When, after several regional conflicts, most importantly the victoriousPolish-Soviet war, the borders of the state were finalized in the year 1922, Poland's neighbours wereCzechoslovakia,Germany, theFree City of Danzig,Lithuania,Latvia,Romania and theSoviet Union. It had access to theBaltic Sea via a short strip of coastline known as thePolish Corridor on either side of the city ofGdynia. Between March and August 1939, Poland also shared a border with the then-Hungarian governorate ofSubcarpathia. In 1938, the Second Republic was the sixth largest country in Europe. According to the1921 census, the number of inhabitants was 25.7 million. By 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, this had grown to an estimated 35.1 million. Almost a third of the population came fromminority groups: 13.9%Ukrainians; 10%Ashkenazi Jews; 3.1%Belarusians; 2.3%Germans and 3.4%Czechs andLithuanians. At the same time, a significant number of ethnic Poles lived outside the country's borders.
The Second Republic maintained moderate economic development. The cultural hubs of interwar Poland – Warsaw,Kraków,Poznań,Wilno, andLwów – became major European cities and the sites of internationally acclaimed universities and other institutions of higher education. Although Polish Jews were some of the biggest supporters of Second Republic leaderJózef Piłsudski, even after he returned to politics andstaged a coup in 1926, after his death in 1935Pilsudskites ruling the Republic began to openly discriminate against its Jewish (and, to a lesser extent, its Ukrainian) citizens, restricting Jewish entry into professions and placing limitations on Jewish businesses.[5][6][7][8]
The official name of the state was theRepublic of Poland. In thePolish language, it was referred to asRzeczpospolita Polska (abbr.RP), with the termRzeczpospolita being a traditional name for therepublic when referring to variousPolish states, including thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (considered to be the First Polish Republic,Pierwsza Rzeczpospolita), and later, the currentThird Polish Republic. In other regionally-used official languages, the state was referred to as:Republik Polen inGerman,Польська Республіка (transcription:Polʹsʹka Respublika) inUkrainian,Польская Рэспубліка (transcription:Poĺskaja Respublika) inBelarusian, andLenkijos Respublika, inLithuanian.
Between 14 November 1918[9] and 13 March 1919,[10] the state was referred to inPolish asRepublika Polska, instead ofRzeczpospolita Polska. Both terms mean theRepublic; however,republika is a general term, whileRzeczpospolita traditionally refers exclusively to Polish states. Additionally, between 8 November 1918 and 16 August 1919, theJournal of Laws of the State of Poland referred to the country as theState of Poland (Polish:Państwo Polskie).[11]
Following the end of theSecond World War, and the establishment of the later states of thePolish People's Republic and theThird Polish Republic, the historical state is referred to as theSecond Polish Republic. In the Polish language, the country is traditionally referred to asII Rzeczpospolita (Druga Rzeczpospolita), which means theSecond Republic.
