The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Polska), the Polish state was created in 1918, in the aftermath of World War I. It continued to exist until 1939, despite both internal and external pressures, when Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and the Slovak Republic, marking the beginning of World War II.
When the borders of the state were fixed in 1922 after several regional conflicts, the Republic bordered Czechoslovakia, Germany, Free City of Danzig, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, and the Soviet Union, plus a tiny strip of the coastline of the Baltic Sea, around the city of Gdynia, which itself was built in the 1930s. Furthermore, in the period March 1939 – August 1939, Poland bordered then-Hungarian province of Carpathian Ruthenia. It had an area of 388,634 km² (sixth largest in Europe, in the fall of 1938, after the annexation of Zaolzie, the area grew to 389,720 km².), and 27.2 million inhabitants according to the 1921 census. In 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, it had an estimated 35.1 million inhabitants. Almost a third of these were of minority groups: 13.9% Ukrainians; 10% Jews; 3.1% Belarusians; 2.3% Germans; and 3.4% percent Czechs, Lithuanians and Russians. At the same time significant number of ethnic Poles lived outside the country borders (see Poles in the former Soviet Union).
Having to deal with the economic difficulties and destruction of World War I and numerous other conflicts, which took place on Polish territory until 1921 (see Polish–Ukrainian War, Greater Poland Uprising (1918–1919), Polish–Czechoslovak War, Silesian Uprisings, Polish–Lithuanian War), followed by the Soviet invasion during the Polish–Soviet War, and then surrounded by increasingly hostile neighbors such as Nazi Germany, the Republic managed not only to endure, but to expand. Lacking an overseas empire (see: Maritime and Colonial League, Morska Wola), Poland nevertheless maintained a slow but steady level of economic development. The cultural hubs of interbellum Poland: Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, Wilno and Lwów raised themselves to the level of major European cities. They were also the sites of internationally acclaimed universities and other institutions of higher education. By 1939, the Republic had become "one of Europe's major powers".[1] Nevertheless, Polish economist Witold Gadomski calculated that the Second Polish Republic was a much poorer and more backward nation than contemporary Poland. According to his estimates, in 1929, Gross national product of the country was 50 - 60 billion dollars, while in 2007, Poland’s GNP was 422 billion dollars. However, Gadomski argues that international position of contemporary Poland is very similar to the one in the 1930s. In 2007, Poland’s share in international trade was 1.1%; in 1937, it was 0.8%.[2]
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Occupied by German and Austro-Hungarian armies in the summer of 1915, the formerly Russian-ruled part of what was considered Poland was proposed to become a German puppet state by the occupying powers on November 5, 1916, with a governing Council of State and (from October 15, 1917) a Regency Council (Rada Regencyjna Królestwa Polskiego) to administer the country under German auspices (see also Mitteleuropa) pending the election of a king.
Shortly before the end of World War I, on October 7, 1918, the Regency Council dissolved the Council of State and announced its intention to restore Polish independence. With the notable exception of the Marxist-oriented Social Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL), most political parties supported this move. On October 23 the Council appointed a new government under Józef Świeżyński and began conscription into the Polish Army. On November 5, in Lublin, the first Soviet of Delegates was created. On November 6 the Communists announced the creation of a Republic of Tarnobrzeg. The same day, a Provisional People's Government of the Republic of Poland was created in Lublin under the Socialist, Ignacy Daszyński. On November 10, Józef Piłsudski, newly freed from imprisonment by the German authorities at Magdeburg, returned to Warsaw. Next day, due to his popularity and support from most political parties, the Regency Council appointed Piłsudski Commander in Chief of the Polish Armed Forces. On November 14, the Council dissolved itself and transferred all its authority to Piłsudski as Chief of State (Naczelnik Państwa). After consultation with Piłsudski, Daszyński's government dissolved itself and a new government was created under Jędrzej Moraczewski.
