Editing Curzon Line (section)

==End of World War I==
The US President [[Woodrow Wilson]]'s [[Fourteen Points]] included the statement "An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea..." Article 87 of the [[Versailles Treaty]] stipulated that "The boundaries of Poland not laid down in the present Treaty will be subsequently determined by the Principal Allied and Associated Powers." In accordance with these declarations, the Supreme War Council tasked the Commission on Polish Affairs with proposing Poland's eastern boundaries in lands that were inhabited by a mixed population of Poles, Lithuanians, Ukrainians and Belarusians.<ref name="Krickus2002">{{cite book|author=Richard J. Krickus|title=The Kaliningrad question|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sDOUZEEnHFUC&pg=PA23|access-date=25 January 2011|year=2002|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-7425-1705-9|pages=23}}</ref><ref name=Boemeke/> The Commission issued its recommendation on 22 April; its proposed Russo-Polish borders were close to those of the 19th-century [[Congress Poland]].<ref name=Boemeke>{{cite book|author1=Manfred Franz Boemeke|author2=Manfred F. Boemeke|author3=Gerald D. Feldman|author4=Elisabeth Gläser|title=The Treaty of Versailles: a reassessment after 75 years|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zqj-oHp4KsgC&pg=PA331|access-date=25 January 2011|year=1998|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-62132-8|pages=331–333}}</ref>

The Supreme Council continued to debate the issue for several months. On 8 December, the Council published a map and description of the line along with an announcement that it recognized "Poland's right to organize a regular administration of the territories of the former Russian Empire situated to the West of the line described below."<ref name=Boemeke/> At the same time, the announcement stated the Council was not "...prejudging the provisions which must in the future define the eastern frontiers of Poland" and that "the rights that Poland may be able to establish over the territories situated to the East of the said line are expressly reserved."<ref name=Boemeke/> The announcement had no immediate impact, although the Allies recommended its consideration in an August 1919 proposal to Poland, which was ignored.<ref name=Boemeke/><ref name="Mayer2001">{{cite book|author=Arno J. Mayer|title=The Furies: Violence and Terror in the French and Russian Revolutions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gveBKGhmskAC&pg=PA300|access-date=27 January 2011|date=26 December 2001|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-09015-3|page=300}}</ref>

[[File:Polska1912.jpg|thumb|250px|Polish ethnographic map from 1912, showing the proportions of Polish population according to pre-WW1 censuses]]
[[File:Mapa_rozsiedlenia_ludno%C5%9Bci_polskiej_z_uwzgl%C4%99dnieniem_spis%C3%B3w_z_1916_roku.jpg|thumb|250px|Polish ethnographic map showing the proportions of Polish population (incorporates data from pre-WW1 censuses and the 1916 census)]]