In 1918–1919, over 100workers' councils sprang up on Polish territories;[21] on 5 November 1918, inLublin, the firstSoviet of Delegates was established. On 6 November socialists proclaimed theRepublic of Tarnobrzeg at Tarnobrzeg in AustrianGalicia. The same day the Socialist,Ignacy Daszyński, set up aProvisional People's Government of the Republic of Poland (Tymczasowy Rząd Ludowy Republiki Polskiej) in Lublin. On Sunday, 10 November at 7 a.m.,Józef Piłsudski, newly freed from 16 months in a German prison inMagdeburg, returned by train to Warsaw. Piłsudski, together with ColonelKazimierz Sosnkowski, was greeted at Warsaw's railway station by RegentZdzisław Lubomirski and by ColonelAdam Koc. Next day, due to his popularity and support from most political parties, the Regency Council appointed Piłsudski as Commander in Chief of the Polish Armed Forces. On 14 November, the Council dissolved itself and transferred all its authority to Piłsudski as Chief of State (Naczelnik Państwa). After consultation with Piłsudski, Daszyński's government dissolved itself and a new government formed underJędrzej Moraczewski. In 1918, theKingdom of Italy became the first country in Europe to recognise Poland's renewed sovereignty.[22]
The Second Polish Republic was aparliamentary democracy from 1919 (seeSmall Constitution of 1919) to 1926, with thePresident having limited powers. TheParliament elected him, and he could appoint thePrime Minister as well as the government with theSejm's (lower house's) approval, but he could only dissolve theSejm with theSenate's consent. Moreover, his power to pass decrees was limited by the requirement that the Prime Minister and the appropriate other Minister had to verify his decrees with their signatures. Poland was one of the first countries in the world to recognisewomen's suffrage. Women in Poland were granted the right to vote on 28 November 1918 by a decree ofGeneral Józef Piłsudski.[24][25]
After the Polish–Soviet War,Marshal Piłsudski led an intentionally modest life, writing historical books for a living. After he took power through amilitary coup in May 1926, he emphasised that he wanted to heal Polish society and politics of excessive partisan politics. His regime, accordingly, was calledSanacja in Polish. The1928 parliamentary elections were still considered free and fair, although the pro-PiłsudskiNonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government won them. The following three parliamentary elections (in1930,1935 and1938) were manipulated, with opposition activists sent toBereza Kartuska prison (see alsoBrest trials). As a result, the pro-government partyCamp of National Unity won huge majorities in them. Piłsudski died just after anauthoritarian constitution was approved in the spring of 1935. During the last four years of the Second Polish Republic, the major politicians included PresidentIgnacy Mościcki, Foreign MinisterJózef Beck and the Commander-in-Chief of thePolish Army,MarshalEdward Rydz-Śmigły. The country was divided into104 electoral districts, and those politicians who were forced to leave Poland foundedFront Morges in 1936. The government that ruled the Second Polish Republic in its final years is frequently referred to asPiłsudski's colonels.[26][25]
Presidents and Prime ministers (November 1918 – September 1939)
Interwar Poland had a large army of 270,000 soldiers on active duty: in 37 infantry divisions, 11 cavalry brigades, and two armored brigades, plus artillery units. Another 700,000 men served in the reserves. At the outbreak of the war, the Polish Army was able to put in the field almost one million soldiers, 4,300 guns, around 1,000 armored vehicles including in between 200 and 300 tanks (the majority of the armored vehicles were outclassedtankettes) and 745 aircraft (however, only around 450 of them were bombers and fighters available to fight as of 1 September 1939).[27]
The training of thePolish Army was thorough. Thenon-commissioned officers were a competent body of men with expert knowledge and high ideals. The officers, both senior and junior, constantly refreshed their training in the field and in the lecture hall, where modern technical achievement and the lessons of contemporary wars were demonstrated and discussed. The equipment of the Polish Army was less developed technically than that ofNazi Germany and its rearmament was slowed by confidence in Western European military support and by budget difficulties.[28] The Polish command system at the level of the entire Polish military and the armies was obsolete. The generals in command of armies had to ask permission from the high command. The Polish military attempted to organize fronts made ofarmy groups only when it was already too late during the Polish Defensive War in 1939.
