You may not be a cadet …
V. Purishkevich - P. Milyukov, from behind-the-scenes conversations in the State Duma
When Nicholas II was overthrown in Russia, many Poles, by the way, played a significant role in this. There were many of them not only in the ranks of the Bolsheviks and other left-wing parties, but also among those who "organized" February 1917. Almost immediately in Russia, the attitude to the Polish question changed fundamentally: among those who assumed the burden of power, it is difficult to find at least one politician who would oppose the prospect of Polish autonomy at that moment. That the solution of the Polish question was by no means an internal affair of Russia, no doubts arose at all.
Nevertheless, the obvious decision to directly grant Poland independence was still tantamount to an admission of defeat. Even if Paris and London would welcome such a step. Following the Poles, the Finns could have demanded independence, and there you should expect surprises from Caucasians and Asians. The notorious domino effect, which would later lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union, was not yet known to the politicians of that era, but they were well understood latently.
Grunwald's sword versus Milyukov's pen
Yet the Provisional Government as a whole, and even more so personally, Minister of Foreign Affairs P. Milyukov, was fundamentally different from their predecessors in their attitude to the Polish question. Incidentally, this question turned out to be one of the few on which there was complete unanimity among the members of the first republican cabinet of ministers of Russia.
For Miliukov himself, the Polish problem, one might say, a priori had an international character. Proceeding from this, the new Russian government had no doubts that the Polish question should be resolved radically and immediately. The diplomatic preparation of a long-handed legal act in the new "old" Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where P. Milyukov, to his credit, did not fire a single employee, took a minimum of time.
Appeal of the Provisional Russian Government to the Poles dated March 17/30, 1917.
Poles!
The old state order of Russia, the source of our and your enslavement and separation, has now been overthrown forever. Liberated Russia, represented by its provisional government, vested with full power, hastens to address you with fraternal greetings and invites you to a new life of freedom.
The old government gave you hypocritical promises that it could, but did not want to keep. The middle powers took advantage of her mistakes to occupy and devastate your land. Exclusively for the purpose of fighting Russia and its allies, they gave you illusory state rights, and moreover not for the entire Polish people, but only for one part of Poland temporarily occupied by enemies. At this price, they wanted to buy the blood of a people who had never fought to preserve despotism. Even now the Polish army will not go to fight for the cause of oppression of freedom, for the separation of their homeland under the command of their age-old enemy.
Brothers Poles! The hour of great decisions is coming for you too. Free Russia invites you to join the ranks of fighters for the freedom of peoples. Having thrown off the yoke, the Russian people recognize and for the Polish people the full right to determine their own destiny by their own will. True to the agreements with the allies, true to the common plan with them to combat militant Germanism, the Provisional Government considers the creation of an independent Polish state, formed from all lands inhabited in the majority by the Polish people, a reliable guarantee of a lasting peace in the future renewed Europe. United with Russia by a free military alliance, the Polish state will be a solid bulwark against the pressure of the middle powers on the Slavs.
The liberated Polish people themselves will determine their state system, expressing their will through a constituent assembly convened in the capital of Poland and elected by universal suffrage. Russia believes that the peoples associated with Poland for centuries of living together will receive a firm guarantee of their civil and national existence.
The Russian constituent assembly will have to seal the final new fraternal alliance and give its consent to those changes in the state territory of Russia that are necessary for the formation of a free Poland from all its now scattered parts.
Accept, brothers, Poles, the fraternal hand that free Russia is extending to you. Faithful keepers of the great traditions of the past, now stand up to meet a new, bright day in your history, the day of the resurrection of Poland. Let the union of our feelings and hearts precede the future union of our states and let the old call of the glorious heralds of your liberation sound with renewed and irresistible force: forward to fight, shoulder to shoulder and hand to hand, for our freedom and yours”(1).
The new "Appeal to the Poles" was one of the first international acts of the Provisional Government. Nobody disputed the authorship of P. Milyukov here, however, in terms of the force of influence, his manifesto seemed at first much weaker than the grand ducal, four years ago. The address of the professor-historian, a recognized master of the pen, turned out, as we see, wordy, overflowing with hackneyed liberal cliches.
