ABSTRACT
The Allied leaders planning the shape of the postwar world were faced with two inescapable realities concerning Poland. The first was that the Soviet Union had occupied about one-third of the former Polish territory in the east, and nothing could induce Josef Stalin (q.v.) to withdraw his troops from the area after the war. The second was that Germany had started the war by attacking Poland, and thus there was almost universal agree ment that Poland should not emerge from the war poorer in total resources than before. Recognizing these realities, Winston S. Churchill (q.v.) wrote during the Teheran Conference in November 1943: “Personally, I thought Poland might move westwards like soldiers taking two steps close left. If Poland trod on some German toes, that could not be helped; but there must be a strong Poland.”
