Editing Republic of Poland (1918–1939)

{{Infobox country|name=Republic of Poland|native_name=Rzeczpospolita Polska|image_flag=Flag_of_Poland_(1927–1980).svg|image_map=Poland_1930.svg|map_width=290|largest_city=[[Warsaw]]|mode_of_production=[[Capitalism]]|government_type=Unitary Bourgeois Republic|capital=[[Warsaw]]|official_languages=Polish|regional_languages=German<br>Belarusian<br>Lithuanian<br>Ukrainian|area_km2=388,634|population_estimate=35,100,000|population_estimate_year=1939}}

The ('''Second''') '''Polish Republic''', officially the '''Republic of Poland''', was a state in [[Central Europe]] which existed from 1918 to 1939.

== History ==

=== Polish–Soviet War ===
In 1919, Poland invaded western [[Belarus]] and [[Ukraine]], beginning a war against the [[Workers' and Peasants' Red Army|Red Army]]. Over 100,000 Soviet soldiers were captured and 60,000 died in prison camps.<ref name=":0">{{News citation|newspaper=[[Politsturm]]|title=The Polish Question|date=2020-09-01|url=https://us.politsturm.com/the-polish-question/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414042804/https://us.politsturm.com/the-polish-question/|archive-date=2021-04-14|retrieved=2022-06-16}}</ref>

=== Repression of communists ===
In 1926, Marshal [[Józef Piłsudski]] established a military police system. In 1934, he created [[Place of Isolation at Bereza Kartuska|a concentration camp]] for political opponents of the [[Sanation]] government, including [[Ukrainian nationalism|Ukrainian nationalists]], [[National Democracy (Poland)|National Democrats]], members of the [[Polish People's Party]], and [[Communism|communists]].<ref name=":0" />

=== Czechoslovakia ===
Poland signed [[German–Polish declaration of non-aggression|a non-aggression agreement]] with [[German Reich (1933–1945)|Germany]] in 1934 and occupied the [[Cieszyn]] region of [[Czechoslovakia]] in 1938. However, Poland refused to join the fascist [[Anti-Comintern Pact]].<ref name=":0" />

=== Second World War ===
On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland and broke its non-aggression pact. The Polish government quickly collapsed and fled to [[Kingdom of Romania (1881–1947)|Romania]] and then [[England]], where it established a government-in-exile. On 17 September, the [[Soviet Union]] crossed the border and took control of western Belarus and Ukraine.<ref name=":0" />

== Demographics ==
According to the [[Polish census of 1921]], roughly 70% of the population of the Republic was Polish.  Other ethnic groups included [[Russians]], [[Belarusians]], [[Ukrainians]], [[Lithuanians]], [[Judaism|Jews]], and [[Federal Republic of Germany|Germans]].

The majority of Poles (74%) were [[Roman Catholicism|Catholic]], although there were also sizable Jewish, [[Protestantism|Protestant]], and [[Orthodox Catholic Church|Orthodox]] minorities within the country.  Indeed, of the estimated six million Jews who were later murdered in [[The Holocaust]], three million were Polish.

== Education ==
In 1919, in an effort to improve literacy rates (which while high in [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Northern Europe]], were alarmingly low throughout Eastern Europe), compulsory education was introduced for children aged between 7 and 14.  In 1915, 67% of people in former [[Kingdom of Poland (1815–1915)|Congress Poland]] were illiterate; by 1930 only 30% were.<ref>"[https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82014519/1930-07-25/ed-1/seq-27/ POLES CONQUERING LANGUAGE PUZZLE]."  (1930-07-25).  [[New Britain Herald|''New Britain Herald'']].  Retrieved 2023-07-09.</ref>  By the late-1930s, illiteracy had been all but eradicated in the central and western parts of the country, but still remained a problem in more rural, eastern areas (especially in [[Western Ukraine]] and [[Western Belorussia|Belarus]]).

== Status of Ethnic Minorities ==

=== Jews ===
Poland, like most of [[Europe]] at the time, was a hotbed of [[antisemitism]].  During the Polish–Soviet War, thousands of Jewish soldiers in the [[Polish Land Forces|Polish army]] were separated from their units and sent to [[Jabłonna internment camp|an internment camp]] at [[Jabłonna, Legionowo County|Jabłonna]] (a village near [[Warsaw]]) for the crime of being Jewish.  Jews were denied employment in both the public and private sectors, Jewish-owned businesses faced boycotts organised and supported by the State, Jewish religious practices were made illegal, universities limited the number of Jewish students and faculty that were allowed to enroll and [[Ghetto benches|forced Jews to sit at specific seats in classrooms under the threat of expulsion]], and [[Pogrom|pogroms]] weren't unheard of.  When [[Poland Action|17,000 Polish Jews were expelled from Nazi Germany in 1938]], Poland refused to take them in, and the Jews were forced to live in makeshift encampments along the German–Polish border.

=== Ukrainians ===
Ukrainians were treated as second-class citizens in the Polish Republic.  Starting in 1921, many large plots of land (previously owned by Russian nobility) in majority-Ukrainian regions like [[Volhynia]] and [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galicia]] were broken up into smaller plots.  Instead of being given to the Ukrainian farmers who already lived there and needed the land however, these plots of land were either given or sold to Polish [[Colonialism|colonists]] (particularly army veterans).

In 1924, a law was passed, excluding the Ukrainian language from use in government institutions while also replacing the word 'Ukrainian' with the archaic term '[[Ruthenians|Ruthenian]]'.

While some bilingual Polish-Ukrainian schools were established during the Second Republic, it has been noted by some observers that leading subjects were almost always taught in Polish.<ref name=":1">{{Web citation|newspaper=[[The Northern Miner (Queensland)|The Northern Miner]]|title='POLONISATION' OF THE UKRAINE.|date=1933-05-30|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/81221170|retrieved=2023-06-12|quote=}}</ref>  One Ukrainian college in [[Ternopil]] was even shut down because some students were suspected of treason, but once cleared of all suspicion, the college was not allowed to reopen.

Orthodox churches were destroyed or converted to Catholic churches, to the detriment of Ukrainians (most of whom were Orthodox), and some Polish colonists took it upon themselves to harass Ukrainian citizens with the goal of converting them to Catholicism.

[[Prosvita]] (an organisation for the preservation and development of Ukrainian culture) was viciously attacked by the Polish authorities.  Of nine "District Prosvitas" in Volhynia, seven were shut down by the Polish State, and of 140 "Village Prosvitas" in [[Lutsk]], none were allowed to survive.<ref name=":1" />

The harsh treatment of the Ukrainian minority in Poland only contributed to the Ukrainian nationalism and terrorism in the country as many Ukrainians, disillusioned with the Polish government, would turn to groups such as the [[Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists]].

== Women's Rights ==
On 28 November 1918, Piłsudski passed a decree giving Polish women the right to vote.

On 11 July 1932, the [[1932 Polish Penal Code]] was enacted, and Poland became the second country in Europe to legalise abortion in cases of rape or threat to maternal health (behind the Soviet Union).  Up until then, abortion in Poland had been illegal under any and all circumstances.<ref>"[https://isap.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/DocDetails.xsp?id=wdu19320600571 Rozporządzenie Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej z dnia 11 lipca 1932 r. - Kodeks karny]," ''Dziennik Ustaw'', vol. 60, item 571.</ref>

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:History of Poland]]