After regaining its independence, Poland was faced with major economic difficulties. In addition to the devastation brought by the First World War, the exploitation of the Polish economy by the German and Russian occupying powers, and the sabotage performed by retreating armies, the new republic was faced with the task of economically unifying disparate economic regions, which had previously been part of different countries and different empires.[29] Within the borders of the Republic were the remnants of three different economic systems, with five different currencies (theGerman mark, theImperial Russian rouble, theAustrian krone, thePolish marka and theOstrubel)[29] and with little or no direct infrastructural links. The situation was so bad that neighbouring industrial centres, as well as major cities, lacked directrailway links because they had been parts of different jurisdictions and different empires. For example, there was no direct railway connection between Warsaw andKraków until 1934. This situation was described byMelchior Wańkowicz in his bookSztafeta.[citation needed]
In addition to this was the massive destruction left after both the First World War and thePolish–Soviet War. There was also a great economic disparity between theeastern (commonly calledPoland B) and western (calledPoland A) parts of the country, with the western half, especially areas that had belonged toPrussia and theGerman Empire, being much more developed and prosperous. Frequent border closures and acustoms war withGermany also had negative economic impacts on Poland. In 1924, Prime MinisterWładysław Grabski, who was also the Economic Minister, introduced thezłoty as a single common currency for Poland (replacing the marka), which remained a stable currency. The currency helped Poland to control the massivehyperinflation. It was the only country in Europe able to do this without foreign loans or aid.[30] The average annual growth rate (GDP per capita) was 5.24% in 1920–29 and 0.34% in 1929–38.[31]
Hostile relations with neighbours were a major problem for the economy of interbellum Poland. In the year 1937,foreign trade with all neighbours amounted to only 21% of Poland's total. Trade with Germany, Poland's most important neighbour, accounted for 14.3% of Polish exchange. Foreign trade with theSoviet Union (0.8%) was virtually nonexistent.Czechoslovakia accounted for 3.9%,Latvia for 0.3%, andRomania for 0.8%. By mid-1938, after theAnschluss withAustria,Greater Germany was responsible for as much as 23% of Polish foreign trade.[citation needed]
Piłsudski's regime followed the conservative free-market economic tradition of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth throughout its existence. Poland had one of the lowest taxation rates in Europe, with 9.3% of taxes as a distribution of national income. Piłsudski's regime was also heavily dependent on foreign investments and economies, with 45.4% of Polish equity capital controlled by foreign corporations. After theGreat Depression, the Polish economy crumbled and failed to recover untilIgnacy Mościcki's government introduced economic reforms with more government interventions with an increase in tax revenues and public spending after Piłsudski's death. These interventionist policies saw Poland's economy recover from the recession.[33]
The basis of Poland's gradual recovery after theGreat Depression was the mass economic development plans of the new government (seeFour Year Plan) under economistEugeniusz Kwiatkowski, which oversaw the building of three key infrastructural elements. The first was the establishment of theGdynia seaport, which allowed Poland to completely bypassGdańsk (which was under heavy German pressure to boycott Polish coal exports). The second was construction of the 500-kilometre rail connection betweenUpper Silesia and Gdynia, called thePolish Coal Trunk-Line, which served freight trains with coal. The third was the creation of a central industrial district named COP –Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy (English: Central Industrial Region). Unfortunately, these developments were interrupted and largely destroyed by the German and Soviet invasion and the start of the Second World War.[34] Other achievements of interbellum Poland includedStalowa Wola (a brand new city, built in a forest around a steel mill),Mościce (now a district ofTarnów, with a large nitrate factory), and the creation of the central bankBank Polski SA. There were several trade fairs, with the most popular beingPoznań International Fair, Lwów'sTargi Wschodnie, and Wilno'sTargi Północne.Polish Radio had ten stations (seeRadio stations in interwar Poland), with the eleventh one planned to be opened in the autumn of 1939. Furthermore, in 1935, Polish engineers began working on TV services. By early 1939, experts of the Polish Radio built four TV sets. The first movie broadcast by experimental Polish TV wasBarbara Radziwiłłówna, and by 1940, a regular TV service was scheduled to begin operation.[35]
