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As a result from how World War I ended, the great empires Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Germany all fall apart, and such space was created that Poland could again be formed into the map of Europe. Some say that Pilsudski had foreseen the situation when saying that only way to have Poland in the map again is if both, Russia and Germany would lose the war, and since Russia and Germany were fighting the war in the opposite sides, Pilsudski continued that first Germany must knock-out Russia, and after this has happened, France must win Germany. And only this would create situation where Poland could re-emerge into the map. More or less so happened, and there was again Poland. But first of all there was the problem with borders, where were the borders of Poland supposed to be exactly? Poland started to solving itÂ’s border problems, and usually this didnÂ’t go peacefully. With Czechoslovakia there was dispute over small, but strategically important area in Cielzyn Silesia, this nearly ended up in fighting between Polish and Czechoslovak armies, but was solved by The League of Nations, and area was shared between the two sides. With German border Poland had extremely complex situation. First of all Gdansk/Danzig, important town at the Baltic shore with both Polish and German history was decided by The League of Nations to be Free City. In Silesia, there was voting on which state the area should belong to. The majority of people there were Poles and Polish-speaking Silesians, but German minority had usually higher social status and amongst them were many factory-owners. By using this position; German factory-owners demanding loyalty from their (mostly Polish) workers, German militia harassing and terrorizing pro-Polish gatherings, and this combined with the Polish peoples awareness of ongoing war with Soviet Russia, which many believed to end with Soviet victory over Polish army, worked in the way that in Polish-majority area the German-choise got majority of votes. This resulted with series of three Silesian Uprisings, which were success for the Poles, and Silesia was shared by the League of Nations Poles getting smaller but well-industrialized part of Silesia. This followed by Tariff war from Germany where it tried to use itÂ’s economical power and tried buy lands off from Poles in Silesia. Poles organized against this and German attempts went vain.

The most open case was the long border with Russia which was to be settled by war in 1920-21 (or 1919-1921 if counted to begin from the border-conflicts), in which Poland was the first to attack into East Ukrainian Socialist Republic ,and then world was holding it’s breath when Soviet counter-attack came quickly into the borders of Warsaw, only to meet with Pilsudski’s surprise. Battle of Warsaw got it’s place in modern Polish mythology as “Miracle of Vistula”. Preceding to this Poland also had victorious war with young, and short-lived, state of Republic of Western Ukraine over Eastern Galicia and town of Lwow (Lviv), which has special place for Poles in their Eastern Romanticism, as does Wilno (Vilnius) which was “liberated” by one of Pilsudski’s generals in a planned coup which was disguised as “rebellion”. Some say that Pilsudski wanted strong Lithuania, under Poland and his rule, against Soviet-Russia.

Domestically, Poland suffered from being now a state composed out of three different parts and three different histories, German/Prussian, Austro-Hungarian and Russian. Generally, the Eastern part of Poland which had been under Russian rule was the clearly least developed of these areas but which also composed of greatest land-mass, Westernmost Poland was more industrialized and developed and was known for German-style “good work” which was foreign to the mentality of East Poland. More than this, also Polish society was divided into two different views of what was Poland supposed to be like. Pilsudski, a former socialist, was supporting the idea of ‘Miedzymorze’, a multinational Poland, large in land-area. His nemesis, Roman Dmowski from the National Democratic party, drove idea of national Poland, smaller in land-area but ethnically much more homogenic (at the time every third citizen of Poland was not Polish) including only Poles and small amounts of other groups that he considered worthy and able to be Polonized (meaning small populations of Germans, Ukrainians and Belarusians, and no Jews which he considered as inner enemy to Poland). Pilsudski was to be the first president of Poland, but he was forced to resign from his post in 1922, his successor and candidate, Gabriel Narutowicz, was soon murdered by painter who had strong right-wing sympathies. The murderer, Eligiusz Niewiadomski, commented that he had nothing particular against the man himself but couldn’t stand the idea that he was “Jewish” president, as Narutowicz was supported not only by Pilsudski but also by Jewish organizations and other minorities as well. In 1926 Pilsudski made return by military-coup, from which on he continued as strongman behind the scenes (probably he saw himself as captain for the ship), driving semi-authoritarian policies called Sanation, “Healing”. Sometimes when feeling upset about the decisions done by Polish Sejm he, as cranky old man, told to the politicians that “You Poles are worthless, unlike we Lithuanians who at least know how to…”. His death in 1935 made way to more authoritarian Endecja-regime ruled by the National Democratic Party leaders who lacked Pilsudski’s sight and charisma. Anti-Semitism rose under Endecja-regime in 1935-39, and it took many elements from German Nazis anti-Semitism which radiated over borders, becoming more aggressive and Nazi-style law forbidding ritual slaughter was introduced to ruin Jewish economy. It was now view of many anti-Semites in Poland and other countries surrounding Nazi-Germany that if great culture-country such as Germany, which always had had relatively good relations with her own Jews, and where were one of the most assimilated Jews, and which culture was highly valued amongst the Jews themselves, now took actions like this against the Jews it couldn’t be totally morally wrong to take action against our own, generally less assimilated, Jews.

It is rumored that after HitlerÂ’s rise to power in January 1933 Pilsudski had offered France the idea for preventive war against new militaristic German regime, but that he didnÂ’t meet with interest from the French to join into his idea. Anyhow, in 1934 Poland and Germany signed Non-Aggression Pact, which led to continuous suggestions from Hitler to German-Polish alliance directed towards Soviet Union, which Pilsudski rationally declined.