Why did Poland's border change so much after World War 2? (Short Animated Documentary)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ต.ค. 2024
- Poland's borders changed quite a lot after World War 2, moving hundreds of miles to the west and massively altering the shape of the country. But why did this happen and why did Poland lose and receive the lands that it did? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.
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The deportation of peoples by Stalin created the almost ethnically pure nation Poland is even today. Also, it caused a curious state of affairs, because the former Prussian lands were settled by mostly eastern Poles, the western Poles beccame the new Eastern Poles. The division is visible to this day, especially on Political maps. Also also, the relocated Poles had their own dialects, but since they were now left scrambled between different dialects, everyone just started using textbook Polish in day to day speech to make sure everyone understood each other. Even today Westernmost Poland has no dialects.
Wow. I always assumed liberalism of western Poland is a result of German traditions there. So, it's actually vise versa?
It wasn’t just Stalin, I’m surprised the Galician genocides weren’t mentioned. The fact that the Ukrainian collaborateurs killed almost all the poles in the area was a big reason that Poland basically had no chance to demand those lands back.
My family was from Galicia hence why I wanted to mention it.
As a result of this my grandma speaks with an eastern accent even though she grew up in western Poland.
@@KentMansley_Noticer there were no genocides, and Polish-Ukrainian conflict barely affected anything. Polish were a minority in those lands even before the war and Polish actively took part in the conflict by murdering Ukrainians. Galicia and Volhynia were meant to be returned to Ukraine sooner or later one way or another. Furthemore, much of modern south west Poland was inhabited by Ukrainian majority in all of history. My grandma is from those lands and there were almost nothing Polish there
@@happyelephant5384 my family was resettled from eastern pre-war Poland (currently western Belarus) to West Pomerania so yeah, I think it's vice versa
Because James Bisonette decided that he liked Poland to have as short a circumference relative to its surface area as possible.
Edit: This is also a maths joke.
Doubtful…
It's the work of the Patrio-I mean, the La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo!
@@jamesbissonette8002you’re too modest. You can’t hide your impact on every event in world history forever
real
@@jamesbissonette8002idk bro
I love some of your newer models for classic characters like Stalin, Hitler and De Gaulle!
I don't know why, but referring to Hitler and Stalin as classic characters really made me laugh
@@scottredmond5616 Same, I didn't know how to phrase it XD
@@scottredmond5616 man I hope the classic characters make an appearance again in the new DLCs
@@scottredmond5616 it’s true
I like the oldest model for Hitler. But Hitler was made to look a bit adorable which is concerning, but also humorous.
The priest in my community was a Polish refugee, whose family was deported to Siberia following the 1939 invasion, when he was twelve. His hometown is now part of Belarus. During the war, he was smuggled out of the Soviet Union into Iran, and later made his way to the USA where he trained to become a priest. Postwar, he sponsored over 3000 families to migrate to Canada and the USA, and a huge number of people in Michigan and Ontario who are of Polish ancestry are here because of his efforts.
It really is interesting. A single letter convinced my great, great grandfather on my mother's side to come to Australia.
That never happened. You live in Canada. And that priest went to Canada. Not the US. And that priest allowed for Poles to go to ONLY Canada. Not the US. Get your facts right!
There’s no polish descended people in the US because they’re too P00R to move here!
So since we have discovered that you’re Canadian. Remove all mentions of the US in your comment and replace them with a Canada to make it more accurate. That priest and other Poles fled to only Canada!
@@anonymoususer8895 I can provide you with articles about his actions, which were detailed back in 1961, and again when he retired, and as recently as 2017. He is still alive today. He first immigrated to the USA, and his family later moved there as well (parents, sister and brothers). He later moved to Canada, and spent 50 years as a priest in Ontario. Due to dual citizenship, he sponsored Polish and some Ukrainian Catholic migrants to the USA and Canada. His name is Reverend Canon Mitchell Kaminski, if you wish to try a Google search.
The green in the Polish flag represents unchanging borders.
The blue represents reliable allies.
whilst the yellow represents its impeccable geography...
@@PixelTrain1 the black represents good politicians
🤣🤣🤣🤣
The red represents the button they’re just waiting to push
Good polemic! By the way, the title suggests as if Poland had voluntarily changed its borders like this. This amputation of the Polish eastern territories with the expulsion of millions of Poles was just another betrayal of Poland. Incidentally, many Poles were also murdered during the expulsions. The first betrayal was in 1939! When the French and British did not support Poland with a massive attack in the west against the Germans as agreed before the war with Poland. The agreement with the Soviets that Poland would lose its eastern territories was one of the next betrayals.
The quick transition to "not you" is pure gold
**Angry French noises**
@@Mr.LaughingDuck "Le what" asked de Gaulle
E
**Sad de gaulle noises**
As a French, I laughed so hard😂
Each new video, there is always such a drastic upswing in quality. Absolutely stunning job lads!
E
Not really? Looks the same to me.
Please do a video on the following questions:
1. Why did the Revolutions of 1848 fail in the German States and Spain?
2. Why do people drive on different sides of the road in different countries?
ok that 2nd one is a really good and intersting one.
There are also revolutions in 1848 in the romanian states.
For the second one: the French Revolution, the rise of automobiles and the need to standardise.
The short answer why the Revolution Of 1848 failed in Germany/The German Confederation was Austria.
The second one is mostly the British’s fault.
In terms of territorial extent, few countries have physically "shifted around" as much as Poland has. Possible contenders to that title being Paraguay, Bolivia, or Vietnam.
Also, Roman Empire. Beginning as a Latin city state, ending up with Morea and Constantinople.
You should see the Balkans
@@sagnu745 I guess if you count the original Turkic state, then Bulgaria takes the cake in this category! :)
See Kyrgyzstan Baby.
@@sagnu745 Bosnia's borders don't change but the people inside those borders get moved around as much as the Germans and Poles did in 1945.
Worth mentioning that Poland was the only Allied country to lose overall land after the war. It became smaller even tho it was "on the winning side."
Poland lost rural poor eastern territories with lots of minorities and got urbanised developed german territories for homogeneous settlement.
I think that if you compare value of land rather then size, Poland clearly seems like a winner.
