- At the end of the Yalta conference, it was informed on the basis of the east border of Poland on the alleged Curzona line. However, this was not the final course of the project.
- Ryszard Buziewicz recalls her mother, who, after arriving from Krystinopol to Urzyk, looked at her father and said, “Bronek, where you brought us, you can see only 4 hectares of heaven”
- ‘The animals were not expected to fit. No stables, no barns. He opened a knife in my pocket due to the fact that I remembered the miracles promised to displaced people," recalled Józef Toporowski, who settled in the Lower Bank.
- More crucial information can be found on the Onetu homepage
‘New coal deposits have been discovered in border regions: Lviv and Volynsk. Lviv-Wołyń coal mines, adjacent to the border of the Polish People's Republic, seem to be part of the coal pit which extends further west. In order to make the coal manufacture in this area, it would be useful to consider the question of possible exchange of territories with the Polish People's Republic under mutually beneficial conditions. On our side, you can offer a part of the Drohoby region where oil and gas deposits are located. It would be desirable for the Polish People's Republic to receive a territory bordering the regions of Lviv and Volyn, which can be incorporated into the fresh coal mine. With a affirmative view to this proposal, the discussion could concern the exchange of areas with an area of about 1,250-1,300 square kilometres.” was a note submitted by the Soviets to the PRL authorities in late 1952.
Despite the assurance of "the mutually beneficial conditions", the November 1952 paper confirms the submission of Warsaw Moscow. Although the first papers from the 1951 border change have not been preserved, the russian initiative was besides at the time (against the authoritative communication).
Its consequence was Action H-T (named from the first letters of the displaced districts: Hrubieszów-Tomaszów) – Displacement of Earth Displacement Recovered (7460 people) and the taken over area of the Lower Injection (3934 people). Unless the first ones hit the worst, the second group, with more than a 1000 families, replaced fertile soils with mediocre and mountainous Bieszczady – without roads, homes, with dense climate and infertile land.
Ryszard Buziewicz recalls her mother, who, after reaching Ustrzyk, looked at her father and said: “Bronek, where you brought us, you can see only 4 hectares of heaven”. According to her son, the mountains were only associated with difficulties: “People asked themselves how they would manage. How do they get up to the hill? How they go down.”
– recalled Józef Toporowski, who settled in the Lower Bank.
"The USSR government agreed to the request of the Polish government"
The Treaty on the Border concluded in Moscow on 16 August 1945 sanctioned the failure of half the territory by Poland and was a confirmation of the agreement that the Polish National Liberation Committee signed with the Soviets on 26 July 1944. The demarcation was to run along the Curzon line proposed by the British during the Polish-Bolshevik War. It was decisive for specified a border, not another course, to yield to Stalin. The solution was already agreed in 1943 in Tehran, and 80 years ago it was announced in the authoritative summary of the Yalta Conference.
From 1946 to 1947, during the delimitation of the border, representatives of the east Power mostly disagreed with Polish proposals aimed at facilitating the life of the local population. The exceptions to the consent were transfer to Poland an episode of Medyka railway station and additional fragment of Białowieża Forest with a bison reserve. However, as it turned out, the line thus formed was not final.
Under Stalinism, the Polish side had to give way to Stalin's demands. The talks took place in January and February 1951. The opinion of Polish negotiators with large, identified just before the war, coal deposits in the Bugu spell was answered that the investigation yielded very mediocre results. It was besides suggested that Poland should pay for the exchange. In the face of the refusal, Nizankowice, Dobromil and Chyrow were detained within the USSR, which in turn meant that the trains of the PKP on the Przemysl-Sanok route, closed and escorted, inactive had to pass through today's Ukraine.
The authoritative message was untrue: “The government of the Republic of Poland asked the USSR government to convert a tiny border section of Poland into an equivalent border section of the USSR territory due to the economical burden on the adjacent regions of the USSR and Poland. The USSR government has agreed to the request of the Polish government."
“The mines work full steam”
As part of the territorial exchange we lost the Bug Railway with the towns of Bełz, Krystinopol, Uhnów along with a fragment of the Kowel-Lwów railway line. In return, Poland received delayed civilization with exploitable oil deposits, which nevertheless was attempted to usage propaganda.