Centers of government that were at that time created in Galicia (formerly Austrian-ruled southern Poland) included National Council of the Principality of Cieszyn (created in November 1918), Republic of Zakopane and Polish Liquidation Committee (created on October 28). Soon afterward, a conflict broke out in Lwów between forces of the Military Committee of Ukrainians and the Polish irregular units of students and children, known as Lwów Eaglets, who were later supported by the Polish Army (see Battle of Lwów (1918), Battle of Przemyśl (1918). Meanwhile, in western Poland, another conflict began - see Greater Poland Uprising (1918–1919).
In 1918, Italy was the first country in Europe to recognise Poland’s sovereignty.
The beginning of the Second World War put an end to the Second Polish Republic. The Invasion of Poland began 1 September 1939, one week after the signing of the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. On that day, Poland was attacked by Nazi Germany and Slovakia (see: Slovak invasion of Poland (1939)), and on September 17, the Soviets attacked eastern Poland. Organized Polish resistance ended on October 6, 1939 (see Battle of Kock), with Germany and the Soviet Union occupying most of the conutry (with the exception of the area of Wilno, which was annexed by Lithuania, and areas along southern border, seized by Slovakia). Poland did not surrender, but continued fighting as Polish Government in Exile and the Polish Underground State. After signing the German–Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Demarcation, Polish areas occupied by Nazi Germany were either directly annexed to the Third Reich, or became part of the so-called General Government. Soviet Union, after rigged Elections to the People's Assemblies of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, annexed eastern Poland either to Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, or Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
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The Second Polish Republic was a parliamentary democracy from 1919 (see Small Constitution of 1919) to 1926, with the President having limited powers. The Parliament elected him, and he could appoint the Prime Minister as well as the government with the Sejm's (lower house's) approval, but he could only dissolve the Sejm with the Senate's consent. Moreover, his power to pass decrees was limited by the requirement that the Prime Minister and the appropriate other Minister had to verify his decrees with their signatures.
The major political parties at this time were the National Democrats and other right-wing groups, various Peasant Parties, Christian Democrats, Polish Socialist Party, and political groups of ethnic minorities (German: German Social Democratic Party of Poland, Jewish: General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland, United Jewish Socialist Workers Party, and Ukrainian: Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance). Frequently changing governments (see Polish legislative election, 1919, Polish legislative election, 1922) and other negative publicity which the politicians received (such as accusations of corruption or 1919 Polish coup attempt), made them increasingly unpopular. Major politicians at this time included peasant activist Wincenty Witos (Prime Minister three times) and right-wing Roman Dmowski.
At the same time (mid-1920s), Marshal Józef Piłsudski led an intentionally modest life, writing historical books for a living. After he took power by a military coup in May 1926, he emphasized that he wanted to heal the Polish society and politics of excessive partisan politics. His regime, accordingly, was called Sanacja in Polish. The 1928 parliamentary elections were still considered free and fair, although the pro-Pilsudski Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government won them. The following three parliamentary elections (in 1930, 1935 and 1938) were manipulated, with opposition activists being sent to Bereza Kartuska prison (see also Brest trials). As a result, pro-government party Camp of National Unity won huge majorities in them. Pilsudski died just after an authoritarian constitution was approved in the spring of 1935.
During the last four years of the Second Polish Republic, the major politicians included President Ignacy Mościcki, Foreign Minister Józef Beck and the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Army, and Edward Rydz-Śmigły. The country was divided into 104 electoral districts, and those politicians who were forced to leave Poland, founded Front Morges in 1936. The government that ruled Second Polish Republic in its final years is frequently referred to as Piłsudski's colonels.
After regaining her independence Poland was faced with major economic difficulties. In addition to the devastation wrought by World War I, the exploitation of the Polish economy by the German and Russian occupying powers, and the sabotage performed by retreating armies, the new republic was faced with the task of economically unifying disparate economic regions, which had previously been part of different countries.[4] Within the borders of the Republic were the remnants of three different economic systems, with five different currencies (the German mark, the Russian ruble, the Austrian crown, the Polish marka and the Ostrubel)[4] and with little or no direct infrastructural links. The situation was so bad that neighboring industrial centers as well as major cities lacked direct railroad links, because they had been parts of different nations. For example, in the 1920s there was no direct railroad connection between Warsaw and Kraków, and the line was not completed until 1934.
