Editing History of Poland (section)

==Second Polish Republic (1918–1939)==

{{further|History of Poland (1918–1939)|Second Polish Republic}}

===Securing national borders, war with Soviet Russia===

[[File:Powstanie wielkopolskie 1919.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Greater Poland uprising (1918–1919)|Greater Poland Uprising]], a war with Germany, erupted in December 1918]]

After more than a century of foreign rule, Poland regained its independence at the end of [[World War I]] as one of the outcomes of the negotiations that took place at the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference of 1919]].<ref>{{Harvnb|MacMillan|2002|p=207}}.</ref> The [[Treaty of Versailles]] that emerged from the conference set up an independent Polish nation with an outlet to the sea, but left some of its boundaries to be decided by plebiscites. The largely German-inhabited [[Free City of Danzig]] was granted a separate status that guaranteed its use as a port by Poland. In the end, the settlement of the German-Polish border turned out to be a prolonged and convoluted process. The dispute helped engender the [[Greater Poland uprising (1918–1919)|Greater Poland Uprising of 1918–1919]], the three [[Silesian Uprisings|Silesian uprisings]] of 1919–1921, the [[1920 East Prussian plebiscite|East Prussian plebiscite]] of 1920, the [[Upper Silesia plebiscite]] of 1921 and the 1922 Silesian Convention in [[Geneva]].<ref name="playground 291–321">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|pp=291–321}}.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=224, 226–227}}.</ref><ref name="Heart 115-121">{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=115–121}}.</ref>

Other boundaries were settled by war and subsequent treaties. A total of six border wars were fought in 1918–1921, including the [[Polish–Czechoslovak border conflicts]] over [[Cieszyn Silesia]] in January 1919.<ref name="playground 291–321"/>

[[File:Polish-soviet war 1920 Polish defences near Milosna, August.jpg|thumb|left|[[Polish–Soviet War]], [[Battle of Warsaw (1920)|defenses near Warsaw]], August 1920]]

As distressing as these border conflicts were, the [[Polish–Soviet War]] of 1919–1921 was the most important series of military actions of the era. Piłsudski had entertained far-reaching anti-Russian cooperative designs in Eastern Europe, and in 1919 the Polish forces pushed eastward into Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine by taking advantage of the Russian preoccupation with a [[Russian Civil War|civil war]], but they were soon confronted with the [[Soviet westward offensive of 1918–19]]19. Western Ukraine was already a theater of the [[Polish–Ukrainian War]], which eliminated the proclaimed [[West Ukrainian People's Republic]] in July 1919. In the autumn of 1919, Piłsudski rejected urgent pleas from the former [[Allies of World War I|Entente]] powers to support [[Anton Denikin]]'s [[White movement]] in its advance on Moscow.<ref name="playground 291–321"/> The Polish–Soviet War proper began with the Polish [[Kiev offensive (1920)|Kiev offensive]] in April 1920.<ref>{{Harvnb|Duraczyński|2012|p=112}}</ref> Allied with the [[Directorate of Ukraine]] of the [[Ukrainian People's Republic]], the Polish armies had advanced past [[Vilnius]], [[Minsk]] and Kiev by June.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=224–229}}</ref> At that time, a massive Soviet counter-offensive pushed the Poles out of most of Ukraine. On the northern front, the Soviet army reached the outskirts of Warsaw in early August. A Soviet triumph and the quick end of Poland seemed inevitable. However, the Poles scored a stunning victory at the [[Battle of Warsaw (1920)]]. Afterwards, more [[Battle of the Niemen River|Polish military successes]] followed, and the Soviets had to pull back. They left swathes of territory populated largely by Belarusians or Ukrainians to Polish rule.  The new eastern boundary was finalized by the [[Peace of Riga]] in March 1921.<ref name="playground 291–321"/><ref name="Heart 115-121"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Biskupski|1987}}.</ref>

[[File:Daszynski and Witos.jpg|thumb|right|[[Wincenty Witos]] (right) and Ignacy Daszyński headed a wartime cabinet in 1920. Witos was an [[Polish People's Party "Piast" (1913–31)|agrarian party]] leader and a centrist politician, later [[Brest trials|persecuted]] under the [[Sanation|Sanation government]].]]