@@Tk-mj1clif you were sent into decades of communism by people who's asses you saved you are clear loser here, poles, Czecha and slovakians all can thank brits for this wonderful gift of being under communists for saving them in battle of britain
@@Tk-mj1cl These "urbanised developed german territories" were bommbed to the oblivion by the allied powers, then rolled by the russian tanks. There was almost no difference between east and west in terms of urbanization.
(Czecho)Slovakia lost Carpathian Ruthenia.
@@Tk-mj1cl What is the most important - Poland as a "winner" lost its idependence for about 50 years.
What's interesting is that while moving Poland westwards was Stalin's idea, he didn't invent the borders himself. The new eastern border was a British post-WW1 proposal for an easternmost line of influence for the newly-resurgent Poland (also known as Curzon's line), while the Oder-Neisse border can be first seen in WW1 Franco-Russian plans as a new western border of the Russian Empire, in case of their victory. Allies won, but Russia imploded, so none of that happened. As for the partition line of East Prussia though, well, that's just one of the numerous Stalin's abominations.
Yes, this is absolutely true, because Oder-Lusatian Neisse border was seen by Imperial Russia and Soviet Union as the best and easiest to defend border against any invasion coming from the West, regardless if it is Napoleon, Wilhelm II, Hitler or the Allies.
@@Hadar1991 much more scared of an invasion from the east novadays.
@@odoakerrex2787 well even then they weren’t unconcerned about the East before this time, given they’d fought wars against the Japanese prior to this, but once japan became basically an American puppet state the Soviets really focused on the western borders since neither they nor America or it’s allies were likely to contend Soviet lands (other Asian countries are a different story) any time soon
Curzon's line was also almost identical to Ribbentrop=Molotov line.
@@odoakerrex2787 Stalin could not care less - Poland was his puppet state and he was mainly concerned about the western border.
One of the most popular Polish movies of all time, the 1967 film "Sami Swoi" tells a story of two conflicted families relocated from the former eastern territories into the new western ones, and about how the bring the old feud into the new lands.
Love that film.
Thats like a sting into my Heart . . . From 1949 to 1990, Germans were consistently told that they will one day turn back into their homes. My Oldfather who lost his wife due to sovietterror in silesia waited like almost 40 years for that untill his death in the late 80s. And now you are telling me, that alrealdy in the 60s it was a "Well, now its our Land"-thing in polish minds. While our political leaders told us again and again, that this is just a transition Phase. Untill 1990, when the 2+4-Treaty suddenly appeared and we were just told "You waited Long enough, now you can wait forever"
See, Bro, I now that we Germans aswell as the soviets fucked poles up in a way thats not okay, but by mentioning the sovietcruelties against Germans in 1945 to 1949, it kind of sucks that we are getting tought that "The allied freed us Germans from the evil Nazis"
@@thisiswherethefunbegins38 The communist government did acknowledge that the post-German lands were the most likely losses come WW3 and so refused to invest too much resources into them, forcing the relocated Easterners to fend for themselves. One of the most notorious cases was when bricks from the de-Germanized Breslau were used to rebuild Warsaw.
Having said that, there was never any question that these lands could ever be handed back voluntarily. No way in hell, that much was set in stone. If they were to be lost, it would be over tens of thousands of dead Polish soldiers. Perhaps had significant amounts of Germans been left there, it's possible that Kohl wouldn't have resisted the tempation of truly becoming Bismarck 2.0 when the wall was crumbling down and at least attempted to restore the pre-1939 Eastern lands. Things being the way they were, there was simply too much to lose for very little gain.
@@thisiswherethefunbegins38 but what did you expect? were people really that naive? that they believed that after several dozen years they would return to areas completely settled and adapted by Poles?
If the answer isn't Napoleon, it's probably Stalin.
Or the British
In Europe, Napoleon, in the eastern europe, Stalin and in the third-world the british
Now you guys got me thinking if there is an event/border/country that has all three (Napoleon, British and Stalin) as the answer.
Edit: Germany, maybe? But what else...
@@hebl47 Austria?
also the French again@@finnguy1549
Just to add to this. Back when Poland was reborn after 1918, there were two concepts which dominated regarding how the new Poland should expand. The "Piast Concept", named for the first ruling family of Poland and its founders, advocated for a more "Western" Poland which reached to the Oder and Niesse rivers in Germany, and promoted an ethnically pure Polish nation-state at the expense of Germany (including expelling Germans from Prussia). On the flip side, the "Jagiellon Concept", named for the ruling family who cemented their rule over Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, and Bohemia, advocated for a more multi-ethnic state akin to the Commonwealth of old stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea. The Jagiellon Concept was popular with Josef Pilsudki, the father of the Second Polish Republic, and so would come to be prioritised by the new government which sought expansion into Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania.
Stalin would later use the Piast Concept as a propoganda tool to justify the Westward shift of the border, and those regions are still referred to as the "Recovered Territories" in Poland, despite many of them having only been Polish briefly and over a thousand years ago.
Western territories, Silesia in particular, weren't "briefly" under the Polish rule, although it was certainly long ago. Depending on how you're dating it, for the longest time Silesia was either Polish, Bohemian (Czech) or under independent Piast dukes. The region would be heavily germanised during the Ostsiedlung, which occured mainly between 13th and 15th century. Pomerania is a bit of a different beast, with the so called Western Pomerania being independent for the most part.
The "Piast concept" was pretty much unattainable before WW2, even if by some miracle the Poles were able to conquer those lands from Germany, getting rid of all the Germans and replacing them with Poles coming from... where, actually? Either way, it would be a herculean task. It was managed after the war purely because of the looming red army.
In actuality, Poland didn't have much of an interest in the then German lands, aside for the land with significant Polish minority if not straight up majority, like Upper Silesia (territories up to and around the city of Opole), Masuria and a bit of the overall borderlands, especially near the coast.
Misread as "Pianist Concept" and became confused. If we could all just play music instead!
@@KarmaSpaz12 What do you think is Chopin for? ;)
@@martinmortyry7444 Oh definitely, post-WW1 the border disputes were quite reasonable. Upper Silesia, Masuria, and West Prussia were all ethincally diverse regions where honestly both sides had a very fair claim. Only the extremists on either side really pushed for more. Unfortunately, those extremists came to power in Germany and... well, we all know.
