Zarząd Cywilny Ziem Wschodnich (1919-1920) - czas wojny czy pokoju?

Abstract

The years after the Great War concentrated on the rebuilding of the Polish statehood. The Eastern Borderlands were very important for Poland. Polish parties showed their Polish character, but the problem, posed by the multiethnic and multicultural character of this region, involved not only national or religious aspirations of Poles, Byelorussians, Lithuanians, Jews, Russians and Ukrainians, but also conflicts of social dass interests (especially between Polish and Byelorussian residents). There were, nevertheless, certain antagonisms between supporters of federal and incorporation concepts. The Civil Council of Eastern Territories, established in 1919, was to help - according to Joseph Pilsudski - accomplish the federal concept. Actually, it turned out to be inefficient as the Polish borderland society found it inexpedient to share its privileges with other nations. Additionally, the council, in opposition to its name, was perceived by the majorit y of locals as an occupying force/institution, which was many a time confirmed by the reprehensible behavior of some derks and the army's doings. The period when the Civil Council of Eastern Territories was establihed for local people was only a short break between the Great War and the 1920 Polish-Soviet War.