Poland–Russia border

Major border changes in history of Poland. Eastern borders shown represent various and changing borders between Poland and Russia.

The history of the border between Poland and Russia can be traced to the early history of both nations, with one of the earliest notable incidents being the Polish king Boleslaw I's intervention in the Kievan succession crisis, 1018.[2] Following the formation of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Poland's eastern border, most of it with the Tsardom of Muscovy (later, the Russian Empire), stretched from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south.[3] During the period of the partitions of Poland, which shifted the Russian borders some 300 miles (480 km) west,[4] several small Polish statelets such as the Duchy of Warsaw and the Congress Kingdom shared a border with the Russian Empire. Following World War I, the new Second Polish Republic shared a border with the Soviet Union (USSR), shaped during the Polish-Soviet War, and confirmed at the Treaty of Riga at the line Dzisna-Dokshytsy-Słucz-Korets-Ostroh-Zbrucz.[5] That border was 1,407 kilometres (874 mi) long.[6] Following World War II, the new border (see territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II) was drawn between the People's Republic of Poland and the USSR.[7] The new Polish-Soviet border was 1,321 kilometres (821 mi) long at first and, after a minor modification in the 1951 Polish–Soviet territorial exchange, reduced to 1,244 kilometres (773 mi).[7][8]

The modern border between Poland and Russia is regulated by a number of legal documents, many of them dating to the times of the People's Republic of Poland and the Soviet Union, including the Border Agreement between Poland and the USSR of 16 August 1945.[7][9] The newly defined Soviet-Polish border included system of various engineered protection facilities up to a few kilometres wide such as ploughed strips of earth and no-man zone.[10]

While the actual border line remained unchanged following the fall of the Soviet Union, the breakdown of the Soviet Union into a number of post-Soviet states transformed the Poland-Soviet Union border into a Poland-Russia, Poland–Lithuania, Poland-Belarus and Poland-Ukraine border. The Poland–Russia borders were confirmed in a Polish-Russian treaty of 1992 (ratified in 1993).[9]

The Poland–Russia border is 232 km long between Poland and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, which is an exclave, unconnected to the rest of Russia due to the Lithuania–Russia border.[11] For most of this length, the Polish side is in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship; the extreme east is in the Podlaskie Voivodeship, and the westernmost segment (on the Vistula Spit) in the Pomeranian Voivodeship.[11] 210 km of the border is land and 22 km is sea.[11]

The World War II ended in May 1945. The forming of the border began with huge restrictions on movement of civilians. The economic-political-economic model typical of the USSR, reinforced by the dominant military role of the Kaliningrad Oblast, meant that it did not establish closer cooperation with the neighboring Polish areas (Olsztyn, Gdańsk and Białystok Voivodeships), and generally for a decade it played no role in the Polish-Soviet trade, economic and cultural contacts. East Prussia was divided by a kind of internal iron curtain. The lack of cooperation between both entities made it difficult to even deal with such basic matters as regulating the functioning of watercourses that crossed the border, for example the Łyna River. Only from time to time there were some Polish-Kaliningrad contacts, for example in November 1953, fish processing specialists from Gdynia met with colleagues from Kaliningrad and the three Baltic republics at a working conference in Riga. In turn, in 1954, the Soviet side became interested in navigation data regarding the water route from Kaliningrad to Elbląg and Gdańsk. However, this did not result in the launch of permanent cooperation.

