1918
Pi連udski arrived in Warsaw on 10 November 1918. On the 14 November, he was recognised as Head of State of a reborn Poland by what remained of the German puppet state's Regency Council, though only provisionally. He tried to create a coalition government. Opposition came from two sources: the SDKPiL and PPS- Lewica combined forming the Komunistyczna Partia Robotnicza Polska (KRRP), from 1925 called the Polska Partia Robotnicza (PPR), and set up Soviet style workers councils in the D鉉rowa area, but they had little influence. The National Democrats wanted Dmowski to assume his rightful place in the Polish political scene. He organised demonstrations against the interim government. Dmowski himself perceived the need for a coalition government, given the spread of communism and Poland's exposed position and weakness.
Pi連udski's best expression of his own attitudes came on 16 December: "All parties, without exception, should understand that they must subordinate themselves to the general interest."
1919
The deadlock was broken by Ignacy Paderewski, the pianist, and an attempted army coup of 4-5 January 1919. (It is suspected that Pi連udski may have provoked the coup himself !). Elections were held soon afterwards: 26 January 1919 — in two area: the Kingdom of Poland, and West Galicia.
Results:
Kr鏊estwo
ND National Democrats 45.5%
PSL Polish Peasant Party 22%
PPS Polish Socialist Party 8.5%
PZL Polish Peasant Union 22.5%
PSL-Piast 2%
West Galicia
PSL-Piast 34%
PSL-Lewica 20%
Polish Soc. Dem. Party (PPDS) 18%
ND 10%
Catholic Peasant Party (SKL) 9%
This gave the following breakdown of the Sejm in Warsaw:
Right (ND etc) 37%
Centre (SKL, PZL, PSL-Piast) 15.5%
Left (PSL-Lew, PPS, PPSD) 34%
Minorities 11%
Constitution of New State 1921
French model (WWI — victory of democracy over autocracy), but NDs wanted to limit the role of the president, whom they feared would be Pi連udski. Sejm elected by universal suffrage/proportional representation. It had the right to give votes of no-confidence in individual ministers or governments, to question the administration on policies and had ultimate say in most military and fiscal matters.
President elected for seven years by Sejm and Senate could not veto legislation.
Senate elected by universal suffrage, by those over 25, could delay bills that had only 11/20ths of the support of the Sejm.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
French model of highly centralised State adopted (though slogan was for decentralisation).
FRAGMENTATION
In Russia — trying to achieve limited aims.
In Prussia — constitutional government.
In Austria — voicing armed uprising
Different political traditions in the 3 Partititions.
By 1925: 92 registered parties (32 represented in Sejm). Between 1918 and 1926: 14 cabinets. Stanis豉w Treugutt: "everyone wants to be in opposition, no one wants to take responsibility." Gradual rise in corruption (political immaturity was the Russian/Austrian legacy. Preoccupation for 123 years with national survival obscured. Ukrainian/Belorusian/Jewish/German minority problems. Centralisation gave peripheral areas little scope for development, generating considerable resentment towards the centre (only some 2/3rds of population were actually Polish). National insecurity grew as Germany and Soviet Russia resented the borders that Poland had set itself by 1922; they therefore cultivated the minorities' grievances, so, too, Lithuania and Czechoslovakia.
Poland had enormous problems: inflation, poverty, a ravaged economy and the strain of military operations during the years 1918-1921. After the collapse of the Partitions taxation system, governments resorted to printing money. No hope for discipline: the socialists refused to accept that workers should make sacrifices. Peasant parties violently opposed the freezing of agricultural prices, while the right refused to inhibit industry.
Inflation:
Dec 1918 $1=9.8 Polish marks
end 1920 $1=579.3 Polish marks Dec 1922 $1=17,808 Polish marks
Nov 1922 $1=2,300,000 Polish marks. This led to workers and peasants striking, upper classes and intelligentsia developed more extreme political attitudes.
1921 Dojlidy Affair: PSL-Piast members of Sejm involved in land speculation. Eroded confidence in parliamentary system.
So-called conflict between Pi連udski and Dmowski. Pi連udski resented limitations on presidential power and the two disagreed particularly about the composition of the officer corps in the army. Some were from the Pi連udski POW, who lacked formal military training. They suspected professional soldiers (from the Austrian army) and such troops formed under Haller. The quarrel related to credentials. Pi連udski managed to retain the formal independence of the army by pre-empting the constitution of 1921, and in this way he retained the attitudes of a Partitioning autocratic power in an independent Poland.
Jan 1920 The Centre (60% of seats) had an absolute majority until elections of 1922 (led by Skulski, then Grabski, G章bi雟ki, Ponikowski). Land reform led to the collapse of the Skulski government, combined with the Soviet offensive of 1920. Grabski s government survived until the Spa conference of 5-16 July, replaced by an all-party coalition headed by Wincenty Witos, in the face of the Soviet invasion.
1921 When the threat had passed, parties seceded from government (ND and various socialists). Government finally fell in September 1921 when Christian Democrats and NPZ withdrew their support.