But this was not the main weakness of the appeal. The Russian Foreign Minister, a recognized authority among world diplomats, managed to say everything without saying the main thing. We admit that some future decision of the Russian constituent assembly (it will come together sometime) is still not a direct recognition of Poland's independence.
Milyukov, of course, is difficult to enroll in the "imperialists", but he was somehow not in a position to give up the sovereign lands. It seems that behind the slightly lofty style of the manifesto, the Foreign Minister unwittingly concealed a kind of "fallback" solution to the Polish question.
Military fortune, as you know, is changeable - God willing, the comfrey will come out of "hibernation" and win the Kingdom of Poland from the Kaiser, even if it is now a kingdom, which in Polish is actually the same thing. Fortunately, they now have plenty of cannons and cartridges, then they were enough for another four years of civil war, and against every German soldier in the trenches - three, or even four Russians (on the Northern and North-Western fronts. - Author's note). On the Southwestern Front and in the Caucasus, the balance of forces was not so favorable, but the strategists of the Provisional Government did not take the Austrians and Turks into account for a long time.
However, no one paid attention to the fact that the Provisional Government, following the Tsar's example, also postponed the solution of the Polish question "until after the war." But even the very process of preparing the appeal, which, according to the testimony of his contemporaries, made Miliukov truly happy for a while, is for some reason omitted in his own memoirs. Other problems, much more urgent for the Russian minister, for the leader of the Cadets, simply overshadowed the Polish theme.
Nevertheless, the real effect of the appeal of the Provisional Government turned out to be exactly what the new Russia should have expected. But, unfortunately, she was no longer destined to take advantage of the fruits of her generosity. Even if history does not like the subjunctive mood, however, if Russia managed to stay in the ranks of the Entente, and she did not have to go to the humiliating Brest truce, she would most likely get a completely loyal ally on the western border, moreover, a real candidate for the new Slavic democratic confederation.
The main thing that gave the Poles the last in a row, but by no means the meaning of the "Appeal to the Poles", is the firm belief that they will not have long to wait. With the entry of the United States into the war, the last doubts about the victory of the allies disappeared even from the pro-German-minded Polish politicians. For the most resolute and moderately unprincipled, such as J. Pilsudski, a kind of "moment of truth" has come, and they did not fail to turn 180 degrees.
50 thousand of Jozef Haller
Almost simultaneously with the "Proclamation" of the Provisional Government, France, not quite officially, through the press, let the Allies know about its plans to form legions or even the "Polish Army" from among the prisoners of war.
And the corresponding decree on the creation of the Polish army in France was signed by the President of the French Republic R. Poincaré on June 4, 1917.
Art. 1. In France, an autonomous Polish army is created for the duration of the war, subordinate to the French command and fighting under the Polish banner.
Art. 2. The formation and maintenance of the Polish army is provided by the French government.
Art. 3. The regulations in force in the French army concerning organization, hierarchy, military administration and courts apply to the Polish army.
Art. 4. The Polish army is recruited:
1) From among the Poles currently serving in the French army.
2) From among the Poles of a different kind, admitted to join the ranks of the Polish army in France or to conclude a voluntary contract for the duration of the war to serve in the Polish army (2).
With all the admiration of the Poles for France, this initiative did not arouse particular enthusiasm among them. The Poles are also tired of the war. The difficulties with the passage of Polish volunteers to France, caused both by the Russian revolution and by the tightening of the regime of movement through neutral countries, also had an effect. And nevertheless, within a matter of weeks, the French managed to recruit almost 50 thousand - of which a very combat-ready army was created. The final date of the formation of the Polish army can be considered February 15, 1918.
Only on this day, the Polish corps settled in France under the command of Colonel Jozef Haller, formally enrolled in the Austro-Hungarian army, which had already managed to replenish with prisoners, mainly from the eastern front, more than doubled, announced the transition to the side of the Entente (3) … Subsequently, Haller's soldiers fought excellently against the victorious red divisions of Tukhachevsky.
Making allowances for the difficulties with the formation of new formations from among the prisoners, it must be admitted that the French did a very good job, as, incidentally, the Germans had with the Austrians before. The latter managed to recruit about 30 thousand Poles from prisoners, which means that in total, only on the Western Front, at least 100 thousand Poles fought as part of the German army (there were practically no Austrians there).
