Kingdom of Poland (1917–1918)

Archduke Charles Stephen (Karl Stephan) in 1917

Governors-General Beseler (first from left) and Kuk (second from left) in 1916

Occupation of the Kingdom of Poland during World War I:

The Regency Council. Left to right: Ostrowski, Kakowski, and Lubomirski

Members of the Regency Council with officers of the Polish Army

Short-lived polity and client state proclaimed during World War I by the German Empire and Austria-Hungary on the territories of the former Russian-ruled Congress Poland, governed at the time by the Central Powers as the Government General of Warsaw.

- Kingdom of Poland (1917–1918)

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Second Polish Republic

Country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939.

Polish defences at Miłosna, during the decisive Battle of Warsaw, August 1920

Marshal Józef Piłsudski, Chief of State (Naczelnik Państwa) between November 1918 and December 1922

Ignacy Mościcki, President of Poland (left), Warsaw, 10 November 1936, awarding the Marshal's buława to Edward Rydz-Śmigły

The PZL.37 Łoś was a Polish twin-engine medium bomber.

Polish pavilion at the 1939 World's Fair in New York City

Poland's MS Batory, and MS Piłsudski, at the sea port of Gdynia, 18 December 1937

Gdynia, a modern Polish seaport established in 1926

Industry and communications in Poland before the start of the Second World War

The CWS T-1 Torpedo was the first serially-built car manufactured in Poland.

Ciągówka Ursus was the first Polish farm tractor, produced from 1922 to 1927 in the Ursus Factory.

Prime Minister Kazimierz Bartel, also a scholar and mathematician

The National Museum in Warsaw (Polish: Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie), popularly known as the MNW, opened in 1938.

Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski, Polish mathematicians and cryptologists who worked at breaking the German Enigma ciphers before and during the Second World War

Contemporary map showing language frequency in 1931 across Poland; red: more than 50% native Polish speakers; green: more than 50% native language other than Polish, including Yiddish, Hebrew, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Russian and less frequent others

Officers from the Second Mountain Brigade of the Polish Legions in the First World War establishing the Polish-Czechoslovak border; they are pictured near the summit of Popadia in Gorgany during the formation of the Second Republic, 1915.

Physical map of the Second Polish Republic

Polish soldiers with anti-aircraft artillery near Warsaw Central Station during the first days of September, 1939

ORP Orzeł was the lead ship of her class of submarines serving in the Polish Navy during the Second World War.

In a failed attempt to resolve the Polish question as quickly as possible, Berlin set up a German puppet state on 5 November 1916, with a governing Provisional Council of State and (from 15 October 1917) a Regency Council (Rada Regencyjna Królestwa Polskiego).

Congress Poland

Polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state and successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw.

Map of Congress Poland, circa 1815, following the Congress of Vienna. The Russian Empire is shown in light green.

Eagle of an officer in the Army of Congress Poland

Naval Ensign of Polish ships (1784–19th century)

Administrative divisions of Congress Poland in 1830

An advertisement of cameras made by a Polish company FOS (1905). Cameras, objectives and stereoscopes were exclusively made in Congress Poland.

An early photograph of Manufaktura in Łódź. The city was considered to be one of the largest textile industry centres in Europe and was nicknamed Polish Manchester.

In 1915, during World War I, it was replaced by the German-controlled nominal Regency Kingdom until Poland regained independence in 1918.

Polish Legions in World War I

Name of the Polish military force (the first active Polish army in generations) established in August 1914 in Galicia soon after World War I erupted between the opposing alliances of the Triple Entente on one side (comprising the British Empire, the French Republic and the Russian Empire); and the Central Powers on the other side, comprising the German Empire and Austria-Hungary.

<Center>Józef Haller de Hallenburg who commanded II Brigade</center>

<center>Tadeusz Jordan-Rozwadowski in an Austro-Hungarian military uniform, 1918</center>

Mieczyslaw Norwid-Neugebauer who commanded 6th Regiment and 3rd Brigade

Leopold Okulicki who served in 3rd Legions Infantry Regiment

Władysław Raczkiewicz (President of Poland)

Wacław Stachiewicz in 1917, after the Oath Crisis

<center>Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski</center>

<center>Józef Olszyna-Wilczyński</center>

<center>Włodzimierz Zagórski (general)</center>

<center>Marian Januszajtis-Żegota</center>

After the Act of 5th November of 1916 which pronounced the creation of the puppet Kingdom of Poland of 1916–18, the Polish Legions were transferred under German command.

