The Rise and Fall of the Second Polish Republic

Polish destroyers during the Peking Plan (initiated late August 1939). View from Błyskawica of Grom and Burza.

1918 At the end of World War I, a treaty creates the Second Polish Republic, reviving Poland as a state for the first time since 1795.

1920 Polish-Soviet War. Poland repels an invasion by Soviet Russia.

1921 Poland and Romania sign a non-aggression pact, finding common interest against Russia

1922 Soviet Union is formed. Ukraine is absorbed into direct Soviet control.

1926 Weimar Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact.

1929 Charles "Chip" Bohlen (Harvard '27) learns Russian and goes to work for the U.S. State Department in Riga, Latvia.

1933 Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. Relations between the Soviet Union and Germany begin deteriorating immediately.

1934 Chip Bohlen goes to work at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow

1934 Poland and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact.

1937 Stalin purges the Red Army.

March 1938 German Army enters Prague without resistance. Germany directly annexes German-speaking border areas of Czechoslovakia.

Sept. 1938 Munich Agreement is signed. Britain and France agree to acknowledge German control over Czechoslovakia in order to avoid a war.

March 1939 German Army enters Prague without resistance. Germany directly annexes German-speaking border areas of Czechoslovakia.

Spring 1939 France and Britain agree to guarantee the existence and independence of Poland.

August 23, 1939. To the shock of the world, the foreign ministers of Germany and the Soviet Union announce that the two nations have signed a non-aggression pact. Unbeknownst to most of the world, the Hitler and Stalin have agreed on a secret protocol, by which they will divide Europe into spheres of influence. Poland in particular would be divided completely between the Third Reich and the Soviet Union. Other nations within their spheres of influence would remain nominally independent but with puppet governments.

August 24, 1939 Chip Bohlen in Moscow is informed of the secret protocol of the German-Soviet non-aggression pact. According to him, he relays the information urgently to President Roosevelt. The Polish government is not informed of the secret protocol.

August 24, 1939 The British government, through Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Carton De Wiart, head of the British Military mission, makes strong representations to Marshal Edward Śmigły-Rydz, commander-in-chief of the Polish Forces, that the most modern elements of the fleet be evacuated from the Baltic. Although Śmigły-Rydz resists the idea at first, he finally agrees. The operation to evacuate three destroyers to British ports begins on August 26.

September 1, 1939 Germany invades Poland.

September 14, 1939 Polish Army ordered to retreat to the Lwow area near the Romanian border.

September 17, 1939 Soviet Union invades Poland, quickly overwhelming the areas of the country not yet under German control.

October 6, 1939 Polish Army surrenders. Poland is divided by agreement and ceases to exist.

Official  photo of Edward Śmigły-Rydz as a Marshall of Poland. First published in Gazeta Polska in 1937.