Regarding the "briefly" bit, when I said "many of them" I was mainly referring to Pomerania and East Prussia, both of which did not spend long under Polish rule and even then were only ruled by the Poles but populated by the Pomeranian and Prussian Baltic peoples (who no longer exist). Silesia is, as you said, more complicated, because of Bohemia's legacy with both the Piasts but also the Silesian people being much more Polish than German until they were assimiated.
My "ideal" Polish-German border is the post-WW1 one, with the exception of Danzig (rightfully German) and perhaps Poland getting a bit more of Upper Silesia.
@@dietrichzollner7897 Funfact. Silesians are not Polish and the Poles living there came only during the Industrialisation to work in the Factories. It is like Germans moving to New York and then trying to make New York part of Germany.
My Ideal border would be a fair border, Silesia stays completely German, and the Poles get Poznan and the Region Kulm (east of Poznan and part of West Prussia). Most likely the war would not happened or at least Germans and Poles on the same side against the Soviet Union. Even Hitler did not change a fair border (like the German-Danish border).
The whole plan is for Poland to keep sliding westward until it's on top of Canada
We could put it where France is right now for a start
Russia needs that security zone. Somebody over there looked at them funny that one time.
@@recoil53 Pretty sure that was France
No, it will move West until it occupies its two largest population centres: Detroit and Chicago.
@@andrijbebko8435chicago already is occupied by poles
Reminds me of a joke my history teacher told our class. Polish state is a peculiar one, as it often disappears from the map, and always comes back on a different spot.
Four things that frequently disappear: Car keys, Wallet, TV remote, Poland.
It happened twice
@@solce809 Do you happen to be of Germanic origin by any chance? Krauts tend to correct jokes.
@@obscureprivate3368 I think I’m just retarded
The brown in the flag represents the colour of the mole that one whacks.
Fun fact: The spoken polish in these newly gained lands is the purest form of polish, since in order to communicate properly everybody had to drop their regional accents
I wouldn't use the word "purest", as it sounds like regional accents are some form of contamination. It's an unfortunate term - I'd say something like the plainest. And to be fair, regional accents aren't very distinct (in comparison to eg. the UK or Germany). The truly substantial differences are confined to certain areas - like the mountains, Silesia etc., other than that they're relatively subtle and it's not like in England where you can generally recognize what major city a native speaker hails from right from the first sentence. There are giveaways, but you need to have an ear for those.
One of the main reasons is that Poland underwent rapid industrialization in the 20th century, and it had caused enormous internal migration (from pretty much everywhere) to the big cities regardless of the shifted borders.
@@vibovitold I meant purest as in it has the least added things to it, but I get what you mean
they didnt have to drop. IT happened naturally, as children don't want to speak like their parents, but like their peers. Dutch moving to Belgium with 3 year old child will have a Flemish (Belgian dialect of Netherlands language )speaking child while they both speak the Dutch accent. This is why all the accents averaged out very quickly with new generations. In Belgium every major city has slightly different accent, as their history was much less tumultuous than Polish.
*Laughs in Silesian*
@@vibovitold yep, that's why we're the most developed country in eastern Europe, together with Czechia.
Poland took “Slide to the left” too literally.
it slid to the left in both ways lol
I thought it was a jump to the left?
CRISS CROSS
CRISS CROSS
Cha cha real smooth
@szykaczuPO and Polska 2050 are both center-right parties lol
Worth mentioning, shortly after the war the polish eastern border with USSR looked slightly different than in 1951. There was a Polish-Soviet territorial exchange in 1951 due to the valuable coal deposits near the border (sources: My Grandma lived in Waręż and had to move to the "Recovered Territories" as we call territories taken from Germany in Poland).
Also, borders with USSR closely resemble infamous Curzon Line proposed by British during Polish-Soviet 1919 War
If there was a "Valuable asset" of sorts close to the new borders, there was always a "territorial redistribution" with the Soviets. Same case with the Finnish town of Enso with its paper mill and hydroelectricity plant...
you are missing most important piece of truth, there were 2 curzon lines, or curzon line, and namier line, and current polish border is based on namier line, curzon line would gave poland lviv, grodno and polmin
It wasn't really such valuable, especially in comparison to Donets coal basin. In a document about establishing the city of Chervonohrad they didn't mention economic reason, but ideologic one (need of creating certain working class, which - suspiciously - was also very popular in soviet iconography). And by bringing here people from elsewhere they turned small Krystynopol (3k) into big city of miners (70k), similar to those in Donbas. Basically, they were more concerned about integration of newly conquered western lands than genuine desire of recources.
@@ayararesara6253 lol you believe soviet propapaganda
@@wereszyckiI'm not saying they didn't see any value in resources at all, but that first and foremost it was seen as useful ground for promoting "soviet" lifestyle in far from loyal territory.
FINALLY YOU COVERED THIS TOPIC!!! I'VE WAITED FOR YOU TO DO THIS!!!!
I have been wondering this for literal years, thank you for finally answering it!
I mean there’s also the part that the eastern part of Poland was part of Ukraine and Belarus territory which happened during the civil war and during the Soviet-polish war
What happened territorially with Poland is striking, it is the only country that has moved throughout Europe in the most modern centuries of humanity, almost as if they were reminiscent of its nomadic past as Slavs. If you watch a video of how Polish borders have changed throughout its history, it would look like a spot dancing in the middle of Eastern Europe, as if it were a hurricane moving over its very center. XD
I guess being stuck between Germans and Russians feels a bit like living in a hurricane
*central
Especially ironic given that the current borders are very similar to OG Poland from about a millennium ago
@@cyanide1931 It's like in Civ V when you spawn between the Romans and Zulus.
I was about to ask something like, "what territories have ALWAYS been part of the 'mobile Poland' " then I remembered that Poland didn't exist for more than a century.
I was hoping for a new video. It's always nice to get one before heading into work.
A question I always wanted answered but I never thought I would get an answer too.
Thank you for another amazing video you are easily becoming my favourite youtube channel
maybe shouldhave just typed it in google
@@erwinner8929 google isn’t always trustworthy though
This is the best channel on TH-cam for gaining a broad knowledge of world history in bite-sized morsels.
Change my mind.
Could have dismissed this as a fairly well know chapter of history (well, if you're German or Polish, that is), unlike your general "I didn't even know this was a thing in history" vids. But as always, the animation, the little vignettes, the blink-and-youll-miss-it little references, are just brilliant!
