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Poland’s eastern lands in the journalistic wrtiting of members of the „Ojczyzna” organization (1939-1945)
Abstract
The article presents the changing views of the organisation ‚Ojczyzna’ on the subject of the Polish eastern territories during the Second World War. During the first phase of the war, its members ruled out the possibility of relinquishing them to the Soviet Union. They argued that there was a close link between the western and eastern borders. In their view, the postulated territorial acquisitions in the west would not compensate for losses in the east, and thus Poland’s international position would not improve. However, in the second half of 1944, they actually recognised the Curzon Line and advocated cooperation with Soviet Russia, which would serve the purpose of Poland gaining western borders on the Oder and Lusatian Neisse. The correction of the ‚Fatherland’ position was due to political realism, which pointed to the key role of the USSR in the victory over Germany. For this reason, Polish demands could not gain the support of the Western Allies. There was a widespread conviction among its leading members that there would be no return to the border lines from before the outbreak of war, and that it would not even be desirable. The members of the ‚Fatherland’ organisation, who between 1939 and 1945 devoted the vast majority of their intellectual efforts to promoting the shifting of the western border to the line of the Oder and Lusatian Neisse, took an active part in these debates. However, members of the ‚Fatherland’ saw the danger of losing the eastern lands and the simultaneous lack of compensation in the west. Acceptance of the Curzon Line offered a chance, according to members of the organisation, that Poland would not end the war as a lost state. Although eastern issues definitely belonged to the marginal area of interest of the‚ Fatherland’, their interpretation can still provoke lively disputes and discussions, into which the author tried to enter with this article.
Keywords:
„Fatherland” Organisation, World War II, Polish state borders, eastern Poland, Curzon Line, Polish western thoughtMost read articles by the same author(s)
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