Bohlen Collection
British Proposal on Polish Boundaries and Government1
top secret
[Yalta,] February 8,
1945.
Revised Formula for Poland
- 1.
- It was agreed that the Curzon Line should be the eastern frontier of Poland with adjustments in some regions of 5 to 8 kilometers in favour of Poland.
- 2.
- It was decided that the territory of Poland in the west should include the free city of Danzig, the regions of East Prussia west and south of Königsberg, the administrative district of Oppeln in Silesia and the lands desired by Poland to the east of the line of the Oder. It was understood that the Germans in the said regions should be [Page 870] repatriated to Germany and that all Poles in Germany should at their wish be repatriated to Poland.
- 3.
- Having regard to the recent liberation of western Poland by the Soviet armies it was deemed desirable to facilitate the establishment of a fully representative provisional Polish Government based upon all the democratic and anti-Fascist forces in Poland and including democratic leaders from Poles abroad. That Government should be so constituted as to command recognition by the three Allied Governments.
- 4.
- It was agreed that the establishment of such a provisional Government was the primary responsibility of the Polish people, and that, pending the possibility of free elections, representative Polish leaders should consult together on the composition of this provisional Government. V. M. Molotov, Mr. Harriman and Sir Archibald Clark Kerr were entrusted with the task of approaching such leaders and submitting their proposals to the consideration of the three Allied Governments.
- 5.
- It was deemed desirable that the provisional Polish Government, thus established, should as soon as possible hold free and unfettered elections on the basis of universal suffrage and secret ballot, in which all democratic parties should have the right to participate and to promote candidatures, in order to ensure the establishment of a Government truly representative of the will of the Polish people.