Germany wants to colonize and settle eastern Europe in ww2, gets colonized and settled by eastern europeans instead
Haaaaaaaa
Eastern Germany were Polish lands for hundreds of years, until we were pushed east. Today Poland has all it's former territories.
I think 0:09 should have been "lost to Moscow" and not "lost to Warsaw". Great vid tho keep em coming.
Thanks. I’ve recently started studying European history, and the mention of Warsaw threw me off. Your comment got me back on course.
I think you’re just contextualizing it in a different way than he is. Video creator meant “lost to Warsaw” as in “to Warsaw (Poland), it is lost”. As in Poland has lost those lands - to Poland, they are lost - they are lost to Poland.
Thank you for mentioning this! My grandmothers family (Germans) lived in eastern Brandenburg. Their ancestors settled in the region sometimes in the 1600s. When the Red Army marched in, they stayed and thought they would then just continue living there in their village. But after the war, the order came for all Germans to leave the area. They had to flee and start a new life in the GDR. Thankfully they made it. When the Berlin Wall came down and the Cold War ended, my grandmother could finally with other friends and relatives from before WW2 visit the home village again. I hope nobody has to experience war and expulsion ever again
I wish nobody in Europe had to experience war and expulsion right now.
I know how Germans generally think about territorial expansion, but how did they think about loosing Prussia, the starting point of German reunification, as well as the violence on Germans in Prussian land when Poland gained them? To me, this seems like another Treaty of Versailles moment but interestingly, and gladly, it never happened. Why?
Only in Europe????
Gaza civilians are experiencing war and expulsion RIGHT NOW!!
@@JustThatOneRandomGuyBecause this time the British and Americans focused on making Germany effeminate and had a very strict military presence there. The results were due to war exhaustion and brainwashing by socialist pacifists the modern Germany is not even a shadow of its glory. And you won't know this but this was so effective that it destroyed a 5000 yr old martial culture within 10 yrs. Thanks to Adolf Hitler and his brain twisting philosophy which isn't logical at all.
@@JustThatOneRandomGuyI don't care about the areas today. It would not be fair to evict people from their homes just because Germans lived there generations ago.
Nevertheless, it bothers me that the suffering of the post-war period is often forgotten. Personally, I know some older people who had to flee as a child. Heartbreaking stories that shouldn't be dismissed. "They were Nazis and deserved it" is just a stupid justification.
What is worth mentioning is that Germany and Poland came to an agreement on a common border and only recognised it in 1991. Germany agreed to recognise it and Poland agreed on German unification.
Also, these borders were justified by Stalin, because the border between the very first Polish state, ruled by Mieszko I, and the Holy Roman Empire in 10th century was in a similar place.
West Germany recognized the new borders as de facto in 1970, de jure in 1990. It was necessary to get the Allied powers to agree to German reunification.
The problem being that when Poland pretended to have those borders, they didn't inform or consult the completely independent Pomeranians who lived there and were quite happily signing their own treaties and trade deals with the neighboring Holy Roman Empire princedoms.
Poland felt entitled to claim that border because the locals were pagan, and therefore illegitimate, much the same as how Britain just carved up Africa with no concern for reality on the ground. When Poland got around to conquering it (way after Mieszko's death), the local Pomeranians asked their West Slavic neighbors (who were part of the HRE) to intervene, which they did, and the Pomeranian nobles swore fealty to the Holy Roman Emperor in return. Recall that the HRE's structure left them with a much greater degree of autonomy than Polish rule would have.
Remember that the HRE was a very multi-ethnic empire, that had a very significant Slavic component, and doing this wasn't actually weird.
@@F40PH-2CAT I'm not claiming reunification wouldn't happen without Polish consent, but it was in the Treaty and definetely served purpose to better relations.
No. It is by accident, that Polish-German border looks somewhat similar to that from 10-11th century. Stalin make it perfectly clear that no historical, ethnic or linguistic claims will be taken under the consideration. Oder and Lusatian Neisse was forced by Stalin as a border because it was the shortest and easiest to defend border you could establish between Poland and Germany. Because Stalin refuse to take historical, ethnic or linguistic claims into consideration he force the narrative for choosing the easier to defence border for Poland in case of any further aggression and Oder and Lusatian Neisse is just by the nature of geography the best defensive border for Poland and Allies just did not have arguments against geography. Also because what will happen to Germany in long term was an unknown back then it was also the shortest and easiest to defend border for Soviet Union in case on Allies aggression or Nazi revival.
@@jensboettiger5286 I thought Pomerania was subjugated by Mieszko, and later lost by Bolesław I
topic suggestion: How did people react to the British Union?
(context: England and Scotland weren't exactly historic friends, yet they were still peacefully united gradually beginning with James I's accession and ending with Queen Anne's Acts of Union)
It's a really good question (albeit one semi-partially covered in Extra History's British history series). Not least because it wasn't peaceful at all. Scotland broke away in the Civil War (twice), and after 'the Glorious Revolution' the overthrown Stuarts spent half a century trying to regain the throne and most of the fighting took place in Scotland through the multiple Jacobite rebellions. There's a period of over a 100 years between the formation of the personal union of the crowns and the formal merger of the crowns into a single country, and it wasn't until about 50 years after that that things can be said to have become peaceful - and that was only after the systematic destruction of the Highland clans as organised polities and the subsequent forced depopulation of much of the Highlands. It would absolutely make for a fascinating video precisely because it wasn't remotely peaceful at all. The Scottish aristocracy and mercantile elite in the Lowlands were fairly rapidly reconciled to the merger with England, but the military and political pacification of Scotland as part of the Kingdom of Great Britain took generations of violent conflict.
"Peacefully"
Jacobite Rising 1689
Williamite War in Ireland 1689-1691
Nine Years War 1688-1697
Jacobite Rising 1715-1716
Jacobite Rising 1719
Jacobite Rising 1745-46
Most of the conflicts were about religion. The Irish and highland Scots were Catholic and pro-Stewart. The lowland Scots were Presbyterians and basically British. The more secular the British get the less it matters.
@@GeorgeP1066 Saying 'Scotland broke away' in the civil war gives the impression that was nationalist in nature, which it wasn't
@@olekcholewa8171 What does the Williamite war in Ireland have to do with Anglo-Scottish relations
Ahh the beautiful migration cycle of Poland
Quite a sad cycle actually
My great grandfather was pioneer on Western Pomerania after ww ii, during the war Germans imprisoned him at make him a slave in the III Reich. After the war he, my great grandma (he meet her at Germany, she also was imprisoned and must work for german nazis) and my grandfather (he was born in Germany after the war) moved to Wiewiecko (village in Western Pomerania). He build here new life for him, his family and next generations bassicaly from the scratch. So I'm proud that I can call myself his desendent and western pomeranian (my regional identity).
