Family genealogy
I was completely unfamiliar with the history of Poland.
I immersed myself in it.
What interested me were the reasons that led Jewish communities to settle and develop in Poland!
Communities established in England, France, and Germany had to flee their lands of asylum because of the atrocities committed by hateful Catholicism.
Their settlement in Poland was made possible by a less centralized royal structure and a certain autonomy of local potentates, who saw in these communities a positive contribution.
Over the centuries, Jewish communities acquired the ability to self-govern, in relation to local or royal authorities.
This did not prevent the development of anti-Semitism, expulsions, and abuses, but the communities found within themselves the means to overcome their suffering and developed in all economic activities.
They succeeded in making Poland the center of world Judaism with its diverse currents.
In Poland, coveted by its powerful neighbors until it was wiped off the map, members of the Jewish communities reacted in diverse ways: some joined the Polish resistance, assimilated, and became involved in the struggle, while others retreated into their Judaism. This exacerbated the antisemitic reactions against them, while they also became scapegoats for the Russian authorities in the face of various grievances.
The consequences of the First World War led to the re-emergence of a new Polish republic, which failed to guarantee an improvement in Jewish life. It weakened the Jewish community until its annihilation by the Nazis.
History of Poland
The three partitions of Poland
At the crossroads of trade routes
From the 10th century onwards, trade routes linking Western Europe to the Eastern and Islamic worlds developed. They passed through the great fairs of Prague, Krakow and the Hungarian capital of the time, Esztergom.
Caravans of Jewish, Arab, Frankish, Ruthenian and Khazar merchants thus crossed Central Europe and sometimes established trading posts there.
The first Jewish settlements were established there. Little by little, a statute was established to regulate Jewish presence and activity, the most important of which was enacted by King Boleslaw the Pious in 1264 in Kalisz, an important center of Greater Poland.
This act, known as the "Kalisz Charter", modeled on those of the Holy Roman Empire, granted Jews freedom of worship, a distinct legal status allowing them to trade and practice usury, and ducal protection.
The Polin Museum in Warsaw traces the arrival of merchants, including Jews, in Poland during the Middle Ages, initially in transit, then gradually settling in certain cities. The legal system towards Jews was more tolerant there.
From the Middle Ages to the Renaissance: an open Poland
The medieval history of France and Poland
- exhibits similarities in the formation of nation-states and the influence of religion,
- but diverge in political structure, conflicts, religious tolerance and cultural development, reflecting their own contexts and distinct historical trajectories.
The two kingdoms were established at almost the same time,
- In France, it was the Carolingians, particularly Charlemagne in 987, who accentuated the strengthening of royal power.
- In Poland, unification began with Mieszko I (the future Piast dynasty), who adopted Christianity in 966. The Piast dynasty would play a crucial role in the formation of the kingdom as a political unit, bringing together various Slavic tribes (not all Christianized) under a single authority, while maintaining the various existing duchies.
But paradoxically, the influence of the Catholic Church was different in the Middle Ages, being very interventionist and domineering in France, with a King invested with divine power. The Church supported the king's legitimacy, while the king protected the privileges of the Church.
Less prevalent in Poland: relations were more complex, with tensions between the clergy and the nobility.
The king sometimes had to juggle the interests of the nobles and the clergy. Without open conflicts with the royal power, tensions were more related to rivalries between nobles.
This resulted in a differentiation in the attitude of certain kings and nobles towards the Jewish communities settling in certain places in the nascent Poland.
Towards a semi-elective monarchy
The Piasts continued to govern and develop Poland, influencing its political and social structure, which was composed of multiple duchies. The central power gradually resembled, until the 15th and 16th centuries, a kind of "federal" monarchy, especially after the reign of Casimir III the Great (14th century).
This monarchy was characterized by a Diet, an assembly where nobles met to discuss political and legislative issues. It played a key role in decision-making.
Kings were not strictly hereditary. From the 13th century onwards, each king was elected by the nobility, which allowed them participation and influence in political life.
Although the king held executive power, his authority was often limited by the decisions of the Diet, and he needed the support of the nobles to govern effectively. They enjoyed considerable privileges (fiscal and judicial rights) and could influence major decisions, such as war or peace.
