(Cambridge Concise Histories) Jerzy Lukowski, Hubert Zawadzki - A Concise History of Poland-Cambridge University Press (2006)

Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points include an independent Poland with access to the sea (8 January); treaty of Brest-Litovsk (3 March); Belarusian National Council in Minsk proclaims the independence of Belarus (25 March); start of Polish-Ukrainian fighting for control of Lwow and east Galicia (31 October); declaration of Polish Independence in Warsaw (ti November):

Pilsudskį assumes power in Warsaw; creation of the Polish Communist Party (16 December); start of successful anti-German uprising in Poznania (27 December)

Elections to the first Sejm of re-born Poland (26 January): National Democrats the largest party; France, UK and Italy recognize the independence of Poland (24-2-7 February); treaty of Versailles transfers Poznania and West Prussia (the so-called 'Polish Corridor') to Poland (28 June); Polish forces occupy Wilno (19 April) and Minsk (8 August); Poles establish complete control over east Galicia (June-July); ‘Curzon Line’ proposed by the Great Powers as Poland’s provisional eastern demarcation line (8 December)

1919

Polish-LIkrainian alliance (21 April); Polish forces enter Kiev (8 May); plebiscite in southern East Prussia (1 r July); coalition Government of National Defence formed under Witos (24 July); Bolshevik counter-offensive turned back at the battle of Warsaw (t 6-r8 August); ‘mutinous’ Polish forces seize Wilno (9 October)

Franco-Polish alliance (9 February); Polish-Romanian defence treaty (3 March); adoption of a new constitution (17 March); treaty of Riga with Bolshevik Russia (18 March); plebiscite in Upper Silesia (20 March); Witos’ centre-left government toppled (June); German-Polish partition of Upper Silesia (20 October)

Incorporation of Wilno by Poland (24 March); assassination of president Narutowicz (16 December) Conference of Ambassadors in Paris recognizes Poland’s eastern border (rj March); centre-right coalition government under Witos (May-December); non-party government under Wladyslaw Grabski (19 December) Monetary reform: Polish zloty introduced (April) Construction begins of a new port in Gdynia; Concordat with the Catholic Church (10 February); German-Polish tariff war starts (15 June); a grand coalition government under Aleksander Skrzynski replaces Grabski’s administration (20 November)

1925

1924

1925

1926 T928

1929

1930

T93 1

1932

19 33 ^T934

^r 93 5 193 ⁶

Skrzynski resigns (3 April); centre-right government under Witos (10 May); Pilsudski’s coup d’etat (12 May): beginning of the ‘Sanacja’ regime

Creation of the Non-Party Bloc of Co-operation with the

Government (BBWR); parliamentary elections (3 March):

eclipse of the National Democrats

Parties of the centre and the left form alliance against

the ‘Sanacja’ (September); the Great Depression hits

Poland

Pilsudskį becomes prime minister (August-December); incarceration in Brzešč of political opponents of Pilsudski’s regime (to September-29 December); pacification of eastern Galicia (September-November); BBWR largest party in the November elections Formation of a single Polish Peasant Party (PSL) Polish-Soviet Treaty of Non-Aggression (25 July);

Colonel Jozef Beck becomes foreign minister (2 November)

Polish-German tension over the Free City of Danzig (February-March)

Polish-German Treaty of Non-Aggression: end of Polish-German tariff war (26 January); Polish-Soviet Treaty of Non-Aggression extended for ten years (i2 February)

New Polish constitution strengthens presidential powers (23 April); death of Marshal Pilsudskį (12 May)

Centrist opposition politicians form the ‘Morges Front’

(February); General Edward Rvdz-Smigly becomes Marshal of Poland (to November)

Launching of the four-year state investment plan and of the Central Industrial Region (COP) (February)

1937

1938

т 93 9

Polish ultimatum to Lithuania (17 March) leads to the establishment of diplomatic relations (31 March); Stalin dissolves the Polish Communist Party (March); Polish ultimatum (30 September) leads to the surrender of Teschen by Czechoslovakia (1 October)

Polish government declines Hitler’s offer of alliance (26 March); British guarantee of Polish independence (3т March); Hitler repudiates the Polish-German treaty of 1934 (28 April); Franco-Polish military agreement ( t9 May); Poland declines consent for the transit of Soviet forces through its territory (19 August); Nazi-Soviet Pact (23-24 August); Anglo-Polish treaty of alliance (25 August); Nazi Germany invades Poland (1 September); Soviet forces invade Poland (17 September); Polish government and High Command cross into Romania (17-18 September); Warsaw surrenders to the Germans (27 September); Nazi-Soviet demarcation line established across partitioned Poland (28 September); Polish government-in-exile formed in Paris under General Sikorski (30 September)

Deportations of Poles to the Soviet interior begin (February); Sikorski’s government moves to London (June); Polish pilots in action during the battle of Britain (August-September); creation of the Warsaw ghetto (October)

1940

г 94 ¹ 1942

194 3