PE Synopsis: Second Republic of Poland

Upon the ashes of Austria-Hungary, Germany and Russia, Poland re-emerged in 1918 officially as the 'Second Republic of Poland' after 123 years of foreign occupation since the Third Polish parition in 1795. The sudden collapse of the Central Powers in World War I left Central and Eastern Europe in chaos with undefined borders and national ambitions colliding. As a result, Poland’s early years from 1918 to 1921 were marked by warfare with nearly all its neighbors most notably the Soviet Union and won most of the conflicts, making the Second Republic larger in territorial size than modern day Poland. Domestically, the interwar republic was politically unstable. Frequent government changes, parliamentary gridlock, and popular discontent culminated in the May Coup of 1926, in which Marshall Piłsudski seized power and established an authoritarian regime under the Sanation movement, a so-called "morale cleansing" of the political system. Although Piłsudski never declared himself dictator, he wielded dominant influence until his death in 1935. Afterwards, power fragmented among competing factions within the Sanation movement, with President Ignacy Mościcki and the "Zamek" ("Castle") faction taking the reins of leadership until the outbreak of World War II. Poland under Polish Marshall Pilsudski sought to build a regional alliance of newly reborn states as a buffer against the twin threats of Germany and the Soviet Union. Among his visions was the "Międzymorze" and Prometheism which were some variations of creating a united front. However, these efforts ultimately failed to gain sufficient traction. Poland instead placed its hopes in the Western powers, particularly France and the United Kingdom. Yet cooperation was tepid and strained, with both nations facing internal troubles and lacking resolve despite their interest to check Germany's power. The Polish army had for a long time considered the Soviet Union as its primary enemy and thus had mostly focused eastwards for their war preperations in the appropiately named 'Plan East' military plan. In hindsight Germany was the bigger aggressor and this became abundantly clear after signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between Germany and the Soviet Union in 23 August 1939, forming a non-aggression pact between them which also secretely stipulated the partition of Poland. Poland started too late with its other war plan the 'Plan West', betting on German statisfaction of merely taking Danzig and counting on Western military support, neither would scenarios came true. WW2 started in 1 september 1936 and only 1 month later in 6 october 1939, Poland had capitulated and was partitioned again between the Germans and the Soviet Union.