The border in the area of Gmina Banie Mazurskie, August 2010

The border began formulating in October and November 1945 when an artificial border was introduced, causing, among other things, eliminating some communication routes from use. The railway line Gołdap - Darkiejmy (currently Ozyorsk) - Nordenburg (currently Krylovo and on the Polish side Zielony Ostrów) - Gierdawy (currently Zheleznodorozhny) - Frydłód (currently Pravdinsk) - Iława Pruska (currently Bagrationovsk), where there was local junction, with routes to Kaliningrad to the north and to Bartoszyce to the south. In several cases, the border was suddenly moved by the local Soviet authorities. In such at the end of June 1945, the commander of the Soviet military administration of the Pruska Iława district handed over to the Polish authorities the areas up to 1 km north of this city, but in mid-October the Soviet authorities moved the borders by 1 km south, taking over the city and the surrounding area. The village of Szczurkowo (Sępopol commune, Bartoszyce poviat) remained on the Polish side and constituted approximately one third of the town's buildings. Most, including the local church, remained on the Soviet side. There were more churches left on the Soviet side, which was probably due to military reasons, as they were treated as observation points. The alignment of the border also had significant consequences for the largest city in the region, Elbląg, which is over 30 km away from the new border, and its port functions. A city with a great past as a sea port, after 1945 it ceased to be one. Back in August 1945 when Stalin announced the actual closure of the port at a banquet with the Polish government delegation in Moscow the report of the Union of Polish Ports assumed that Elbląg would be one of the four main Polish ports. In order for the city to be a port, it was necessary for the USSR to respect the norms of international maritime law and to enable the navigation of merchant ships of all flags to Elbląg from the high seas through the Pilawa Strait. On August 11, 1945, the central authorities in Warsaw officially asked the USSR to open the strait. However, this navigation was made impossible, thwarting plans to recreate both a significant port center and a full shipbuilding industry.[12] From Bagrationovsk, lost by Poland, the railway line ran further west to Zinten (Cynty, now Kornevo) and Święta Siekierka (now Mamonovo), where there was another junction, north to Królewiec and south to Braniewo. This route would be the best connection of all northern poviats of the Masurian District (since 1946, Olsztyn Voivodeship) with Elbląg and the rest of the country. It would facilitate the reconstruction of areas that have already suffered great losses as a result of the war and post-war robberies. Drawing the border parallel to the parallel resulted in a huge economic weakening of the entire area, from the Gołdap County to Elbląg County. On October 9, 1945, the government representative in the Masurian District, noticing the dramatic economic consequences of leaving the Święta Siekierka-Gołdap railway line on the Soviet side pleaded to the Polish government to improve the final border arrangement.[12]

Fence where the border crosses the coast line

The lack of a formal demarcation of the border in the field, and it was the Army commandants and the Soviet Border Guard who demarcated it on the orders of their superiors, was a serious legal shortcoming. In April 1956, top Soviet authorities suggested that Warsaw designate a border line running south of Kaliningrad. It is worth noting that the telegram sent by the Polish People's Republic Embassy in Moscow to the Headquarters on this matter contains an annotation from the deputy director of Department 1 of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kazimierz Korolczyk, who suggested that this issue be resolved in an unspecified future in "...more favorable circumstances". On August 8, in a note to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Adam Rapacki, it was announced that diplomats of the Polish People's Republic had been instructed to exchange views. Meanwhile, the Russians insisted on talks soon because, in their opinion, rumors were being spread in the West that the lack of border delimitation in this section called into question the Potsdam Agreement itself. However, the events of the second half of 1956 meant that practically no attention was paid to this issue. In this context, it is worth emphasizing the fact that it was omitted in the final communique, which was announced in Moscow after the conclusion of the Polish-Soviet talks held in Moscow on November 14-18 of the same year. The new leader of the Polish United Workers' Party, Gomułka, who for years had been striving for West Germany to recognize the border on the Oder and Neisse Łużycka, was interested in advancing the talks on the final demarcation of the border line with the USSR in order to deprive Western political opponents of the arguments. Finally, on March 4, 1957, a delegation of the Polish People's Republic arrived in Moscow, headed by Minister Rapacki. Just two days later, the agreement on demarcating the existing border in the part adjacent to the Baltic Sea was signed. Signatures This document was submitted by Rapacki and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, Andrei Gromyko.[13]

Russian border guards on Vistula Spit, August 2011

The official demarcation of the boundary was finalized March 5, 1957, in the following terms:

