POLAND AND SELF-DETERMINATION

The conquest of Vilna rounded out the Eastern frontiers of the new Polish empire. As Pilsudski had planned, it had been created at the expense of Russia—one of the original Allied powers, which had sacrificed more lives in the war which liberated Poland than all the others put together—rather than at the expense of Germany, the vanquished enemy. Pilsudski, it should be noted, had been an enemy of the Allies and his "Legion" had been organized by the Germans. According to Polish statistics there were less than a million Germans in the territory annexed from Germany, whereas there were eight million White Russians and Ukrainians in the territory annexed from Russia.1

From its birth in 1919 to its demise in 1939, the twenty-one-year record of the second Poland is a disheartening defamation of the ideals of self-determination, the rights of small nations and international decency in general. Here is a nation which has suffered the tragedy of national dissolution, the bitterness of racial, religious and economic oppression. Suddenly, after more than a century of suffering, after many bloody but fruitless efforts to free itself, it finds liberty and nationhood handed back to it by a fiat of history. But no sooner was partitioned Poland liberated than it started to seize the territory of its neighbors; no sooner were the enslaved Poles emancipated than they began enslaving White Russians, Ukrainians and Lithuanians; no sooner were the Polish Catholics safe from religious persecution than they set about persecuting the millions of Jews and Greek Orthodox communicants who were at their mercy.23

On June 28, 1919, the Versailles Powers which had created the second Poland made the new state sign a treaty accepting certain international obligations with respect to its minorities as a precondition of recognition. The treaty stipulated that . . . "All Polish nationals shall enjoy the same civil and political rights without distinction as to race, language or religion . . . equal opportunity to public employment, functions and honors and the exercise of professions . . . where minorities form a considerable proportion of the population, facilities for instruction in their own language, . . . etc."

The very same stipulations were cheerfully signed and put into practice by the new Czechoslovak state, but from the very first the second Poland showed its colors by brazenly balking at signing such a treaty. Finally even Poland's best friend Clemenceau, then President of the Peace Conference, lost patience and wrote a caustic letter to Paderewski, first Polish President, which has a reminiscent ring today:

"It is to the endeavors and sacrifices of the Powers in whose name I am addressing you that the Polish nation owes the recovery of its independence. It is on the support that the resources of these Powers shall afford the League of Nations that, for the future, Poland will, to a large extent, depend for the secure possession of these territories." Poland reluctantly signed the minorities treaty but proceeded immediately to nullify it.4


1While the Germans were defeated to their west, the Allies supported the Germans to their east against Bolshevik Russia—thereby supporting Poland and the Baltic states in their wars of independence. The account here is a complete misrepresentation of alliances. As mentioned earlier, the Polish boundary established matched that established after the Second Partition of Poland. This resulted in repatriation of territories which, like Poland, had been Russified for more than a century.
2Omitted here is the Ukrainian struggle against the Bolsheviks, attempting to free themselves from Russian subjugation. An independent Ukrainian People's Republic was declared in 1917. While Poland and the Baltics succeeded in ejecting Red Army forces, the Bolsheviks eventually prevailed in Ukraine, leading to its reunion as one of the socialist republics founding the USSR. Meanwhile, Ukrainians were elected to the Polish parliament, including leadership positions. While moderate Ukrainians sought to address rights issues with the Polish authorities, Ukrainian extremists launched a campaign of sabotage and terrorism in 1930, including against moderate Ukrainians.
3viz. History of the Ukrainian minority in Poland.
4The Polish minorities treaty was signed the same day as the Treaty of Versailles and became the model for all subsequent treaties. Contrary to the account here, the Czechoslovak treaty was signed three months after the Polish treaty. Poland did renounce its obligations, however, that was 15 years later in 1934, until all members of the League bound themselves to identical clauses. Given the tenor of the times, every member (other than the original 14 signatories) refused, causing the minorities protection system to collapse.
Updated: April, 2021
"Behind the Polish-Soviet Break" was published by Soviet Russia Today, New York. We do not endorse the Soviet account of historical events or their circumstances contained therein.
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