Partitions of Poland

The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place toward the end of the 18th century and ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 123 years.

Allegory of the first partition of Poland, showing Catherine the Great of Russia (left), Joseph II of Austria and Frederick the Great of Prussia (right) quarrelling over their territorial seizures

Włodzimierz Tetmajer, Allegory of Dead Poland, St. Nicholas Cathedral, Kalisz

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth after the First Partition, as a protectorate of the Russian Empire (1773–89)

Rejtan at Sejm 1773, oil on canvas by Jan Matejko, 1866, 282 x, Royal Castle in Warsaw

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth after the Second Partition (1793)

"A map of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania including Samogitia and Curland divided according to their dismemberments with the Kingdom of Prussia" from 1799

The partition of Poland according to the German–Soviet Pact; division of Polish territories in the years 1939–1941

In 1915 a client state of the German Empire and Austria-Hungary was proposed and accepted by the Central Powers of World War I: the Regency Kingdom of Poland.

Vistula Land

The name applied to the lands of Congress Poland from 1867, following the defeats of the November Uprising (1830–31) and January Uprising (1863–1864) as it was increasingly stripped of autonomy and incorporated into Imperial Russia.

Russian Poland was officially yielded on terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (marked in red).

As the Russians retreated, the Central Powers occupied the area (1915); subsequently, they proposed the establishment of the Kingdom of Poland (1917–1918).

Józef Piłsudski

Polish statesman who served as the Chief of State (1918–1922) and First Marshal of Poland (from 1920).

"Lingwood", Leytonstone, where Piłsudski stayed in 1900

Józef Piłsudski with Supreme Command of Polish Military Organisation in 1917

Piłsudski. Painting by Jacek Malczewski, 1916

Ulica Mokotowska 50, Warsaw, where Piłsudski stayed 13–29 November 1918, after his release from Magdeburg

Piłsudski improvised armored car, 1919, named after Piłsudski

Statue of Piłsudski before Warsaw's Belweder Palace, Piłsudski's official residence during his years in power

In March 1920, Piłsudski was made "First Marshal of Poland".

Piłsudski (left) and Edward Rydz-Śmigły (right), 1920, during Polish-Soviet War

At Belweder Palace, Chief of State Piłsudski (left) transferred his powers to President-elect Gabriel Narutowicz (right). Two days later, the President was assassinated.

At Warsaw's Hotel Bristol, 3 July 1923, Piłsudski announced his retirement from active politics.

Piłsudski on Warsaw's Poniatowski Bridge during the May 1926 coup. At the right is General Gustaw Orlicz-Dreszer.

Belweder Palace, Warsaw, Piłsudski's official residence during his years in power

The Marshal and his second wife, Aleksandra Piłsudska, 1928

In 1933, Piłsudski paid homage at the tomb of John III Sobieski in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Battle of Vienna.

German ambassador, Hans-Adolf von Moltke, Piłsudski, Joseph Goebbels and Józef Beck, Polish Foreign minister, in Warsaw on 15 June 1934, five months after the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact

Grave of Piłsudski's mother in Vilnius, Lithuania. The huge black tombstone is inscribed: "Matka i serce syna"
("A mother and the heart of [her] son") and bears evocative lines from a poem by Słowacki.

Statue of Piłsudski on Warsaw's Piłsudski Square—one of many statuary tributes throughout Poland

Contemporary caricature of Józef Piłsudski by Jerzy Szwajcer

Piłsudski agreed to serve in the Regency Kingdom of Poland, created by the Central Powers, and acted as minister of war in the newly formed Polish Regency government; as such, he was responsible for the Polnische Wehrmacht.

Polish–Soviet War

Fought primarily between the Second Polish Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in the aftermath of World War I, on territories formerly held by the Russian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Top left: Polish troops in Kiev, May 1920

Top right: Polish Schwarzlose M.07/12 machine gun nest during the Battle of Radzymin, August 1920

Middle: Polish defences with a machine gun position near Miłosna, during the Battle of Warsaw, August 1920

Bottom left: Russian prisoners following the Battle of Warsaw

Bottom right: Polish defences in Belarus during the Battle of the Niemen River, September 1920

Partitions of Poland–Lithuania in 1795: the coloured territories show the extent of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth just before the First Partition. The land absorbed by the Kingdom of Prussia is in blue (north-west), by the Austrian Habsburg monarchy in green (south) and by the Russian Empire in red (east).

