Sunday, July 14, 2013

Lord Curzon on a railway trolley in India, circa 1900


No location recorded.  Lord (George) Curzon was Viceroy of India from 1899 to 1905 and Foreign Secretary at the end of WW1. He is best known for the Curzon Line, a proposed border between the recreated Poland and the Soviet Union which was sent to the Soviets, signed by Lord Curzon.  Neither Poland nor the Soviets accepted this border and after a war, it was established about 250 km further east. However, in 1939 it was used to establish the border between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany's 'spheres of influence' after both decided Poland should cease to exist.  In 1945 Stalin made it the permanent border between Poland and the Soviet Union, with some minor modifications in Poland's favor.

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