After the end of World War I , a new Poland appeared on the map of Europe. This country considered itself the successor of the old monarchy, which existed before the end of the eighteenth century. Freed from Russian rule, the Poles thus created the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1939, it was occupied by Nazi forces of Germany and the Soviet Union.
The emergence of the republic
In official Polish historiography, it is believed that the Polish Republic (1918-1939) appeared on November 11, 1918. On this day in Warsaw, the German garrison was disarmed and rendered harmless. The Germans captured Poland, which formally was part of the Russian Empire. This monarchy was gone. A civil war was raging in Russia, and she was not up to Poland.
After establishing order in Warsaw, the Regency Council was established. He transferred power to Jozef Pilsudski, the leader of the Polish Socialist Party and a national hero. The new head of state formed a government led by Jenj Morachevsky. Important laws were immediately adopted on the eight-hour working day, social insurance, etc. Pilsudsky, although he was formerly a socialist, having come to power, abandoned his views. Nevertheless, he had to compromise with the left in order to stay at the helm of the country.
International recognition
Already in January 1919, the Polish Republic (1918-1939) survived the first unsuccessful coup attempt. After that, Pilsudski changed the government. This was followed by international recognition of the independence of Poland and the legitimacy of its authorities. Among the supporters of Pilsudski were the United States, France, England and Italy. On February 20, the Legislative Sejm appointed him to the post of head of state and supreme leader.
When the Polish Republic (1918-1939) first appeared, its borders were still uncertain. The First World War had just ended, and now Europe needed to agree on new internal frontiers. In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed. Since Germany was recognized as the aggressor, a significant chunk of territories was torn away from it. Poland inherited the province of Posen and part of Pomerania. Affiliated Gdansk was recognized as a free city.
Unresolved remained the question of Silesia. Both Poles and Germans lived in this region, although the territory remained owned by Germany. In the years 1919-1921. there immediately happened three national revolts of the Slavs. The newly formed League of Nations decided to divide Silesia in order to avoid future conflicts. Part of this region was annexed to Poland as an autonomous voivodship.
Boundary Disputes
The difficult situation on the eastern frontiers also continued. First, the Polish Republic (1918-1939) defeated Ukrainian nationalists who wanted to create an independent state. Soon the Communists came in their place. In 1919, the Soviet-Polish War began. For Lenin and his supporters, this campaign was only the first step towards organizing the world proletarian revolution.
Soviet troops even reached the Vistula and found themselves in the suburbs of Warsaw. However, the Polish army carried out a successful counterattack and reached Minsk. In 1921, the Riga Peace Treaty was concluded. Poland was assigned the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus.
The southern border of the state was agreed with the authorities of Czechoslovakia in the summer of 1920. Then the two countries divided the Teshinsky region among themselves. In the same fall, the troops of Marshal Pilsudski captured Vilnius. Thus, the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth established its power in regions where Polish was the main or common language among its inhabitants. State institutions were established in chaos. Poland, Russia and other European countries recovered for a long time after the First World War.
May coup
In 1924, an important financial reform was carried out. The new zloty currency in Poland has replaced the old mark. But, despite the economic transformation of the government, the situation in Poland was unimportant. Hyperinflation persisted in the country. The masses and, more importantly, the military were unhappy. The Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth could not be preserved in its former configuration. Most continued to rely on Jozef Pilsudski.
It was supported by the left, the intelligentsia and the army. Pilsudski was helped by Minister of War Zheligovsky, who authorized extensive maneuvers. So at the disposal of the marshal a large army appeared. In May 1926, it moved to Warsaw. Fights with supporters of the government lasted three days. Finally, on May 15, the capital was under the control of Pilsudski. Two weeks later, he was again elected president of Poland, but resigned.
Brest process
In the years 1931-1932. Pilsudski finally got rid of his political opponents. On charges of criminal offenses, the government arrested former deputies of the Sejm who opposed the new reorganization regime.
The Brest trial was conducted over them. He was named so at the place of detention. They were serving their term in the Brest Fortress. Some oppositionists managed to emigrate to Czechoslovakia or France. The rest served their prison term and were actually thrown out of the country's political life. These measures allowed the supporters of Pilsudski to remain in power until the fall of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Reorganization
Pilsudski supported the candidacy of Ignatius Moscitsky as head of state. He became the president of the country until 1939, when the Wehrmacht invaded it. An authoritarian regime was established that relied on the military. Under the new order, the government in the Republic of Poland lost most of its authority.