The defeat of the Russian armies forced [[Vladimir Lenin]] and the Soviet leadership to postpone their strategic objective of linking up with the German and other European revolutionary leftist collaborators to spread [[communist revolution]]. Lenin also hoped for generating support for the [[Red Army]] in Poland, which failed to materialize.<ref name="playground 291–321"/>

Piłsudski's seizure of Vilnius in October 1920 (known as [[Żeligowski's Mutiny]]) was a nail in the coffin of the already poor [[Lithuania–Poland relations]] that had been strained by the [[Polish–Lithuanian War]] of 1919–1920; both states would remain hostile to one another for the remainder of the [[interwar period]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|p=231}}.</ref> Piłsudski's concept of [[Intermarium]] (an East European federation of states inspired by the tradition of the multiethnic [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] that would include a hypothetical multinational successor state to the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]])<ref name="Snyder 60-65">{{Harvnb|Snyder|2003|pp=60–65}}.</ref> had the fatal flaw of being incompatible with his assumption of Polish domination, which would amount to an encroachment on the neighboring peoples' lands and aspirations. At the time of rising national movements, the plan thus ceased being a feature of Poland's politics.<ref name="Prazmowska 164-172">{{Harvnb|Prażmowska|2011|pp=164–172}}.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=225, 230, 231}}.</ref><ref name="Snyder 57-60, 62">{{Harvnb|Snyder|2003|pp=57–60, 62}}.</ref>{{Ref label|a|a|none}} A larger federated structure was also opposed by Dmowski's National Democrats. Their representative at the [[Peace of Riga]] talks, [[Stanisław Grabski]], opted for leaving Minsk, [[Berdychiv]], [[Kamianets-Podilskyi]] and the surrounding areas on the Soviet side of the border. The National Democrats did not want to assume the lands they considered politically undesirable, as such territorial enlargement would result in a reduced proportion of citizens who were ethnically Polish.<ref name="Heart 115-121"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|p=230}}.</ref><ref name="Snyder 64-65, 68-69">{{Harvnb|Snyder|2003|pp=64–65, 68–69}}.</ref>

[[File:Wojciech Korfanty in color (2a).jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Wojciech Korfanty]] [[Silesian Uprisings|fought for a Polish Silesia]] and was the leader of the [[Polish Christian Democratic Party]]]]

The Peace of Riga settled the eastern border by preserving for Poland a substantial portion of the old Commonwealth's eastern territories at the cost of partitioning the lands of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Lithuania and Belarus) and Ukraine.<ref name="Heart 115-121"/><ref name="Snyder 63-69">{{Harvnb|Snyder|2003|pp=63–69}}.</ref><ref name="Heart 147">{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|p=147}}</ref> The Ukrainians ended up with no state of their own and felt betrayed by the Riga arrangements; their resentment gave rise to extreme nationalism and anti-Polish hostility.<ref name="Snyder 139-144">{{Harvnb|Snyder|2003|pp=139–144}}.</ref> The [[Kresy]] (or borderland) territories in the east won by 1921 would form the basis for a swap arranged and carried out by the Soviets in 1943–1945, who at that time [[Territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II|compensated]] the re-emerging Polish state for the eastern lands lost to the Soviet Union with [[Recovered Territories|conquered areas of eastern Germany]].<ref name="Heart 115-121, 73-80">{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=73–80, 115–121}}.</ref>

The successful outcome of the Polish–Soviet War gave Poland a false sense of its prowess as a self-sufficient military power and encouraged the government to try to resolve international problems through imposed unilateral solutions.<ref name="Prazmowska 164-172"/><ref name="Lukowski 232">{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|p=232}}.</ref> The territorial and ethnic policies of the interwar period contributed to bad relations with most of Poland's neighbors and uneasy cooperation with more distant centers of power, especially [[France]] and [[United Kingdom|Great Britain]].<ref name="Heart 115-121"/><ref name="Prazmowska 164-172"/><ref name="Lukowski 232"/>

===Democratic politics (1918–1926)===

[[File:Narutowicz.jpg|thumb|right|[[Bier]] of [[Gabriel Narutowicz]], the first President of Poland, who was assassinated in 1922.]]

