The Civil Administration of Eastern Territories (1919–1920)

Front matter

POLISH STUDIES - TRANSDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES 40

Joanna Gierowska-Kałłaur

The Civil Administration of Eastern Territories (1919-1920)

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION 25er fete e er a reete

CHAPTERI: THE GLOBAL, POLISH, AND LITHUANIAN SITUATION AFTER POLAND REGAINED

Back round i w O O l ede e rd p CARI i RÓ

CHAPTER II: FORMATION AND ORGANISATION OF THE CIVIL ADMINISTRATION Territorial SCOPE sonini oi fo m e dde AE

Activity of the Ministers of the Treasury in the revived Poland BEIDE ————————————————

6 Table of Contents

2. Józef Englich (16^ January 1919 to 4^ April 1919) wees 4. Leon Biliński (31* July 1919 to 27 Nov. 1919)... sss First period (8^ February 1919-22"4 April 1919)... sss Second period (224 April 1919-10" October 1919) sss

Fifth period (17% January 1920 to 1% June 1920) sissies

Sixth period (1* June 1920 to 9" September 1920)... sss

CHAPTER III: THE PERSONNEL OF THE TEMPORARY CIVIL ADMINISTRATION OF THE A collective portrait of senior ZCZW staff employed

CHAPTER IV: THE ATTITUDE OF THE SUPREME COMMAND OF THE POLISH ARMED FORCES TO THE TEMPORARY CIVIL ADMINISTRATION OF THE EASTERN

2274 April to 10% October 1919 uszata a AW W tete dtes After 109 October 1919 c.cccicscsscesasecescsaceussnsesscnscascnenansesecsacsaueseseeastecsuaesennscvacecs

The efforts and labours of the ZCZW’s Conscription-and-Enlistment

Table of Contents 7

Chapter V: The Legislative Sejm Facing The Future Of The Lands Under

Background sani diaz i aid TUE UO ERUNT UNI GC 189 10" February to 237" May 1919... tre itera erp ee 193 After 25™ November" 1919 .,. e epit O AO iren 207

CHAPTER VI: RECEPTION OF THE PROGRAMME ANNOUNCED IN THE PROCLAMATION TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE FORMER

2273 April to 25* November 1919... esee tentent 215

Maciej Glogier's mission to the area of the plebiscite announced in the Proclamation to the residents of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, February 1920 oorrexi etian 249

March 1920 and afterwards... ertt etre ttr ertet one 253

Chapter Vii: Education And The School System In The Zczw-controlled

Under Łucjan Zarzecki's term-of-office (October 1919 to September 1920) dts REB RR EROR 265

8 Table of Contents

CHAPTER VIII: THE ZCZW'S PROGRAMME IN THE LANDS OF LITHUANIA AND IN Daily practices and routines in the Districts of Vilnius and Brześć

Daily practices and routines in the District of Minsk (Eastern Byelorussia) C ——

General assumptions of Polish policies and their determinants between February and August 1919...

General premises of Polish policy and its determinants in September ta December 1919. asia wani ABU Ee ER I e EBENE EINE IEÉ

The Lithuanian trump card sisisi aiiin iniaa

The Byelorussian: trümbp:card use db ne net is

General assumptions behind Polish policy and its determinants moa) P ——Ó———À———Á—— Á—

Daily practices and routines after the establishment

CONCLUSION dir p ta er Me AR UR d bd

Table of Contents 9

APPENDIX I 5: eei ter ta A AAA 479 BIBLIOGRAPHY a reete debate 513

Introduction

This study seeks to discuss one of the major aspects (in my view) of the Eastern policies pursued by Poland as a re-emerging state after the First World War, confronted with the federation-oriented policy of Józef Piłsudski, the then-Chief of State, and the differing viewpoints of his opponents. This book explores the approaches adopted in relation to the actions taken by Poland in the Eastern territories not only by Germany, which had been on the losing side in WWI, but also by the victorious Entente powers. The collapse of Russia made them face a range of interwoven problems that their political elites had not previously contemplated, and thus lacked the necessary tools, let alone the essential knowledge, to effectively shape the new political reality. The interests of Russia, the notable absentee, and its increasingly active new rulers at the Kremlin, also played a crucial role. In this context, the actions of the newest entities on the world map and subjects of the events in question, i.e. Lithuania, Byelorussia, and Ukraine, was of lesser significance, although not negligible, either.