The nobles enjoyed political freedoms that allowed them to challenge royal decisions and organize conflicts in case of disagreement with the monarch.
Kievan Rus', a medieval East Slavic political federation, was founded in 882 and stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea: the common historical cradle of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus.
This more "liberal" situation in Poland explains the arrival of Jewish families and communities, fleeing abuses or expulsions from France and Germany.
They settled where Polish kings and nobles viewed their arrival as an economic asset and offered them protection and privileges.
These communities were attracted by the religious tolerance that was practiced there, as in Krakow, Gniezno (which was for a long time the capital of the Kingdom of Poland), Wroclaw, Lublin, Kalisz or Sandomierz...
The western part of the Mongol Empire ruled by the descendants of Genghis Khan.
In the 13th and 14th centuries, it extended over a large part of present-day Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria as far as the Danube, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and even the Caucasus.
Poland, until 1795, was one of the most developed countries in Europe, accepting within its borders numerous minorities who, for better or worse, coexisted and contributed to its vitality. However, it was also highly coveted by its neighbors, who sometimes provoked it into defending itself and sometimes into attacking.
The Republic of Two Nations
To counter the various attempts at invasion (Mongols, Teutonic Order, Sweden, Ottoman Empire...) of this kingdom, a rapprochement took place between the kingdoms of Poland and Lithuania, which constituted the "Republic of the Two Nations".
The 16th and 17th centuries were the golden age of Poland and its political, economic and cultural influence in Europe.
Three successive partitions led to the disappearance of the Polish state.
Region where the Czalczynski and the Landschaft lived
The Third Partition of Poland (1795) and its aftermath
In 1795, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth , an elective monarchy uniting the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , disappeared following the Third Partition of Poland , its territory now being entirely divided between its three powerful neighbors: Austria , Prussia , and Russia .
Revolutionary France, then at war with these nations, became a refuge for Polish soldiers, who formed the Polish Legions , initially fighting under General Bonaparte against the Austrians in Italy (1796-1797), and later participating in all the Napoleonic Wars: in Germany, Spain, and even Haiti.
The disappearance of Poland: a latent nationalism
The Third Partition of Poland (1795) and its aftermath
In 1795, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth , an elective monarchy uniting the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , disappeared following the Third Partition of Poland , its territory now being entirely divided between its three powerful neighbors: Austria , Prussia , and Russia .
Revolutionary France, then at war with these nations, became a refuge for Polish soldiers, who formed the Polish Legions , initially fighting under General Bonaparte against the Austrians in Italy (1796-1797), and later participating in all the Napoleonic Wars: in Germany, Spain, and even Haiti.
The Duchy of Warsaw (1807-1815)
In 1806-1807, Napoleon won the war against Prussia and Russia, allies of the Fourth Coalition. By the Treaties of Tilsit (July 1807), Napoleon obtained the creation, on the territories annexed by Prussia in 1793 and 1795, of a vassal state of France, the Duchy of Warsaw. The Tsar accepted all the more readily as he had no territory to cede. In 1809, after the victory against Austria ( War of the Fifth Coalition ), Austria was forced to cede to the Duchy the territories it had annexed in 1795.
The Duchy of Warsaw, endowed with a Constitution written in Paris and the Napoleonic Code , had as its duke Frederick Augustus, King of Saxony and ally of Napoleon.
After the disasters of the campaign and retreat from Russia (October-December 1812), and then the retreat of the Grande Armée to the Elbe , the Duchy of Warsaw was occupied by the Russian army at the beginning of 1813.
Napoleon's defeat was followed by the Russian Empire's takeover of Poland. Tsar Alexander I became, by the Treaty of Vienna in 1815, the sovereign of the Congress Kingdom, succeeding the Duchy of Warsaw, a sort of Russian province. Initially, it enjoyed considerable autonomy before being gradually reduced to complete Russification, not without some Polish resistance.
It has its own constitution and diet (parliament), its own administration and army. But the Russian authorities will refuse any attempt at autonomy. Polish movements claiming this right will succeed one another throughout the 19th century.
The beginnings of the reign of Nicholas I (1825-1830)
The political situation did not improve with the accession of Tsar Nicholas I in 1825.
