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Poland From Democracy to Totalitarianism
Reborn Poland faced a host of daunting challenges:
extensive
war damage, a ravaged economy, a population one-third
composed of
wary national minorities, and a need to reintegrate the
three
zones kept forcibly apart during the era of partition.
Under
these trying conditions, the experiment with democracy
faltered.
Formal political life began in 1921 with adoption of a
constitution that designed Poland as a republic modeled
after the
French example, vesting most authority in the legislature.
The
postwar parliamentary system proved unstable and erratic.
In 1922
disputes with political foes caused Pilsudski to resign
his posts
as chief of state and commander of the armed forces, but
in 1926
he assumed power in a coup that followed four years of
ineffectual government. For the next decade, Pilsudski
dominated
Polish affairs as strongman of a generally popular
centrist
regime. Military in character, the government of Pilsudski
mixed
democratic and dictatorial elements while pursuing
sanacja, or national cleansing. After Pilsudski's
death in
1935, his protégé successors drifted toward open
authoritarianism.
In many respects, the Second Republic fell short of the
high
expectations of 1918. As happened elsewhere in Central
Europe,
the attempt to implant democracy did not succeed. Minority
peoples became increasingly alienated, and antisemitism
rose
palpably in the general population. Nevertheless, interwar
Poland
could justifiably claim some noteworthy accomplishments:
economic
advances, the revival of Polish education and culture
after
decades of official curbs, and, above all, reaffirmation
of the
Polish nationhood that had been disputed so long. Despite
its
defects, the Second Republic retained a strong hold on
later
generations of Poles as a genuinely independent and
authentic
expression of Polish national aspirations.
Data as of October 1992
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