n 1914 and 1941 large German armies advanced from the west and almost destroyed Russia. After World War II, Poland was moved 250 kilometers (150 miles) to the west. The territory lost to the USSR on the east (178,220 sq. km--70,000 sq. miles) greatly exceeded the territory acquired from Germany (101,200 sq. km--40,000 sq. miles) as compensation. The Soviets compensated the Poles for the east Polish territories that she annexed by establishing the Polish western borders on the Oder-Neisse Line, thereby giving Poland territory that was German prior to World War II. Poland was bordered to the east and west by two nations that had traditionally been her enemies; paradoxically, both the USSR and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) were her allies at the end of World War II.
At the meeting of the "Big Three" (US/UK/USSR) in February 1945 at Yalta, Poland and how to settle its frontiers, was a topic of discussion at most of the eight plenary sessions. Stalin and Molotov paved the way for a Polish state oriented toward Russia, and one whose western borders reached to the lines of the Oder and western Neisse Rivers. By the early spring of 1945 the Soviets had overrun most of Poland, pushed into Hungary and eastern Czechoslovakia, and temporarily halted at the Oder-Neisse line. By the end of March 1945, Soviet forces held a bridgehead over the Oder River, a mere 30 miles from Berlin.