An absolute monarch in Russia, he poorly tolerated restrictions on his powers in Poland. By a decree of February 3, 1825, he prohibited the publicizing of the debates of the Diet, whose members he considered to be making subversive statements.
In January and February 1826, numerous arrests among members of Polish patriotic societies for independence crystallized Polish opposition to Russian rule.
On May 20, 1829, in accordance with the Constitution of 1815, Nicholas I was crowned King of Poland in Warsaw.
The insurrection of 1830-1831 and its consequences.
Tensions between the Poles and the Russian monarchy led in 1830 to a first insurrection, at the end of which the kingdom suffered a drastic limitation of its autonomy (suppression of Parliament and the army; closure of the University of Warsaw).
The year 1830 was marked in Europe by several revolutionary events: the July Revolution in France, followed in August by the uprising in Belgium against belonging to the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
These events challenged the order established after the Congress of Vienna by the three powers of the Holy Alliance, Russia, Prussia and Austria.
In Warsaw, patriots are convinced that Tsar Nicholas will intervene militarily and even that the Polish army will be sent against the revolutionaries in France and Belgium.
On January 18-21, recognizing the impossibility of negotiating with the Tsar, the Diet voted to depose Nicholas I from the throne of Poland, which amounted to a declaration of war.
A "National Government" was established on January 30th.
French public opinion was enthusiastic about the Polish cause, which revived memories of 1812. Casimir Delavigne then wrote La Varsovienne , glorifying Franco-Polish friendship, which became the anthem of the uprising.
Lyrics in French
He has risen, behold the bloody day;
May it be for us the day of deliverance!
In its rise, see our white wing?
Eyes fixed on the rainbow of France!
In the July sunshine, whose brilliance was so beautiful,
He took flight again, he cut through the air, he shouted:
For my noble homeland
Freedom !
Your sun or the night of the tomb!
Poles, to the bayonet!
The Russo-Polish War (February-October 1831)
On February 4, Russia launched an offensive with an army of 180,000 men against 70,000 Polish soldiers. However, it took the Russians eight months to quell the uprising.
The repression
The number of insurgents deported to Siberia is estimated at around 1,500.
45,000 families of the Polish lesser nobility were forcibly transported to governments along the Black Sea and Volga rivers. These nobles lost their titles, and their sons were forced to perform military service, sometimes lasting twenty years. 225,000 people were thus driven from their homes and exiled to Russia.
This was the period during which Polish nationalism, previously shared by both left- and right-wing political platforms, redefined itself more to the right, with the emergence of Roman Dmowski (1864-1939), a political leader and ideologue of extremist and sovereignist nationalism. Post-Partition nationalist ideology did not refer to " ethnic nationalism ." It was a romantic movement that sought the restoration of a sovereign Polish state.
The rise of modern Polish nationalism under foreign rule coincided with the November 1830 uprising . The subsequent defeats shattered the Polish revolutionary spirit.
During this period, Poles began to be assimilated to ethnicity, increasingly excluding groups like Polish Jews , who were previously more likely to be accepted as Polish "patriots".
An important element of Polish nationalism has been its identification with the Roman Catholic religion, although this was a relatively recent development, which has its roots in the Counter-Reformation'(1) of the 16th century.
It clearly established itself in the interwar period.
Although the former Republic was religiously diverse and very tolerant, the Roman Catholic religious narrative with messianic overtones (the Christ of Europe) has become one of the defining characteristics of modern Polish identity.
Roman Dmowski played a key role in defining this concept and has been called the "father of Polish nationalism".
(1) The Counter-Reformation in Poland was actively pursued from the end of the 16th century onwards under the impetus of the Jesuits and King Sigismund III. Its objective was to re-Catholicize the noble elite and to significantly reduce the influence of Protestantism, thus permanently establishing Catholicism as a pillar of national identity.
The 19th century thus presents a series of Polish uprisings : the Kościuszko uprising of 1794, participation in Napoleon's wars, the November uprising of 1830, the Krakow uprising of 1846, and the Greater Poland uprising of 1848, with their heavy toll in human lives.
