The Second Polish Republic Under the Sanaon Government (revision class) The Second Polish Republic Under the Sanaon Government (revision class) Lesson plan (Polish) Lesson plan (English) The Second Polish Republic Under the Sanaon Government (revision class) Children with flags during a ceremony Source: Dzieci z chorągiewkami podczas uroczystości, 1934, Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe, domena publiczna. Link to the Lesson You will learn to define the effects of the May Coup D’État and the manifestations of the crisis of democracy; to describe the everyday life of students of the elementary schools in the Second Polish Republic; to characterize the strong and weak points of the economy and social life of the Second Polish Republic. Nagranie dostępne na portalu epodreczniki.pl Nagranie abstraktu In 1926, Józef Piłsudski decided to take the power with the use of armed force. Ignacy Mościcki assumed the office of President. The August Novelization of 1926 became a temporary solution. One of the first decrees to be issued was the appointment of the General Armed Forces Inspector (Polish acronym: GISZ). Józef Piłsudski was appointed for this office by Ignacy Mościcki. In 1935, the April Constitution was adopted, limiting the authority of the Parliament. During the campaign for the new term of the Sejm in September 1930, the opposition leaders were arrested. Some of them were forced to emigrate. The Brest elections of November granted the Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government (BBWR) 56% of the seats in the Sejm and almost 68% in the Senate. It was a result of a violation of democratic principles. The founding of the Bereza Kartuska prison in the 30s became a symbol of the Sanation’s activities. On 12 May 1935, Józef Piłsudski died. After his death, President Mościcki took control of the government administration, Edward Rydz‐Śmigły was named the General Armed Forces Inspector, and in 1936, he was named Marshal. The Second Polish Republic maintained friendly relations with Latvia and Romania only. The alliance with France was weakened due to the signing of the Locarno Treaties, which were unfavorable to Poland, in 1925. In 1932, the Polish‐Soviet pact of non‐aggression was signed in Moscow. In 1934, Poland and Germany signed the declaration of nonviolence in mutual relations. According to the general census of 1921, Poland had 27 million inhabitants, with Poles constituting ca. 69% of the population. The remainder of the population consisted of Ukrainians (14%), Jews (8%), Belarusians (4%), Germans (4%), as well as Lithuanians, Czechs, and Tatars. Not long after the May Coup D’État, the economic situation improved. The port of Gdynia was expanded, and the construction of the Polish Coal Trunk‐Line connecting Gdynia with Silesia began. The Great Depression affected Poland at the beginning of the thirties of the twentieth century, striking mainly agriculture. The situation in industry became difficult as well. The economic situation of Poland gradually improved in connection with the improvement of the economic situation worldwide. In 1935, Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski became the Minister of Treasury, while simultaneously being a Deputy Prime Minister. He initiated the construction of the Central Industrial Region, which encompassed nearly 100 industrial plants. Task 1 Listen to the recording. How did the pupils of the Second Polish Republic’s elementary schools fare? Nagranie dostępne na portalu epodreczniki.pl Nagranie tekstu źródłowego The female pupils of the first coeducaonal grade of the elementary school in Vilnius wrote essays tled “Who am I going to be when I grow up”. In 1931, they declared that they wished to become preschool headmistresses and treat the poor. The future ballerinas and actresses promised to dance in the hospitals, to “make the paents’ me more pleasant”. The boys would most commonly express interest in becoming aviators, sailors, boxers or soldiers of rank no lower than Colonel. “They were busy making war chaos in their notebooks” and “went missing in acon en masse”. Even in the essay that they were asked to write by teacher Eugenia Kobylińska, tled “I am a postman”, “none of the postmen led a peaceful life. They were aacked by bandits, shot by thieves, and had to fight back using their fists, knives, and revolvers”. While conversing freely with the teacher, they would tell the teacher about their love for the “Detecve” journal and the American movies about juvenile gangsters. Pupils and teachers on the roof of the Palace of the Press. Boys wearing scout uniforms are visible in the picture. Source: Uczniowie i nauczyciele na