Second Polish Republic

• 1. Rebirth After Partitions

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  On the 7th of October 1918, a Regency Council in Warsaw announced its intention to restore Polish independence. This declaration came just days before Germany surrendered on the 11th of November 1918. For over a century, Poland had been erased from maps by three imperial powers: Austria, Prussia, and Russia. The Treaty of Versailles in June 1919 officially confirmed this rebirth for the Allies. Józef Piłsudski returned to Warsaw by train on the 10th of November 1918 after spending sixteen months in a German prison in Magdeburg. He was greeted at the railway station by Regent Zdzisław Lubomirski and Colonel Adam Koc. Within four days, the Regency Council dissolved itself and transferred all authority to Piłsudski as Chief of State. Over one hundred workers' councils sprang up across Polish territories during 1918 and 1919. In Lublin, the first Soviet of Delegates was established on the 5th of November 1918. Socialists proclaimed the Republic of Tarnobrzeg on the 6th of November 1918. The Kingdom of Italy became the first country in Europe to recognize Poland's renewed sovereignty in 1918.

• 2. Wars And Border Settlements

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  Poland solidified its independence through a series of border wars fought between 1918 and 1921. The Polish-Soviet War ended with a decisive victory in August 1920. This conflict determined the eastern half of interwar territory diplomatically by 1922. Neighbors included Czechoslovakia, Germany, the Free City of Danzig, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, and the Soviet Union. A short strip of coastline known as the Polish Corridor gave access to the Baltic Sea near Gdynia. Between March and August 1939, Poland also shared a border with the Hungarian governorate of Subcarpathia. The Polish-Ukrainian War broke out in Lwów on the 1st of November 1918. Students formed irregular units called the Lwów Eaglets to support Polish forces. Another war began under the banner of the Greater Poland Uprising from 1918 to 1919. In January 1919, Czechoslovak forces attacked Polish units in Trans-Olza. The Polish-Lithuanian War lasted approximately from 1919 to 1920. Three Silesian Uprisings were initiated by Polish-speaking residents of Upper Silesia starting in August 1919.

• 3. Political Turmoil And Authoritarianism

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  The Second Polish Republic operated as a parliamentary democracy from 1919 until May 1926. Women received the right to vote on the 28th of November 1918 through a decree by General Józef Piłsudski. Frequent government changes made politicians increasingly unpopular between 1919 and 1925. Accusations of corruption plagued many leaders during this period. Marshal Piłsudski led an intentionally modest life after the Polish-Soviet War, writing historical books for income. He took power through a military coup in May 1926. His regime was called Sanacja, meaning healing or sanitation. The 1928 parliamentary elections remained free and fair despite pro-Piłsudski victories. Opposition activists were sent to Bereza Kartuska prison following manipulated elections in 1930, 1935, and 1938. Piłsudski died just after an authoritarian constitution was approved in spring 1935. During the final four years, President Ignacy Mościcki and Foreign Minister Józef Beck ruled alongside Commander-in-Chief Edward Rydz-Śmigły. The country divided into 104 electoral districts. Politicians forced to leave Poland founded Front Morges in 1936.

• 4. Economic Development And Industrialization

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  Poland faced major economic difficulties after regaining independence due to devastation from World War I. Five different currencies existed within borders before Prime Minister Władysław Grabski introduced the złoty in 1924. This currency controlled massive hyperinflation without foreign loans. Average annual growth reached 5.24 percent between 1920 and 1929 but dropped to 0.34 percent from 1929 to 1938. A customs war with Germany began in June 1925 and lasted nearly a decade. By mid-1938, Greater Germany accounted for 23 percent of Polish foreign trade. State-sponsored projects included the Central Industrial Region under economist Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski. Construction began on Gdynia seaport in 1926 to bypass Gdańsk. A 500-kilometer rail connection called the Polish Coal Trunk-Line served freight trains with coal. Stalowa Wola emerged as a brand new city built around a steel mill between 1937 and 1938. Mościce developed into a district of Tarnów with a large nitrate factory. Poland had one of the lowest taxation rates in Europe at 9.3 percent of national income. Forty-five point four percent of equity capital remained controlled by foreign corporations.

• 5. Multicultural Society And Minorities

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  The census of 1921 showed thirty point eight percent of the population consisted of ethnic minorities. Sixty-nine percent identified as Polish while fourteen percent were Ukrainian and ten percent Jewish. Three percent Belarusian, two percent German, and three percent other groups completed the demographic picture. By 1931, Poland held the second largest Jewish population globally with approximately 3,136,000 people. One-fifth of all world Jews resided within its borders. From the 1920s, government excluded Jews from bank loans, public employment, and business licenses. Measures against Jewish shops intensified during the 1930s alongside limitations on medical and legal professions. The National Democracy movement organized anti-Jewish business boycotts regularly. Following Piłsudski's death in 1935, Endecja intensified efforts triggering violence in smaller towns. In 1937, resolutions demanded removing Jews from social, economic, and cultural life entirely. The Camp of National Unity took control of the Sejm in 1938 to draft anti-Semitic legislation. Ukraine faced restrictions where Ukrainian was banned in governmental institutions. Ukrainians categorized as uneducated peasants rarely settled outside Eastern Borderlands due to prevailing Ukrainophobia.

• 6. Cultural Renaissance And Education

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  Compulsory education for children aged seven to fourteen began in 1919 to limit widespread illiteracy. One-third of citizens remained illiterate in 1921 but dropped to eighteen percent by 1937. Over ninety percent of children attended school before the war ended. Warsaw University of Technology, Lwów Polytechnic, and AGH University opened between 1919 and 1922. Around fifty thousand students enrolled in higher education by 1939. Twenty-eight percent were women making Poland second highest share in Europe. Polish mathematicians gathered around the Lwów School of Mathematics alongside Kraków and Warsaw schools. Florian Znaniecki founded Polish sociological studies while Rudolf Weigl invented a typhus vaccine. Jan Lechoń, Julian Tuwim, Antoni Słonimski, and Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz formed the Skamanderites poetry group. Stefan Żeromski and Władysław Reymont established themselves as well-known novelists. Three main theatre centers existed in Warsaw, Wilno, and Lwów with one hundred three theatres total. Five million people saw different shows during 1936. Approximately one million radios operated across the country before September 1939.

• 7. Invasion And The End Of Sovereignty

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  The German invasion began on the 1st of September 1939 ending sovereign rule for the Second Republic. Germany and Slovakia attacked Poland that day after signing the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact one week earlier. Soviets invaded eastern Poland on the 17th of September. Warsaw fell to Nazis on the 28th of September following a twenty-day siege. Open organized resistance ended on the 6th of October 1939 after the Battle of Kock. Lithuania annexed Wilno while Slovakia seized areas along southern borders including Górna Orawa. Polish losses against Germans reached seventy thousand killed or missing plus four hundred twenty thousand prisoners. Six thousand to seven thousand casualties occurred against the Red Army alongside two hundred fifty thousand taken prisoner. Two thousand German soldiers died or went missing while six hundred seventy-four tanks destroyed badly damaged. About two thousand five hundred Soviet soldiers lost their lives during combat. A popular myth claimed cavalry charged tanks but actually involved sabers wiping out infantry near Krojanty on the 1st of September 1939. Between 1945 and 1990, government-in-exile operated in London challenging communist legitimacy until Ryszard Kaczorowski handed insignia to Lech Wałęsa.