The January 1863 uprising would be the last of the great patriotic uprisings. Preceded by several years of patriotic demonstrations and demands for agrarian and social reforms, it was provoked by the Russian authorities' refusal to make anything more than superficial concessions. Triggered in January 1863 by the forced conscription of Poles into the Russian army, it was defeated in 1864 and resulted in ruthless repression, the near-complete suppression of the relative autonomy of the Congress Kingdom, and the Russification of the former Polish provinces of the Russian Empire.
The death of Nicholas I raised Polish hopes, as the new Tsar, Alexander II, presented himself as a reformer. However, the relative political détente that followed the period of reforms triggered by the debacle of the Crimean War proved insufficient quite quickly. The Poles yearned for greater freedom. Numerous centers of revolt emerged, but the largest was Warsaw, the Polish capital. In 1857, the Tsar authorized the creation of the Warsaw Academy of Medicine and Surgery and the reopening of the University of Warsaw.
The universities quickly filled with young conspirators. Circles also formed at the School of Fine Arts. New student groups and military formations emerged. The permitted debate on peasant emancipation in Russia and the unification of Italy and Romania created a climate of growing unrest.
The Poles began preparing for a new national uprising as early as the late 1850s. Clashes multiplied, met with fierce repression by the Tsarist army. In October 1861, a state of emergency was declared throughout the Congress Kingdom. During the years 1861-1862, the Poles increasingly expected land reform, the democratization of power, and independence from Russia.
In this situation, a radical patriotic organization, nicknamed the Reds, was formed to wage open struggle and prepare for an insurrection against the Russians. By the end of 1862, this organization had between 20,000 and 25,000 members and was planning the uprising for the spring of 1863. The plot was directed by a National Central Committee, headed by General Jarosław Dąbrowski.
In opposition to the Reds, another organization emerged, nicknamed the Whites, bringing together landowners, the aristocracy, and the wealthy classes. Leveraging the structures of the Agricultural Society, they created a network extending throughout Polish territories, including Lithuania and Ukraine. Armed struggle for independence was not their priority. The Whites primarily demanded compensation for the financial losses resulting from the abolition of serfdom.
The head of the civil government of the Kingdom of Poland enforced loyalty to Russia. In order to win over the Whites, he implemented some reforms demanded by the Polish movement: the abolition of serfdom, a new law regulating education, and equal rights for Jews.
On September 8, 1862, Grand Duke Constantine of Russia lifted martial law in the districts of the province of Radom, with the exception of Radom and Kielce; on October 10, martial law was lifted in the province of Lublin and Augustów with the exception of Lublin, Siedlce and Suwałki; on December 16, it was lifted in the province of Warsaw and Płock with the exception of the cities of Warsaw, Kalisz and Płock, the powiats of Lipno and Piotrków and the towns located along the Warsaw-Vienna and Warsaw-Bydgoszcz railway lines.
It was therefore against all expectations that the forced enlistment of Poles in the Russian army was organised in mid-January 1863.
This conscription was not done by lottery. A list of 12,000 names was drawn up for this purpose, including people suspected of belonging to Polish patriotic movements.
Planned by the Reds for the spring, the insurrection began at the end of January 1863, without sufficient organizational preparation, with a critical lack of military resources and a divided leadership.
Given the imbalance of forces during the uprising, the war took the form of a guerrilla war. The Polish fighters sought to avoid large-scale battles, in which the uprising risked disappearing completely.
There were nearly 1,229 battles of varying scale, 956 in the territory of the Kingdom of Poland, 236 in Lithuania and the rest in Belarus and Ukraine.
The number of peasants participating in the uprising increased until the Tsar's decree of March 2, 1864, promising the end of serfdom and the possibility of obtaining land ownership; from then on, the peasants left the movement.
Nearly 200,000 people participated in the fighting of the insurgency, with about 30,000 fighting at any one time.
Nearly 30,000 partisans were killed.
On February 21, 1864, the Russians won the Battle of Opatów against Polish partisans. Polish soldiers in Lubelski County and those in Grodno Province continued fighting until April. In Posen and Galicia, new forces were being reconstituted, but could not intervene in the Kingdom of Poland due to Prussian and Austrian border control.
