Editing Józef Piłsudski (section)

==Rebuilding Poland==

=== Head of state ===
[[File:Ulica Mokotowska 50, Warsaw.JPG|thumb|right|alt=see caption|''[[Mokotowska Street|Ulica Mokotowska]] 50'', Warsaw, where Piłsudski stayed 13–29 November 1918, after his release from Magdeburg]]
[[File:Polski automobil pancerny z obrony Lwowa 1918-19.JPG|thumb|alt=A man standing in front of an armored car|''Piłsudski'' improvised armored car, 1919, named after Piłsudski]]
On 11 November 1918, Piłsudski was appointed [[Commander-in-chief|Commander-in-Chief]] of Polish forces by the [[Regency Council (Poland)|Regency Council]] and was entrusted with creating a national government for the newly independent country. Later that day, which would become [[Poland's Independence Day]], he proclaimed an independent Polish state.{{r|Cienciala02}} That week, Piłsudski negotiated the evacuation of the German garrison from Warsaw and of other German troops from [[Ober Ost]]. Over 55,000 Germans peacefully departed Poland, leaving their weapons to the Poles. In the coming months, over 400,000 in total departed over Polish territories.{{r|Cienciala02|Urbank97_256_277–8}}

On 14 November 1918, Piłsudski was asked to supervise provisionally the running of the country. On 22 November he officially received, from the new government of [[Jędrzej Moraczewski]], the title of Provisional Chief of State (''Tymczasowy Naczelnik Państwa'') of renascent Poland.{{r|PolandGov}} Various Polish military organizations and provisional governments (the Regency Council in Warsaw; [[Ignacy Daszyński]]'s government in [[Lublin]]; and the [[Polish Liquidation Committee]] in Kraków) supported Piłsudski. He established a coalition government that was predominantly socialist and introduced many reforms long proclaimed as necessary by the Polish Socialist Party, such as the [[eight-hour day]], free school education and [[women's suffrage]], to avoid major unrest. As head of state, Piłsudski believed he must remain separated from partisan politics.{{r|PWN|Cienciala02}}

The day after his arrival in Warsaw, he met with old colleagues from his time working with the underground resistance, who addressed him socialist-style as "[[Comrade]]" (''Towarzysz'') and asked for his support for their revolutionary policies. He refused it and supposedly answered: <blockquote>"Comrades, I took the red tram of socialism to the stop called Independence, and that's where I got off. You may keep on to the final stop if you wish, but from now on let's address each other as '[[Slavic honorifics|Mister']] [rather than continue using the socialist term of address, 'Comrade']!"{{r|PolandGov}}</blockquote>However, the authenticity of this quote is disputed.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gdzie Piłsudski wysiadł z tramwaju, czyli historie poprzekręcane |url=https://histmag.org/Gdzie-Pilsudski-wysiadl-z-tramwaju-czyli-historie-poprzekrecane-14909 |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=histmag.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title="Wysiadłem z czerwonego tramwaju...", czyli czego NIE powiedział Józef Piłsudski |url=https://kurierhistoryczny.pl/artykul/wysiadlem-z-czerwonego-tramwaju-czyli-czego-nie-powiedzial-jozef-pilsudski,368 |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=Kurier Historyczny}}</ref> Piłsudski declined to support any party and did not form any political organization of his own; instead, he advocated creating a coalition government.{{r|PWN|Suleja04_202}}

=== First policies ===
Piłsudski set about organizing a Polish army out of Polish veterans of the German, Russian, and Austrian armies. Much of former Russian Poland had been destroyed in the war, and systematic looting by the Germans had reduced the region's wealth by at least 10%.{{r|McM03_210}} A British diplomat who visited Warsaw in January 1919 reported: "I have nowhere seen anything like the evidence of extreme poverty and wretchedness that meet one's eye at almost every turn."{{r|McM03_210}} In addition, the country had to unify the disparate systems of law, economics, and [[administration (government)|administration]] in the former German, Austrian, and Russian sectors of Poland. There were nine legal systems, five currencies, and 66 types of rail systems (with 165 models of locomotives), each needing to be consolidated.{{r|McM03_210}}

[[File:Warszawaid4.jpg|thumb|alt=see caption|Statue of Piłsudski in front of Warsaw's [[Belweder]] Palace, Piłsudski's official residence during his years in power]]