Coal power station in Łaziska Górne, Silesian Voivodeship in 1939. It was the largest Polish power plant in the years 1927-1953 (Agfacolor).[36][37]TheEastern Trade Fair inLwów, 1936Gdynia, a modern Polish seaport established in 1926
Interbellum Poland was unofficially divided into two parts – better developed "Poland A" in the west, and underdeveloped "Poland B" in the east. Polish industry was concentrated in the west, mostly in PolishUpper Silesia, and the adjacentLesser Poland's province ofZagłębie Dąbrowskie, where the bulk of coal mines and steel plants was located. Furthermore, heavy industry plants were located inCzęstochowa (Huta Częstochowa, founded in 1896),Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski (Huta Ostrowiec, founded in 1837–1839),Stalowa Wola (brand new industrial city, which was built from scratch in 1937 – 1938),Chrzanów (Fablok, founded in 1919),Jaworzno,Trzebinia (oil refinery, opened in 1895),Łódź (the seat of Polish textile industry),Poznań (H. Cegielski – Poznań), Kraków and Warsaw (Ursus Factory). Further east, inKresy, industrial centres included two major cities of the region –Lwów andWilno (Elektrit).[38]
Industry and communications in Poland before the start of the Second World War
According to the 1939Statistical Yearbook of Poland, the total length of the railways in Poland (as of 31 December 1937) was 20,118 km (12,501 mi). Rail density was 5.2 km (3.2 mi) per 100 km2 (39 sq mi). Railways were very dense in the western part of the country, while in the east, especiallyPolesie, rail was non-existent in some counties. During the interbellum period, the Polish Government constructed several new lines, mainly in the central part of the country (see alsoPolish State Railroads Summer 1939). Construction of the extensiveWarszawa Główna railway station was never finished due to the war, while Polish railways were famous for their punctuality (seeLuxtorpeda,Strzała Bałtyku,Latający Wilnianin).
In the interbellum, the road network of Poland was dense, but the quality of the roads was very poor – only 7% of all roads were paved and ready for automobile use, and none of the major cities were connected with each other by a good-quality highway. In 1939 the Poles built only one highway: 28 km of straight concrete road connecting the villages of Warlubie and Osiek (mid-northern Poland). It was designed by Italian engineer Piero Puricelli.
TheCWS T-1Torpedo was the first serially-built car manufactured in Poland.
In the mid-1930s, Poland had 340,000 km (211,266 mi) of roads, but only 58,000 had a hard surface (gravel,cobblestone orsett), and 2,500 were modern, with an asphalt or concrete surface. In different parts of the country, there were sections of paved roads, which suddenly ended, and were followed by dirt roads.[39] The poor condition of the roads was the result of both long-lasting foreign dominance and inadequate funding. On 29 January 1931, the Polish Parliament created the State Road Fund, the purpose of which was to collect money for the construction and conservation of roads. The government drafted a 10-year plan, with road priorities: a highway from Wilno, through Warsaw and Kraków, toZakopane (called Marshal Piłsudski Highway), asphalt highways from Warsaw to Poznań and Łódź, as well as a Warsaw ring road. However, the plan turned out to be too ambitious, with insufficient money in the national budget to pay for it. In January 1938, the Polish Road Congress estimated that Poland would need to spend three times as much money on roads to keep up withWestern Europe.
Manual harvesting in Żarki, Lesser Poland Voivodeship in August 1938 (Agfacolor).Ciągówka Ursus was the first Polish farm tractor, produced from 1922 to 1927 in theUrsus Factory.
Statistically, the majority of citizens lived in the countryside (75% in 1921). Farmers made up 65% of the population. In 1929, agricultural production made up 65% of Poland's GNP.[41] After 123 years of partitions, regions of the country were very unevenly developed. The lands of the formerGerman Empire were the most advanced; inGreater Poland,Upper Silesia andPomerelia, farming and crops were on a Western European level.[42][failed verification] The situation was much worse in parts ofCongress Poland, theEastern Borderlands, and what was formerlyGalicia, where agriculture was quite backward and primitive, with a large number of small farms, unable to succeed in either the domestic or international market. Another problem was the overpopulation of the countryside, which resulted in chronic unemployment. Living conditions were so bad in several eastern regions, such as the counties inhabited by theHutsul minority, that there was permanent starvation.[43] Farmers rebelled against the government (see:1937 peasant strike in Poland), and the situation began to change in the late 1930s, due to the construction of several factories for theCentral Industrial Region, which gave employment to thousands of rural and small town residents.
