Soviet Territorial Annexations in Eastern Europe

SOVIET TERRITORIAL ANNEXATIONS IN EASTERN EUROPE Huey Louis Kostanick University of California, Los Angeles One of the most significant features of postwar Europe has been the westward expansion of Soviet power as a result of the second World War. This expansion has taken place in a number of ways: idealogically, through the impact of Communism; politically, through the extension of Soviet hegemony and influence; economically, through the shift of the trade of Eastern Europe from Germany to Russia; areally and demographically, through annexation and settlement of territories taken from countries in Eastern Europe. This westward advance is marked by three different zones. In the far west, Eastern Germany and Eastern Austria are under Soviet military occupation. A central zone of satellite states has been created under Communist governments. In the eastern edges of the zone of expansion, the U. S. S. R. has annexed territories all along her western border from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea. Since 1939, the Soviet Union has annexed some 187,000 square miles with a population of almost 23 million. This was by far the greatest territorial change of the war, as indicated by the estimate that a total of 34 million was involved in all territorial transfers of World War II. Soviet annexations were accomplished in two phases. In 1939 and 1940, Russia seized areas from Finland, Poland, and Rumania and incorporated the three Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Temporarily , these areas were occupied by Germany, or were retaken by the original countries, as in the case of Finland and Rumania. In the postwar period, Russia reannexed the areas and added others. Political control was consolidated through peace treaties, long term leases, by locally held elections , which ruled in favor of union with the U.S. S. R. , or by agreements made with the major allied powers, such as at Yalta and Potsdam. It is to be noted that the United States does not recognize the Soviet annexation of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and that final disposition of East Prussia, partitioned between Russia and Poland is legally dependent upon conclusion of a German Peace Treaty. All the areas, however, are now treated as integrated parts of the Soviet Union. Finland Finland was the first country to suffer territorial losses as a result of the Soviet invasion launched on November 30, 1939. Through the SovietFinnish Peace Treaty of March 12, 1940, 16, 173 square miles were ceded to Russia, but were regained in 1941, when Finland joined with Germany in defeating a second Russian invasion. Under the Peace Treaty of February 10, I947, the Soviet acquisitions of 1940 were confirmed and through leases and additional cessions, the U. S. S. R. gained 19,300 square miles of Finland. Of great loss to Finland was the 5,000 square mile area of Petsamo on the Arctic Ocean, to which Finland no longer has access. Petsamo has valuable mineral deposits, especially nickel, and the ice-free port is of great economic importance to Russia, in that the port of Murmansk, so well known in World War II, must be kept open by ice-breakers. A primary difficulty, however, is the lack of railroad connections from Soviet territory to Petsamo. Of even greater significance was the loss oí the Karelian areas near Lake Ladoga, which included some of the best agricultural lands of Finland, ARCTIC OCEAN Petsamo Kuolajarvi U. S. S. R FINLAND Pork k ala Udd Lake Ladoga SOVIET ANNEXATIONS 939-1947 Areas Ceded By FINLAND IS3 ESTONIA LATVIA EAST PRUSSIA POLAND CZECH RUMANIA 1947 BOUNDARIES 1939 BOUNDARIES Vilno AUSTRIA Fig. 1. Soviet Annexations, 1939-1947. It is to be noted that the United States does not recognize the annexation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, although they are now treated as republics of the U. S. S. R. and certain territories have been ceded to other Soviet republics as indicated on the map. 16Yearbook of the AssociationVOL. 13 where agricultural production is limited at best.. On the southern coast, the Russians relinquished their 1940 lease on the HangB peninsula, but took a fifty year lease instead to the Porkkala-Udd peninsula west of Helsinki, thus gaining a naval base for control of the...