99 years ago: Poland is resurrected
Exactly 99 years ago, on November 11, 1918, the Regency Council, an organisation formed by Germany and Austria to govern Poland, entrusted the command of Polish forces to Jozef Pilsudski as Poland began to regain independence after 123 years.
In late October and early November 1918, the First World War was nearing its end, with the Austro-Hungarian empire already disintegrated and Germany heading for defeat at the hands of Great Britain and France.
This emerging situation represented a big opportunity for Poland, which had been partitioned between Russia, Prussia and Austria since 1795 (see: NOTE 1).
When WW1 broke out four years previously, nobody in Poland dared dream that by the conflict's end, all three occupying powers would be rendered virtually helpless (Russia, initially part of the Triple Entente with the UK and France, having succumbed to the Bolshevik coup in 1917).
During 52 months of relentless warfare, an estimated 9.5 million soldiers were killed or died from wounds, with a further 20 million injured. Polish soldiers could be found in the armies of all three occupying powers and almost 500,000 of them fell or went missing.
Yet as history presented Poland with a chance to reemerge on the European map, the nation grabbed it with both hands, taking active steps to wrest control of its land from the Central Powers.
Thus, in October 1918, a National Council was created in the region of Cieszyn (now southern Poland), the Polish Liquidation Committee (PKL) assumed power in the previously Austria-controlled Galicia (now belonging partly to Poland and partly to Ukraine), while in early November, a Provisional People's Government of the Republic of Poland was set up in Lublin (now southeastern Poland) to supervise the part of Poland which had been occupied by Russia and then, during WW1, taken over by Austria.
Meanwhile in Warsaw, the Regency Council (RR) had been ruling on behalf of Berlin and Vienna since September 1917. But by early November 1918, the body, comprised of Prince Zdzislaw Lubomirski, Archbishop Aleksander Kakowski and Count Jozef Ostrowski, realised its political mission was almost over. Thus the RR sought to appoint a popular government which could assume power and call parliamentary elections.
On November 10, Poland's popular pro-independence leader Jozef Pilsudski (see: NOTE 3) arrived in the city by a special train from Berlin, after being released from the German prison in the fortress of Magdeburg.
Prince Lubomirski, among others, greeted him at the railway station on behalf of the RR, while Lublin's provisional government declared its allegiance to Pilsudski.
Moreover, the people of Warsaw also responded enthusiastically, and with the German occupation in tatters, the city's General Governor, General Hans von Belseler, secretly left the city as Polish forces began to disarm the occupiers. The process was relatively peaceful, although the Germans did not surrender the City Hall or the Citadel fortress without fierce fighting.
On the very next day, November 11, 1918, news came that the German delegation had signed an armistice with the Entente in the French forest of Compiegne.
This meant Poland was finally regaining independence and "the euphoria and joyful frenzy which overcame the Polish people at that point cannot be put into words", future Prime Minister Jedrzej Moraczewski later reminisced.
Before the day was out, the RR ceded military power, as well as the command of the Polish forces under its disposal, to Pilsudski. Three days later, the body dissolved, notifying him that "from now on, we lay our duties and responsiblity towards the Polish nation in your hands, Mr Supreme Commander, so that you can transfer them to the National Government".
Pilsudski officially took over from the RR, to ensure continuity and legal legitimacy, which was criticised by some as an unnecessary nod to the former occupiers. Nevertheless, with the PKL also accepting his position, the country was now united behind Pilsudski and on November 13 he began work on the new government.
Poland's first cabinet after 123 years was appointed by Pilsudski on November 18, with the socialist Jedrzej Moraczewski as prime minister, and on November 22 the government made Pilsudski Temporary Governor of the State - until the formation of the Constitutional Sejm (lower house) after elections scheduled for January 26, 1919.
As Pilsudski well knew, this was merely the beginning of the creation of an independent Poland, whose borders still had to be delineated, and time was of the essence, "before our neighbours from the east and west regain strength and a full voice", Poland's then Temporary Governor correctly predicted.
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NOTE 1: The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (see: NOTE 2) towards the end of the 18th century which ended the existence of sovereign Poland for 123 years. The partitioning powers were the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia and Habsburg Austria, which progressively divided the country among themselves.