Among the chief difficulties faced by the government of the new Polish republic was the lack of an integrated infrastructure among the formerly separate partitions, a deficiency that disrupted industry, transportation, trade, and other areas.<ref name="playground 291–321"/>

The first [[1919 Polish legislative election|Polish legislative election]] for the re-established [[Sejm]] (national parliament) took place in January 1919. A temporary [[Small Constitution of 1919|Small Constitution]] was passed by the body the following month.<ref name="Lukowski 223">{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|p=223}}.</ref>

The rapidly growing population of Poland within its new boundaries was three-fourths agricultural and one-fourth urban; Polish was the primary language of only two thirds of the inhabitants of the new country.  The minorities had very little voice in the government. The permanent [[March Constitution of Poland]] was adopted in March 1921. At the insistence of the National Democrats, who were concerned about how aggressively Józef Piłsudski might exercise presidential powers if he were elected to office, the constitution mandated limited prerogatives for the presidency.<ref name="Heart 115-121"/>

[[File:Wladyslaw Grabski ca 1930 (777649) (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Władysław Grabski]] reformed the currency and introduced the [[Polish złoty]] to replace the [[Polish mark|mark]].]]

The proclamation of the March Constitution was followed by a short and turbulent period of constitutional order and parliamentary democracy that lasted until 1926. The legislature remained fragmented, without stable majorities, and governments changed frequently. The open-minded [[Gabriel Narutowicz]] was elected president according to the Constitution by the [[National Assembly (Poland)|National Assembly]] in 1922, without popular vote. However, members of the nationalist right-wing faction did not regard his elevation as legitimate.  They viewed Narutowicz rather as a traitor whose election was pushed through by the votes of alien minorities. Narutowicz and his supporters were subjected to an intense harassment campaign, and the president was assassinated on 16 December 1922, after serving only five days in office.<ref name="Hart 121-123">{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=121–123}}.</ref>

[[Land reform]] measures were passed in 1919 and 1925 under pressure from an impoverished peasantry. They were partially implemented, but resulted in the parcellation of only 20% of the great agricultural estates.<ref name="Ziemia dla chłopów">{{Harvnb|Pilawski|2009}}.</ref> Poland endured numerous economic calamities and disruptions in the early 1920s, including waves of workers' strikes such as the [[1923 Kraków riot]]. The [[German–Polish customs war]], initiated by Germany in 1925, was one of the most damaging external factors that put a strain on Poland's economy.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=237–238}}.</ref><ref name="playground 307, 308">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|pp=307, 308}}.</ref> On the other hand, there were also signs of progress and stabilization, for example a critical reform of finances carried out by the competent government of [[Władysław Grabski]], which lasted almost two years. Certain other achievements of the democratic period having to do with the management of governmental and civic institutions necessary to the functioning of the reunited state and nation were too easily overlooked. Lurking on the sidelines was a disgusted army officer corps unwilling to subject itself to civilian control, but ready to follow the retired Piłsudski, who was highly popular with Poles and just as dissatisfied with the Polish system of government as his former colleagues in the military.<ref name="playground 291–321"/><ref name="Hart 121-123"/>

===Piłsudski's coup and the Sanation Era (1926–1935)===

[[File:Piłsudski May 1926.jpg|thumb|right|Piłsudski's [[May Coup (Poland)|May Coup]] of 1926 defined Poland's political reality in the years leading to World War II]]

