POLAND IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR 365communist delegation, expertly rehearsed by the Soviets, they fixed the Polish-
German frontier on the Oder and Western Neisse, approved the expulsion of
Germans from Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, and insisted that free and
democratic elections be held at the nearest opportunity to confirm the composi-
tion of the established government.
With that, the Western Powers left Poland to its fate.
The changes brought about by the War were deep and permanent. Seven years
of slaughter refashioned the state, nation, and society more radically than a cen-
tury of endeavour beforehand or three decades of communist rule afterwards.
In 1944-5, Polish sovereignty was revived on a new territorial base. As
Churchill himself had proposed, Poland was moved bodily 150 miles to the
west, like a company of soldiers taking 'two steps to the left, close ranks'. The
eastern Borders, including Wilno and Lwow, had to be abandoned to the Soviet
Union. The Western Territories, including Breslau (Wroclaw), Stettin
(Szczecin), and Danzig (Gdansk) - described in official jargon as 'the Recovered
Lands' - were acquired from Germany. Barely half (54 per cent) of the territory
of the pre-war Republic passed into the People's Republic, which compromised
only four-fifths the area of its predecessor (312,677 km^2 as opposed to 389,720
km^2 ). The territory lost (178,220 km^2 ) greatly exceeded the territory gained
(101,200km^2 ). (See Maps 18, 21, 22, 23.)
Yet the resources of the Western Territories more than compensated for
the Republic's diminished area. The territory lost to the USSR included
the primitive undeveloped rural districts of 'Polska B'. The territory gained
from Germany included rich coal and iron deposits, complex industrial
installations, a modem network of roads and railways, and a large number
of cities and seaports. The acquisition of Silesia and Pomerania, despite the
fact that these provinces were denuded of their skilled German labour force,
was sure to increase Poland's prospects of economic modernization and
industrialization.
When post-war repatriation and expulsions were nearing completion the cen-
sus of February 1946 showed that the population had fallen by almost one-third
from the 1939 figure, to a mere 23.9 millions. The manpower of the Polish state
had receded to the position of 1918. Over-all density had also fallen from 89.8
to 76.4 inhabitants per km^2. In other words, Poland had lost still more people
than land. Only a small proportion of the population inhabitated the places
where they had lived before the war. Most of the towns and the entire Western
Territories had to be repopulated by refugees or families transferred from the
Soviet Union. In all those localities where uprooted newcomers outnumbered
the indigenous inhabitants, former social traditions survived with difficulty.
Social structures had been transformed out of all recognition. Although no
class had been inviolate from the ravages of occupiers, two groups had suffered
out of all proportion to the others. The intelligentsia had been decimated. Polish