History of Poland
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The History of interwar Poland starts with the recreation of independent Poland in 1918, and ends with the occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union at the onset of the Second World War.

The final borders of the Second Polish Republic were not established until 1922. The Polish political scene remained chaotic and shifting, especially after the death of Józef Piłsudski in 1935. Nevertheless, between 1921 and 1939 Poland achieved significant economic growth.

[edit] Formative years (1918-1921)

From its inception, the Second Polish Republic struggled to secure and maintain its existence in difficult circumstances, forced to deal with remnants of devastating economic exploitation by the former partitioners, who soon imposed new trade embargos on sovereign Poland. For many years, there was wide spread poverty among all citizens regardless of ethnicity. The new job opportunities before Poland's industrialization of the mid 1930s were virtually nonexistent.^[1][2] Most Polish leaders of that period wanted to regain territories lost during the Partitions of Poland. The same territories of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth however, were coveted by others — from aspiring separatist regions struggling to secede (such as the Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltics), to more powerful neighbours like Soviet Russia — desiring lands previously controlled by the Russian Empire. The new Polish borders were perceived in relation to those of the Commonwealth which in turn established them in the 14th century.^[3] However, opinions varied among Polish politicians as to how much of the territories the new Poland should regain. Józef Piłsudski advocated a concept of Międzymorze — a more democratic, Polish-led federation of independent states — while Roman Dmowski of the Endecja faction, set his mind on a more compact Poland composed of ethnic Polish or 'polonizable' territories.

1920 map from The Peoples Atlas showing the situation of Poland and the Baltic states with their still-undefined borders after the treaties of Brest-Litovsk and Versailles and before the Peace of Riga

Polish population as of 1918

To the southwest, Poland encountered boundary disputes with Czechoslovakia over Austrian Silesia (see: Zaolzie). More ominously, an embittered Germany begrudged any territorial loss to its new eastern neighbour. The December 27, 1918 Great Poland Uprising liberated Greater Poland. The 1919 Treaty of Versailles settled the German-Polish borders in the Baltic region. The port city of Gdańsk, a city with close ties to both Poland and Germans, and then with a significant German majority but as economically vital to Poland as it had been in the sixteenth century, was declared a free city. Allied arbitration divided the ethnically mixed and highly coveted industrial and mining district of Silesia between Germany and Poland, with Poland receiving the smaller in size, but more industrialized eastern section in 1922, after series of three Silesian Uprisings.

The German-Polish borders were so complicated that only close collaboration between the two countries could let the situation persist (1930 km., compared to the 430 km. of the present-day Odra-Nysa line). The unification of the former Prussian provinces lasted for many years. Until 1923, these provinces were ruled by a separate administration.

Military conflict proved the determinant of Poland's frontiers in the east, a theater rendered chaotic by the repercussions of the Russian revolutions and civil war. Piłsudski envisioned creating a federation with the rest of Ukraine (led by the Polish-friendly government in Kiev he was to help to install) and Lithuania, thus forming a Central and East European federation called "Międzymorze" (literally "between seas"). Lenin, leader of the new communist government of Russia, saw Poland as the bridge over which communism would pass into the labor class of a disorganized postwar Germany.^[4] And the issue was further complicated as some of the disputed regions had assumed various economic and political identities since the partition in the late 18th century while some didn't have an ethnically Polish majority in the first place they were still viewed by Poles as their historic regions, since they envisioned Poland as a multiethnic state.^[3] In the end, the negotiations broke down, sinking Piłsudski's idea of Międzymorze federation, instead, wars like the Polish-Lithuanian War or the Polish-Ukrainian War decided the borders of the region for the next two decades

The Polish-Soviet war, began in 1919, was the most important of the regional wars, and one of the most important conflicts of the interwar period^[5]. However, it was not until 1920 that its two participants realized they were facing more than a local border dispute. Piłsudski first carried out a major military thrust into the Ukraine in 1920 and in May Polish-Ukrainian forces reached Kiev. Just a few weeks later, however, the Polish offensive was met with a Soviet counter-offensive, and Polish forces were forced into a retreat by the Red Army. Poland was driven out of Ukraine and back into the Polish heartland, with the decisive battle of the war taking place near the Polish capital of Warsaw^[5]. Although many observers at the time marked Poland for extinction and Bolshevization,^{[citation needed]} Piłsudski halted the Soviet advance and resumed the offensive, pushing Soviet forces east. Eventually both sides, exhausted, signed a compromise peace treaty at Riga in early 1921 that divided the disputed territories of Belarus and Ukraine between the two combatants^[3]. These acquisitions were recognized by the international agreement with the Entente. Poland reluctantly granted local autonomy to the Ukranian population of Galicia, many of whom were embittered by their incorporation into a Polish state. ^[6] In 1922, in the aftermath of the Polish-Soviet War and Polish-Lithuanian War, Poland also officially annexed Central Lithuania following a plebiscite, which was never recognised by Lithuania.