I always wondered why this was. Now Poland looks more circular and has a longer coastline. Thanks for making a video on this! 😃
It's basically Polish border from XII Century.
@@mourdebars, strangely, so far away history didn't matter in this video
The borders are close to what Poland was in X-XII century. So it was also back to the borders from 1000 years ago.
@@mourdebarsits fact that Germans really like to forget
@@ptasznik5973Not really
0:17 epic callout, i laughed for a solid minute.
''Throughout the war the major allied powers... not you...'' XD
You sir are an inspiration!
My German relatives were among those pushed westward from Pomerania and Posen. Interestingly enough, their ancestors were originally from the area of the Dutch/German border and were invited to their new homes by the Polish landowners because they knew how to make swampy, wet ground farmable. There are still a few windmills pumping water out of fields in that area of what is today Poland. It kind of explains why my relatives who farmed in western (at that time) Poland spoke Plattdeutsch. 😁
Poznań was only 'German' for 150 years at maximum though, it's not 'Posen'... even under Prussia and the German Empire it was Polish majority
You familly were so called "olenders" or "olędrzy" which were dutch and german people whom were invited by polish kind to Gdansk and its surroundings to help transform swamps into farmland. It is actually one of the reason why in 1939 Gdansk had so many Germans living in it. Its intresting that Polish hospitality in XVI lead to German invasion in 1939.
@@szymondworski8665Posen will always be the English name.
Poznań*
@@antoni1124 Correct! They were recruited in the 1700s by a Polish landlord to come to Budsin (German) / Budzyn (Polish) and work on his estate. A couple of internet sites say that the name from changed from Budzyn to Budsin in about 1790. I've been to that location several times. It's interesting to see the changes compared to the photo from the 1920s and 1930s.
If you take into account the previous Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...Poland has really shifted west over time.
Technically it just came back to its original position. :P
As always excellent. i particularly love the shifty eyes and the guys in the background peeping :D
Love these vids! Also, can you bring back the Q/A series?
you could also add contemporary Polish borders roughly correspond to the early Polish state in the XIth century
Happy to find this comment😄. This part of Polish and German/Teutonic history hasn’t often been taught.
this is israel tier of claiming territory tbh
@@toreq1127I think he mostly meant that it's quite neat that Poland's borders happened to be restored to a very old point in the past, not that this was a particularly good reason for Poland to get these lands.
@@toreq1127cry about it
@@kacperfrontczak1257 found the zionist (?)
There were also some changes to those borders (in the east of Poland especially) between 1945 and 1948.
Wow... Complicated. Good content as usual 👏
Mildly complicated - and not a boiling kettle of problems (at the moment).
Look into what former Austria Hungary really is… and how much in the past Hungary mentally is…
(I don't mean to promote whataboutism here)
Another amazing video and i like the New character update
Both Poland before and after are relatively squarish, so it is easy to assume that their borders were just redrawn here and there. But one time I asked myself why the soviets would give back the lands they took in 1939 from Poland with a slightly redrawn border, and thats when I actually looked into it and realized that they didnt, they merely moved the poles west instead by giving them German lands.
Stalin was extremely against "giving back" narrative and that Poland is suppose to have something in exchange. The official narrative was that the eastern border is already set up (with possibility of minor correction on ethnic grounds), while west border should set up on shortest and easiest to defend natural boundary (which was Oder and Lusatian Neisse). Also Stalin did not know what exactly will happen with Germany, so back then Polish-German border was also Soviet-German border, because it was agreed that Poland will be under Soviet influence.
That was not german lands, it was Polish land colonized by germans.
It was German Land. it is not anymore. and that is fine, but the only reason its Polish today is because of gen0cidal Stalin. @@Har1ByWorld
@@RK-cj4oc The only reason it was "germ*n" it is cuz colonization, germanization and gen0cidal germans, It was Polsh it is Polish and it will be Polish.
@@Har1ByWorldJust like what the Poles did to other people.
Your point?
I've met a few people descended from the germans who were expulsed from the eastern lands as a result of this population transfer. There's still that longing for the past and all those german territories permanently lost, but there's an understanding that in order to prevent future conflicts with the polish, the germans had to go. Stettin was one city that still hurts for them because originally they were supposed to retain it and it's still seen as an honorary german city.
Stettin was given to Poland as compensation for the USSR taking Königsberg. Which in hindsight was a terrible idea.
The exact same feeling exists with poles and longing for Lwów.
@@uhforjaBruh what? In hindsight it was an excellent idea.
@@kosaraczek1With thd difference being that Stettin had always been German while Lviv had never been Polish
My family on my mothers side fled the red army from silesia to northrine westphalia. Neither from them nor from anyone else have I ever seen "longing for the past and all those german territories". What the fuck is this shit.
Can you make a video why Yugoslavia didn't gain Trieste?
Because it´s italian?
Because Italy was on the verge of a communist revolution. Giving away an italian city (even though the punishment would be just for siding with the nazis), would be the nail in the coffin. So the allies simply occupied the city and decided what to do with the free territory of Trieste. It was divided into 2 but it wasn't "given" to Italy, because with the Tito-Stalin split Yugoslavia could have potentially be a western-oriented country. After some years and too many incidents in the handling of occupation by the Allies, the italians rose up and to avoid embarassment it was given to Italy.
Impirtant to note: italians were expelled from lost territories BUT fascist generals, bureocrats and so on were never put in a trial like Nuremberg or Tokyo.
@@andreamarino6010 thanks
During German reunification negotiations, Chancellor Helmut Kohl tried to retrade the border issue with Poland, saying that any agreement on permanent borders should be between the new German reunified state and Poland. This is because Silesian refugees (those Germans kicked out of the new Poland after WWII) were a significant portion of the CDU's support.
Pre-unification German maps always included the former German territories in Poland, which even when I saw them as a (non German) child in the 1970s seemed odd and frankly delusional.
The Poles and Soviets obviously were not happy with this - and neither were any of the other allies. The US made it very clear to Kohl that without a permanent agreement on the post-war German-Polish border, there would be no reunification and Kohl quickly climbed down.