In the first place, it is necessary to define the term “The Civil Administration of the Eastern Territories [Zarząd Cywilny Ziem Wschodnich (hereinafter referred to as the ZCZW”)],! as it is both ambiguous and capacious. The ZCZW” stood for an administrative unit established by the Polish Supreme Commander, Józef Piłsudski, in the territories of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania liberated (not ‘seized’ or occupied”) by the Polish army. This office was brought into being at a particular moment: upon the restoration of independence, but before the boundaries of the reborn country were recognised internationally, in the hope of achieving a precise objective. The ZCZW can also serve as an example of the failure of a political and social concept that proved too modern for its time. Indeed, it reflects the internal Polish conflicts and the persistent dispute between the Chief of State and the Polish National Committee [Komitet Narodowy Polski (KNP)], which endured and was employed or harnessed in all political aspects

1 Inthe English translations of Polish historians’ works appears a translatorial difficulty in the use of the term ‘territories of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which is nevertheless extremely important for works from 1918-1920. Some use in their narratives the term (nasze) Kresy, which means '(our Eastern) Borderlands, while others, and I as well, prefer the term Ziemie Wschodnie, meaning 'Eastern Territories, which is closer to Piłsudskis federational political idea that I discuss in this work.

of the Polish state and society in the years 1919-1920, including in the area of the Eastern Borderlands.

The ZCZW constitutes a symbol of the tragedy that affected the lands of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Its protagonists were the Chief of State, a large mass of officials, and social/political activists torn by conflicting feelings, as well as numerous other inhabitants of the territories under the jurisdiction of the Administration, whose establishment was first announced in the Proclamation to the Inhabitants of the Former Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

One factor of vital importance to understanding the reasons behind the failure of Józef Piłsudskis Eastern Policy carried out in 1919 is to show how the ZCZW was structured and how it functioned, in the context of what was happening at that time, globally as well as locally. The structure of this book follows the structure of the drama that unfolded in the Parisian salons, in the corridors of the Sejm in Warsaw, and in the counties of the Eastern Territories, as the dispute over the shape of the country spilled from the political salons all the way down to the local communes.

All of the actors in these events faced inescapable choices. Their knowledge was limited, both for objective and subjective reasons. The Polish elites feared the new socio-political agenda and the masses who simply did not comprehend it; an agenda that was meant to provide refuge to all inhabitants of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania — not just the Poles — in the face of the tempest approaching from the East.

It seems that, in spite of all their complexity, the events which took place between 19" February 1919 (when the office of Civil Commissioner was established at the Military Administration of the Eastern Territories) and the late summer of 1920 (the dissolution of the ZCZW on 9* September) were largely influenced by one concrete mechanism. The former occupiers of these lands were very aware of this mechanism, and exploited it in line with their divide et impera strategy.

The concept that brought the ZCZW to life ended in fiasco for various reasons, both independent from and dependent on the Poles themselves. The aim of the present study is to provide factual evidence, largely unknown to date, and thus establish a causal link allowing a determination, to the extent possible, of how and in what ways these factors contributed to the ultimate failure of the project. The study is, moreover, a first attempt at identifying and describing the said mechanism on the basis of numerous specific examples from all the levels of the ZCZW’s structure.

Now I must make a methodological remark at this point. One consequential obstacle encountered by both the participants and witnesses of those events, and future scholars — including the author of this book — has been the fluidity of the terms used during that period. The same word could mean something different to different people. In 1923, Józef Piłsudski stated publicly that the term ‘federation’ proved too smart for the ‘weighty and apish granny, which personified public opinion.’ This ascertainment leads to the conclusion that none of the terms such as ‘union, ‘plebiscite’, ‘election, ‘Poles, Jews, 'Byelorussians, or even 'army / the military, ‘Bolsheviks, or concentration camp’ ought not to be used without first being accurately defined.