The Contracting Parties confirm that the existing State frontier between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Polish People's Republic in the sector adjoining the Baltic Sea, as established by the Berlin Conference in 1945, runs from frontier mark No. 1987, set up at the junction of the frontiers of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic (Kaliningrad Region), the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Polish People's Republic at the demarcation of the Soviet-Polish State frontier in 1946-1947, in a general westerly direction 0.5 kilometres north of the inhabited locality of Zytkiejmy, 4 kilometres north of the inhabited locality of Gołdap, 0.5 kilometres south of the inhabited locality of Krylovo, 3 kilometres south of the inhabited locality of Zheleznodorozhny, 2 kilometres south of the inhabited locality of Bagrationovsk, 4 kilometres south of the inhabited locality of Mamonovo, 7 kilometres north of the inhabited locality of Braniewo (formerly Braunsberg) and thence across the Kaliningradsky Zaliv (Zalew Wislany) and the Baltiiskaya Kosa (Mierzeja Wislana) to a point on the west shore of this spit 3 kilometres north-east of the inhabited locality of Nowa Karczma (known as Piaski) and is part of the town of Krynica Morska (Föglers) (the distances between the inhabited localities and the frontier are approximate).[14]

In practice, the agreement was incomplete as it did not take into account the situation in many points where the border had to be rectified. During the work of the Delimitation Commission, the District National Council in Węgorzewo, and then the Provincial National Council in Olsztyn, suggested connecting a five-kilometer section of the road connecting Ruskie Pola, located in Poland, with Kryłów, which belonged to the USSR, to the Polish People's Republic, as this section of the road was the only convenient connection of the village of Zielony Ostrów with the rest of the country. In return, the Polish side was ready to hand over to the Soviet side a similar section of the road connecting two towns on its side: Bogatowo and Korniewo. However, this proposal was not adopted by the Commission. However, other Polish proposals were taken into account: firstly, Poland was granted a relatively small area north of the town of Żytkiejmy, which enabled its inhabitants to farm, secondly, the Soviet Union agreed to give the Poland a one and a half kilometer section of the road connecting Szczurkowo with Ostre Bardo. The Polish side transferred, in the form of compensation, the crossroads in the area of the settlement of Mażucie, previously cut off by the border line, and also the Polish part of the lake near Bagrationovsk. The Delimitation Commission completed its work on September 10, 1957.[12]

Markers and warning signs along Polish side of border

When Poland joined the European Union in 2004, this border became one of the borders between the European Union and the non-EU countries.[7] It is one of the five borders that Russia shares with the EU (see Border of the European Union).

As of 2008, there were three road crossings (Gołdap-Gusev, Bezledy-Bagrationovsk and Gronowo-Mamonovo) and three train crossing (Braniewo-Mamonovo, Skandawa-Zheleznodorozhny and Głomno-Bagrationovsk).[15][16][17] In 2010, the largest road crossing up to that point was opened at Grzechotki-Mamonovo.[18] More crossings are being built (Perły-Krylovo, Piaski-Baltiysk, Rapa-Ozyorsk), as the EU standards require Poland to operate at least seven for that border.[15]

In the first quarter of 2012, the Polish-Russian border saw the least traffic out of the borders Poland shares with the non-European Union countries (the others being the Poland-Ukraine border and the Poland-Belarus border).[19] For that period, a majority of the individuals crossing the borders did so for the explicit purpose of short term (usually under one day) shopping; this was the case with 45% of foreigners entering Poland, and 87% of Poles entering Russia.[19] Compared to traffic on other non-EU Polish borders, a much larger percentage (22% foreigners and 7% Poles) crossed the borders for the purpose of tourism and transit (16.5% foreigners).[19]

On November 2, 2022, Poland's Minister of National Defence Mariusz Błaszczak announces the construction of a barrier along the border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, as Poland believes that Russia will use the border to illegally transport African and Asian immigrants to Europe.[20][21][22][23] This barrier is planned to reach 3 metres (9.8 ft) high, and include cameras and motion detectors. The move to construct the barrier came in response to Kaliningrad allowing from 1 October for a far greater level of international flights to its airport.[24]

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• Curzon Line
• Poland–Russia relations
• Polish–Russian Wars
• Enclave and exclave