The First Partition of Poland took place on August 5, 1772. Two decades later Russia and Prussia re-entered the Commonwealth, which led to the Second Partition on January 23, 1793 (Austria did not participate). The Third Partition was decided on October 24, 1795 as a reaction to the unsuccessful Polish Kosciuszko Uprising in the previous year. With this partition the Commonwealth disappeared from the map for 123 years.
In 2018, Poland will majestically mark throughout the world the 100th anniversary of regaining independence, topped by the "Niepodlegla 2018" programme to be launched this year by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and to span until 2019. The Ministry of Culture-funded Adam Mickiewicz Institute is to co-ordinate the programme abroad.
NOTE 2: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a 16th-18th Century Polish-Lithuanian state composed of the Crown - Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and considered a precursor to modern democratic systems such as a federation or constitutional monarchy. The Commonwealth was a dual state ruled by one monarch, who was simultaneously King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.
The Commonwealth was one of the biggest countries in 16th/17th-century Europe, at its peak spanning about 1.2 million km2 and with a multi-ethnic population of about 11 million. It was formally established by the Union of Lublin in July 1569.
The 1772 partition of Poland led to two further partitions, in 1793 and 1795, ending the existence of a sovereign Poland for 123 years. Nevertheless, the nation itself did not cease to exist, for over a century connecting the East with the West culturally, technologically and tradewise. Partitioned Poland also remained a robust base to anti-invader conspiracy movements and freedom fight bouts with four insurrections including the aforementioned 1794 Kosciuszko Uprising, the November Uprising (1830), the Krakow Uprising (1946) and the January Uprising (1863).
- The Kosciuszko Insurrection was a Polish revolt against Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia and an unsuccessful attempt to free the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from Russian domination after the Second Partition of Poland (1793). Led by Polish Military leader Tadeusz Kosciuszko (see: NOTE 8), the insurgency's fall preceded the 1795 Third Partition of the Commonwealth.
- The 1830-1831 November Uprising was a Polish insurgency against the Russian Empire, one of the three powers holding Poland under partition at the time. The uprising launched on November 29, 1830 with a revolt by cadets from a Warsaw military academy, and was quickly joined by large Polish groups from Belarus, Right-bank Ukraine and Lithuania. Crassly outnumbered by the Imperial Russian Imperial Army, the insurgency fell in October 1831 and Russian Tsar Nicholas I decreed Poland a part of Russia and closed down Warsaw's university.
- The Krakow Uprising of February 1846 was a Polish insurgency against the Austrian Empire, with Russia and Prussia one of the three powers holding Poland under partition at the time. Centred in the southern-Polish city of Krakow, then capital of a small state known as the Free City of Cracow, it was mainly backed by the Polish nobility and middle class, who wanted to restore Poland as an independent state.
The uprising, whose initial successes included a brief seizure of Krakow, lasted about nine days before it was quenched by the Austrians.
- The January Uprising was a Polish revolt against Imperial Russia in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The insurgency launched on January 22, 1863 and continued until 1864.
Initially, a protest by Polish cadets against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army, the uprising soon won the support of high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and politicians. Severely outnumbered by the Russians, the insurgents had to resolve to guerilla warfare in the fighting.
After the uprising's fall in 1864 many of its participants were executed or deported to Siberia.
NOTE 3: Born on December 5, 1867, Jozef Pilsudski was Poland's post-World War I independence architect and inter-war state leader. After Poland regained independence in 1918, Pilsudski became the Chief of State, the Commander-in-Chief and Marshal of Poland. In May 1926, following a successful coup d'état, he took over power in Poland. He was Poland's two-time PM, General Inspector of Armed Forces and minister for military affairs (1926-1935).
Jozef Pilsudski was a proponent of pre-emptive war against Hitler, to which he repeatedly tried to convince the French side. He died at Warsaw's Belweder Palace on May 12, 1935. His funeral became an international tribute with a series of masses, ceremonies and a funeral train touring Poland.
Pope Pius XI conducted a special ceremony in the Holy See on May 18. A commemoration was also held at the League of Nations seat in Geneva, and condolences poured in to Poland from world heads of state, including Britain's King George V, Japan's Emperor Hirohito, France's Albert Lebrun and Pierre-Etienne Flandin, Austria's Wilhelm Miklas as well as Germany's Adolf Hitler, the Soviet Union's Joseph Stalin, and Italy's Benito Mussolini and King Victor Emmanuel III. (PAP)