The last group of patriots fought until the spring of 1865 in Sokołów. They were crushed.
These successive defeats would be the catalyst for a right-wing nationalism, largely anti-Semitic, which would culminate during the Second Republic in the 1930s.
World War I
By 1914, there was no longer an independent Poland.
Polish territories were still divided between three empires:
the Russian Empire: Kingdom of Poland, which includes Warsaw, Kielce,
the German Empire: notably Poznań and the western territories;
the Austro-Hungarian Empire: Galicia, around Krakow and Lwów.
The war thus transformed Polish territories into a battleground between Russia and the Central Powers. In 1914, the war reached the villages.
At the beginning of the war, the Russian army was still present.
But the German and Austro-Hungarian armies are gradually advancing eastward.
In 1915, the Gorlice-Tarnów offensive caused the collapse of the Russian front.
In the summer of 1915, the Russian army abandoned virtually the entire Kingdom of Poland. The territories were then divided between two occupying administrations:
a German zone, with Warsaw as its centre;
an Austro-Hungarian zone which notably included Kielce, Radom and Lublin. The Austro-Hungarian military administration was initially called the Militärgeneralgouvernement Kielce, before being transferred to Lublin in October 1915.
But above all: 1915 caused a massive population displacement
When the Russian army withdrew, it practiced a "scorched earth" policy in certain sectors: evacuations, destruction of crops and property, forced displacements.
The number of refugees caused by the Russian retreat in Polish territories is estimated at around 1.5 million.
1915-1918: Austro-Hungarian occupation of the Kielce region
The Austro-Hungarian administration became decisive.
The population suffers: food requisitions; crop control; economic restrictions; forced labor or recruitment of workers; shortages; inflation; disruption of transport and trade.
The occupiers are heavily exploiting the country's resources.
But there is also a paradoxical political consequence: the Poles gradually acquire experience in autonomous administration, while the Central Powers begin to envision a future Poland.
In November 1916, Germany and Austria-Hungary proclaimed the creation of a "Kingdom of Poland", still entirely dependent on the occupying powers.
In 1917, a Polish Regency Council was created.
The war thus destroyed the old imperial order while preparing the way for the rebirth of the Polish state.
1918: birth of a Poland that is not homogeneous
The Poland that was reborn in 1918 was not composed solely of Poles. It recovered territories where lived: Poles; Jews; Ukrainians; Belarusians; Germans; Lithuanians; Russians; Ruthenians, Lemkos, etc.
Minorities represent about one third of the population of the Second Polish Republic.
And this is where a fundamental contradiction arises: Poland wants to be a Polish nation-state, but it inherits a profoundly multinational population.
Then came 1917: everything changed
Two events completely changed the situation:
February 1917: Russian Revolution.
October 1917: Bolsheviks seize power.
Imperial Russia disappears.
Then, in November 1918, Germany and Austria-Hungary collapsed in turn.
It is in this extraordinary situation that Poland reappears as an independent state.
But one huge question remains unanswered: What will be the borders of this new Poland? And that is where the conflicts with the Ukrainians, the Belarusians, the Lithuanians and the Bolsheviks begin.
1918: birth of a Poland that is not homogeneous
The Poland that was reborn in 1918 was not composed solely of Poles.
It is recovering territories where the following people live: Poles; Jews; Ukrainians; Belarusians; Germans; Lithuanians; Russians; Ruthenians, Lemkos, etc.
Minorities represent about one third of the population of the Second Polish Republic.
And this is where a fundamental contradiction arises:
Poland wants to be a Polish nation-state.
but it inherits a profoundly multinational population.
The major challenges facing the Polish Republic between the two world wars
The Second Republic was born on November 11, 1918
Poland gained its de facto independence on November 11, 1918, with the withdrawal of German and Austro-Hungarian occupation units.
In Warsaw, Józef Piłsudski became head of the newly formed Polish state and commander-in-chief of the army. His left-wing political background earned him popularity among the working masses and in radical intelligentsia circles, and his wartime exploits for independence had a very strong influence, especially on young people.
The first government led by a socialist was established thanks to the support of Piłsudski and adopted progressive measures such as the 8-hour workday or the right to vote and to stand for election for women .