Biographer [[Wacław Jędrzejewicz]] described Piłsudski as very deliberate in his decision-making: Piłsudski collected all available pertinent information, then took his time weighing it before arriving at a final decision. He held long working hours, and maintained a simple lifestyle, eating plain meals alone at an inexpensive restaurant.{{r|McM03_210}} Though he was popular with much of the Polish public, his reputation as a loner (the result of many years' underground work) and as a man who distrusted almost everyone led to strained relations with other Polish politicians.{{r|McM03_209}}

Piłsudski and the first Polish government were distrusted in the West because he had co-operated with the Central Powers from 1914 to 1917 and because the governments of Daszyński and Moraczewski were primarily socialist.{{r|Cienciala02}} It was not until January 1919, when pianist and composer [[Ignacy Jan Paderewski]] became [[Prime Minister of Poland]] and foreign minister of a new government, that Poland was recognized in the West.{{r|Cienciala02}} Two separate governments were claiming to be Poland's legitimate government: Piłsudski's in Warsaw and Dmowski's in Paris.{{r|McM03_210}} To ensure that Poland had a single government and to avert civil war, Paderewski met with Dmowski and Piłsudski and persuaded them to join forces, with Piłsudski acting as Provisional Chief of State and Commander-in-Chief, while Dmowski and Paderewski represented Poland at the [[Paris Peace Conference of 1919|Paris Peace Conference]].{{r|McM03_213-4}} Articles 87–93 of the [[Treaty of Versailles]]{{r|VersaillesTreaty1919_87-93}} and the [[Little Treaty of Versailles]], signed on 28 June 1919, formally established Poland as an independent and sovereign state in the international arena.{{r|Grant99_114}}

Piłsudski often clashed with Dmowski for viewing the Poles as the dominant nationality in renascent Poland, and attempting to send the [[Blue Army (Poland)|Blue Army]] to Poland through Danzig, Germany (now [[Gdańsk]], Poland).{{r|McM03_211-214|Boemeke98_314}} On 5 January 1919, some of Dmowski's supporters ([[Marian Januszajtis-Żegota]] and [[Eustachy Sapieha]]) attempted [[Polish Coup (1919)|a coup]] against Piłsudski but failed.{{r|Urbank97_499–501}} On 20 February 1919, Polish parliament (the [[Sejm]]) confirmed his office when it passed the [[Little Constitution of 1919]], although Piłsudski proclaimed his intention to eventually relinquish his powers to the parliament. "Provisional" was struck from his title, and Piłsudski held the office of the Chief of State until 9 December 1922, after [[Gabriel Narutowicz]] was elected as the first [[president of Poland]].{{r|PolandGov}}

Piłsudski's major foreign policy initiative was a proposed federation (to be called ''"Międzymorze"'' ([[Polish language|Polish]] for "Between-Seas"), and known from the [[Latin]] as ''[[Intermarium]]'', stretching from the [[Baltic Sea]] to the [[Black Sea]]. In addition to Poland and Lithuania, it was to consist of [[Ukraine]], [[Belarus]], [[Latvia]] and [[Estonia]],{{r|Cienciala02}} somewhat in emulation of the [[partitions of Poland|pre-partition]] [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]].{{r|PWN}}{{sfn|Jędrzejewicz|1990|p=93}} Piłsudski's plan met with opposition from most of the prospective member states, which refused to relinquish their independence, as well as the Allied powers, who thought it to be too bold a change to the existing [[balance of power in international relations|balance-of-power]] structure.{{r|HistNet_01}} According to historian [[George Sanford (political scientist)|George Sanford]], it was around 1920 that Piłsudski came to realize the infeasibility of that version of his Intermarium project.{{sfn|Sanford|2002|pp=5–6}} Instead of a Central and Eastern European alliance, there soon appeared a series of border conflicts, including the [[Polish–Ukrainian War]] (1918–19), the [[Polish–Lithuanian War]] (1919–1920, culminating in [[Żeligowski's Mutiny]]), [[Polish–Czechoslovak border conflicts]] (beginning in 1918), and most notably the Polish–Soviet War (1919–21).{{r|PWN}} [[Winston Churchill]] commented, "The war of giants has ended; the wars of the pygmies have begun."{{r|HydeP01_75}}