As an experienced, long-standing archive documentalist at the Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences, I have decided to employ a research method adapted to the physical condition and nature of the archival sources I came across in my research. The Old Prints and Manuscripts Section at the Capital-City-of-Warsaw Public Library contains a fond named ‘Zarzgd Cywilny Ziem Wschodnich, comprising approximately 24,000 folios. A meticulous reader of the sources contained in this fond will surely notice that the various materials in it have never constituted an orderly whole, and were hastily sorted out and discarded at some point. Incomplete materials from various periods, districts, (not all) departments, sections, inspectorates, starosties, counties, etc. have been arbitrarily interspersed. Most of these documents are copies or duplicates (including carbon copies), some are poorly legible drafts typewritten or handwritten on both sides — usually in Polish, but also in Byelorussian, Lithuanian, German, and French. The archives have twice undergone a hasty evacuation, in 1920 and then again in 1944; hence the chaotic layout of the documents, with minor exceptions. The work procedures of the officials and clerks might have left an imprint, too. The ZCZW’s offices functioned in an unrestrained manner; even the bookkeeping was done using different systems. Prolific typing errors by the registrars, missing dates and places of issue, and the common use of outdated receipt stamps were also frequent.

After the Second World War, the fond was divided into a total of 118 handwritten volumes of varying size? The aforesaid Warsaw Public Library collection also contains the personal documents of Jerzy Osmołowski, the

2 J. Piłsudski, Pisma zbiorowe, Vol. VI, Warszawa 1937, pp. 127, 129, 132, 133, 135; also, see J. Gierowska-Kallaur, Odczyt Marszałka Piłsudskiego wygłoszony 24 sierpnia 1923 roku w Wilnie, Przegląd Wschodni, Vol. V, 1999, fasc. 4 (20), pp. 767-791.

3 J. Gierowska-Kałłaur, Zespół akt Zarząd Cywilny Ziem Wschodnich w zbiorach Biblioteki Publicznej m,st. Warszawy, w: Biblioteka na Koszykowej 1907-1997. Zbiór prac poświęconych Bibliotece Publicznej m,st. Warszawy - Bibliotece Głównej, Warszawa 1999, pp. 111-133,

Commissioner-General, which are referred to throughout this book.‘ Following a three-year query, I was able to draw up a tentative inventory of the ZCZW fond, comprising extensive extracts and photocopies. This research provided a huge amount of material, which resulted in pointing the way for further research.

The material constituting the ZCZW fond at the Warsaw Public Library aroused virtually no interest for many years. Interestingly, Aleksy Deruga, author of the seminal work on Poland's Eastern policy in the years 1918-1919, never came across these records? The memoirs of Jerzy Osmołowski, Commissioner- General of the ZCZW, donated to the National Library after 1954° were written years after the facts described therein, and in a radically different political situation, by a man eager for recognition on the one hand, and visibly bitter on the other. I have therefore concluded that this particular account — contrary to the diary of Michał Kossakowski,” Commissioner-General’s representative in Warsaw — does not actually hold the value attributed to it by many historians, and I resorted instead to reconstructing the period's events mostly on the basis of the official documents produced in 1919-1920. However, despite the above reservations, these memoirs proved to be of significant assistance in writing this study. The Special Collection at the National Library in Warsaw contains, moreover, the archive of Stefan Szwedowski, a nationalist activist.

The queries made at those places have enabled me to attempt a personal evaluation of the circumstances surrounding the events in question. I did my supplementary research at three archives in Warsaw. Apart from the Kossakowski diary, the Archive of the Polish Academy of Sciences contains the documentation of Marceli Handelsman and a (barely legible) diary by Ludwik Kolankowski, the first Civil Commissioner. At the Central Archives of Modern Records [AAN], in

4 Biblioteka Publiczna m.st. Warszawy [Capital-City-of- Warsaw Public Library]. Dział Starych Druków i Rękopisów [Old Prints and Manuscripts Section]. Papiery osobiste J. Osmolowskiego [Personal documents of J. Osmolowski], No. 1553 x 233; including, among others, original copy of J. Piłsudski: letter to J. Osmolowski, published as item No. 18 of the 37 letters by Niepodległość (London), Vol. 7, 1962.