Sept 1921 ND attempt to form government under G章bi雟ki failed and by 20 September another compromise coalition was set up, under Ponikowski. The Finance Minister Jerzy Michalski tried to drastically reduce deficits, but caused widespread strikes.
6 June 1922 This government fell because of a personal clash between Foreign Minister Skirmunt and Pi連udski. The ND tried to take advantage of the mood of exasperation by moving a vote of no-confidence in the new government established by Pi連udski's supporter Artur Œliwi雟ki, but in trying to foist Wojciech Korfanty on the Sejm, the ND overreached itself and a motion of no-confidence in Pi連udski was defeated (207/187). Another non-party government was created under Julian Nowak, including most of the Œliwi雟ki cabinet, together with Pi連udski's nominee for Foreign Minister, Gabriel Narutowicz. This government supervised the elections of November 1922 as called for by the new constitution.
Nov 1922 The new elections caused chaos. No clear majority resulted:
ND et al 30% Seats 125
Piast PSL, ChD et al 21% 132
Left wing PPS etc 25% 98
Minorities 21% 89
The centre was considerably increased at the expense of the Right and Left, but the shock was the showing of the minorities. Coalition was necessary but difficult to achieve. Specific problems occurred over the election of a president. Pi連udski refused to stand. The NDs nominated Maurycy Zamoyski, PSL-Piast nominated Stanis豉w Wojciechowski, and on the Left the most respected nominee was Gabriel Narutowicz, who was finally elected on the fifth ballot by the Sejm/Senate. The result was a tense political situation. The ND blamed its showing on a conspiracy by the Jews, and nationalist mobs attacked parliament. Finally, two days after his inauguration, Narutowicz was assassinated by an ND fanatic Eligiusz Niewiadomski on 22 December 1922. This almost caused a civil war between factions of the ND and PPS, and the situation was defused by the formation of a cabinet under General Sikorski, a Centre-Left coalition with the participation of PSL-Piast. Wojciechowski became president.
1923 The new government faced a major economic crisis. The Polish mark fell from 3,957 to $1, to 18,075 to the dollar. While Grabski, who defected from the ND, successfully moved towards balancing the budget, the coalition was nullified by the defection of the whole PSL-Piast group on making an agreement with the ND on land reform (the so-called Lanckorsi雟ka pact). This paved the way for a government headed by Witos, with a secure majority in the Sejm. But it was disliked profoundly by the Left and the national minorities and, after the departure of General Sosnkowski as minister of war, it was only a short time (29 May 1923) before Pi連udski himself resigned his post as Head of Armed Forces, and appeared to go into retirement.
The government tried to retain the support of the ND industrialists and PSL-Piast peasants, and thus hesitated with economic measures, leading to soaring inflation (partly influenced by German hyper-inflation: 6,000,000 marks to $1 in December). Strikes resulted and the PPS inspired workers to take over Craco after clashes with the police, on 5 November. Pi連udski was annoyed about the compromise reached between government and PPS, and now felt that even his own party was unreliable. The Witos government fell on 14 December.
GRABSKI
The new government of W豉dys豉w Grabski, granted special powers by the Sejm, lasted from December 1923 until November 1925, the longest government since independence. Grabski supervised a new fiscal policy, the introduction of a new currency (the z這ty) and a new Polish Central Bank. this at least gave his government a breathing space to deal with other problems:
February 1925 Concordat with Vatican; July 1925, compromise formula on land reform with Sejm.
It was only Pi連udski who refused to give any sign of compromise with Grabski's government, and Sikorski once more was involved in an argument with the Marshall. It also had problems with the national minorities. Stanis豉w Theugutt was made minister with special responsibilities for the national minorities, and his resignation in May 1925 was followed by large-scale nationalist and communist terrorist attacks. Grabski attempted to organise reform in minority policy but proved unsuccessful. Grabski's fiscal policy also collapsed in the summer of 1925 under the pressure of the Polish-German Tariff War begun in June that year. When the Director of the Bank refused to accept the validity of government policy, Grabski's cabinet resigned.
In November 1925 another non-party government led by Aleksander Skrzy雟ki ensued. He was faced by an enormous rise in unemployment (250,000).
May 1926
Financial and employment circumstances again conspired against the new government, which fell on 5 May 1926. In a worsening international situation (the Soviet-German Neutrality Pact of April 1926 in particular), President Wojciechowski again called on Wincenty Witos to form a government on 10 May 1926. The idea was anathema to the Left, and to Pi連udski in Sulej闚ek. To many Poles, Pi連udski's years of retirement had left him untainted by the incompetence, corruption and self-interest of the great majority of politicians. So, on 12 May, he called on Wojciechowski, an old friend, to rescind the Witos government. When he declined the Marshall's advice, fighting broke out between government and Pi連udski's troops. The PPS supported Pi連udski, calling for a strike on the railways to prevent government troops moving to Warsaw from the provinces. After 3 days of fighting, Pi連udski was master of the capital and thus also of Poland. Wojciechowski resigned as president (14 May 1926).
呻r John Bates, 1999