Poland–Russia border

Splitting East Prussia

Before 1945 there was no border here. The land on both sides was East Prussia, a province of Germany.^[2] At the Potsdam Conference, the Western allies agreed to Stalin's demand that the northern third of East Prussia go to the Soviet Union.^[2]

The conference's protocol of 1 August 1945 described the new Soviet frontier only roughly: from a point on the eastern shore of the Bay of Danzig, east and north of Braunsberg and Goldap, to where Lithuania, Poland and East Prussia met.^[3] It agreed “in principle” to the transfer of Königsberg and the land around it, “subject to expert examination of the actual frontier”.^[3] The rest of East Prussia was placed under Polish administration.^[3]

Königsberg became Kaliningrad. Most of the German residents fled or were forced out, and people from other parts of the Soviet Union moved in.^[2]

“The Conference has agreed in principle to the proposal of the Soviet Government concerning the ultimate transfer to the Soviet Union of the City of Koenigsberg and the area adjacent to it as described above subject to expert examination of the actual frontier.”^[3]

A straight line across the map

The line was marked on the ground in 1946–47, and a treaty signed in Moscow on 5 March 1957 by the foreign ministers Andrei Gromyko and Adam Rapacki confirmed it.^[1] The treaty says the frontier was “established by the Berlin Conference in 1945”, meaning Potsdam.^[1]

Its description reads like a list of near misses. From frontier mark No. 1987 at the Lithuanian tripoint, the line runs west 0.5 km north of Żytkiejmy, 4 km north of Gołdap, 3 km south of Zheleznodorozhny, 2 km south of Bagrationovsk, 4 km south of Mamonovo and 7 km north of Braniewo (formerly Braunsberg).^[1] It then crosses the Vistula Lagoon and the Vistula Spit to the spit's seaward shore, about 3 km north-east of Nowa Karczma.^[1]

The treaty set up a joint Soviet–Polish commission to mark the line on the ground within six months of the treaty coming into force.^[1]

An exclave

During the Cold War this line was part of Poland’s border with the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Baltic fleet was based in the region.^[2] When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, Kaliningrad became an exclave of the Russian Federation, surrounded by Lithuania, Poland and the Baltic Sea.^[2] Poland's border with Russia now runs only along Kaliningrad.

In July 2012 a local border traffic scheme for people living near the border began to operate. Crossings rose from 2.3 million in 2011 to 4.7 million in 2012, and to more than 6.5 million by 2014.^[5] Poland suspended the scheme from 4 July 2016, citing security for the NATO summit in Warsaw and World Youth Day in Kraków.^[6] Crossings fell to 3.5 million in 2018 and 3.4 million in 2019.^[5]

Canal and fence

Ships from the Polish port of Elbląg on the Vistula Lagoon used to reach the Baltic through the Strait of Baltiysk, in Russian waters.^[7] On 17 September 2022 Poland opened a 1.3 km canal through the Vistula Spit so they no longer have to, saving a 100 km detour.^[7] The project cost €420 million, and President Andrzej Duda said Poland should not have to ask the consent of “a country that is not friendly towards us”.^[7]

In November 2022 Poland began building a 2.5-metre barbed-wire fence along the Kaliningrad border, planned to run about 200 km. Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak said Russia might open a migration route through Kaliningrad like the one Belarus had created since 2021.^[8] At the time, only 11 illegal crossings from Russia into Poland had been recorded that year.^[8]

The Polish Border Guard lists four road crossings with Russia. Grzechotki–Mamonovo II and Bezledy–Bagrationovsk are open; Gronowo–Mamonovo and Gołdap–Gusev are suspended.^[4]