All events · The World Wars

The Polish-Soviet War and the Peace of Riga

1919–1924 · Europe & Northern Eurasia

Displacement Territory Seized

Displaced

1.1 million

Around 1.1 million people were repatriated in each direction under the Riga agreements between 1921 and 1924, including prisoners of war, wartime refugees returning to Poland from the Russian interior and people exercising the treaty's option clauses; the numbers come from the Polish-Soviet mixed repatriation commissions. Roughly 4-5 million Ukrainians and Belarusians remained on the Polish side of the new border and a comparable population of Poles on the Soviet side.

Share of the population affected

12%

of the population of the eastern borderlands assigned to Poland at Riga - the Wilno, Nowogrodek, Polesie, Wolyn, Lwow, Stanislawow and Tarnopol voivodeships, 1921

Killed

80,000–150,000

conflict deaths incl. combatants

Open on the interactive map →

What happened

Fighting between Poland and Soviet Russia began in 1919 in the vacuum left by the collapse of the German and Russian empires, reached Kyiv in May 1920 and Warsaw in August, and ended in an armistice in October 1920 and the Treaty of Riga of 18 March 1921. Jerzy Borzecki records that the treaty fixed a border well east of the Curzon Line, leaving Poland a national state with large Ukrainian and Belarusian minorities, allowing former subjects of the Russian Empire on Polish territory to opt for Polish citizenship, and providing for the return of cultural property and a payment of 30 million gold rubles. Large repatriation and option movements followed on both sides, restoring wartime refugees to their homes and moving optants across the new line. The treaty also settled the fate of the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic, whose forces had been Poland's allies and whose interned soldiers remained in Polish camps. Mortality among prisoners of war on both sides was heavy, and the numbers are a longstanding dispute between Polish and Russian historians.

Parties

Poland and Soviet Russia fought for the borderlands of the former Russian Empire and divided Belarus and Ukraine between them at Riga in March 1921, leaving large minorities on each side and prompting option, repatriation and settlement programmes

Disputed

The number of Soviet prisoners of war who died in Polish camps in 1920-21 is disputed: joint Polish-Russian archival work published in 2004 concluded that roughly 16,000-20,000 died of epidemic and privation, while Russian official statements have alleged far higher figures and deliberate killing, which Polish historians reject.

The denominator

The Polish census of 1921, taken shortly after the treaty, counted about 27.2 million in Poland as a whole, of which the seven eastern voivodeships held roughly 9-10 million, a majority of them Ukrainians, Belarusians and Jews rather than Poles; by the 1931 census the same area held about 13 million. The Riga treaty's repatriation provisions moved roughly 1.1 million people between Poland and Soviet Russia in 1921-24, including prisoners of war, refugees returning from wartime evacuation and opting populations.

The 1.1 million counts treaty repatriations in both directions, most of them people returning home from wartime evacuation rather than newly expelled, so the ratio should not be read as a measure of expulsion.

Where the baseline comes from

Peace of Riga — Wikipediaopen-edited
Kresy — Wikipediaopen-edited

On the death toll

Combatant deaths on both sides are usually put in the tens of thousands. The largest identified civilian and prisoner mortality is among prisoners of war: roughly 16,000-20,000 Soviet prisoners died in Polish camps according to the joint Polish-Russian documentary publication of 2004, and a comparable number of Polish prisoners died in Soviet hands. Typhus among troops, prisoners and civilians in the war zone accounts for most of the deaths.

Documented forms of violence

Arbitrary Detention

Prisoner-of-war internment and its mortality on both sides are documented in the joint Polish-Russian archival publication of 2004 and in the Riga treaty records summarised by Borzecki.

Movements mapped

Repatriation of Poles and returning wartime refugees from Soviet territory
Repatriation of Soviet prisoners and optants eastward

Countries touched, on present-day borders

Latvia, Belarus, Poland, Russia

Sources

This entry rests only on reference, press or open-edited sources. Treat its figures as indicative and follow the links before relying on them.