On 7th July 1945 a trade treaty between the USSR and the new Polish Government was signed in Moscow together with a reciprocal agreement on goods and supplies (TNA/ HS4-139). The trade agreement focussed on ‘friendship and cooperation’. It covers the supply of Soviet made goods and supplies to Poland to the initial value of $120m. For Poland, the supply of 5m tones of coal and coke, 67,000 tons of steel and iron, 5,000 tons of zinc, 70,000 tins of cement and 25,000 tons of calcinated soda (nitrate) with cotton and wool cloth from raw materials supplied by the Soviets. The Soviets would supply Poland with 250,000 tons of iron ore, 30,000 tons manganese ore, 25,000 tons of cotton, 3,000 tons of tobacco, 2,400 tons of flax and 40,000 tons of apatite (calcium phosphate minerals), cellulose, paper and other goods. It was recognised Soviet Russia needed the Polish manufactured goods and help restart Poland’s industrial economy.
The agreement also allowed persons of Polish and Jewish race interned in Russia to have their Polish citizenship to be returned and resettle back in Poland. Persons of Russian Ukrainian and Belo-Russian, Ruthenian and Lithuanian race had the right to be released from Polish citizenship and remove themselves from Soviet territory. The release and evacuation shall be voluntary and limited in goods they may take with them.
The San Francisco Conference took place between 25th April and 26th June 1945 which saw the birth of the United Nations replacing the now defunct League of Nations. Stalin did not attend, however both Churchill and Roosevelt recognised the need to establish a permanent organisation for collective security (Kochanski, 2012). This goal dates back to 14th August 1941 and the presence of Stalin or a Soviet representative (Maksim Maksimovich Litvinov, Ambassador to the US) was essential for its success. Litvinov was replaced by Molotov who objected to the voting procedure and sought to overturn much of the Yalta Agreement. Roosevelt had been preoccupied with the ‘Polish Question’ and Britain’s Anthony Eden thought the conference was pointless while the Soviets were not fully engaged in creating a new world order to establish peace. Molotov had rejected the Anglo-American interpretation of the Yalta Agreement and the renewed dispute over the eastern boundary or the Curzon Line. The Soviet withdrawal from the concept of the United Nations would imperil the future of conflict resolution or was this Soviet blackmail?
The thorny question of Polish representation was greeted by the response Poles of the new Provisional Government would be consulted but not represented. Stalin insisted the former Premier, Mikołajczyk recognised the Curzon Line before any further negotiations proceeded (Kochanski, 2012). Stalin petitioned for the Poles to be represented by the new Provisional Government while Mikołajczyk petitioned the US and Britain to be a representative. Poland had not gone to the polls and instead used a referendum in June 1946 consisting of three questions phrased in such a way that affirmative vote would legitimise the Communist regime (Staar, 1958; Kochanski, 2012). It was widely acknowledged the vote was rigged and not the ‘free and unfettered’ elections agreed at Yalta (Staar, 1958). Indeed, my grandfather along with one of his sisters, was imprisoned in Kraków for publically ridiculing the legitimacy of the elections. The London based Poles sent Prof. Stanisław Kot who was shunned by many delegates. Both the US and Britain were stunned at the proposed ‘friendship treaty’ negotiations that were underway in Moscow and would be signed in July 1945. The London based Polish Government had been effectively sidelined and signalled their political influence was effectively cancelled. In Moscow the Trial of the Sixteen, a Soviet show trial (https://polandinexile.com/article/trial-of-the-sixteen/) ended any opposition to the Sovietisation of Poland.
At the International Reparations Conference in 1946, Poland’s material losses were estimated to be $16.9 billion. However, the Bureau of Reparations during the Presidium of the Council of Ministers (Sprawozdanie Biura Odszkodowań Wojennych w przedmiocie strat i szkód wojennych Polski 1939–1945) in 1947 listed $ 50 billion in damages. A further estimate indicated Warsaw suffered $60 billion alone. The city was almost flattened and erased. Soviet destruction was outside the remit of the Presidium, and no formal assessment was made (Kostrzewa-Zorbus, 2018)
On the ground, the so called ‘liberation of Poland’ came at a terrible price. Forced conscription into the Red Army with little training in use of weapons into Berling’s Army (https://polandinexile.com/article/1st-polish-peoples-army/) pushed the recruits into the Soviet ‘meat grinder’. The occupying Red Army were arrogant, low in literacy and felt the Poles should show more gratitude. Theft, looting, beatings, deportations and the dismantling industrial factories went unchecked. This was their view of ‘reparations’ which senior officers turned a ‘blind eye’ to. More than 100,000 women, aged 4 to 80 including nuns were raped mainly in the eastern provinces (former German territory of East Prussia) but it continued in most provinces and cities throughout Poland in the period 1944 to 1946 (Kochanski, 2012; Ławniczak, 2025). Indeed, my Grandfather Jan, bricked my aunts (Janka and Danka) into the roof space of their hotel in Zakopane for several weeks until law and order was reintroduced.
Recent Calls for Reparations
In October 2022 Poland sought from Germany $1.3 trillion in World War II reparations. The move was initiated by the Law and Justice Party (PiS) to cover the cost of war losses including human life, infrastructure and looted assets. It was a diplomatic note signed by the then Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau. It was argued that a waiver in 1952 was invalid as it was done under Soviet pressure.