5 A. Deruga, Polityka wschodnia Polski wobec ziem Litwy, Białorusi i Ukrainy (1918- 1919), Warsaw 1969.

6 Biblioteka Narodowa [the National Library (hereinafter, BN)], microfilm 30087-30090; 50228-50231: J. Osmołowski, Pamiętniki 1914-1921 [Memoirs, 1914-21].

7 See M.S. Korwin-Kossakowski, Diariusz, vol.1, Part 1 (21* May-31* August 1915) and vol.1, Part 2 (1* September 1915-4" February, 1916), ed. by M. Madzik, with an introduction and co-edited by K. Latawiec, M. Korzeniowski, and D.Tarasiuk, Lublin 2010; Diariusz Vol. 2 (29* April-31* December 1917) and Vol. 3 (1* January-31* December 1918), ed. by D. Tarasiuk, M. Korzeniowski, and K. Latawiec, Lublin 2016.

addition to the minutes/records of the Council of Ministers, I made use of the Borderland Guard Society fond and the ‘Collection of Duplicates; as well as the fond of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Lastly, at the Central Military Archives, I studied the Laudanski Dossier.

During my several visits to Vilnius, I conducted queries in the manuscript collection of the Vilnius University Library (Vilniaus universiteto moksliné biblioteka), where I studied in detail the dossier of Marian Zdziechowski. The abundant correspondence gathered therein, even the letters from the 1930s, allowed me to see the beginnings of the formation of Polish statehood after the Great War in a different light. Although I do not cite these letters in my work, they helped me considerably to obtain an effective insight into the events of the period in question.

The collection of manuscripts at the Lithuanian National Library (Lietuvos nacionalinė Martyno Mažvydo biblioteka) contains the documentation of the estates owned by the Kossakowski family, among which ‘compromising’ materials were concealed. The Lithuanian Archives of Modern Records (Lietuvos centrinis valstybes archyvas) offer a clearly structured collection of materials left behind during the 1920 evacuation, entitled ‘Civil Administration of the Eastern Territories. Its most interesting portion includes proofs of the political preferences of Poles; namely, the inhabitants of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as of 1919, and their correspondence with the Polish National Committee in Paris. The manuscripts at the Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences (Lietuvos moksly akademijos biblioteka) are a treasury of knowledge for researchers of all periods. Among the many collections that I have found there, Marian Swiechowski’s dossier deserves particular mention for the extent and significance of its materials concerning Polish-Lithuanian relations. Its controversial contents, arousing much emotion, have already been published.*

Lithuanias Archives of Historical Records (Lietuvos valstybės istorijos archyvas) contains, among others, the collection of the Society of the Friends of Science in Vilnius (Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk w Wilnie), which includes the incredibly valuable Vilnius Lands Collection of Documents. It should be borne in mind that access to the vast majority of these materials was practically impossible before 1991, for many more than just Polish nationals. Therefore, not only was I the first Polish researcher to reach these records, but some folios in the files were numbered for the first time only because I had ordered for them. The ‘stock’ compiled during these queries was subsequently complemented

8 Gierowska-Kallaur, Odczyt Marszałka Piłsudskiego ..5 pp. 767-791.

by photocopies of five important documents concerning Lithuanian matters from the Józef Piłsudski Institute in New York, donated by Dorota Cisowska- Hydzik, MA, an attendee of Professor Andrzej Ajnenkiels doctoral seminar, who researched the Polish National Committee. My gratitude is also due to Mr Andrzej Czarniakiewicz from Grodno, who provided me with photocopies of valuable documents from the Belarusian archives.

As it emerges from the collected material, the effects of the special policy pursued proactively by the Germans after their capitulation played a role in 1919 not to be underestimated in the development of the situation in the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania’s territory. The author was unable to conduct detailed queries in the German archives; this gap, however, is repaired to some extent by the source-based paper delivered by German historian Wolfgang Petter at the conference 1920. On the 80th Anniversary of Poland's Victory over the Red Army.”

