What were the main problems facing the new states of central Europein the interwar period - Poland?

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0305814                                                                                                            Dec 2003

What were the main problems facing the new states of central Europe in the interwar period- Poland?

During the interwar period, Poland, a newly created state in post-war central Europe, faced a multitude of problems which ultimately led to its demise in the prelude to the Second World War. The creation of ‘the Promised Land’ as highlighted in retrospect by historian A. Zamoyski, ‘is always something of a disappointment to those who viewed it from afar’. The rise and fall of the Poles in the interwar period, as an independent self determined nation, can be defined through the analysis of the factors which contributed both to its official independent recognition in the 1920’s through to its demise in the 1940’s. Problems such as, the difficulty in defining territorial and political frontiers, prevailed throughout the Republic’s short lived existence. In reaction to cultural and ethnic diversity, social differences caused greater division which became vividly reflected in the political sphere. Internally and , in the later part of the 1920’s, externally  economic instability   played an important role in the fast accumulating tide of trouble which Poland, as a volitile and distorted nation state faced. Such problems, from economic to social instability, became widely evident in the interwar period in central Europe, as the map of Europe was re-drawn.

Politically, Poland in 1918 was reborn as a democratic state. A republic which, ‘proclaimed political freedoms guaranteeing the masses influence on the country’s government’. The introduction of a democratic ideology to Poland can be highlighted as one of the main problems faced by the state during the interwar period. The constitution adopted in March 1921 was based on that of the French Republic which relied on the practice of proportional representation to elect 444 members to the Seym and 111 members to the Senate. Both houses together then appointed a President. Fundamentally, proportional representation was adopted to ensure that neither President nor Senate had extensive powers, however, this proved problematic as A. Zamoyski highlights ‘The concentration of power in the hands of an assembly with no overall majority led, as it must, to a rapid turnover of cabinets.’ . As the new Polish state was formed through the uninification of three distinct and diverse frontiers, the cultural, social and economic differences presented made the new state brittle and politically unstable. Hence, the multiplicity of political parties led to the establishment of a government of coalitions by coalitions. Without the influence of an overall majority, like the British model, the possibility of creating a ‘durable coalition’ was ruled out. Polish independence was characterised by factions, who gave rise to a wide, conflicting range of political parties which did not allow for the co-existence required to sustain a strong coalition.  Another problem which was presented by the new Polish political sphere was in relation to the territorial make-up of the new state, ‘a hundred years of living within one or other of three entirely different cultures had marked the mentality and behaviour of every Pole’. Those from the Russian frontier found it difficult to establish a politically sound relationship with those from the urbanised Habsburg region and relations with those who held Tsarist principles found integration with both Prussian and Habsburg fractions impossible.

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Due to the divisions inherent to polish parliamentary politics the electorate called for the establishment of a ‘strong government’. The greatly anticipated ‘strong government’ was introduced by Jozef Pilsudki a strongly anti-Semitic, nationalistic, and highly conservative leader who believed in the maintenance of the entrenched values of the middle and upper classes.  Pilsudki enforced a coup d’etat in May 1926 in reaction to the weaknesses of the government, created under the constitution of 1921. His aim was to introduce a government which would face up to the social, economic and military problems which the ‘coalitions by coalitions’ had failed ...

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