On 12 May 1926, Piłsudski staged the [[May Coup (Poland)|May Coup]], a military overthrow of the civilian government mounted against President [[Stanisław Wojciechowski]] and the troops loyal to the legitimate government. Hundreds died in fratricidal fighting.<ref name="playground 312">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|p=312}}.</ref>{{full citation|date=October 2024}} Piłsudski was supported by several leftist factions who ensured the success of his coup by blocking the railway transportation of government forces.<ref name="Hart 123-127">{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=123–127}}.</ref>{{Ref label|b1|b1|none}}{{full citation|date=October 2024}} He also had the support of the conservative great landowners, a move that left the right-wing National Democrats as the only major social force opposed to the takeover.<ref name="playground 291–321"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|1988|pp=45–46}}.</ref>{{Ref label|l|l|none}}<ref name="new sources">
* {{cite book |title=Beyond Empire: Interwar Poland and the Colonial Question, 1918–1939 |last=Puchalski |first=Piotr |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/bfe22980348fd04646924c8349f0eb72 |publisher=The University of Wisconsin-Madison Press |year=2019 |access-date=October 19, 2024}}
* {{cite journal |journal=Studia Iuridica Lublinensia |title=From May to Bereza: A Legal Nihilism in the Political and Legal Practice of the Sanation Camp 1926–1935 |last=Kowalski |first=Wawrzyniec |url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=985623 |publisher=Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Sklodowskiej |issue=5 |pages=133–147 |year=2020 |doi=10.17951/sil.2020.29.5.133-147 |access-date=October 19, 2024|doi-access=free }}
* {{cite journal |journal=Zapiski Historyczne |title=The Formation of Authoritarian Rule in Poland between 1926 and 1939 as a Research Problem |last=Olstowski |first=Przemysław |url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1256530 |publisher=Towarzystwo Naukowe w Toruniu |issue=2 |pages=27–60 |year=2024 |doi=10.15762/ZH.2024.13 |access-date=October 19, 2024 |quote=The case of authoritarian rule in Poland [...] following the [[May Coup (Poland)|May Coup of 1926]], is notable for its unique origins [...] Rooted in a period when Poland lacked statehood [...] Polish authoritarianism evolved [...] Central to this phenomenon was Marshal [[Józef Piłsudski]], the ideological leader of Poland's ruling camp after the May Coup of 1926|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Following the coup, the new government initially respected many parliamentary formalities, but gradually tightened its control and abandoned pretenses. The [[Centrolew]], a coalition of center-left parties, was formed in 1929, and in 1930 called for the "abolition of dictatorship". In 1930, the Sejm was dissolved and a number of opposition deputies were imprisoned at the [[Brest Fortress]]. Five thousand political opponents were arrested ahead of the [[1930 Polish legislative election|Polish legislative election of 1930]],<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 309">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|p=309}}.</ref> which was rigged to award a majority of seats to the pro-government [[Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government]] (BBWR).<ref name="playground 291–321"/><ref name="Wybrać, jak trzeba">{{Harvnb|Garlicki|2009}}.</ref><ref name="Gwałt i ratunek">{{Harvnb|Burnetko|2009}}.</ref>{{full citation|date=October 2024}}<ref name="new sources" />

[[File:Rydz Smigly Bulawa1.jpg|upright|left|thumb|President [[Ignacy Mościcki]] and Marshal [[Edward Rydz-Śmigły]] were among top leaders of [[Sanation]] Poland]]