However, the clauses of the Treaty of Versailles which confirm the existence of the Polish state sidestep the problem of the country's eastern border.
The Second Republic 1919-1939
The existence of the Second Republic began with the reconquest of national sovereignty, formalized by the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919, and ended with the withdrawal of international recognition of its government in exile on July 5, 1945, at the Yalta Conference (1945) concluded between the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the Soviet Union.
The Second Republic is often associated with a period of adversity, turmoil, and victories. Its territories, subjected for 123 years to intense Russification and Germanization and to three distinct administrative and economic regimes (Germany, Austria, and Russia), could only identify with a sense of cultural, spiritual, and political continuity. However, in a multicultural and multireligious country, where a portion of the population did not speak Polish, this continuity proved extremely complex to define. Right-wing nationalists steadily gained ground. The issue of "minorities" was never truly addressed.
According to the 1921 census, the population was 27.2 million. One-third of the population consisted of minority groups: 13.9% Ruthenians (Ukrainians); 10% Ashkenazi Jews; 3.1% Belarusians; 2.3% Germans and 3.4% Czechs and Lithuanians.
The resurgence of nationalisms is creating conflict between Lithuanians, Germans, Ruthenians, Jews and Ukrainians on the one hand, and the Polish majority (70%) on the other.
Despite the destruction and Soviet invasion of 1920, and despite the stock market crash of the 1930s, the Second Republic maintained moderate economic development. The cultural centers of Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, Vilnius, and Lviv rose to the level of major European cities and became home to internationally renowned universities and institutions of higher learning. By 1939 , Poland was the sixth-largest country in Europe.
The question of borders (1918-1921) / a succession of conflicts
The Poles vied for influence with Ukraine in Galicia, leading to the first war with independent Ukraine. In September 1919, the Ukrainians signed the capitulation, and the border between Ukraine and Poland followed the Zbruch River.
At the same time, Poles rose up in Greater Poland, the historical cradle of Poland, against the Germans.
Then in February, tensions erupted with neighboring Soviet Poland over control of Vilnius. With the help of the Allied armies, the Poles held firm. On June 26, the Treaty of Versailles recognized Poland as a fully independent state, but imposed on it the protection of minorities (ethnic, linguistic, and religious) by the League of Nations.
The year 1920 was decisive in the creation of the Polish Republic. In March, the Lemko Republic (a short-lived Ruthenian republic in southern Poland) was annexed. On April 24, Operation kyiv was intended to capture central and eastern Ukraine. However, the Polish armies were repelled, and the Russians launched a counter-offensive that brought them to the gates of Warsaw. Unrest shook the country from within (attacks, assassinations, riots, pogroms). The Polish government decided on land reform to appease the peasants, who represented more than 75% of the population. While eastern Poland fell under Russian administration, Marshal Piłsudski saved the situation with the Battle of Warsaw, known as the Miracle on the Vistula, which took place from August 6 to 16, 1920.
On the German border, the three Silesian uprisings led to a plebiscite on March 20, 1921, resulting in further territorial changes in favor of Poland.
On March 18, 1921, the Treaty of Riga, signed with the USSR, granted Poland significant territories in western Ukraine and ended all military conflict. According to this treaty, the Russo-Polish border followed the boundary of the third partition of Poland.
The issue of minorities will create real tensions, without the Polish state's policy being able to find a livable balance.
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The promises made at the Treaty of Versailles will be broken:
Although guaranteed by the 1921 Constitution and international treaties, minority rights were regularly restricted and challenged.
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A policy of pollination:
The state favoured the majority culture, the Polish language and the Catholic religion, seeking the political unification of the country at the expense of regional and cultural identities.
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The Break of 1934:
On September 13, 1934, Poland officially rejected international clauses on the protection of minorities.
The situation by community was as follows:
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For Ukrainians:
They will face linguistic and cultural restrictions, particularly in Galicia, and policies of military colonization of the eastern lands.
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For the Jews:
They will be subjected to increasing discrimination, economic exclusion (particularly in the civil service and certain industrial sectors, but also to the prohibition of Sunday work and a boycott of Jewish commerce) and the rise of anti-Semitism in the 1930s.
