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Poland between the Wars, 1918–1939 pp 43–59Cite as

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The Battle of Warsaw, August 1920, and the Development of the Second Polish Republic

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Abstract

When Poland was re-established in November 1918 as an independent sovereign state after over a century of partition and oppression by her more powerful neighbours, Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary, she faced an uphill struggle for survival. Domestically, she had to rebuild virtually everything from scratch: the economy, bureaucracy, the judiciary, a social and educational infrastructure, even the Army, all had to be forged anew amidst the detritus of the First World War. Moreover, Poland had to try to ensure the smooth working of a system of Western-style parliamentary democracy for which she had no training or experience. The Germans call 1945 ‘Year Zero’, when just about everything of a physical, traditional, moral and spiritual nature had collapsed in ignominy with Hitler’s Third Reich and had to be rebuilt. In like manner, Poland in 1918 had to contemplate and overcome her ‘Year Zero’, even though she had wholesome values to aid the process.1

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Notes

  1. The economic and financial details are in Zbigniew Landau and Jerzy Tomaszewski, The Polish Economy in the Twentieth Century (London, Routledge, 1985), pp. 27–55;

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  4. A more recent, general survey is Paul Latawski (ed.), The Reconstruction of Poland, 1914–1923 (London, Macmillan, 1992).

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  5. Comprehensive details of the various campaigns and the military units involved are in Mieczyslaw Wrzosek, Wojny o granice Polski Odrodzonej 1918–1921 (The Wars over the Frontiers of Reborn Poland, 1918–1921) (Warsaw, Biblioteka Wiedzy Historycznej, 1992).

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  22. General Hans von Seeckt, Head of the Reichswehr 1920–26, declared shortly after assuming office that Poland was Germany’s ‘mortal enemy’: see Francis L. Carsten, The Reichswehr and Politics, 1918–1933 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1966), pp. 30, 39–42, 68.

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  33. Weygand stressed the modesty of his role in ‘La Bataille de Varsovie’, Revue des deux mondes 8 (1957), No. 6, pp. 193–215, and in his Memoires Vol. II (Paris, 1957).

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  34. Rather more is made of his part, however, by Z. Musialik, General Weygand and the Battle of the Vistula 1920 (London, 1987).

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  47. Thomas C. Fiddick, Russia’s Retreat from Poland, 1920. From Permanent Revolution to Peaceful Coexistence (London, Macmillan, 1990), provides some sharp perspectives.

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  50. Information from private family sources. The Franco-Polish connection in the early 1930s is analysed in Piotr S. Wandycz, The Twilight of French Eastern Alliances, 1926–1936 (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1988).

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  52. Some analysis of this point, albeit with a definite Marxist angle, is given in Roman Wapiński, Naradowa Demokracja 1893–1939 (Wrocław, 1980), and in his biography, Roman Dmowski (Lublin, 1988), which is far from definitive.

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  53. Andrzej Micewski, Roman Dmowski (Warsaw, 1971) is also relatively disappointing.

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  54. Joseph Rothschild, Pilsudski’s Coup d’Etat (New York, Columbia University Press, 1966) is still the standard text in English

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  55. but see also Antoni Czubiński, Przewrót majowy 1926 roku (Warsaw, Młodzieżowa Agencja Wydawnicza, 1989), especially pp. 145–244.

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  56. The position of the minorities in inter-war Poland has attracted a substantial, often contentious literature, for example Stephan Horak, Poland and Her National Minorities, 1919–1939 (New York, Vantage Press, 1961), 61 ff., 80 ff., 101–80.

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  57. Also somewhat controversial is Jerzy Tomaszewski, Ojczyzna nie tylko Polaków. Mniejszości narodowa w polsce w latach 1918–1939 (Warsaw, 1985), pp. 343 ff.

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  58. More balanced from a Polish point of view, if now dated in terms of sources, is Adam Żółtowski, Border of Europe. A Study of the Polish Eastern Provinces (London, Hollis & Carter, 1950), pp. 240–58, 284–310.

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  67. Emphasizing the Jewish contribution to Polish independence is Marian Fuks, ‘Żydzi w Zaraniu Niepodległości Polski’, Biuletyn Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego w Polsce 2(1989), No. 1, pp. 35–44.

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  69. A good introduction to the topic is Y. Gutman et al. (eds), The Jews of Poland Between Two World Wars (Hanover, New England, University of New England Press, 1989).

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  71. Andrzej Paczkowski, ‘The Jewish Press in the Political Life of the Second Republic’, Polin, 8 (1994), pp. 176–93.

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  72. The most important Polish-Jewish daily was ‘Nasz Przeglgd’: see Marian Fuks, Prasa żydowska w Warszawie, 1823–1939 (Warsaw, PWN, 1979), pp. 159–293;

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  73. Ezra Mendelsohn, Zionism in Poland. The Formative Years, 1915–1926 (New Haven, Conn., Yale University Press, 1981).

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  74. Edward D. Wynot, Polish Politics in Transition. The Camp of National Unity and the Struggle for Power, 1935–1939 (Athens, Georgia, University of Georgia Press, 1974) is an informative survey.

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  75. Wladyslaw Sikorski, Przyszła Wojna. Jej możliwości i charakter oraz zwidzane z nim zagadnienia obrony kraju (Warsaw, 1934). The English version is Modern Warfare. Its Character, Its Problems (London, Hutchison, 1942).

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  76. For a comprehensive listing of relevant literature, see John A. Drobnicki, ‘The Russo-Polish War, 1919–1920: A Bibliography of Materials in English’, The Polish Review, 42 (1997), No. 1, pp. 95–104.

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  1. Peter D. Stachura
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  1. University of Stirling, Scotland

    Peter D. Stachura (Reader in History) (Reader in History)

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© 1998 Peter D. Stachura

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Stachura, P.D. (1998). The Battle of Warsaw, August 1920, and the Development of the Second Polish Republic. In: Stachura, P.D. (eds) Poland between the Wars, 1918–1939. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-26942-6_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-26942-6_3

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