The authoritarian [[Sanation]] government ("sanation" meant to denote "healing") that Piłsudski led until his death in 1935 (and would remain in place until 1939) reflected the dictator's evolution from his center-left past to conservative alliances.<ref name="Wybrać, jak trzeba"/> Political institutions and parties were allowed to function, but the electoral process was manipulated and those not willing to cooperate submissively were subjected to repression. From 1930, persistent opponents of the government, many of the leftist persuasion, were imprisoned and subjected to [[show trial|staged legal processes]] with harsh sentences, such as the [[Brest trials]], or else detained in the [[Bereza Kartuska prison]] and similar camps for political prisoners. About three thousand were detained without trial at different times at the Bereza [[internment]] camp between 1934 and 1939. In 1936 for example, 369 activists were taken there, including 342 [[Communist Party of Poland|Polish communists]].<ref name="Bereza, Polski obóz koncentracyjny">{{Harvnb|Garlicki|2008}}.</ref> Rebellious peasants staged riots in 1932, 1933 and the [[1937 peasant strike in Poland]]. Other civil disturbances were caused by striking industrial workers (e.g. events of the "Bloody Spring" of 1936), nationalist Ukrainians{{Ref label|p|p|none}} and the activists of the incipient Belarusian movement. All became targets of ruthless police-military pacification.<ref name="playground 291–321"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=248–249}}.</ref><ref name="Brzoza Sowa 322–329">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|pp=322–329}}.</ref><ref name="Brzoza Sowa 353–359">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|pp=353–359}}.</ref>{{Ref label|y|y|none}} Besides sponsoring political repression, the government fostered [[Józef Piłsudski's cult of personality]] that had already existed long before he assumed dictatorial powers.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

Piłsudski signed the [[Soviet–Polish Non-Aggression Pact]] in 1932 and the [[German–Polish declaration of non-aggression]] in 1934,<ref name="Hart 123-127"/> but in 1933 he insisted that there was no threat from the East or West and said that Poland's politics were focused on becoming fully independent without serving foreign interests.<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|1988|pp=124–125}}.</ref> He initiated the policy of maintaining an equal distance and an adjustable middle course regarding the two great neighbors, later continued by [[Józef Beck]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Zgórniak|Łaptos|Solarz|2006|p=379}}.</ref> Piłsudski kept personal control of the army, but it was poorly equipped, poorly trained and had poor preparations in place for possible future conflicts.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kochanski|2012|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=EJ5vIyDBpLcC&pg=PA52 52–53]}}.</ref> His only war plan was a defensive war against a Soviet invasion.<ref>{{Harvnb|Drzewieniecki|1981}}.</ref>{{Ref label|r|r|none}} The slow modernization after Piłsudski's death fell far behind the progress made by Poland's neighbors and measures to protect the western border, discontinued by Piłsudski from 1926, were not undertaken until March 1939.<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|pp=37–38}}.</ref>{{full citation|date=October 2024}}

Sanation deputies in the Sejm used a parliamentary maneuver to abolish the democratic [[March Constitution of Poland|March Constitution]] and push through a more authoritarian [[April Constitution of Poland|April Constitution]] in 1935; it reduced the powers of the Sejm, which Piłsudski despised.<ref name="playground 291–321"/> The process and the resulting document were seen as illegitimate by the anti-Sanation opposition, but during World War II, the [[Polish government-in-exile]] recognized the April Constitution in order to uphold the legal continuity of the Polish state.<ref>{{Harvnb|Szeląg|1968|pp=11–12}}.</ref>{{full citation|date=October 2024}} Between 1932 and 1933 [[Józef Piłsudski|Piłsudski]] and [[Józef Beck|Beck]] initiated several incidents along the borders with Germany and [[Free City of Danzig|Danzig]], both to test whether Western powers would protect the [[Treaty of Versailles|Versailles]] arrangements (on which Polish security depended), and as preparation for a [[preventative war]] against Germany. At the same time they sent emissaries to London and Paris, looking for their support in stopping [[German rearmament|Germany's rearmament effort]]. An invasion to Danzig by Poland was scheduled for April 21, 1933, but the amassing of troops was discovered and the invasion was postponed. At the time an invasion by Poland would have posed a serious military threat to Germany, but with the British rejecting the idea (in favor of the [[Four-Power Pact]]), and with wavering support from the French, the Poles had eventually reneged on the idea of invasion. Between 1933 and 1934 Germany would increase its armament expenditures by 68%, and by January 1934 the two powers would sign a ten-year [[German–Polish declaration of non-aggression|non-aggression pact]].<ref name="Crockett 2009">{{Cite journal |last=Crockett |first=Jameson W. |date=2009-12-10 |title=The Polish Blitz, More than a Mere Footnote to History: Poland and Preventive War with Germany, 1933 |journal=Diplomacy & Statecraft |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=561–579 |doi=10.1080/09592290903455667 |s2cid=153437646 |issn=0959-2296}}</ref><ref name="new sources" /> When Marshal Piłsudski died in 1935, he retained the support of dominant sections of Polish society even though he never risked testing his popularity in an honest election.  His government was dictatorial, but at that time only [[Czechoslovakia]] remained democratic in all of the regions neighboring Poland. Historians have taken widely divergent views of the meaning and consequences of the coup Piłsudski perpetrated and his personal rule that followed.<ref name="Gwałt i ratunek"/>