Volume-wise, the outcome of the archival queries has surpassed my wildest expectations, although further research could undoubtedly reveal more hitherto-undiscovered materials. Printed documents are a valuable addition to the source material, notably: Akta i dokumenty dotyczące sprawy granic na konferencji pokojowej w Paryżu [Files and documents related to the issue of borders at the Peace Conference in Paris], Part I: Program terytorialny delegacji polskiej [Territorial agenda of the Polish Delegation] (Paris: Société générale d'imprimerie et dédition, 1920). As far of the canonical Polish source publications are concerned, I have included the following: (i) Kazimierz W. Kumaniecki, Odbudowa państwowości polskiej [Reconstruction of Polish statehood] (Warsaw: J. Czernecki, 1924); (ii) Remigiusz Bierzanek and Józef Kukułka (eds.), Sprawy Polski na Konferencji Pokojowej w Paryżu w 1919 r. Dokumenty i materiały [The affairs concerning Poland at the Peace Conference in Paris in 1919. Documents and materials], vols. 1-3 (Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnicwo Naukowe, 1965-8); (iii) Halina Janowska and Tadeusz Jędruszczak (eds.), Powstanie II Rzeczypospolitej [The emergence of the Second Republic of Poland] (Warsaw: Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza, 1981); Tadeusz Jędruszczak and Maria Nowak-Kiełbikowa (eds.), Dokumenty z dziejów polskiej polityki zagranicznej 1918-1939 [Documents from the history of Polish foreign policy 1918-1939], Vol. I: 1918-32, (Warsaw: Instytut Wydawniczy PAX, 1989); Natalia Gąsiorowska- Grabowska et al. (eds.), Dokumenty i materiały do historii

9 W. Petter, Niemcy i Reichswehra w wojnie polsko-sowieckiej (1919-1920), in A. Ajnenkiel (red.), Rok 1920. Z perspektywy osiemdziesięciu lat, Warsaw 2001, pp. 243-256.

stosunków polsko-radzieckich [Documents and materials related to the history of Polish-Soviet relations], vols. I-IV (Warsaw: Ksigzka i Wiedza, 1961-5); Witold Stankiewicz and Andrzej Piber (compiled by), Archiwum polityczne Ignacego Paderewskiego [The political archive of Ignacy Paderewski], Vol. II: 1919-21 (Wroclaw: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, 1974) (I have also taken note of the material prepared for the second edition). I have moreover included information from the anthology Vytautas Petras Plećkaitis and Jan Widacki (compiled and commented by), Lietuvos ir Lenkijos santykiai 1917-1994: dokumenty rinkinys [Lithuanian-Polish Relations 1917-94. A collection of documents], (Vilnius: Valstybés Zinios, 1998), and from the publication Arkhivy Byelaruskay Narodnay Respubliki [Archives of the Belarusian People’s Republic.], Vol. I, issue 1 (Vilnius-New York-Minsk-Prague: Byelorusskii Institut Navuki i Mastatstva Tavarystva Belaruskaga Pismyenstva, 1998).

The historiographical literature on the subject is listed in the bibliography at the end of the book. The pre-war historical works, which discussed those of the reasons behind the failure of the Eastern programme that remained within the range of influence of the Polish authorities, were affected by the understandable reluctance to undermine the morale of the state at a time when the tears of widows and orphans of the recent war had not yet dried. This topic was not explored during Piłsudski: lifetime, either by his followers or, strikingly enough, by the Marshal’s numerous antagonists. No witnesses were contacted and few accounts survive, whereas the existing ones tend to omit the subject.”

For several decades after the Second World War, there were no appropriate conditions to discuss any issues related to the Polish-Soviet War. In the last decade, one important study by Janusz Szczepański saw the light of day," but it

10 In his memoirs, written by W. Wisniewski, Tomasz Zan omits the episode in his life related to the uprising in Kaunas. He has penned the account entitled W sprawie litewskiej [On the Lithuanian cause] of 12* December 1919 (cited herein), whose copy is kept at the Lietuvos moksly akademijos biblioteka (hereinafter, LMAB), in Marian Swiechowski’s records, Fond 168-22, lap. 80-81 (verso). However, texts written by authors from Vilnius Land who were eye-witnesses to the described events are available, including the articles: Zygmunt Jundzill, “Z dziejów polskiej myśli politycznej na Litwie historycznej, Niepodległość (London), Vol. VI, 1953; Kazimierz Okulicz, Podział ziem Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego (1915-1923-1940), Alma Mater Vilniensis (London), Vol. 3, 1953, and his, Ostatni akt dramatu Józefa Piłsudskiego, Zeszyty historyczne (Paris) 1966, fasc. 9; moreover, the study by Władysław Wielhorski, Polska i Litwa. Stosunki wzajemne w biegu dziejów, London 1947.