Public Domain/Wiki CommonsAreas subject to the 1951 Border Exchange Agreement: in red attached to the USSR, in green attached to Poland
"Rzeszowski's Noviny" reported: "The mines work full steam. They are equipped with state-of-the-art devices, which let for a advanced degree of mechanization of work. Our workers have been introduced, among others, to the russian method of fast drilling, which gives almost three-fold increase in productivity". Another time it was written: “The land is fruitful here. Wheat is born well. Mountain forests cover the richness of building and fuel, and meadows guarantee the improvement of livestock management. But the most crucial wealth is oil.”
How was it? Polish geologists realized that we were to receive tiny oil resources, akin to those around Krosn, Jasl and Gorlic. The level of extraction did not have much impact on our economy. Not only that the deposits were heavy depleted, the Soviets exported mined equipment and machinery. At the same time, Krystynopol (today Szeptic in Ukraine) grew rapidly. In the best years, as many as 15 million tonnes of hard coal were mined in 7 mines per year. In 1989, the city inhabited 70,000 people.
The deposits over Bug were so crucial that they became the basis for the second proposal to change borders.
The Soviets wanted to get an area adjacent to the lands obtained in 1951 – most of the region of Hrubieszów with Hrubieszow and the east part of the region of tomaszowski. In return, an area with a akin surface was offered – a fragment of the Drohobyk circuit with the earlier mentioned bieszczady railway line.
“How to live in something more like a shed than a house?”
The fresh border opened on 26 October 1951. Transports with displaced people shortly began.
On 1 January 1952, the territory was established. The Polish authorities did not have time to prepare for the welcome of Zabużen, who switched lands, where tomatoes grew “almost as large as pumpkins”, and wheat “hidden an adult peasant”, to the destroyed by the war and Soviets of Uskrzygi, which looked like “a hurricane just swept through them.” The main street of Józef Stalin resembled a muddy agrarian trail, and the leaving town took almost everything distant from here.
The fresh residents, according to the non-random title of the study by Krzysztof Pokoń, agreed: “This is not a place to live”. The apartments were in a terrible state, 1 of the deportees asked:
Ryszard Buziewicz: "Someone cut down floors, damaged furnaces, and the attic and basement sank in waste". His household turned the townhouse into a Krystinopole into a redhead.
Rajmund Huzarski said that “he managed to take care of a alternatively good home. Only the level was missing in 1 room, and the roof was partially required to be repaired." In the following days he helped choice up transports: “I advised my friends to occupy the first building, which would seem bearable to them, due to the fact that if they started searching for troops, they could end up in a ruder”.
The worst were those who were found with relatives in the AK or families in the West. any of the displaced people first saw the mountains. any people wouldn't get off trains. Deputy Prime Minister Aleksander Zawadzki had to intervene, who explained that the mediocre land was not so bad. According to 1 of the reports, the Burgundy housewife threw herself at him with a birch broom.
Perhaps the worst were those displaced south of Ustrzyk, or “where crows turned, due to the fact that they were inactive afraid to fly.” In addition, resettlement commissions deliberately settled neighbors in different towns. By the spring of 1952, the villages of Michniowiec inhabited 120 Polish families, and 180 huts remained after Ukrainians. They began to be undressed for fire.
The bugs and lice were common. Wells required decontamination, houses were uncleaned with feces and another kinds of junk, there was no supply in stores. There were no buildings for schools and wellness centers. The state of the roads prevented average communication. After a fewer months, the reports were inactive dramatic: “Disinfection was carried out respective times but without major results”, “There are cases that residents talk negatively about the local territory and the USSR. erstwhile they came to the area, the houses were not found as promised to them, but they were full of shit.” "At the station in Krościnek, a notable disturbance was caused by the Husian Janina. “What they have given us is simply a large mountain of Russian.” The behaviour and statements of the above have caused a immense confusion among citizens of all transport who refused to unload."
Dictator torn by horses
Soon, oil companies and foresters, among others, were coming to work following the deportees to the territory of Štrzycki. People from another parts of the country were besides drawn to the injection. The region received dedicated funds from Warsaw. Life was slow coming back. At the turn of 1951 and 1952, nearly 3 1000 Greek and Macedonian refugees were placed in Kroscienek and surrounding areas. Though the Distortions resented being treated worse than strangers, they adapted step by step to pioneering conditions.
A memorial to the russian episode in the past of the region capital was the statue of Stalin on the market, 1 of 3 outside the russian Union (the another 2 were in Prague and Budapest). 1 night, 1 of the fresh residents left a note at the memorial: “Go where you came from!”. Finally, in October 1956, the monument was overthrown utilizing horses and chains.