It was frankly shocking that Kohl tried to do this. Perhaps he knew it was impossible and just did it to show the former Silesian Germans that he'd given it the old college try.
Then with Poland and Lithuania joining the EU, these Germans could now live in nearly all their old territories anyway. There wasn't exactly a big number who moved back, mind.
What’s shocking about wanting your land back lmao
@@edelweiss7928 being the successor state to literally hitler makes it a slightly different case
Silesia is just one of the territories Poland took. East Pomerania, and southern East Prussia are their own thing.
No one truly expected the Oder-Neisse border to change. There were political reasons for West German politicians not recognizing the border, because it had effectively been dictated by the Soviet Union. Recognizing the border would have meant recognizing the soviet-drawn state borders of East Germany.
It would be cool to see a video on this:
Why didn't Brazil manage to industrialise? (considering they had some industrialisation in the beginning of the 19th century)
Why didn't Egypt became a major industrialised nation? (same thing, they had a lot of industry in the 19th century)
How did Brazil maintain its territorial integrity? (they had numerous secession movements during Dom Pedro I's reign)
How were the borders of Israel and Palestine drawn pre 1948? What was the logic behind it?
Why did the Portuguese got Hormuz in an era where oil wasn't a thing?
How did Norway, Finland and Sweden got their northern territories?
Why does Armenia have the shape it has today if historical Armenian borders were much different?
How many times did the UK and France try to link themselves through the Channel and why did they fail?
Why do we still have recognised monarchs in countries such as India and South Africa? (was it pushed by Britain or the national governments?)
Why is Lada not a big car brand nowadays, considering its popularity in the URSS?
How did education become mandatory? (in relation to the franco-prussian war)
Why is monogamy the norm?
How was kissing "invented"? (was there a time when kissing was not common?)
How do certain inventions seem to be universal? (considering human societies didn't have contact with each other; inventions such as spears, swords, knives, bow and arrow, etc)
We stayed together because our country Brazil is united by:
Poverty💰💸
Rice and beans 💪🍛
The Lada thing is because there are better alternatives, it still sells in Russia, Brazil, Suriname and some European countries, but its stocks went boom-down and there are better alternatives
Brazil didn't industrialize because it's expensive, and the people who ran Brazil made their money through growing cash crops and selling them to industrialized nations, then buying industrial goods from those same countries. They cared more about selling to foreign markets rather than building one of their own, which would have required tariffs to protect the nascent industries, which would have led to a decline in trade that would have directly hurt their incomes, as well as created a new class of business owners that would have competed with them for political influence. The wealthy landowners who dominated pre-industrial Brazil had everything to lose by industrialization, and they put their narrow interests over the future of their country.
@andrewklang809 Protoindustrial practices existed in Brazil in the early 1800s and it was actually a very cheap and accessible technology (it was simple to build, you wouldn't need specialised technicians nor a huge amount of foreign investment; that is specially true for the textile industry). I don't think that industrialising was as expensive as it was a century after the first industrialisation, and even if it was, there are many examples of countries that followed up and became rich before the first industrialisation (if you compare to the rest of the world) despite their size or dependence on agriculture or even monoculture (Germany, Italy, southern States in the US, Japan, Switzerland, the Czech Republic). I think the main thing a video like this should focus on is why the protoindustry in Brazil died despite the several efforts made by a few people such as Barão de Mauá. A big thing to explain this would probably be the heavy dependence of Brazil's monarchy on slavery, and the fact that Brazil was suffering many secessionist movements during that same period, which made everything unstable
The alleged industrialization of Egypt under Muhammad Pasha *never happened.* They produced lots of textile. That's agriculture, not industry. And the labor involved was essentially slaves.
Adding some backstory, there was also the Soviet-Polish War from 1919-1921. Poland blocked Soviet westward expansion and secured control over Western Ukraine and Western Belarus during the interwar period, something the USSR never forgave them for.
Adding more backstory...
The USSR was only ever attempting to gain back the land that was stolen from them during WW1!
@@stephendaley266 exactly. Also poland started that war with the Kiev offensive
@@stephendaley266Poland only tried to get lands that ruSSia stole during partitions
@@stephendaley266The land that they stole with Polish territory in late 18th century.
@@yuvi3738Soviets were already marching west, bent on "regaining" all parts of Russian Empire and spreading revolution westwards.
Truman : We should call my nephew!
Churchill : We should dig a moat!
Stalin: We should take Poland and push it somewhere else!
Czechia wanted to get Kladsko/Glatz/Klodzko back (lost it to Prussia in 1742) but Stalin decided it will go to Poland with the rest of Silesia. The Czech minority living there was expelled to Czechia after that.
Well, at least Poland returned part of Cieszyn Silesia to Czechoslovakia after WW2, when Poland, together with the German Nazis, was torn off as their part of the pie in 1938. Poland is trying hard to pretend to be a victim following the results of WW2, although in fact the aggressive policy of the newly formed Poland after WW1 on all fronts was one of the reasons for the start of WW2.
@@LongMax
Obvious russian propaganda account is obvious.
@@My_initials_are_O.G.cuz_I_am whatever you say, my non-propaganda friend
@@LongMax beacuse chechoslovaks torn it apart from Poland back in 1920 when Poland protected europe from the bolsheviks and Kłodzko was mostly german and therefore mostly empty and Śląsk Cieszyński was mostly Polish, and they stole it
But on the other hand he gave Zaolzie region to Czechoslovakia
As a Pole, well done! I really like the addition of NKVD agents in 0:55 to show what many Eastern Slavs really thought about becoming a part of USSR
What has to be added is that in 1945 Stalin simply didn't know what would happen with Germany, but he was certain that Poland would be his puppet. So, just in case he would have to leave Germany he pushed his puppet as far to the west as possible. He didn't know if Poland wouldn't be his westernmost territory. Also, communists could justify new borders that they were quite close to the borders of first Polish rulers, such as Mieszko I. You can look for propaganda posters referring to first rulers of Piast dynasty. They said "We are not strangers here".
Actually the Treaty of Riga signed in 1921 (which decided on our borders) was always treated by Soviets only as a temporal solution, they never agreed with it and waited for a day to revise it. Molotov called II Republic of Poland a "prison of nations" or something like this, because of the fact that 1/3 of Poland's population was not ethnically Polish.