The Riga arrangement influenced the fate of the entire region for the years to come. Ukrainians and Belarusians found themselves without a province of their own, and some Poles also found themselves within the borders of the Soviet Union. The condition of those left under Bolshevik rule as a result of the Treaty was would be later marked by forced collectivistion, state terror, purges, labor camps and famine. The newly-formed Second Polish Republic, one third of whose citizens were non-ethnic Poles, engaged in promoting Polish identity, culture and language at the expense of the country's ethnic minorities who felt alienated by the process.

[edit] From democracy to authoritarian government

Poland in the interbellum.

Poland, linguistic 1937

Reborn Poland faced a host of daunting challenges: extensive war damage, a ravaged economy, a population one-third composed of wary national minorities, an economy largely under control of German industrial interests, and a need to reintegrate the three zones that had been forcibly kept apart during the era of partition.

Poland's formal political life began in 1921 with adoption of a constitution that designed Poland as a republic modeled after the French Third Republic, vesting most authority in the legislature, the Sejm. This was mainly to prevent Pilsudski from establishing himself as a dictator. A multitude of political parties emerged, of which there were four major and dozens of minor ones. All had very different ideologies and voter bases, and could scarcely agree on any major issue.

After the constitution was adopted, Pilsudski resigned from office, unhappy with the limited role of the executive branch. But he continued to keep a close eye on political developments, and the ineffectiveness of the Sejm led some of his inner circle to suggest that he launch a military coup and regain power. However Pilsudski feared the bloodshed that might result, and so refused. But eventually he was persuaded and began the coup of May 1926, which succeeded with little violence. For the next decade, Piłsudski dominated Polish affairs as strongman of a generally popular centrist regime, although he never held a formal title except for minister of defense. He retained the 1921 constitution, and the noisy, ineffective Sejm continued to operate, but it nearly always gave him what he wanted. Critics of the regime were occasionally arrested, but most were simply sued for libel. The marshal portrayed himself as a national saviour who was above partisan politics, and gained more popular support by distancing himself from the Polish Socialist Party. In 1935 a new Polish Constitution was adopted, but Piłsudski soon died and his protégé successors drifted toward open authoritarianism.^[7]. Opposition voices were increasingly harassed or jailed, a situation that was not surprising in lieu of the regime's growing fears over national security.

In many respects, the Second Republic fell short of the high expectations of 1918. As happened elsewhere in Central Europe, with the exception of Czechoslovakia, the attempt to implant democracy did not succeed. Governments polarized between right- and left-wing factions, neither of which was prepared to honor the actions taken by the other.^[8][7][9]

Typical of these concerns was the issue of the nationalization of foreign-owned assets. The government retained control of these because there was insufficient domestic capital to buy them, and because it was easier than determining who should get what. Overall, Poland had a higher degree of state involvement in the economy and less foreign investment than any other nation in eastern Europe. This emphasis on economic autarky hampered Poland's development. Minorities became increasingly alienated, due in part to the government's inability to honour treaty obligations concerning their autonomy, as neither Germany nor Soviet Union where Poles lived, had signed such bilateral treaties. As the Great Depression gained momentum in the 1930s, antisemitism began to rise even though Poland was home to over 3 millon Jews (10% of Poland's population), the largest Jewish population in Europe at the time. The impoverished Jewish families relied on their own local charity, which had reached universally unprecedented proportions by 1929, providing services such as religion, education, health and other services to the amount of 200 million zloty a year,^[10] thanks in part to Jewish per capita income among the working Jews more than 40% higher than that of Polish non-Jews.^[11]

Interbellum Poland could justifiably claim some noteworthy accomplishments: economic advances, the revival of Polish education and culture after decades of official curbs, and, above all, reaffirmation of the Polish nationhood that had so long been disputed. Despite its defects, the Second Republic retained a strong hold on later generations of Poles as a genuinely independent and authentic expression of Polish national aspirations.^[7]