The newly formed regime was called reorganization. Oppositionists and opponents of the Pilsudski course (and he strongly influenced public policy) began to be prosecuted by the authorities. Officially, authoritarianism in the form of extremely centralized power was enshrined in the new constitution of 1935. It also determined other important foundations of the political system, for example, the fact that the Polish language was recognized as the only state language, despite the presence of national minorities in some regions.
Agreements with the Soviet Union and Germany
Pilsudski in 1926 became Minister for Military Affairs. He fully controlled the country's foreign policy. He managed to achieve stabilization of relations with neighbors. In 1932, a non-aggression pact was signed with the Soviet Union, and its border with Poland was agreed and settled. The republic signed a similar agreement with Germany in 1934.
However, these arrangements were unreliable. Pilsudski did not trust the Communists and even less the Nazis who came to power in Germany. Poland, Russia, the Third Reich and their intricate and complex relationships were sources of tension throughout Europe. Trying to play it safe, Pilsudski sought support from Britain and France. The Minister of Military Affairs died on May 12, 1935. Due to the death of the Marshal for the first and last time in the history of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, national mourning was declared.
Polonization
In the interwar period, Poland was a multinational country. This was due to the fact that under the control of the Commonwealth there were territories that joined mainly during military conquest campaigns in neighboring states. Poles in the country were about 66%. They were especially few in the east of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Ukrainians made up 10% of the republic’s population, Jews - 8%, Rusyns - 3%, etc. Such a national kaleidoscope inevitably led to conflicts. In order to somehow smooth over the contradictions, the authorities pursued a policy of polonization - planting Polish culture and the Polish language in territories inhabited by ethnic minorities.
Teshinsky conflict
In the second half of the 30s, the international situation continued to deteriorate. Adolf Hitler insisted on the return to Germany of the lands seized from it after the First World War. In 1938, the famous Munich Agreement was signed. Germany received the Sudetenland, which belonged to Czechoslovakia, but was inhabited mainly by Germans. At the same time, Poland did not fail to present a claim to its southern neighbor.
On September 30, 1938, an ultimatum was sent to Czechoslovakia. They demanded from Prague to return the Cieszyn region, which, due to the national characteristics of the region, claimed Poland. Today, due to the bloody events of World War II, this conflict is almost not remembered. However, it was in 1938 that Poland captured Tesin, taking advantage of the Sudeten crisis.
Hitler ultimatum
Despite the Munich agreement, Hitler's appetite only grew. In March 1939, Germany demanded that Poland return Gdansk (Danzig) and provide a corridor to East Prussia. In Warsaw, all claims were rejected. On March 28, Hitler tore the nonaggression pact between Germany and Poland.
In August, the Third Reich entered into an agreement with the Soviet Union. The secret protocol of the document included an agreement on the division of Eastern Europe into spheres of influence. Stalin and Hitler received in their half of Poland. The dictators drew a new frontier along the line of Curzon. It corresponded to the ethnic composition of the population. To the east of it lived the Lithuanians, Belarusians and Ukrainians.
Occupation of the country
On September 1, 1939 , Nazi German troops crossed the German-Polish border. The government of the country, together with Ignacy Moscitsky, fled to neighboring Romania two weeks later. The Polish army was much weaker than the German. This predetermined the transience of the campaign.
In addition, on September 17, Soviet troops attacked eastern Poland. They reached the Curzon line. Lviv Red Army and the Wehrmacht stormed together. Poles surrounded on both sides could not stop the inevitable. By the end of the month, the entire territory of the country was occupied. On September 28, the Soviet Union and Germany formally agreed on their new state borders. The Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ceased to exist. The revival of Polish statehood occurred after the end of World War II. A communist regime loyal to the USSR was established in the country.
The Polish government was in exile during the war. After the Western powers agreed with the Soviet Union on the future of Eastern and Central Europe, they ceased to recognize it in the United States and Great Britain. However, the exiled government continued to exist until 1990. Then the presidential regalia was handed over to the head of the new Third Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Lech Walesa.