In the second wave, between November 1919 and June 1924, roughly 1,200,000 people left the territory of the USSR for Poland amid political repression of Polish–Soviet War and its aftermath.

Following Operation Barbarossa, the USSR was forced to fight its own former ally, Nazi Germany, and in July 1941 signed a London treaty with Poland, granting amnesty for Polish citizens in the Soviet Union.

[11] It was the final wave of mass migrations, referred to as the Polish population transfers (1944–46) in the aftermath of Allied victory over Germany.

The displacement followed the Curzon Line accepted by the US administration and UK government during the Teheran, Yalta and Potsdam meetings with the Soviet leaders.

[7] The numerically significant presence of Polish people on the territory of USSR was a direct consequence of the Partitions of Poland by the Russian Empire in 1795–1914.

The total of 200,000 civilians were expelled from Poland in the following years, including extended families and children of the privileged classes, teachers and priests.

The number of Poles in Russia proper reached 2.8 million by 1911 according to S. Thugutt, concentrated mostly in St. Petersburg, Riga, Kiev, Moscow, Odessa, Kamianske, Ekaterinoslav, and a dozen other large cities.

[2] After Poland established independence during the First World War, thousands of ethnic Poles residing in Russia embarked on journeys home.

[12] Many Polish politicians, generals, writers, artists and composers, born in the Russian Partition and outside the Congress Poland/Vistula Land migrated to sovereign Poland in its 1918-1939 borders including the most prominent politician Józef Piłsudski as well as Władysław Raczkiewicz, commodore Stefan Frankowski, counter admiral Adam Mohuczy, Władysław Raginis, Jerzy Giedroyc, Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Nobel Laureate Czesław Miłosz, Melchior Wańkowicz, and composer Karol Szymanowski.

Destroy orchards and trees in the courtyards so that there will be no trace that someone lived there... Pay attention to the fact that when something remains that is Polish, then the Poles will have pretensions to our land".

Notable Poles evacuated during that time include singer Czesław Niemen, film producer Lew Rywin and actor Anna Seniuk.