No fan of Stalin but some nationalistic Poles seemed to imagine Polish gains east of the Curzon Line as of 1921 was somehow not due to military conquest.
Meanwhile, Anglo-Western WW2 revisionism seemed also to be encouraging some form of Polish revanchism against Russia.
Based on the amount of revisionism I have seen and have listened to, the revisionists are just waiting for the chance to declare that "Russia and Russia alone caused WW2 in Europe. Therefore, after 1945, the outcome was wrong."
So what happens next? WW3, of course, since by this reasoning, Russia has no right to exist.
The revisionists have done a good job so far.
Let's hope these nationalistic Poles also understand that part of the revisionist claim is that the Western Allies should have let Germany and Russia cancel each other over Poland.
In other words, Britain and France should not have objected to German claims against Poland. Without the objection, there will be no pact which means a less-prepared Soviet military will have to face Germany in 1939.
"A prison of nations" I think Molotov probably should have looked at his own country first before talking about their neighbours.
@@azzkin9401 💯 my friend. Hypocrisy at its finest
I always wondered this. Thanks for the video!
When Poland 🇵🇱 takes the "westernisation" literally.
Something is off here. The part of the border that Poland currently shares with Lithuania didn't change, but some of the maps in this video show Poland losing a little bit of land there, while others correctly show no change.
Also, the 1951 land swap with the Ukrainian SSR is ignored, but I guess that's just for simplicity.
You fail to mention those areas were also inhabited by Poles and Germans. A lot of the cities in the western areas were once Polish cities conquered by Germany and a lot of them were evenly split into Poles and Germans. So there was some historical claim, although Germans settled and lived there for roughly the same amount of time so relocating the Germans it then went to the inhabitants remaining there, thats kind of a key thing to point out, like Wroclaw which had a heavy Polish prescence but was "German" because they conquered, Poland getting that back wasn't just kicking Germans out it was reclaiming a city that had been Polish far longer than German, so I wish he had mention that aspect
It was not polish longer than it was German, poles had lived there originally but Germans lived their for legitimately thousands of years more and have built the culture, 99.99% of the buildings and architecture to create the cities we know today like Breslau, Danzig, Posen, and Stettin. Poles are just artificial settlers which have been moved there due to Stalin.
@@Everyone-calm-down Gdańsk i Poznań to Polskie miasta tak samo jak Warszawa Kraków czy utracony Lwów
@@Everyone-calm-down After all, Poles still constituted the majority of inhabitants in Greater Poland. Poznań is one of the most important cities in historical Poland. For most of its history, Gdańsk belonged to the Kingdom of Poland. You Germans still think in nationalist terms.
I could have never imagined Stalin's portrait inside a love heart and surrounded br western leaders..until now... 😮
"His lips are sweeter than raspberries."
I read hips...
@@aminadabbrulle8252
Great video as always! 👍
Something really relevant here aswell - Poland once owned these lands in like the 11th and 12th centuries. They only lost these lands because of Polish infighting allowed Brandenburg and the Teutonic Order (And Bohemia) to invade and annex these lands.
Fun Fact: Poland moves westward after a major war
This is why France and Germany had to finally make peace and the EU, because Poland would eventually get them both if they kept fighting.
@@westrim lol
in another millennium German will be Polish land
@@saccorhytus In 100 years, entire Europe will be united as one country.
In 200 years, the entire world will be united as one country to end monarchies and wars, so humans can accept the fact they all are humans, so they can live in harmony until the end of time without any disputes between culture and tradition.
@@AlbertTheGamer-gk7sn probably not. you're telling me we can unify turkey and greece, china and america, both koreas, russia and eastern europe, the balkans and more into one nation? there's no telling what the future holds but it definately doesn't hold that
Helmut Kohl wanted the parts of Poland that were originally part of Germany returned in reunification, but Bush (🇺🇲), Thatcher (🇬🇧), Mitterand (🇫🇷) and Gorbachev (🇷🇺) said that the eastern border of Germany would be the Oder River and that Kohl was going to like it. It turns out that he actually did like it.
That’s actually not true at all
Did Kohl also wanted to give Poland eastern territories in exchange?
I wrote my big historical research paper on how the Soviet/Polish border would be drawn after WW2. He’s right about the US/UK throwing the exiled govt under the bus. More so the US than the UK since the UK was the weakest of the Big Three.
Also, Lvov had a lot of oil surrounding the city and the Soviets wanted it under their direct rule which is a big reason why they annexed it.
At last someone who doesn't blame it all on Britain, I'm sick of the amount of Poles who blame all there problems of WW2 on Britain, it's quite frankly pathetic.
@@ChrisCrossClash On the other hand if you look on history, Czechia manage to survive war without any major damage, because they cave to Germans instead of allying with Britain. UK foreign policy was basically telling countries on the chopping block "you should resist, we will ally you, we will support you" but whenever boots on the ground were needed UK just waited and look how their allies crumble.
@@Hadar1991 Yeah i agree not a good look, but again Britain really should have stayed out of it.
@@ChrisCrossClashYeah I remember quotes from Churchill when talking to the press where he was totally lost as to what FDR was doing in terms of caving to Stalin throughout WW2.
My research was stunning based upon the times the Big Three met in terms of how little FDR was present at the meetings due to how sick he was throughout WW2 and especially toward the end.
The famous photo of the Big Three at the Yalta Conference was essentially the only time FDR was truly present for a meeting. His Sec of State ran the show against Stalin with Churchill observing more than engaging in countering Stalin’s demands.
@@ChrisCrossClashwhich problems? other than not fighting for us in Tehran and Yalta and then the negative reception of Polish immigrants despite saving the British Isles during the Battle of Britain, and of course not inviting us to the victory parade to not upset Stalin, I don’t think there are any more.
“Not you” perfectly sums up French involvement when reconstructing Europe after the war
In Poland, some older people still remember how the life was on these lost lands. There are still strong sentiments towards them
Nations don't move they are stationary
Poland: excuse me
Good that the video mentions the destruction of the Eastern/Volga Germans a little bit! When it comes to the brutal population transfers in the Soviet Union is definitely on top together with the Crimean tatars Chechens and Ingush and Kalmyks.