Germany maintained the issue of reparations was dealt with under the Two Plus Four Agreement in 1990 (Vertrag über die abschließende Regelung in Bezug auf Deutschland which paved the way for German reunification and recognised under international law. The conference by the ‘Four Powers’ in Bonn on 5th May 1990 with a treaty signed in Moscow on 12th September 1990. Gorbachev demanded security guarantees from NATO and Helmut Kohl settled the details with the Soviets. Initially, 48 billion Euros were paid to victims who lived in the territory of the Third Reich. The Treaty of Bonn paid a further DM 500 million to 600,000 Poles through Kohl’s need to reunite Germany.
Poland insisted the border along the Oder-Neisse Line be kept and France supported Poland.
On 17th July Germany and Poland signed a treaty in recognition of the border. Bargaining over the Soviet troops stationed in East Germany was completed when it was agreed 12,000 million Deutschmarks would be paid with a further 3,000 million as an interest free loan. While NATO troops could be stationed in the former East Germany, it was agreed no nuclear weapons would be used or stored there. The agreement was signed on 31st August and came into force on 3rd of October 1990. The Four Powers renounced its status over Germany with the Soviet withdrawal to be completed by August 1994 with Western troops leaving Berlin by 8th September 1994. The agreements were ratified at a conference in Paris between 19th and 21st November 1990. NATO ratified the new Europe through the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. The Treaty lost its significance with the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact on 1st July 1991.
On 16th September 2025, the reparations issue with Germany arose again when the Polish President, Karol Nawrocki renewed demands for compensation.
Meanwhile, the Law and Justice Party (PiS) leader Jarosław Kaczyński demanded reparations from Russia in 2020 and again in 2022 for the 1939 invasion and subsequent occupation. It is claimed the treaty signed on 7th July 1945 was not a ‘friendship and cooperation’ treaty, but an oppressive trade agreement to compensate the Soviet Union. Russia’s response is based on an unpaid debt for its ‘liberation and post-war reconstruction estimated to be $750 billion and overlooked the Soviets banned Poland from receiving aid from the Marshall Plan. Russian reminded Poland that under the Yalta agreement they gained land on its western border with Germany but omitted the loss of eastern territory that was granted in the Treaty of Versailles in 1920 which was about a third of Poland’s territory. Post war, Stalin prevaricated over the final border and ignored the Yalta agreement. The West was no longer interested. If there is to be reconciliation, then during the negotiations to restore any relations needs to mitigate those factors that generate tensions between the two countries and are mutually dependent process aimed at overcoming the consequences of violence, establishing the recognised truth and any damages to reputation and image costs (Gretskiy, 2017). A tall order for the state of current relationships.
Interestingly, in a debate in Britain’s Houses of Parliament on 20th June 2018 with Daniel Kawczynski leading, concluded that under international law, Poland’s right to reparations had not expired.
The debate will unsettle the European Union, and more is to come since under international law reparations have not expired despite the 1953 Declaration on the Abandonment of War Reparations cited by Germany. Sobolewsk (2019) suggests that while the legal aspect is in debate, international law over reparations should be respected and greater consideration should be given to moral arguments playing a role too. The socio-economic impact still exists today. By not respecting international law, any country doing so will find being denounced a political and diplomatic wound difficult to heal.
Selected References
Gretskiy, G. (2017) “Russian-Polish Reconciliation and Negotiation” in “Negotiating Reconciliation in Peacemaking” by Rosoux, V and Anstey, M (Eds), in “Quandaries of Relationship Building” Springer, pp. 165-184.
Kochanski, H. (2012) “The Eagle Unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War”, Allen Lane, UK.
Kostrzewa-Zorbus, G. (2018) “GERMAN REPARATIONS TO POLAND FOR WORLD WAR II ON GLOBAL BACKGROUND”, National Security Studies, Vol. 14, No.2, pp.183-196.
Ławniczak, R. (2025) “The Rapes of Polish Women by Red Army Soldiers in 1945 in the Pomeranian Voivodship”, Kwartalnik Historyczny, Vol. 131, No. 8, pp.85-129.
Sobolewsk, P. (2019) “THE QUESTION OF WAR REPARATIONS IN POLISH GERMAN RELATIONS AFTER WORLD WAR II”, Review of International, European and Comparative Law, Vol. XVII, pp.139-159.
Starr, R.F. (1958) “Elections in Communist Poland”, Midwest Journal of Political Science, Vol.2, No.2, pp. 200-218.
Selected Websites
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49523932
https://opil.ouplaw.com/display/10.1093/law:epil/9780199231690/law-9780199231690-e391
https://polishpoliticsblog.wordpress.com/2022/10/18/why-has-the-polish-government-raised-the-german-war-reparations-issue/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_material_losses_during_World_War_II
https://instytutstratwojennych.pl/en/issue-of-polish-reparations-was-not-closed
https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=939955
Selected Films and YouTube
The Innocents (Agnus Dei) (2016) Directed by Anne Fontaine with Lou de Laâge, Agata Kulesza, Agata Buzek and Vincent Macaigne. Franco-Polish production.
Give Us Back Our Gold! The 80-Year Journey of Poland’s WWII Bullion, (2025) Mark Felton Productions
