PKWN (Polish Committee of National Liberation)

The committee, also known as the Lublin Committee, was formally created by a law of the communist National Council of the Homeland dated 21 July 1944. Its manifesto was read on Moscow radio on 22 July; communist propaganda claimed it had been proclaimed in Chełm, which the committee's members reached only on 27 July. Its chairman was Edward Osóbka-Morawski. The manifesto declared the Polish government in London illegitimate and promised land reform and an alliance with the USSR.

On 26 July the PKWN accepted Soviet command over the front zone, and on 27 July it signed a secret agreement on an eastern border based on the Curzon Line. In the territories taken over, its administration worked with the NKVD to disarm and arrest Home Army soldiers. The Polish government in London never recognised the committee, but at Yalta the powers agreed that the Provisional Government it had become would form the basis of Poland's government.