Bitter Glory: Poland and Its Fate (1918-1939)

Until recently, Poland was a satelite of the Soviet Union. Before World War One, Poland was part of three different Empires. The only time Poland was truly an independent country was between the two World Wars. Under the leadership of Marshall Pilsudski, a large European nation was born which had been submerged for over 100 years. As part of that emerging process, Poland fought a war with the Soviet Union and managed to stem the tide of Communist advancement in Europe. This is a great history book. The politics and history of Poland come alive. During this time period, Poland was not a democracy, but an authoritarian state ruled by a benovolent leader. Poland played a balancing act between Germany and the Soviet Union. The National Democrats, the PPS, and Marshall Pilsudski played power politics. This book was very complimentary to Pilsudski, portraying him as the glue that held the nation together whereas the other political parties used power to enrich themselves. Watt is a favorite author of mine. His books, Dare Call It Treason and The Kings Depart are two of my favorite books on World War One. Watt does another home run with this book on interwar Poland. For those interested in Polish history, this is a must read. For those interested in general history, this is a great book to read about Poland.

Although the name of the Poland in the interwar years is often invoked in many narrative volumes, there is precious little written about Poland in the interwar period. Best has gone a very long way in balancing the deficit. There is also a lot of supposed truths of which scholars of the 20th Century take without critical discussion: Pilsudki was a dictator, Poland was anti-semitic, Poland was a loyal ally of other eastern European countries, Poland distrusted the Germans more than the Russians. In fact Pulsudski was probably one of the most balanced authoritarian personalities in the 20th century, using force in the 1926 coup to rescue an immature Parliament, and acting as a balancing hand on the rudder of state to protect the right of Jews inside Poland. He never used political murder to further his ends. This is important because it is often cited that Britain and Empire went to war for a country with anti-semetic background subject to pogroms. When Pilsudski died persecution of Jews started. Boycotting of Jewish shops was quintessentially Nazi-like --- but there the comparison ends! Polish Police were quick to move in whenever there was a threat of physical violence. Although shameful, the post 1936 Polish method, to remove Jews from Poland was one based upon economics only and not force --- no concentration camps ever littered the Polish landscape. Poland on the other hand may have been too clever by half for its own good. Defeating the Red Army in 1920 Poland went on a foreign policy determined to make it a major power in Europe. All predicated on the notion that Poland would not take sides in any political or polemical conflict between Russia or Germany. That strong-armed realist strategy gained her the southern lands of Lithuania, the German majority area of Silesia, and most notoriously, Poland took advantage in the wake of Munich to bully Czechoslovakia to give up Tsechen. It set a poor example and robbed Poland of some sympathy when the Germans pushed for the return of Danzig. Poland's objective was never to wipe a country off the face of the earth like Hitler's was for Poland. But it did lose Poland sympathy internationally and made it easier for Hitler to claim that all he wanted was the Corridor and Danzig. The last days of Poland could have been described in greater detail, but Best goes a long way in answering the question of what went wrong with Poland and why, when the crunch came, it was so devastating. I do not think that Poland, even with the most consumate statemanship could have done much to survive. But there clearly were signs that Poland, with it tough infantry should have been able to withstand the nazi-Soviet agression longer that it did. Best's descriptions are fast, lively and one gets a real sense of Pilsudski as a man, Smygly-Ritz, and foreign minister Beck. One also gets a better idea of the challenges this country faced being crushed between the Nazis and Soviet Russians outside, and imploding from lack of an effe

As Mr. Watts showed in his earlier works "Dare Call it Treason" on the French mutinies of 1917 and "The Kings Depart" on Germany and the Versailles Treaty, he is a master of narrative history. The present book is of similar quality. It is the sort of "find" one dreams of encountering but so seldom does, a well-written, exciting account of a subject one knows to be of interest and importance, but on which little seems to be available outside detailed academic histories. Mr. Watts has a splendidly exciting story to tell - how Modern Poland sprung from a dream of freedom that had been kept alive despite a century and a half of partition and foreign repression - and he tells it with verve. The initial part of the story is on an epic scale: the apparently hopeless struggle of Pilsudski and other nationalists to breathe new life into the Polish ideal prior to the First World War, their brilliant exploitation of events as the German, Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires crumbled at the end of it, their momentarily-successful attempt to revive an earlier Greater Poland stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea and their final, incredible, last-ditch success in repulsing Bolshevik invasion in 1920. After this deliverance - or rather nineteen-year stay of execution, as subsequent events were to prove - the challenge of creating a modern, economically viable state was a daunting one, with minimal resources and an impoverished, undereducated population. The second part of the book, detailing the painful process of industrialisation and of land, fiscal and education reform is no less fascinating than the first, playing out against a background of hostile neighbours and internal political squabbling. Petty party politics and narrow sectional interests bedevilled the new nation and once Pilsudski, the founding father, a benevolent not-quite-dictator, passed from the scene in the mid '30s these became ever more malignant factors, not least in unworthy half-tolerance of increasing Anti-Semitism. Despite all however, one gets the sense of a heroic people seeking a higher destiny, faltering on occasion, yet never losing faith in themselves and hope in the future. Mr.Watts guides the reader through the morass of party politics with assurance, never losing one's interest, and is very effective in bringing to life the main players in inter-war Polish society. The book ends with the disaster of 1939, with Poland once again partitioned by its ruthless neighbours and with its indomitable citizens entering the hell that will see them brutalised and enslaved, but also fighting on battle fronts from North Africa to Normandy and the Netherlands, over the skies of Western Europe and, bloody but unbowed, in the very ruins and sewers of Warsaw itself. These latter epics of Polish heroism are well recorded elsewhere and it is to Mr.Watts' credit that he has recorded so well what set the scene for these later events.

For most people Polish history between the wars is probably a mystery. This book fills that gap admirably. It reveals how Jozef Pilsudski was truly the founding father of a reborn nation. This is his story just as much as Poland's, but then the two are so closely tied together that their's is one story. A fascinating and easy read. Thoroughly recommended to those who have an interest in this area.

If you want to know about interwar Poland, this is the book to read. It's fascinating! It shows you a completely different perspective on WWI and WWII, and it's probably the perspective that most accurately draws in all of the issues that lead to those two wars. The story of Poland in the twentieth century IS the story of Europe in the twentieth century. The book is a great read, to boot.