History

Map showing Polish majority areas in the east in 1918

Map showing Polish majority areas in the east in 1918 (in red), prior to the commencement of Soviet genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Because of misunderstandings between Poland’s main political parties, the Polish victory over the Red Army in 1920 did not result in the restoration of the pre-partition border of 1772. As a result between 1 million and 600,000 ethnic Poles remained on the Soviet side of the so-called ‘Riga line’. They suffered along with the general population as a result of Soviet policies on collectivisation, targeted at the Ukraine, where most of them lived. However, on 11th August 1937, the Head of NKVD Soviet State Security Nikolai Yezhov, issued Order No 00485, which authorised the physical liquidation of the Polish population throughout the USSR. This was the first case of state sanctioned ethnic mass killing by a European state in the 20th Century.