===Social and economic trends of the interwar period===

[[File:Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski 1.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski]] promoted Poland's [[Central Industrial Region (Poland)|Central Industrial Region]]]]

Independence stimulated the development of [[Polish culture in the Interbellum]] and intellectual achievement was high. Warsaw, whose population almost doubled between World War I and World War II, was a restless, burgeoning metropolis. It outpaced Kraków, [[Lviv|Lwów]] and [[Vilnius|Wilno]], the other major population centers of the country.<ref name="playground 291–321"/> Mainstream Polish society was not affected by the repressions of the Sanation authorities overall;<ref name="Heart 126">{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|p=126}}.</ref> many Poles enjoyed relative stability, and the economy improved markedly between 1926 and 1929, only to become caught up in the global [[Great Depression]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|p=242}}.</ref> After 1929, the country's [[industrial production]] and [[gross national income]] slumped by about 50%.<ref>{{Harvnb|Zgórniak|Łaptos|Solarz|2006|p=444}}.</ref>{{full citation|date=October 2024}}<ref name="new sources" />

The Great Depression brought low prices for farmers and unemployment for workers. Social tensions increased, including rising [[antisemitism]]. A major economic transformation and multi-year state plan to achieve national industrial development, as embodied in the [[Central Industrial Region (Poland)|Central Industrial Region]] initiative launched in 1936, was led by Minister [[Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski]]. Motivated primarily by the need for a native [[arms industry]], the initiative was in progress at the time of the outbreak of World War II. Kwiatkowski was also the main architect of the earlier [[Gdynia]] seaport project.<ref name="playground 291–321"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=249–250}}.</ref>

[[File:Gdynia - ul. 10 Lutego - gmach B.G.K. 1937-1939 (68909901).jpg|thumb|right|[[Gdynia]] was a newly built city in the [[Polish Corridor]] and acted as a major seaport project on the [[Baltic Sea]]. Its [[Modernist Center of Gdynia|Modernist Center]] is an important architectural landmark.]]

The prevalent in political circles [[nationalism]] was fueled by the large size of Poland's minority populations and their separate agendas. According to the language criterion of the [[Polish census of 1931]], the Poles constituted 69% of the population, Ukrainians 15%, Jews (defined as speakers of the [[Yiddish]] language) 8.5%, Belarusians 4.7%, Germans 2.2%, Lithuanians 0.25%, Russians 0.25% and Czechs 0.09%, with some geographical areas dominated by a particular minority. In time, the ethnic conflicts intensified, and the Polish state grew less tolerant of the interests of its national minorities. In interwar Poland, compulsory free general education substantially reduced illiteracy rates, but discrimination was practiced in a way that resulted in a dramatic decrease in the number of [[Ukrainian language]] schools and official restrictions on Jewish attendance at selected schools in the late 1930s.<ref name="playground 291–321"/>