Meanwhile, the new Polish authorities, under pressure from the Germans, were in a hurry to give at least some legitimacy to their own precarious position. On May 1, 1917, without waiting for a concrete answer from the Habsburgs and personally Archduke Karl Stephen, or a corresponding "initiative of the masses", the Polish Provisional Council of State issued a decree concerning the future structure of the Kingdom:
Decree of the Polish Provisional Council of State of May 1, 1917
None of this was de facto realized until November 1918, when the revolution broke out in Germany. On the other hand, the attitude of representatives of the highest circles of the Entente countries to the future of Poland was rapidly changing, especially while Russia was busy with its internal affairs. Already on June 3, 1918, in the midst of heavy fighting in Champagne and Artois, the French, British and Italian premieres came out from Versailles with a joint declaration, both short and unambiguous from a political point of view. It read:
"The creation of a single and independent Polish state, with free access to the sea, is one of the conditions for a lasting and just peace and legal regime in Europe" (4).
Of course, the purpose of the speech was quite pragmatic - to knock the ground out of the attempts of the German-Austrian occupation authorities to hold new recruits among the Poles. At the same time, the leaders of the Entente not only predetermined, but possibly closed the Polish question. But not only - the absolute impossibility of any kind of bargaining on the territorial composition of the new European power was predetermined.
How the "free access to the sea" responded to the Poles, how lasting and just peace was won, the further fate of post-Versailles Poland showed with all the tragedy. At this particular moment, it was much more important for the Allies to receive the long-awaited Polish replenishment. Here they differed little from the unfortunate German "personnel officer" Ludendorff.
Lord Arthur James Balfour is better known for his declaration on Israel, but the Poles should be grateful to him.
But at the same time it is indicative how long after the decisions of the Russian Provisional Government the note of the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Lord Balfour, dated October 11, 1918, addressed to the representative of the Polish National Committee in London, Count Władysław Sobanski, was published. It dealt with the recognition of the Polish army by the allied army:
“I have the honor to confirm that you have received your note dated 5 this month, in which you inform about the creation of a unified Polish national army and the appointment by the Polish national committee of the commander-in-chief of this army, General Joseph Haller.
At the same time, you ask the government to lead him. to recognize the Polish forces participating in the struggle against the central powers as having the position of an ally.
I have the honor to notify you that the government was in charge. gladly agrees to this request and that from now on it recognizes the Polish National Army as autonomous, allied and co-fighting.
I take this opportunity to notify you that the government was leading it. unceasingly followed with interest and satisfaction the continuous efforts made by the Polish National Committee since its recognition by the Allied governments * in order to support its compatriots scattered throughout the world in their resistance to the Central Powers and any compromise with the latter in resolving the Polish question. The trust of the government led him. the committee's loyalty to the Allied cause remains unshakable.
The government was in charge. repeatedly announced its desire to see the creation of a unified and independent Polish state, and it was happy to take part in the declaration of the great powers, made at Versailles on June 3, 1918, that the creation of such a state, with free access to the sea, is one of the conditions a lasting and just peace.
I hardly have to assure you that the sympathies of our country were and remain with the Polish people, whatever their political or religious confessions, in all the calamities to which they suffered during the war. She admires his adamant refusal to allow Germany and Austria-Hungary to dictate the future statute and borders of their country, and she foresees the time when the now existing temporary settlement will end and a free and united Poland will establish its own constitution, according to the wishes of its people. With the most sincere desire of the government, it was led. is that this happy moment comes as soon as possible”(5) **.
One might think that the Poles who had previously been called up under the banner of General Haller were fighting on the side of the Allies. This means that the Polish soldiers are one thing, and the independent Polish army is quite another.
Notes.
1. Yu. Klyuchnikov and A. Sabanin, Contemporary International Policy in Treaties, Notes and Declarations, M. 1926, Part II, pp. 72-73.
2. Ibid, p. 79.
3. Bulletin … V pik, number 8. p.11.
4. Yu. Klyuchnikov, A. Sabanin, International politics of modern times in treaties, notes and declarations. Part I I, M. 1926, p. 142.
5. Ibid., Pp. 180-181.