11 J. Szczepański, Społeczeństwo Polski w walce z najazdem bolszewickim 1920 roku, Warsaw-Pultusk, 2000, pp. 41-70, pp. 119-68.

offered no new findings in the field concerned in the present book. The abundance of archival source material that has so far remained outside scholarly interest or discourse, as well as the adopted method of reconstruction of the mechanism that dismantled the ZCZW, has prompted me to limit the amount of personal comments on the literature to the necessary minimum.

However, several titles should be mentioned at this point. Quite a number of authors have explored Józef Piłsudski — the man/figure and his political activity, as well as his interactions with the National Democratic camp." The works by Jan Jurkiewicz, * Aleksy Deruga,'* Adolf Juzwenko, and Jozef Lewandowski'$ all carry an extremely high value owing to the material they contain. The period in question is also covered in a study by Leon Grosfeld," to whose discussions with Tadeusz Jędruszczak (with the participation of Colonel Kazimierz Rosen-Zawadzki) I listened attentively at the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of History in the early 1980s. One cannot deal with the history of the

12 J. Molenda, Piłsudczycy a narodowi demokraci 1908-1918, Warsaw 1980; K. Grünberg, Polskie koncepcje federalistyczne 1864-1918, Warszawa 1971; A. Garlicki, Jozef Piłsudski 1867-1935, Warsaw 1988; W. Suleja, Józef Piłsudski, Wroclaw 1995; M. K. Dziewanowski, Joseph Piłsudski: A European Federalist, 1918-1922, Stanford, California 1969; J. Faryś, Piłsudski i pilsudczycy, Z dziejów koncepcji polityczno-ustrojowej (1918-1939), Szczecin 1991; J. Kukułka, Niektóre aspekty międzynarodowe polityki Piłsudskiego wobec ziem litewsko-białoruskich (w I połowie 1919 roku), Studia z Najnowszych Dziejów Powszechnych, Vol. 2, 1962, pp. 35-64; T. Komarnicki, Piłsudski a polityka wielkich mocarstw zachodnich, London 1952; A. Cienciała, Stosunki polsko-sowieckie-federalizm-polityka polska 1914-1921, Zeszyty Historyczne (Paris) 1970, fasc. 18, 215-20; W. Gostyńska, Polityka polska wobec Litwy i Białorusi (X 1918-1 1919), in Z dziejów stosunków polsko-radzieckich, 1.1, Warsaw 1965. Andrzej Ajnenkiel also proposed synthetic discussions of Piłsudskis Eastern policies as the Chief of State/ Commander-in-Chief in his studies on parliamentarianism.

13 J. Jurkiewicz, Rozwój polskiej myśli politycznej na Litwie i Białorusi w latach 1905-1922, Poznań 1983; reviewed in J. Bardach, ‘Krajowcy, federaliści, inkorporacjoniści, in his, O dawnej i niedawnej Litwie, Poznań 1988.

14 Deruga, Polityka wschodnia ... .

15 A. Juzwenko, Polska a “biata” Rosja (od listopada 1918 do kwietnia 1920 r.), Wroclaw 1973; his, Próby ustalenia polityki Polski wobec Rosji na przełomie 1918 i 1919 roku, Przegląd Historyczny, Vol. 64, 1973, fasc. 2.