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For Belarusians:
Being less politically organized, they suffered from severe rural poverty and cultural marginalization.
Parliamentary instability (1919-1926)
Despite the chaos, the first free elections—to elect the Polish Sejm (parliament)—were held on January 26, 1919, and saw the National People's Union (right-wing nationalists) win the most votes (37%). Parliament immediately adopted a constitution, known as the "Little Constitution," with Piłsudski as president. A second constitution was adopted in March 1921. The first president of the Republic was assassinated after only five days in office. The Republic was very fragile. Decentralization and the lack of a common currency hampered the country's development. The army wielded considerable power, and the Republic, weakened by four years of war, had to rebuild the country. This was no easy task in a state where Ukrainian, Czech, Russian, German, Lithuanian, and Jewish minorities represented 30% of the population.
In the parliamentary elections of November 1922, no party won more than a quarter of the seats. This resulted in a period of great political instability. Between 1922 and 1925, Poland experienced a political, economic, and social crisis, despite a government that, in 1924, launched a major monetary reform: a single currency, the creation of the National Bank of Poland. A coup d'état took place on May 12, 1926.
Piłsudski's autocracy (1926-1935)
A new government was formed, with Józef Piłsudski as Minister of Defense. On May 31, the National Assembly nominated Piłsudski as President of the Republic, but he refused. However, gradually exceeding the prerogatives of his Ministry of Defense , Józef Piłsudski became the true strongman of the state.
Pursuing a policy of "sanitization" based on restoring moral order to public life, Piłsudski governed with authority, using decrees and censorship. Benefiting from a favorable economic climate that lasted until 1929, this policy provoked little protest . In the 1930s, a confluence of events, from the Great Depression to the vicious cycle of terrorist attacks by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and government reprisals, led to a deterioration in relations between the government and minorities, such as the German minority in Silesia. The adaptation of the new constitution adopted in April 1935 was one of Piłsudski's most significant reforms. It strengthened the president's power and transformed the Polish political system into a presidential system with authoritarian tendencies. However, Piłsudski died shortly afterward of liver cancer in Warsaw.
The regime of the colonels (1935-1939)
The funeral was conducted by former soldiers of the Polish Legions, members of the Polish Military Organization , veterans of the 1919-1921 wars, and his political associates. All these former subordinates had taken advantage of the Marshal's rise to power to gain access to the ruling circles and had no intention of relinquishing their positions. They formed the government of colonels , which would last until the eve of the Second World War. The nationalist and anti-Semitic right wing ran rampant within it.
On April 28, 1939, following Poland's signing of military agreements with France and Great Britain, Hitler unilaterally denounced the German-Polish non-aggression pact , signed on January 26, 1934 between Poland and the Third Reich .
World War II
The invasion of Poland (1939)
The outbreak of World War II brought an end to the Second Polish Republic. On September 1, 1939, a week after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact , without declaring war, the aggression against Poland began. On October 6, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union occupied all of Poland, with the exception of the Wilno region , which was annexed by Lithuania . However, Poland did not capitulate, and the Polish government-in-exile and the Polish Underground State continued the fight throughout the war. Following the German-Soviet Pact , the aggression of Nazi Germany on September 1 and of the USSR on September 17 deprived the Polish Republic of its sovereignty: its territory was occupied . Part of the territory occupied by the Wehrmacht was directly annexed to the Third Reich , while another part was transformed into a German colony under the name of the " General Government ." The territory occupied by the Red Army was divided between the Soviet republics of Belarus , Lithuania, and Ukraine . Militarily defeated, Poland did not capitulate , and the constitutional authorities of the Polish state evacuated via Romania to France and then to the United Kingdom, from where they continued to direct the organs of the clandestine state established in the occupied country to fight against the occupiers. The Polish government-in-exile led the internal resistance ( Armia Krajowa ) and the Polish armed forces fighting in the West . At the end of the war, Poland, displaced westward by an average of approximately 300 km to allow the USSR to retain most of its gains from 1939, was Sovietized and included among the communist states subservient to the USSR . The current republic succeeded it in 1989, with the fall of communist regimes in Europe .