The population grew steadily, reaching 35 million in 1939. However, the overall economic situation in the interwar period was one of [[Economic stagnation|stagnation]]. There was little money for investment inside Poland, and few foreigners were interested in investing there.<ref name="playground 291–321"/> Total industrial production barely increased between 1913 and 1939 (within the area delimited by the 1939 borders), but because of population growth (from 26.3 million in 1919 to 34.8 million in 1939),<ref name="playground 291–321"/> the ''per capita'' output actually decreased by 18%.<ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|p=360}}.</ref>

Conditions in the predominant agricultural sector kept deteriorating between 1929 and 1939, which resulted in rural unrest and a progressive radicalization of the Polish peasant movement that became increasingly inclined toward militant anti-state activities. It was firmly repressed by the authorities. According to [[Norman Davies]], the failures of the Sanation government (combined with the objective economic realities) caused a radicalization of the Polish masses by the end of the 1930s, but he warns against drawing parallels with the incomparably more oppressive [[Nazi Germany]] or the [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] [[Soviet Union]].<ref name="playground 291–321"/>

===Final Sanation years (1935–1939)===

[[File:Składkowski premierem.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|A year after Piłsudski's death, his former personal assistant General [[Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski]] became the [[Second Polish Republic]]'s last prime minister]]

After Piłsudski's death in 1935, Poland was governed until (and initially during) the [[Invasion of Poland|German invasion of 1939]] by old allies and subordinates known as "[[Piłsudski's colonels]]".  They had neither the vision nor the resources to cope with the perilous situation facing Poland in the late 1930s. The colonels had gradually assumed greater powers during Piłsudski's life by manipulating the ailing marshal behind the scenes.<ref>{{Harvnb|Szeląg|1968|p=125}}.</ref> Eventually they achieved an overt politicization of the army that did nothing to help prepare the country for war.<ref name="playground 291–321"/>

[[File:Beck przemówienie.jpg|thumb|upright|Foreign Minister [[Józef Beck]] rejected the proposed risky alliances with [[Nazi Germany]] and with the [[Soviet Union]]<ref name="playground 291–321"/>]]

Foreign policy was the responsibility of [[Józef Beck]], under whom Polish diplomacy attempted balanced approaches toward Germany and the Soviet Union, without success, on the basis of a flawed understanding of the European geopolitics of his day. Beck had numerous foreign policy schemes and harbored illusions of Poland's status as a great power. He alienated most of Poland's neighbors, but is not blamed by historians for the ultimate failure of relations with Germany. The principal events of his tenure were concentrated in its last two years. In the case of the [[1938 Polish ultimatum to Lithuania]], the Polish action nearly resulted in a German takeover of southwest [[Lithuania]], the [[Klaipėda Region]] (Memel Territory), which had a largely German population.<ref>{{Harvnb|Zgórniak|Łaptos|Solarz|2006|pp=391–393}}.</ref> Also in 1938, the Polish government opportunistically undertook a hostile action against the [[Czechoslovakia|Czechoslovak]] state as weakened by the [[Munich Agreement]] and [[Polish–Czechoslovak border conflicts|annexed a small piece of territory]] on its borders.<ref>{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|p=128}}.</ref> In this case, Beck's understanding of the consequences of the Polish military move turned out to be completely mistaken,<ref>{{Harvnb|Zgórniak|Łaptos|Solarz|2006|pp=409–410}}.</ref><ref name="Jak Polacy i Rosjanie młócą historię">{{Harvnb|Zasuń|2009}}.</ref> because in the end the [[German occupation of Czechoslovakia]] markedly weakened Poland's own position.<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|p=26}}.</ref> Furthermore, Beck erroneously believed that Nazi-Soviet ideological contradictions would preclude their cooperation.<ref name="Zgórniak 455–465">{{Harvnb|Zgórniak|Łaptos|Solarz|2006|pp=455–465}}.</ref>