Beginning in June 1925, there was a customs' war, with therevanchist Weimar Republicimposing a trade embargo against Poland for nearly a decade; it involved tariffs and broad economic restrictions. After 1933 the trade war ended. The new agreements regulated and promoted trade. Germany became Poland's largest trading partner, followed by Britain. In October 1938, Germany granted a credit of 60,000,000RM to Poland (120,000,000zloty, or£4,800,000) which was never realised, due to the outbreak of war. Germany would deliver factory equipment and machinery in return for Polish timber and agricultural produce. This new trade was to bein addition to the existing German-Polish trade agreements.[44][45]
In 1919, the Polish governmentintroduced compulsory education for all children aged 7 to 14, in an effort to limit illiteracy, which was widespread, especially in the formerRussian Partition and theAustrian Partition of eastern Poland. In 1921, one-third of citizens of Poland remained illiterate (38% in the countryside). The process was slow, but by 1931 the illiteracy level had dropped to 23% overall (27% in the countryside) and further down to 18% in 1937. By 1939, over 90% of children attended school.[38][46] In 1932,Janusz Jędrzejewicz, the Minister for Religion and Education, carried outa major reform which introduced two main levels of education:common school (szkoła powszechna), with three levels – 4 grades + 2 grades + 1 grade; andmiddle school (szkoła średnia), with two levels – 4 grades of comprehensive middle school and 2 grades of specified high school (classical, humanistic, natural and mathematical). A graduate of middle school received asmallmatura, while a graduate of high school received abig matura, which enabled them to seek university-level education.
Theatre was immensely popular in the interbellum, with three main centres in the cities of Warsaw, Wilno and Lwów. Altogether, there were 103 theatres in Poland and a number of other theatrical institutions (including 100 folk theatres). In 1936, different shows were seen by 5 million people, and main figures of Polish theatre of the time wereJuliusz Osterwa,Stefan Jaracz, andLeon Schiller. Also, before the outbreak of the war, there were approximately one million radios (seeRadio stations in interwar Poland).
The administrative division of the Second Republic was based on a three-tier system, referring to theadministrative division of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. On the lowest rung were thegminy, local town and village governments akin to districts or parishes. These were then grouped together intopowiaty (akin to counties), which, in turn, were grouped aswojewództwa (voivodeships, akin to provinces). This administrative system passed into the modern Third Polish Republic.
Administrative map of Poland (1930)
Administrative Map in 1939 showing April 1938 voivodeship revisions, reclaimedTrans-Olza and Slovak border changes
% of ethnic Poles by voivodeship according to the 1931 census
Historically, Poland was almost always a multiethnic country. This was especially true for the Second Republic, when independence was once again achieved in the wake of theFirst World War and the subsequentPolish–Soviet War, the latter war being officially ended by thePeace of Riga. Thecensus of 1921 shows 30.8% of the population consisted of ethnic minorities,[49] compared with a share of 1.6% (solely identifying with a non-Polish ethnic group) or 3.8% (including those identifying with both the Polish ethnicity and with another ethnic group) in 2011.[50] The first spontaneous flight of about 500,000 Poles from the Soviet Union occurred during the reconstitution of sovereign Poland. In the second wave, between November 1919 and June 1924, some 1,200,000 people left the territory of the USSR for Poland. It is estimated that some 460,000 of them spoke Polish as the first language.[51] According to the1931 Polish Census: 69% of the population was Polish, 14% were Ukrainian, around 10% Jewish, 3% Belarusian, 2% German and 3% other, including Lithuanian, Czech, Armenian, Russian, and Romani. The situation of minorities was a complex subject and changed during the period.[16]
By 1931, Poland had the second largest Jewish population in the world, with one-fifth of all the world's Jews residing within its borders (approx. 3,136,000).[49] The urban population of interbellum Poland was rising steadily; in 1921, only 24% of Poles lived in the cities, in the late 1930s, that proportion grew to 30%. In more than a decade, the population of Warsaw grew by 200,000, Łódź by 150,000, and Poznań – by 100,000. This was due not only to internal migration, but also to an extremely high birth rate.[38]
Poland's population density in 1930Contemporary map showing language frequency in 1931 across Poland; red: more than 50% native Polish speakers; green: more than 50% native language other than Polish, includingYiddish,Hebrew, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Russian and less frequent othersOfficers from the Second Mountain Brigade of thePolish Legions in the First World War establishing the Polish-Czechoslovak border; they are pictured near the summit of Popadia inGorgany during the formation of the Second Republic, 1915.