On top of this was the massive destruction left after both World War I and the Polish Soviet War. There was also a great economic disparity between the eastern (commonly called Poland B) and western (called Poland A) parts of the country, with the western half, especially areas that had belonged to the German Empire being much more developed and prosperous. Frequent border closures and a customs war with Germany also had negative economic impacts on Poland. In 1924 prime minister and economic minister Władysław Grabski introduced the złoty as a single common currency for Poland (it replaced the Polish marka), which remained one of the most stable currencies of Central Europe. The currency helped Poland to bring under control the massive hyperinflation, the only country in Europe which was able to do this without foreign loans or aid.[5]
The basis of Poland's gradual recovery after the Great Depression were mass economic development plans (see Four Year Plan), which oversaw the building of three key infrastructural elements. The first was the establishment of the Gdynia seaport, which allowed Poland to completely bypass Gdańsk (which was under heavy German pressure to boycott Polish coal exports). The second was construction of the 500-kilometer rail connection between Upper Silesia and Gdynia, called Polish Coal Trunk-Line, which served freight trains with coal. The third was the creation of a central industrial district, named COP – Central Industrial Region (Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy). Unfortunately, these developments were interrupted and largely destroyed by the German and Soviet invasion and the start of World War II.[6] Among other achievements of interbellum Poland there are Stalowa Wola (a brand new city, built in a forest around a steel mill), Mościce (now a district of Tarnow, with a large nitrate factory), and creation of a central bank. There were several trade fairs, with the most popular being Poznań International Fair, Lwów's Targi Wschodnie, and Wilno's Targi Północne. Polish Radio had ten stations (see Radio stations in interwar Poland), with the eleventh one planned to be opened in the autumn of 1939.
Interbellum Poland was also a country with numerous social problems. Unemployment was high, and poverty was widespread, which resulted in several cases of social unrest, such as 1923 Kraków riot, and 1937 peasant strike in Poland. There were conflicts with national minorities, such as Pacification of Ukrainians in Eastern Galicia (1930), relations with Polish neighbors were sometimes complicated (see Soviet raid on Stołpce, Polish–Czechoslovak border conflicts, 1938 Polish ultimatum to Lithuania). On top of this, there were natural disasters, such as 1934 flood in Poland.
Interbellum Poland was unoficially divided into two parts - better developed “Poland A” in the west, and eastern provinces, the underdeveloped “Poland B”. Polish industry was concentrated in the west, mostly in Polish Upper Silesia, and the adjacent Lesser Poland's province of Zagłębie Dąbrowskie, where the bulk of coal mines and steel plants was located. Furthermore, heavy industry plants were located in Częstochowa (Huta Częstochowa, founded in 1896), Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski (Huta Ostrowiec, founded in 1837-1839), Stalowa Wola (brand new industrial city, which was built from scratch in 1937 - 1938), Chrzanów (Fablok, founded in 1919), Jaworzno, Trzebinia (oil refinery, opened in 1895), Łódź (the seat of Polish textile industry), Poznań (H. Cegielski – Poznań), Kraków and Warsaw (Ursus Factory). Further east, in Kresy, industrial centers were scarce, and limited to two major cities of the region - Lwów and Wilno (Elektrit). Besides coal mining, Poland also had deposits of oil in Borysław, Drohobycz, Jasło and Gorlice (see Polmin), potassium salt (TESP), and basalt (Janowa Dolina). Apart from already-existing industrial areas, in the mid-1930s, an ambitious, state-sponsored project of Central Industrial Region was started under Minister Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski.
