Primary Documents - Polish Regency Council's Decree of Dissolution, 14 November 1918
With Germany defeated in
November 1918 the path was cleared for a newly constructed Polish republic
to be established with Allied backing; this was duly declared on 10 February
1919. This was however by no means the end of uncertainty for Poland,
with the ultimate makeup of Europe yet to be agreed at the Paris Peace
Conference, and with military disagreements with Russia, the Ukraine and
Czechoslovakia rumbling on.
Click here to read the statement issued by the Polish Regency Council - established by the country's wartime German occupiers - on 11 November 1918 (the date of the armistice) which announced that General Josef Pilsudski, newly freed from German incarceration, was to be appointed to military command of Poland's Army. Click here to read a subsequent decree, issued three days later, in which the Regency Council formally announced its own dissolution in favour of Pilsudski pending assembly elections. Click here to read a statement issued by Pilsudski on the same day in which he outlined his immediate plans.
Click here to read an interview conducted with Pilsudski by a French newspaper in February 1919. Click here to read the text of the U.S. government's formal recognition of the Polish government, by now politically led by Ignace Paderewski (with Pilsudski's blessing while the latter oversaw military matters). Click here to read an address issued by Paderewski in May 1919 in which he summarised events to date at the Paris Peace Conference. Click here to read a statement issued by Paderewski in September 1919 in which he expressed his support for Polish entry into the League of Nations.
Click here to read a statement issued by Herbert Hoover - head of the U.S. reconstruction organisation in Europe - dated August 1919 in which he documented his reservations with regard to the speed with which Poland's economic infrastructure could be rebuilt.
Regency Council Decree, 14 November 1918
To General Josef Pilsudski, the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armies:
The temporary division of the sovereign power of the State created by the decree of November 11, 1918, cannot last without harm to the nascent Polish State.
This power should be indivisible. In view of that and in the best interest of the country, we decree to dissolve the Regency Council, and from this moment we place in your hands, Sir, all our duties and responsibilities before the Polish Nation for the transference of them to the National Government.
(Signed)
ALEXANDER KAKOWSKI
ZDZISLAV LUBOMIRSKI
JOSEPH OSTROWSKI
Source: Source Records of the Great War, Vol. VII, ed. Charles F. Horne, National Alumni 1923
The Parados was the side of a trench farthest from the enemy.
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