16 J. Lewandowski, Federalizm. Litwa i Białoruś w polityce obozu belwederskiego (XI 1918- IV 1920), Warsaw 1962.

17 L. Grosfeld, Polityka państw centralnych wobec sprawy polskiej w latach 1914-1918, Warsaw 1962; and his, Polska a stosunki niemiecko-rosyjskie 1918-1939, Warsaw 1988.

region concerned without being acquainted with the valuable studies of Piotr Lossowski'? or Andrzej Skrzypek.” The contents of the Warsaw Public Library's ZCZW fond has also been of interest to Krystyna Gomólka? and Aleksandra Bergman,” both of whom were exploring the Byelorussian question. Roman Wapinski” devotes attention and numerous publications to the history of the Polish national(ist) camp’s Eastern policy in the period 1917-1921, which constituted a political alternative to the concepts of the Chief of State. Among the works published in recent years, several deserve a mention. The internal policy constitutes the subject of the document collections Communiqués of the Supreme

Piotr Lossowski has the following studies published to his credit, among other things: Stosunki polsko-litewskie w latach 1918-1920, Warsaw 1966; Kraje bałtyckie na drodze od demokracji parlamentarnej do dyktatury 1918-1934, Warsaw 1972; Litwa a sprawy polskie, Warsaw 1982, 1985; Między wojną a pokojem. Niemieckie zamysły wojenne na wschodzie w obliczu traktatu wersalskiego, Warsaw 1976; Po tej i po tamtej stronie Niemna. Stosunki polsko-litewskie 1883-1939, Warsaw 1985; Zerwane pęta. Usunięcie okupantów z ziem polskich w listopadzie 1918 roku, Warsaw 1986; Polska w Europie i świecie 1918-1939, Warsaw 1990; Stosunki polsko-estońskie 1918-1939, Warsaw 1992; ‘Próba przewrotu polskiego w Kownie w sierpniu 1919 roku, in Najnowsze Dzieje Polski. Materiały i Studia z okresu 1914-1939, Vol. 8, 1964, 51-74; Działalność delegacji polskiej na konferencji pokojowej w Paryżu, in M. Tanty (ed.), Narodziny Polski niepodległej. Wizje-realia-opinie. Studia i szkice, Warsaw 1988, pp. 114-135; Konflikt polsko-litewski 1918-1920, Warsaw 1996; ‘Kształtowanie się państwa polskiego i walka o granice (listopad 1918-czerwiec 1921), in Historia dyplomacji polskiej, Vol. IV: 1918-1939, Warsaw 1995; and many more.

A. Skrzypek, Związek Bałtycki. Litwa, Łotwa, Estonia i Finlandia w polityce Polski i ZSRR w latach 1919-1925, Warsaw 1972.

Krystyna Gomółka has published: Józef Piłsudski wobec kwestii białoruskiej, Res Historica 1999, fasc. 8 (‘Jozef Piłsudski i piłsudczycy, ed. by Z. Zaporowski), 13-28; Józef Piłsudski wobec kwestii białoruskiej a wschodnia granica Polski w latach 1918- 1922; in Tanty (ed.), Narodziny Polski niepodległej ...; Między Polską a Rosją. Białoruś w koncepcjach polskich ugrupowań politycznych 1918-1922, Warsaw 1994; Rozmowy polsko-białoruskie (marzec 1920 r.), Dzieje Najnowsze 1988, No. 1; Sprawa białoruska w koncepcjach Narodowej Demokracji w latach 1918-1922, in W. Wrzesiński (ed.), Polska myśl polityczna XIX i XX wieku, Vol. 8: Polska-Polacy-mniejszości narodowe, Wroclaw 1992.

A. Bergman, Rzecz o Bronisławie Taraszkiewiczu, Warsaw 1977; eadem, Sprawy białoruskie w II Rzeczpospolitej, Warsaw 1984.

R. Wapiński, 'Endecka koncepcja polityki wschodniej w latach 1917-1921, Studia z dziejów ZSRR i Europy Środkowej, Vol. V, 1969, 39-68; his, Endecka koncepcja polityki wschodniej w latach 1917-1921, Gdansk 1967; his, Endencja wobec kwestii ukraińskiej i białoruskiej, in Słowianie w dziejach Europy, Poznań 1974, pp. 301-308.

