Second Polish Republic
제2 폴란드 공화국
The Second Polish Republic refers to the Polish state that regained independence in 1918 and was destroyed as a sovereign territory by the German and Soviet invasions of 1939. Its borders were settled through the postwar treaties and a series of conflicts, including the Polish–Soviet War, and its population included large Ukrainian, Jewish, Belarusian, and German minorities alongside Poles. After the May 1926 coup, Józef Piłsudski’s Sanacja movement shifted the political order from parliamentary government toward authoritarian rule.
In depth
State formation and territory
Poland regained independence in 1918 after more than a century of partition by three empires. Its eastern frontier was largely settled by the Treaty of Riga in 1921 and international recognition in 1922, and the state extended from the Baltic coast into areas that are now parts of Ukraine and Belarus. Its area was about 389,000 square kilometres in 1938.
Population and nationality
The population rose from about 25.7 million in the 1921 census to an estimated 35.1 million in 1939. Minorities made up nearly one-third of the population, with Ukrainians accounting for about 14.3% in 1921. Conflicts over land, language, administration, and schooling in the eastern borderlands, involving Polish assimilation policies and Ukrainian nationalist movements, remained a central problem of state integration.
Sanacja
After Piłsudski’s May 1926 coup, Sanacja reorganised the state in the name of healing politics from partisan corruption. The 1928 election retained meaningful competition, but opposition repression, the Brest trials, and detention at Bereza Kartuska followed in the 1930s, while the 1935 constitution strengthened the executive and presidency. The regime distinguished itself from fascism and totalitarianism, yet it constituted an authoritarian order that restricted parliamentary democracy.
Collapse
Germany’s invasion in September 1939, followed by the Soviet invasion on 17 September, brought occupation of the state’s territory. A government-in-exile maintained the legal continuity of the Second Republic during the war.
Sources
- Wikipedia (EN) (supports the state's 1918–1939 history, borders, population composition, 1926 coup, Sanacja political order, and 1939 invasions)
- pl.wikipedia.org (supports the Polish historical name, territory, demographic composition, and constitutional shift toward authoritarianism)
- blogs.ucl.ac.uk (supports the 1921 minority proportions, Ukrainian regional concentration, and Polish-Ukrainian nationality conflict)