At home, increasingly alienated and suppressed minorities threatened unrest and violence. Extreme nationalist circles such as the [[National Radical Camp (1934)|National Radical Camp]] grew more outspoken. One of the groups, the [[Camp of National Unity]], combined many nationalists with Sanation supporters and was connected to the new strongman, Marshal [[Edward Rydz-Śmigły]], whose faction of the Sanation ruling movement was increasingly nationalistic.<ref name="playground 291–321"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=247–248, 251–252}}.</ref><ref name="Heart 127-129">{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=127–129}}.</ref><ref name="Brzoza Sowa 361–365">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|pp=361–365}}.</ref>

In the late 1930s, the exile bloc [[Front Morges]] united several major Polish anti-Sanation figures, including [[Ignacy Jan Paderewski|Ignacy Paderewski]], [[Władysław Sikorski]], [[Wincenty Witos]], [[Wojciech Korfanty]] and [[Józef Haller]]. It gained little influence inside Poland, but its spirit soon reappeared during [[World War II]], within the [[Polish government-in-exile]].<ref name="playground 291–321"/>

[[File:Ulica Marszałkowska w Warszawie przed 1939a.jpg|thumb|left|185px|[[Warsaw]] was one of Europe's chief cities before the [[Second World War]], pictured in 1939]]

In October 1938, [[Joachim von Ribbentrop]] first proposed German-Polish territorial adjustments and Poland's participation in the [[Anti-Comintern Pact]] against the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Harvnb|Zgórniak|Łaptos|Solarz|2006|pp=412–413}}.</ref> The status of the [[Free City of Danzig]] was one of the key bones of contention. Approached by Ribbentrop again in March 1939, the Polish government expressed willingness to address issues causing German concern, but effectively rejected Germany's stated demands and thus refused to allow Poland to be turned by [[Adolf Hitler]] into a German [[puppet state]].<ref name="Zgórniak 422–425">{{Harvnb|Zgórniak|Łaptos|Solarz|2006|pp=422–425}}.</ref> Hitler, incensed by the British and French declarations of support for Poland,<ref name="Zgórniak 422–425"/> abrogated the [[German–Polish declaration of non-aggression]] in late April 1939.<ref name="playground 291–321"/><ref name="Zgórniak 455–465"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=252–253}}.</ref>

To protect itself from an increasingly aggressive [[Nazi Germany]], already responsible for the annexations of [[Austria]] (in the [[Anschluss]] of 1938), Czechoslovakia (in 1939) and a part of Lithuania after the [[1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania]], Poland entered into a military alliance with Britain and France (the 1939 [[Anglo-Polish military alliance]] and the [[Franco-Polish alliance (1921)]], as updated in 1939).<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|pp=38–40}}.</ref> However, the two Western powers were defense-oriented and not in a strong position, either geographically or in terms of resources, to assist Poland. Attempts were therefore made by them to induce Soviet-Polish cooperation, which they viewed as the only militarily viable arrangement.<ref name="playground 319-320">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|pp=319–320}}.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Zgórniak|Łaptos|Solarz|2006|p=454}}.</ref>

Diplomatic manoeuvers continued in the spring and summer of 1939, but in their final attempts, the Franco-British talks with the Soviets in Moscow on forming an anti-Nazi defensive military alliance failed. Warsaw's refusal to allow the [[Red Army]] to operate on Polish territory doomed the Western efforts.<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|p=29}}.</ref> The final contentious Allied-Soviet exchanges took place on 21 and 23 August 1939.<ref name="Zgórniak 455–465"/><ref name="Heart 155-156">{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=155–156}}.</ref>{{Ref label|b|b|none}} The [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] state was the target of an intense German counter-initiative and was concurrently involved in increasingly effective negotiations with Hitler's agents. On 23 August, an outcome contrary to the exertions of the Allies became a reality: in Moscow, Germany and the Soviet Union hurriedly signed the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]], which secretly provided for the dismemberment of Poland into Nazi- and Soviet-controlled zones.<ref name="playground 291–321"/><ref name="Zgórniak 455–465"/><ref name="Heart 127-129"/>