One of characteristic features of Polish economy in the interbellum was gradual nationalization of major plants. This was the case of Ursus Factory (see Państwowe Zakłady Inżynieryjne), and several steelworks, such as Huta Pokój in Ruda Śląska - Nowy Bytom, Huta Królewska in Chorzów - Królewska Huta, Huta Laura in Siemianowice Śląskie, as well as Scheibler and Grohman Works in Łódź.[7]
According to the 1939 Statistical Yearbook of Poland, total length of railways of Poland (as for December 31, 1937) was 20 118 kilometers. Rail density was 5.2 km. per 100 km2. Railways were very dense in western part of the country, while in the east, especially Polesie, rail was non-existent in some counties. During the interbellum period, Polish government constructed several new lines, mainly in central part of the country (see also Polish State Railroads Summer 1939). Construction of Warszawa Główna railway station was never finished due to the war, and Polish railroads were famous for their punctuality (see Luxtorpeda, Strzała Bałtyku, Latający Wilnianin).
In the interbellum, road network of Poland was dense, but the quality of the roads was very poor - only 7% of all roads was paved and ready for automobile use, and none of the major cities were connected with each other by a good-quality highway. In the mid-1930s, Poland had 340,000 kilometers of roads, but only 58,000 had hard surface (gravel, cobblestone or sett), and 2,500 were modern, with asphalt or concrete surface. In different parts of the country, there were sections of paved roads, which suddenly ended, and were followed by dirt roads.[8] Poor condition of roads was the result of both long-lasting foreign dominance, and inadequate funding. On January 29, 1931, Polish Parliament created State Road Fund, whose purpose was to collect money for construction and conservation of roads. The government drafted a 10-year plan, with road priorities: a highway from Wilno, through Warsaw and Cracow, to Zakopane (called Marshall Pilsudski Highway), asphalt highways from Warsaw to Poznań and Łódź, as well as Warsaw ring road. However, the plan turned out to be too ambitious, as there was not enough money in the national budget. In January 1938, Polish Road Congress estimated that Poland should spend on roads three times more money to keep up with Western Europe.
In 1939, before the outbreak of the war, LOT Polish Airlines, which was established in 1929, had its hub at Warsaw Okęcie Airport. At that time LOT maintaned several services, both domestic and international. Warsaw had regular domestic connections with Gdynia-Rumia, Danzig-Langfuhr, Katowice-Muchowiec, Kraków-Rakowice-Czyżyny, Lwów-Skniłów, Poznań-Ławica, and Wilno-Porubanek. Furthermore, in cooperation with Air France, LARES, Lufthansa, and Malev, international connections were maintained with Athens, Beirut, Berlin, Bucharest, Budapest, Helsinki, Kaunas, London, Paris, Prague, Riga, Rome, Tallinn, and Zagreb.[9]
In the Second Polish Republic, majority of inhabitants lived in the countryside (75% in 1921), and their existence depended on land. Farmers made 65% of population, while about 1% were landowners. In 1929, agricultural production made 65% of Poland’s GNP.[10] After 123 years of partitions, regions of the country were very unevenly developed. Lands of former German Empire were most advanced - in Greater Poland and Pomerelia, crops were on Western European level.[11] The situation was much worse in former Congress Poland, Kresy, and former Galicia, where agriculture was most backward and primitive, with a large number of small farms, unable to succeed on both domestic and international market. Furthermore, another problem was overpopulation of the countryside, which resulted in chronic unemployment. Living conditions were so bad that in several regions, such as counties inhabited by the Hutsuls, there was permanent starvation.[12] Farmers rebelled against the government (see: 1937 peasant strike in Poland), and the situation began to change in the late 1930s, due to construction of several factories for the Central Industrial Region, which gave employment to thousands of countryside residents.