Command of the Polish Army, Section III [Komunikaty Oddziału III Naczelnego Dowództwa Wojska Polskiego] and Reports and Communiqués of the Supreme Military Authorities on the internal situation in Poland [Raporty i komunikaty naczelnych władz wojskowych o sytuacji wewnętrznej Polski].? External politics, shaped by the circumstances of the defeat, i.e. beyond the influence of the Poles, is discussed in Andrzej Nowaks analysis of the Eastern policies," as well as in a dissertation by Piotr Okulewicz,? written under the tutelage of Przemysław Hauser.” Regardless of the political convictions of certain authors, these studies unquestionably permit the establishment of numerous important facts.

Politics in the first years following the restoration of Poland’s independence consisted mainly in exploiting a new political factor, i.e. exerting public pressure on the bodies of the democratic state, or even seemingly provoking a public response (if not outrage), in order to achieve one’s own political goals. By a lucky coincidence, one of the members of the Section of the Twentieth- Century Political History of Poland at the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of History, where this book was conceived, was Andrzej Zakrzewski, a historian who never severed contacts with his colleagues despite his engagement in ‘practising history, i.e. in politics; in fact, he has contributed to historical events. My exchanges with him have shed a new light on such sources as the minutes/records of the Council of Ministers, making me understand the necessity of relying upon several records, even if seemingly less important, in view of confirming a given argument — rather than on just one single record or message whose authors or compilers might have aimed to achieve a predetermined effect, and which later has been interpreted in the same way for a number of years.

23 M. Jabłonowski and A. Koseski (selected and ed. by), O Niepodległą i granice. Komunikaty Oddziału III Naczelnego Dowództwa Wojska Polskiego 1919-1921, Warsaw-Pułtusk 1999; M. Jabłonowski, P. Stawecki and T. Wawrzyński (selected and ed. by), O Niepodległą i granice. Raporty i komunikaty naczelnych władz wojskowych o sytuacji wewnętrznej Polski 1919-1920, Warsaw-Pułtusk 1999/2000.

24 A. Nowak, Polska i trzy Rosje. Studium polityki wschodniej Józefa Piłsudskiego (do kwietnia 1920 roku), Kraków 2001; his, Jak rozbić rosyjskie imperium? Idee polskiej polityki wschodniej (1733-1921), Warsaw 1995.

25 P. Okulewicz, Koncepcja międzymorza” w myśli i praktyce politycznej obozu Józefa Piłsudskiego w latach 1918-1926, Poznań 2001.

26 P. Hauser, Niemcy wobec sprawy polskiej (październik 1918-czerwiec 1919), Poznań 1994; his, Poglądy Józefa Piłsudskiego na terytorialny kształt Rzeczypospolitej i próba ich realizacji w latach 1918-1921, in A. Czubiński (ed.), Józef Piłsudski i jego legenda, Warsaw 1988.

A historian must also consider the fact that the omission of some important information in a document may not result from its author’s obliviousness, but rather from the desire to withhold some knowledge for personal reasons, in the hope of achieving an expected reaction from the recipient. Politics is also an art of manipulation and, in my opinion, only relying on details brings us closer to the historical truth. And, as Jozef Mackiewicz once said, only the truth is interesting. A comprehensive synthesis of all assembled facts is the only way to bring the reader closer to the true picture of the situation in the lands of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, allowing in parallel to recreate, even if only partly, the highly significant atmosphere prevailing in the Polish administration as well as within the ZCZW itself.

The complexity of the problems tackled in this book on the one hand, and the abundance of the extremely interesting material obtained through queries on the other, caused considerable difficulty in deciding on the structure of the study. Many issues essential to discussing the policies of the Entente, the strategy adopted by Germany, or the actions of the Government in Warsaw, are covered only to the extent necessary for the purposes of this dissertation.

History values chronological order, but applying a chronological structure here has proved impractical. The only acceptable arrangement was to discuss individual problems separately, taking into account their interdependence, all the more so that many of the published findings extend beyond the chronological scope of the subject. Another difficulty was caused by the distinctiveness of social and economic issues related to the District of Volhynia as detached from the ZCZW in January 1920. Due to the overlapping and intertwining of issues and their dependence on the same external factors, repetitions and referencing to the other relevant parts of this study is unavoidable. However, the final layout appears to be optimal, given the content of the collected materials.