"I'll say that the Ukrainian people treated me well. I recall warmly the years I spent there. This was a period full of responsibilities, but pleasant because it brought satisfaction ... But far be it from me to inflate my significance. The entire Ukrainian people was exerting great efforts ... I attribute Ukraine's successes to the Ukrainian people as a whole. I won't elaborate further on this theme, but in principle it's very easy to demonstrate. I'm Russian myself, and I don't want to offend the Russians."
Nikita Khrushchev,
Former Premier of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic,
First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Europe in 1648 - Peace of Westphalia; showing especially :
(a,) The Possessions of the two branches of the house of Habsburg at the end of the Thirty Years War (purple).
(b,) The possessions of the house of Hohenzollern, (union of Prussia with Brandeburg [blue.]).
(c,) The Swedish Empire on both shores of the Baltic and in Northern Germany.
(d,) The Danish Monarchy, Denmark, Norway, and Schonen.
(e,) The British isles, with the battle-fields of the civil wars.
(f,) France, with the battle-fields of the civil wars [red].
(g,) Germany with the battle-fields of the Thirty Years War.
(h,) The republic of Poland in its greatest extent.
(i,) The Western Boundary of Russia.
Soviet map of expanded Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (year 1940).
Scale: 1:5,000,000.
The territories annexed from occupied Poland marked in yellow. The adjacent parts of Second Polish Republic occupied by Nazi Germany are labeled "area of state interests of Germany".
Soviet map of expanded Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (year 1940).
Territories captured during the Soviet invasion of the Second Polish Republic in 1939 marked in yellow: renamed as Volynska, Drogobych, Lviv, Rivne, Stanislav, Tarnopil and Chernivitsi Oblasts.
The adjacent parts of Poland occupied by Nazi Germany are labeled: area of state interests of Germany.
Scale 1:6,000,000; in Russian.
Map of Ukraine presented by Ukrainian delegation on Paris Peace Conference, 1919
The Second Polish Republic, 1919-1939
Bolshevik propaganda poster of Polish-Soviet war (1920).
Texts in the picture:
Above:
RSFSR
That is what Polish lords' undertaking will end with
On flag: Long live Soviet Poland!
The Allied Supreme Council tasked the Commission on Polish Affairs with recommending Polish eastern borders. The Allies forwarded it as an armistice line several times during the war, most notably in a note from the British government to the Soviets signed by Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon of Kedleston.
Both parties disregarded the line when the military situation lay in their favour, and it did not play a role in establishing the Polish-Soviet border in 1921. Instead, the final Peace of Riga (or Treaty of Riga) provided Poland with almost 135,000 square kilometres (52,000 sq mi) of land that was, on average, about 250 kilometres (160 mi) east of the Curzon line.
With minor variations, the northern half of the Curzon line lay approximately along the border which was established between the Prussian Kingdom and the Russian Empire in 1797, after the third partition of Poland, which was the last border recognised by the United Kingdom. Along most of its length, the line followed an ethnic boundary - areas west of the line contained an overall Polish majority while areas to its east were inhabited by Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, Jews, and Lithuanians.
Its 1920 northern extension into Lithuania divided the area disputed between Poland and Lithuania. There were two versions of the southern portion of the line: "A" and "B".
Version "B" allocated Lviv to Poland.
Caricature for Riga Peace 1921. Shows a Pole in old-style officer's uniform and sword-belt, and an ammunition-bandoliered and skull-faced Red Army soldier, together tearing White Russia or Belarus into two, while stomping on Ukraine.
(Reuters) - NATO allies will hold emergency talks on the crisis in Ukraine on Tuesday, for the second time in three days, following a request from Poland, the alliance said on Monday.
In calling the meeting, Poland, a neighbor of Ukraine, invoked a NATO rule allowing any ally to consult with the others if it feels its security, territorial integrity or independence are under threat, the so-called Article 4.
"The developments in and around Ukraine are seen to constitute a threat to neighboring Allied countries and having direct and serious implications for the security and stability of the Euro-Atlantic area," the alliance said in a statement.
NATO meetings under Article 4 are rare. Only Turkey has used the option before, calling for consultations three times, once during the 2003 war in Iraq and twice, two years ago, over the Syrian conflict.
In Sunday's discussions, the NATO allies urged Russia to withdraw its troops back to their bases but failed to agree any significant steps to rein it in.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces tightened their grip on the mostly Russian-speaking Crimea region on Monday after seizing the Ukrainian peninsula, and Putin has secured parliamentary approval to send other forces to Ukraine.
Poland has taken a more aggressive stance against Russia than some of its European peers, pushing for more decisive response, including possible European Union sanctions.
It has a special interest in Ukraine. They share a border, their languages are similar, and large parts of western Ukraine were Polish before World War Two. Polish foreign policy is driven by a fear of Russia, its former overlord, pushing west into Ukraine.
NATO also requested a meeting with Russia on Wednesday and Moscow's ambassador to the alliance, Alexander Grushko, said he would consider the proposal, the alliance said.
(Reporting by Justyna Pawlak and Adrian Croft; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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