You had to mention Kerzon line, this information is essential for understanding why UK agreed
Curzon
I love these videos. This one was especially interesting
The very best TH-camr enlightening us once again
1:29 If stalin hadnt given these Territories to poland, geopolitics would have been completly different today.
Here’s a question I’d like to see answered in a video: Why did the Spanish temporarily overthrow its monarchy after Isabella II and why did the First Spanish Republic fail?
"I backstabbed Poland together with Germany in 1939, than Germany "backstabbed" me in 1941. So now I will "backstab" Germany by giving their land to Poland" - Stalin (probably)
was waiting for this one
Sometimes.. sometimes i think this channel has direct access to my google search and makes videos specifically catering to my geopolitical queries
You know what I want to see, a video about the country with the most border changes.
I've recently been doing my family tree and found i have an ancestor from a German town called Diersdorf. Which was a nightmare because i couldnt find anything about it, until i found out its now called Przerzeczyn Zdrój and is in Poland.
I know it's a village in lower Silesia
This was less "border change" and more "ethnic planning" as the people (Poles, Ukrainians and Germans) had absolutely no say in whether they were allowed to stay and would often be shipped in cattle trucks with whatever they could quickly pack before getting shipped to an area they've never even seen. Coupled with how the Soviets gutted most homes there (large part of the "miraculous" rebuilding of Warsaw) many peoples standard of living lowered drastically.
TL:DR The goal was more establishing borders across ethnic lines than changing borders (ironically mostly at the cost of Germany).
You right.
It was redrawn around ethnic lines in the eastern part, but the transfer of German territories to Poland wasn’t really done for ethnic reasons or drawn around ethnic lines.
THE NEW ART IS LOVELYYY WHAT?!?!
Your dig at De Gaulle is brilliant!
The worst thing was not the border movement itself but the mass expulsions after that. Germans had to leave their eastern homes and also Polish had to leave their eastern homes.
The video briefly mentions the movement of people being a thing, so here's a few extras.
Many opportunists moved to the "Reclaimed Lands" soon after they were reclaimed and moved in, as many houses were abandoned. My great-grandfather ended up winning a big house in a card game and moved his family there. It must have felt like the Wild West.
Under the communist regime, everyone was assigned a job, which is how both of my parents ended up relocating to Szczecin in the "Reclaimed Lands" in Western Pomerania in late 80's and where I was born in early 90's.
Although the "Reclaimed Lands" were comparatively richer and more developed compared to Eastern Poland in the beginning, they saw little economic investment, especially in the years (90s) that followed the Fall of Communism. The video implies that the borders were drawn and that was that, but there was real concern if those lands would stay Polish. After all, Poland doesn't have much luck retaining borders or having allies that follow through on promises.
YES, FINALLY THE QUESTION IS ANSWERED BY THE MAN HIMSELF!!!
Congrats on 1M views on this video
Thank you for explaining how Poland messed around by The Hundred Years War the congress of Vienna first world war and the Second World War became the way it is which I had noticed but never understood. Messed around is probably an oversimplification.
Connected to this, you could make a video on the question:
"How did the European countries deal with all the refugees after WW2?"
Some of them were dealt with brutally, such as the 14 million ethnic Germans expelled from Eastern Europe, as many as two million of them died from starvation, exposure, overwork as enslaved laborers, or outright murder
@@williammerkel1410 I know, my grandma was amongst them. She was forcefully expelled from what is now the Czech Republic, with two hours to collect her belongings. She was about 8 years old. During her flight to Germany, she has seen children die from infectious diseases in refugee camps and had to eat food waste to survive. In some other places, people were less lucky and killed instead of expelled. I am sure people from other countries had similar experiences at some point in the war. For example, one of my grandfathers was drawn in late into the German military to the east front and probably saw - if not commited - mass killings. My grandpa died before my birth. But until today, my grandma cannot stand wasting food. She makes us eat at least 50% more than we would eat usually, or she is unhappy.
1:16 The only certainty in diplomacy
You forgot to mention the fact that German regions of Lower Silesia, Pomerania, East Brandenburg and East Prussia were also the regions of the greatest support for the Nazi Party, which was one of the biggest factors contributing to the annexation of those lands by Poland and the USSR.
Yes! Great Point!
The new animation just hits different........
Love your videos. Is there a good book on the Napoleonic Wars you would recommend?
You can thank Muscovy for it. Ironically, the border move enabled Poles to get access to more developed German technology and fertile farmland, which, after regaining freedom from Soviet colonial rule in 1989, managed to become one of Europe's fastest growing economies.
I agree except for fertile farmland. The land in what is now western Poland isn't that good and no comparison to black soil of Ukraine. What Poland gained was ethnic homogeneity.
In the late 1990s I used to have a 1970s East German map that had the land between the current and old east German boundary shaded and the words “vorübergehend unter Polnisch Verwaltung,“ (temporarily under Polish control.)
I wonder if anyone at at time in East Germany actually believed it really was “temporary.”
Eastern Germany? Impossible, it must be a western German map
@serbonresurrected816Immediately doesn’t mean willingly. They were forced to recognize it by the USSR. West Germany didn’t officially recognize it until 1990, though some treaties were signed in 1970s
Thanks for the clarification. It must have been a West German map.
@serbonresurrected816the government may have been forced to recognize it at the time but no population from any country would accept the loss of their own territory to another country
I sincerely doubt it. Silesian and Prussian Germans who didn't move out usually ended up dead. Many of the survivors made their way to East Germany. They would have known there was no going back.
Stalin and his attempts forced my family to move from Eastern Poland to Warsaw. My mom was born in what is now Belarus. She been Polish her whole life. She is mostly ethically Lithuanian, but we still identify culturally with Poland. Good old European clusterfuck.
I would have appreciated the video more if the map images had shown some rivers, cities, etc. for reference and with the images lingering longer.
Great video 👍🏻
Stalin was undeniably one of the most monstrous people to ever exist. I will give him this however: He was much smarter than a lot of biographers and historians will give him credit for.
Its pretty crazy how a whole country moved
Border changes in Europe you say? It's either Napoleon or Stalin.
Love that "not you" on De Gaulle
Dear @HistoryMatters,
I have a question about Ruthenians that you mention in several videos of yours. There is various information available about these people but what is your knowledge, where do they come from, what culture do (did) they have and which language do (did) they speak?
Thanks!
Ruthenians are just Ukrainians. The Polish in the 30s kept them as one.