From the 1920s, the Polish government excluded Jews from receiving government bank loans, public sector employment, and obtaining business licenses. From the 1930s, measures were taken against Jewish shops, Jewish export firms,Shechita as well as limitations being placed on Jewish admission to the medical and legal professions, Jews in business associations and the enrollment of Jews into universities. The political movementNational Democracy (Endecja, from the abbreviation "ND") often organised anti-Jewish business boycotts.[5] Following the death ofMarshalJózef Piłsudski in 1935, theEndecja intensified their efforts, which triggered violence in extreme cases in smaller towns across the country.[5] In 1937, the National Democracy movement passed resolutions that "its main aim and duty must be to remove the Jews from all spheres of social, economic, and cultural life in Poland".[5] The government in response organised theCamp of National Unity (OZON), which in 1938 took control of the PolishSejm and subsequently drafted anti-Semitic legislation similar to theAnti-Jewish laws in Germany, Hungary, and Romania. OZON advocated mass emigration of Jews from Poland,numerus clausus (see alsoGhetto benches), and other limitations on Jewish rights. According toWilliam W. Hagen, by 1939, prior to the war, Polish Jews were threatened with conditions similar to those in Nazi Germany.[6]
The pre-war government also restricted the rights of people who declared Ukrainian nationality, belonged to theEastern Orthodox Church and inhabited theEastern Borderlands of the Second Polish Republic.[53][7][8] Poland refused to grant the Ukrainian minority aterritorial autonomy.[54]Ukrainian was restricted in every field possible, especially in governmental institutions, and the term "Ruthenian" was enforced in an attempt to ban the use of the term "Ukrainian".[55] Ukrainians were categorised as uneducated second-class peasants orthird world people, and rarely settled outside the Eastern Borderland region due to the prevailingUkrainophobia and restrictions imposed. Numerous attempts at restoring the Ukrainian state were suppressed and any existent violence or terrorism initiated by theOrganization of Ukrainian Nationalists was emphasised to create the image of a "brutal Eastern savage".[56] After 1935, Polish policy towards Ukrainians shifted its focus from state consolidation to the ethnic assimilation of part of the Ukrainian population throughPolonization and conversion toRoman Catholicism.[54]
The Second Polish Republic was mainly flat with an average elevation of 233 m (764 ft)above sea level, except for the southernmostCarpathian Mountains (after the Second World War and its border changes, the average elevation of Poland decreased to 173 m (568 ft)). Only 13% of territory, along the southern border, was higher than 300 m (980 ft). The highest elevation in the country wasMount Rysy, which rises 2,499 m (8,199 ft) in theTatra Range of the Carpathians, approximately 95 km (59 mi) south ofKraków. Between October 1938 and September 1939, the highest elevation was Lodowy Szczyt (known inSlovak asĽadový štít), which rises 2,627 m (8,619 ft) above sea level. The largest lake wasLake Narach.