Map of areas where Polish was used as a primary language in 1916

Territorial establishment of the Second Polish Republic as of March 1919

Activists of the Polish Military Organisation in 1917

General Józef Haller swearing for the Polish flag when he was nominated to command the Blue Army

Polish soldiers enter Daugavpils, January 1920

Georgy Chicherin (left) with Maxim Litvinov in 1920

Józef Piłsudski (right in the train) and Symon Petliura, 16 May 1920

Petliura (right) with Polish General Antoni Listowski

Polish officers on the southern front in 1920

Polish fighters of the Kościuszko Squadron

Mikhail Kalinin and Leon Trotsky greet the Red Army troops

Polish Kiev Offensive at its height, June 1920

Vladimir Lenin, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of Soviet Russia, delivers a speech to motivate troops to fight in the Polish–Soviet War on 5 May 1920

Russian volunteers about to be sent to the Polish front

Soviet offensive successes, early August 1920

Volunteers from Lviv serving in the Polish Army's 2nd Death's Squadron

Polish propaganda poster with the caption: "Beat the Bolshevik"

The image of Leon Trotsky on Polish propaganda poster from July 1920. The large caption reads "Bolshevik freedom". The small caption on the right-hand side reads: "The Bolsheviks promised: We'll give you peace. We'll give you freedom. We'll give you land, work and bread. Despicably they cheated: They started a war with Poland. Instead of freedom, they brought the fist. Instead of land, confiscation. Instead of work, misery. Instead of bread, famine". (Issued by) "Ministry of Military Affairs, Propaganda Department".

Polish propaganda poster. The text reads: "To arms! Save the fatherland! Remember well our future fate."

Soviet delegates arrive for armistice negotiations before the Battle of Warsaw, August 1920

Władysław Sikorski and the 5th Army Staff in August 1920

Polish soldiers display captured Soviet standards after the Battle of Warsaw

Polish cavalry at the Battle of the Niemen River

Austin-Putilov armored car, captured from the Russians and renamed as Poznańczyk

Poland after the Peace of Riga with the pre-partition borders of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth also indicated

Graves of Polish soldiers killed during the Battle of Warsaw, Powązki Military Cemetery

The German Empire's defeat rendered obsolete Berlin's plans for the creation of Eastern European German-dominated states (Mitteleuropa), which included another rendition of the Kingdom of Poland.

Government General of Warsaw

Administrative civil district created by the German Empire in World War I.

The Government General of Warsaw, depicted in light blue

It continued to exist even after the later establishment of a rump Kingdom of Poland, a Central Powers puppet state.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Separate peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918, between the new Bolshevik government of Russia and the Central Powers (German Empire, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire), that ended Russia's participation in World War I.

The first two pages of the Treaty in (from left to right) German, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Ottoman Turkish and Russian

Signing of the armistice between Russia and Germany on 15 December 1917

Special edition of the Lübeckischen Anzeigen, with the headline as: “Peace with Ukraine”

Trotsky being greeted by German officers

German and Soviet troops gathering together, February 1918

"Three bones—a bountiful tip", a political cartoon from 1918 by American cartoonist E. A. Bushnell

Territory lost under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

"Poland & The New Baltic States": a map from a 1920 British atlas, showing borders left undefined between the treaties of Brest-Litovsk, Versailles and Riga

(The territory of the Kingdom of Poland was not mentioned in the treaty because Russian Poland had been in possession of the White movement, not the Bolsheviks.) The treaty stated that "Germany and Austria-Hungary intend to determine the future fate of these territories in agreement with their populations."

Archduke Charles Stephen of Austria

Grand Admiral Archduke Charles Stephen, 1917

Archduke Charles Stephen Eugene Viktor Felix Maria of Austria (Erzherzog Karl Stephan Eugen Viktor Felix Maria von Habsburg-Lothringen, Arcyksiążę Karol Stefan Eugeniusz Wiktor Feliks Maria Habsburg-Lothringen; 5 September 1860 – 7 April 1933) was a member of the House of Habsburg, a Grand Admiral in the Austro-Hungarian Navy and candidate for the Polish crown.