, and the Ukrainian People's Republic, represented by Symon Petliura, against Bolshevik Russia. The treaty was signed on 21 April 1920, with a military addendum on 24 April.
The Russian Partition, sometimes called Russian Poland, constituted the former territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that were annexed by the Russian Empire in the course of late-18th-century Partitions of Poland. The Russian acquisition encompassed the largest share of Poland's population, living on 463,200 km2 of land constituting the eastern and central territory of the former commonwealth. The three partitions, which took place in 1772, 1793 and 1795, resulted in the complete loss of Poland's sovereignty, with its territory split between Russia, Prussia and Austria. The Napoleonic Wars saw significant parts of Prussia's and Austria's partitions reconstituted as the Duchy of Warsaw, most of which was then reconstituted as the Kingdom of Poland within the Russian Empire in 1815.
On the night of August 3/4, 1924, when a group of 150 Soviet agents, commanded by Lieutenant Boryshkevich, raided the town of Stołpce, which back then was a railroad border crossing between the Second Polish Republic and the Soviet Union. The raid ended in temporary capture of the town, and destruction of a police station, railroad station, and several houses.
The Polish–Turkish War of 1485–1503 was a prolonged conflict, rather a series of conflicts, between the Kingdom of Poland and the Ottoman Empire. The conflict formally lasted eighteen years, but during this time hostilities were ceased on several occasions due to temporary treaties being signed between the warring parties.
Duchy of Podolia was a historical state that previously was a part of Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia. The principality of Southwest Galicia–Volhynia, which was formed as a result of the struggle for the legacy of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia. Founded by Knyaz George Koriatovich from the Karijotas house.
Volhynian District was a district of the Civil Administration of the Eastern Lands from September 1919 to January 1920, Civil Administration of the Lands of Volhynia and Podolian Front from January 1920 to September 1920 and Provisional Administration of Front-line and Phase Territories from September 1920 to December 1920, all of which were under the control of the Second Polish Republic. Its seat was located in Lutsk, and before that, its provisional seat was in Kovel.