Physical map of the Second Polish Republic
The country's total area, after the annexation of Trans-Olza, was 389,720 km2 (150,470 sq mi). It extended 903 km (561 mi) from north to south and 894 km (556 mi) from east to west. On 1 January 1938, total length of boundaries was 5,529 km (3,436 mi), including: 140 km (87 mi) of coastline (out of which 71 km (44 mi) were made by theHel Peninsula), the 1,412 km (877 mi) with Soviet Union, 948 kilometers with Czechoslovakia (until 1938), 1,912 km (1,188 mi) with Germany (together withEast Prussia), and 1,081 km (672 mi) with other countries (Lithuania, Romania, Latvia, Danzig). The warmest yearly average temperature was in Kraków among major cities of the Second Polish Republic, at 9.1 °C (48.4 °F) in 1938; and the coldest in Wilno (7.6 °C or 45.7 °F in 1938). Extreme geographical points of Poland included Przeświata River in Somino to the north (located in theBraslaw county of theWilno Voivodeship); Manczin River to the south (located in theKosów county of theStanisławów Voivodeship); Spasibiorki near railway to Połock to the east (located in theDzisna county of theWilno Voivodeship); and Mukocinek near Warta River and Meszyn Lake to the west (located in theMiędzychód county of thePoznań Voivodeship).
Almost 75% of the territory of interbellum Poland was drained northward into the Baltic Sea by theVistula (total area ofdrainage basin of the Vistula within boundaries of the Second Polish Republic was 180,300 km2 (69,600 sq mi), theNiemen (51,600 km2 or 19,900 sq mi), theOder (46,700 km2 or 18,000 sq mi) and theDaugava (10,400 km2 or 4,000 sq mi). The remaining part of the country was drained southward, into theBlack Sea, by the rivers that drain into theDnieper (Pripyat,Horyn andStyr, all together 61,500 km2 or 23,700 sq mi) as well asDniester (41,400 km2 or 16,000 sq mi)
Polish war plans (Plan West andPlan East) failed as soon as Germany invaded in 1939. The Polish losses in combat against Germans (killed and missing in action) amounted to ca. 70,000 men. Some 420,000 of them were taken prisoners. Losses against the Red Army (which invaded Poland on 17 September) added up to 6,000 to 7,000 of casualties and MIA, 250,000 were taken prisoners. Although the Polish Army – considering the inactivity of the Allies – was in an unfavourable position – it managed to inflict serious losses to the enemies: 20,000 German soldiers were killed or MIA, 674 tanks and 319 armored vehicles destroyed or badly damaged, 230 aircraft shot down; the Red Army lost (killed and MIA) about 2,500 soldiers, 150 combat vehicles and 20 aircraft. The Soviet invasion of Poland, and lack of promised aid from the Western Allies, contributed to the Polish forces defeat by 6 October 1939.
A popular myth is thatPolish cavalry armed with lances charged German tanks during the September 1939 campaign. This often repeated account, first reported by Italian journalists asGerman propaganda, concerned an action by the Polish 18th Lancer Regiment near Chojnice. This arose from misreporting of a single clash on 1 September 1939 nearKrojanty, when two squadrons of the Polish 18th Lancers armed with sabers surprised and wiped out a German infantry formation with a mounted saber charge. Shortly after midnight the 2nd (Motorized) Division was compelled to withdraw by Polish cavalry, before the Poles were caught in the open by German armored cars. The story arose because some German armored cars appeared and gunned down 20 troopers as the cavalry escaped. Even this failed to persuade everyone to reexamine their beliefs—there were some who thought Polish cavalry had been improperly employed in 1939.
Between 1945 and 1990, thePolish government-in-exile operated in London, presenting itself as the only legal and legitimate representative of thePolish nation and challenging the legitimacy of thecommunist government in Warsaw. In 1990, the last president in exile,Ryszard Kaczorowski, handed the presidential insignia to the newly electedPresident,Lech Wałęsa, signifying continuity between the Second andThird republics.
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