[edit] International relations

Foreign policy proved much easier than domestic, as the major political parties all agreed that Germany was a potential threat, and that France was the natural ally of Poland. In 1925, Berlin formally recognized it's post-1918 boundaries in the west, but not the east. An outraged Poland decided to exclude all German imports from it's soil. Germany then did likewise for Polish goods. The ensuing trade war had huge support among the Polish population, but ultimately proved harmful to the economy. Relations with the Soviet Union remained hostile, but Pilsudski was willing to negotiate, and in 1932 the two countries finally established diplomatic relations. Shortly afterwards, Hitler take power. The marshal knew immediately what was coming, and thus proposed that Poland join forces with France and launch a preemptive strike against Germany. The horrified French refused, and so Pilsudski began to write them off as a useless ally. He had no choice but to sign a nonaggression pact with Berlin the following year. After his death in 1935, defense minister Jozef Beck called for Britain and France to both assist in a preemptive attack, but again got nowhere with the idea. At the same time, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia were allied in the Little Entente. Polish membership there could have provided additional security, however relations with Prague were unfriendly due to border disputes and so that never went anywhere.

Poland 1938/1939, physical

The failure to establish planned alliances in Eastern Europe meant great reliance on the French, whose enthusiasm for intervention in the region waned markedly after World War I.^[12] The Locarno Pact, signed in 1926 by the major West European powers with the aim of guaranteeing peace in the region, contained no guarantee of Poland's western border.^[13][14] Over the next ten years, substantial friction arose between Poland and France over the Polish refusal to submit towards German demands.^[15][16][17]

The Polish predicament worsened militarily in the 1930s with the advent of Hitler's openly expansionist Nazi regime in Germany and the obvious waning of France's desire to resist Germany's expansion, as long as it was eastward and not westward.^[18] Piłsudski retained the French connection but had progressively less faith in its usefulness. Following a border incident in March, 1938, Poland presented an ultimatum to Lithuania, demanding the diplomatic relations between Poland and Lithuania to be re-established and the previously closed border with Poland to be opened [1]. Faced with a threat of war, the Lithuanian government accepted the Polish demands. In October, 1938, after the Munich Agreement, which ensured British and French approval, allowed Germany the right to take over areas of Czechoslovakia with a significant German minority, the so-called Sudetenland. Due to those events Poland demanded that Czechoslovakia give up the Zaolzie, where Poles made a majority of inhabitants. Faced with an ultimatum, Czechoslovakia gave up the area (about 1% of its territory), which was taken over by Polish authorities and annexed by Poland on October 2, 1938.

Shortly thereafter, the Nazis proceeded to invade the rest of Czechoslovakia which, in March 1939, then ceased to exist. This aggression did little to repair the tensions between Poland and Germany. Earlier, Germany had proposed that Poland join the Anti-Comintern Pact and previous attempts were made by Germany to create an extraterritorial highway connecting Germany proper with Danzig and then East Prussia. Germany also pressed for the incorporation of the Danzig, separated from Germany in 1920 and functioning as a Free City in a customs union with Poland ever since.^[19] Germany offered compensation for Poland's concessions by promising territory in Lithuania and Ukraine, but the Poles refused all offers.

A final German demand was prepared on the eve of hostilities where a plebiscite would be held to determine the ownership of the "Polish corridor". Only those living in the corridor prior to 1918 would be allowed to vote. The proposal called for a subsequent population exchange that would move all Germans in current Poland out of the final region declared to be "Poland".^[20] The same would occur for all Poles living in what was declared, after the vote, to be "Germany". Danzig was to become part of Germany regardless of the vote, but if Germany lost, it was still guaranteed access to East Prussia through an autobahn system that it would administer, stretching from Germany proper to Danzig to East Prussia.^[21] If Poland lost the vote, the corridor would go to Germany and the seaport of Gdynia would become a Polish exclave with a route connecting Poland with Gdynia. Some 421,029 Germans had constituted 42,5% of the population in 1910.^{[22][23][24][25]}

Despite this last minute demands, Germany had already arranged for its attack on Poland. Poland was rushed into signing, which it refused to do. With Poland already isolated on three sides, Hitler's next move was obvious. Germany invaded on September 1, 1939 after the Gleiwitz incident. ^[26]

[edit] See also

• Prometheism
• Independent Operational Group Silesia

[edit] References

•  This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Library of Congress Country Studies. - Poland.

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Commonwealth of Diverse Cultures: Poland's Heritage
• Old maps of Poland from Hipkiss' Scanned Old Maps