In 1919 Polish government introduced compulsory education for all children aged 7 to 14, in an effort to limit illiteracy, which was widespread especially in eastern Poland, after years of Russian rule. The process was slow, and by 1939, 90% of children attended school. In 1921, one-third of citizens of Poland was illiterate (38% in the countryside), and by 1931, illiteracy level dropped to 23% overall (27% in the countryside).[13]
In 1932 Minister of Religion and Education Janusz Jędrzejewicz carried out a reform, which introduced the following levels of education:
In 1918 Poland had three already existing universities - Jagiellonian University, University of Warsaw, and Lwów University. In 1918, Catholic University of Lublin was established, in 1919 - Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, and finally, in 1922, after the annexation of Republic of Central Lithuania, Wilno University became sixth university of the Second Polish Republic. Furthermore, there were three technical colleges - Warsaw University of Technology, Lwów Polytechnic, and Kraków’s AGH University of Science and Technology, established in 1919, also one argicultural university - Warsaw University of Life Sciences. In 1939, in all Polish universities and colleges, there were about 50,000 students. Polish science in the interbellum was renowned for its mathematicians - see Lwów School of Mathematics, Kraków School of Mathematics, and Warsaw School of Mathematics. There were well-known philosophers (see Lwów–Warsaw school of logic), Florian Znaniecki founded Polish sociological studies, Rudolf Weigl invented vaccine against typhus, Bronisław Malinowski was among the most important anthropologists of the XX century.
In Polish literature, the 1920s were marked by the domination of poetry. Polish poets were divided into two groups - the Skamanderites (Jan Lechoń, Julian Tuwim, Antoni Słonimski and Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz) and the Futurists (Anatol Stern, Bruno Jasieński, Aleksander Wat, Julian Przyboś). Apart from well-established novelists (Stefan Żeromski, Władysław Reymont), new names appeared in the interbellum - Zofia Nałkowska, Maria Dąbrowska, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Jan Parandowski, Bruno Schultz, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Witold Gombrowicz. Among other notable artists there were sculptor Xawery Dunikowski, painters Julian Fałat, Wojciech Kossak and Jacek Malczewski, composers Karol Szymanowski, Feliks Nowowiejski, and Artur Rubinstein, singer Jan Kiepura. Theatre was very popular in the interbellum, with three main centers in the cities of Warsaw, Wilno and Lwów. Altogether, there were 103 theaters in Poland and a number of other theatrical insitutions (including 100 folk theaters). In 1936, different shows were seen by 5 million people, and main figures of Polish theatre of the time were Juliusz Osterwa, Stefan Jaracz, and Leon Schiller. Also, before the outbreak of the war, there were around 1 million radios (see Radio stations in interwar Poland).
Poland was historically a nation of many nationalities. This was especially true after she regained her independence in the wake of World War I. The census of 1921 allocates 30.8% of the population in the minority.[14] This was further exacerbated with the Polish victory in the Polish-Soviet War, and the large territorial gains in the east, made by Poland as a consequence. According to the 1931 Polish Census (as cited by Norman Davies[15]), 68.9% of the population was Polish, 13.9% were Ukrainians, around 10% Jewish, 3.1% Belarusians, 2.3% Germans and 2.8% - others, including Lithuanians, Czechs and Armenians. Also, there were smaller communities of Russians, and Gypsies. The situation of minorities was a complex subject and changed during the period.
Poland was also a nation of many religions. In 1921, 16,057,229 Poles (approx. 62.5%) were Roman (Latin) Catholics, 3,031,057 citizens of Poland (approx. 11.8%) were Eastern Rite Catholics (mostly Ukrainian Greek Catholics and Armenian Rite Catholics), 2,815,817 (approx. 10.95%) were Greek Orthodox, 2,771,949 (approx. 10.8%) were Jewish, and 940,232 (approx. 3.7%) were Protestants (mostly Lutheran Evangelical).[16] By 1931 Poland had the second largest Jewish population in the world, with one-fifth of all the world's Jews residing within its borders (approx. 3,136,000).[14] Urban population of interbellum Poland was rising steadily - in 1921, only 24% of Poles lived in the cities, in the late 1930s, the ratio grew to 30%. In more than a decade, the population of Warsaw grew by 200,000, Łódź by 150,000, and Poznań - by 100,000. This was due not only to internal migration, but also extremely high birth rate.[17]
| Date | Population | Percentage of rural population |
Population density (per km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 September 1921 (census) | 27,177,000 | 75,4% | 69,9 |
| 9 December 1931 (census) | 32,348,000 | 72,6% | 82,6 |
| 31 December 1938 (estimate) | 34,849,000 | 70% | 89,7 |
The Administrative division of Second Polish Republic was based on the three tier system. On the lowest rung were the gminy, which were little more than local town and village governments. These were then grouped together into powiaty which were then arranged into wojewodstwa.
