Belarus–Poland border
The border from Lithuania to Ukraine, mostly along the old Curzon Line, which the Allies proposed in 1919–20 and Stalin revived in 1945. Since 2021 it has been a front line in a migration standoff, with a steel wall on the Polish side.
Written from cited sourcesLast checked 28 September 2026Suggest a correction
See it on the globe:Belarus →Poland →
The Curzon Line
After the First World War, the Allied Supreme Council set a temporary line on 8 December 1919 marking the minimum eastern frontier of the reborn Polish state. It ran south from Hrodna through Brest-Litovsk and then along the Bug River.[1]
During the Polish–Soviet war, the Allies proposed that line as an armistice line on 10 July 1920, and the next day the British foreign secretary, Lord Curzon, suggested it to the Soviet government, which is how it got his name. Neither side accepted it. Poland won the war, and the peace treaty of March 1921 gave it about 135,000 km² east of the line.[1]
Moved west in 1945
The Soviet Union revived the Curzon Line in 1939, claiming and occupying everything east of it under the German–Soviet pact. By the end of 1944 the Red Army held all of prewar Poland, and at Yalta in February 1945 the United States and Britain recognised the Curzon Line as the Soviet–Polish border.[1] A Soviet–Polish treaty of 16 August 1945 set a line almost the same as the Curzon Line, and minor adjustments followed in 1951.[1]
The line runs through the Białowieża Forest, an immense primary forest that is home to the largest population of European bison. Poland’s national park there became a World Heritage site in 1979, and the site was extended across the border to Belarus’s Belovezhskaya Pushcha in 1992.[2]
The migrant crisis and the wall
In 2021 tens of thousands of people, mostly from the Middle East, tried to cross from Belarus into Poland. Poland and other EU states said Belarus’s ruler, Alexander Lukashenko, had orchestrated the crisis with Russia in retaliation for sanctions imposed after the disputed 2020 election. At least 12 people died at the border in freezing conditions.[3]
Poland built a 5.5-metre, 186 km steel wall, which its interior minister declared finished on 30 June 2022.[3] It has restricted road traffic since 2021.[4] The Kuźnica crossing closed that year, and Bobrowniki in 2023, after Belarus jailed the Polish-Belarusian journalist Andrzej Poczobut.[5] Poland shut every crossing on 12 September 2025 during the Russian-Belarusian Zapad exercises and reopened them about two weeks later.[4] Kuźnica and Bobrowniki reopened on 17 November 2025.[5]
Timeline
19198 December 1919
A temporary line
The Allies set Poland’s minimum eastern frontier.[1]
192011 July 1920
The Curzon Line
Lord Curzon proposes the line to the Soviet government as an armistice line.[1]
1921
Peace treaty
Victorious Poland gains about 135,000 km² east of the line.[1]
194516 August 1945
Soviet–Polish treaty
The border is set almost on the Curzon Line.[1]
1992
Białowieża extended
The World Heritage site is extended into Belarus.[2]
2021
Migrant crisis
Tens of thousands try to cross from Belarus into Poland.[3]
202230 June 2022
Wall finished
Poland completes a 186 km steel wall.[3]
202517 November 2025
Crossings reopen
Kuźnica and Bobrowniki reopen after years closed.[5]
More borders
Sources
- [1]Curzon Line · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- [2]Białowieża Forest · UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- [3]Poland Finishes Construction Of Wall On Belarusian Border To Keep Migrants Out · RFE/RL’s Belarus Service · 30 June 2022
- [4]Poland to reopen border with Belarus after nearly two-week closure, PM Tusk says · Euronews · 23 September 2025
- [5]Poland reopens 2 border crossings with Belarus after their years-long closure · The Kyiv Independent · 17 November 2025
Map geometry from Natural Earth via world-atlas. See credits.