| Polish voivodeships in the interbellum (data as per April 1, 1937) |
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| car plates (since 1937) |
Voivodeship Separate city |
Capital | Area in 1,000 km² (1930) |
Population in 1,000 (1931) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00–19 | City of Warsaw | Warsaw | 0.14 | 1,179.5 | |
| 85–89 | warszawskie | Warsaw | 31.7 | 2,460.9 | |
| 20–24 | białostockie | Białystok | 26.0 | 1,263.3 | |
| 25–29 | kieleckie | Kielce | 22.2 | 2,671.0 | |
| 30–34 | krakowskie | Kraków | 17.6 | 2,300.1 | |
| 35–39 | lubelskie | Lublin | 26.6 | 2,116.2 | |
| 40–44 | lwowskie | Lwów | 28.4 | 3,126.3 | |
| 45–49 | łódzkie | Łódź | 20.4 | 2,650.1 | |
| 50–54 | nowogródzkie | Nowogródek | 23.0 | 1,057.2 | |
| 55–59 | poleskie | Brześć nad Bugiem | 36.7 | 1,132.2 | |
| 60–64 | pomorskie | Toruń | 25.7 | 1,884.4 | |
| 65–69 | poznańskie | Poznań | 28.1 | 2,339.6 | |
| 70–74 | stanisławowskie | Stanisławów | 16.9 | 1,480.3 | |
| 75–79 | śląskie | Katowice | 5.1 | 1,533.5 | |
| 80–84 | tarnopolskie | Tarnopol | 16.5 | 1,600.4 | |
| 90–94 | wileńskie | Wilno | 29.0 | 1,276.0 | |
| 95–99 | wołyńskie | Łuck | 35.7 | 2,085.6 | |
On April 1, 1938, borders of several western and central Voivodeships changed considerably. For more information, see Territorial changes of Polish Voivodeships on April 1, 1938.
Second Polish Republic was mainly flat, with average elevation of 223 meters above sea level (after World War II and its border changes, the average elevation of Poland decreased to 173 meters). Only 13% of territory, along the southern border, was higher than 300 meters. The highest elevation was Mount Rysy, which rises 2,499 meters in the Tatra Range of the Carpathians, 95 kilometers south of Kraków. Between October 1938 and September 1939, the highest elevation was Lodowy Szczyt (known in the Slovakian language as Ľadový štít), which rises 2,627 meters above sea level. The biggest lake was Lake Narach.
Country's total area, after annexation of Zaolzie, was 389,720 km²., it extended 903 kilometers from north to south and 894 kilometers from east to west. On January 1, 1938, total length of boundaries was 5 529 km., including:
Among major cities of the Second Polish Republic, the warmest yearly average temperature was in Kraków (9.1 C in 1938) and the coldest in Wilno (7.6 C in 1938).
Almost 75% of the territory of interbellum Poland was drained northward into the Baltic Sea by the Vistula (total area of drainage basin of the Vistula within boundaries of the Second Polish Republic was 180 300 km².), the Niemen (51 600 km².), the Odra (46 700 km².) and the Daugava (10 400 km².). The remaining part of the country was drained southward, into the Black Sea, by the rivers that drain into the Dnieper (Pripyat, Horyn and Styr, all together 61 500 km².) as well as Dniester (41 400 km².)