dachu Pałacu Prasy. Widoczni chłopcy w mundurach harcerskich, 1933, Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe, domena publiczna. Good teachers were able to find understanding with the pupils that experienced poverty, war trauma, and the effects of the Great Depression. The teachers possessed the most up-to-date knowledge of the situaon of the children, and would oenmes deeply sympathize with them. Few of the children coming from families of workers and craspeople had decent clothing and winter coats. None had gloves. Poverty, in every sense of the word, was apparent. “While playing, the children’s clothes would come apart, and the rips would show bare skin, with no underwear on it” – recalled Zofia Gruszczyńska, a teacher. Even in the schools of the Warsaw Voivodeship (let alone in the remote reaches of the Second Polish Republic!) the children were “poorly nourished and dressed, lice-ridden”, and “they had to be given pencils and notebooks, as they had no money to buy them with”. They would come to school dressed in their “fathers’ shoes” and “mothers’ jerkins”. In 1937, a teacher wrote the following in a leer to the press: “In condions where soap has become a legend, the talks of the hygiene of the body and the clothes are mere irony. The myth of domesc hygiene is an abstracon in the face of what the school itself looks like. The propaganda of frugality sounds like irony in places where the whole family shares one pair of shoes, one match is used to light four fires, and the same poron of salted water is used to boil four pouls of potatoes”. [Monika Piotrowska-Marchewa, based on own research] Task 2 Analyze strengths, weaknesses, opportunies and threats to social and economic life in the Second Polish Republic. Strengths Weaknesses Opportunies Threats Exercise 1 Analyze the data pertaining to the height and weight of elementary and high school pupils in the Second Polish Republic. What differences between the parameters pertaining to the elementary and high school pupils do you noce? Among the truthful statements below, choose those that may serve as comments for the data contained in the table. The height and weight of the elementary and high school students in the Second Polish Republic (1935) Age Elementary school High school BMI BMI Height Weight Height Weight 10–‘11 131,2 27,8 16 136,3 32,0 18 11–12 135,0 30,2 17 139,2 34,0 18 12–13 139,2 31,5 16,5 143,7 36,1 18 13–14 144,1 35,7 18 151,8 42,1 19 14–15 148,3 38,8 18 154,1 43,5 19 Age Elementary school High school BMI BMI Height Weight Height Weight 41,3 15–16 151,3 18 161,8 50,3 20 BMI – the body mass index, calculated by dividing one’s body mass in kilograms by the squared height in meters. Determine and mark whether the statements below are true or false. Statement True False There was an educaonal □ □ gap between the countryside and the cies, inhabited by a mere 25% of the enre populaon of the Second Polish Republic. The majority of the countryside children only had access to single- class schools, where only the fourth-grade programme was taught. The students of middle □ □ and high schools would usually not go to elementary school. On the other hand, the students of elementary schools would usually finish their educaon at the elementary level. Graduang from □ □ elementary school permied the pupils to neither become pupils of the higher grades of high school nor study at universies. Passing high- school programme exams was mandatory. Due to this, the more affluent parents sought to prepare their children for the exams for the lowest high school grade possible. High school educaon □ □ was paid, therefore it was usually only the more affluent youth to study at this er. According to the □ □ hygienists’ examinaons of children between 10 and 16 years of age, those aending elementary schools were shorter and markedly thinner than their high-school peers. Compulsory educaon □ □ was oen met with aversion by the tradionalist peasant classes. In the Second Polish Republic, the peasants’ children would, for the first me, aend school not only to acquire the skills of reading and wring, but also to obtain a broader knowledge of the world. Task 3 Easter in the 1st Mounted Arllery Division in Warsaw. The photographies below were made by Narcyz Witczak-Witaczyński (1898-1943), a Standard-Bearer of the Cavalry of the Polish Army, a military photographer, knight of the War Order of Virtu Militari. Compare the photographs. Show the differences between them. Try describing the emoons shown. Make up a story based on them. Most Kierbedzia w Warszawie, obsadzany przez 10 pułk piechoty podczas zamachu majowego 1926 roku. Source: domena publiczna. Exercise 2 Match the pairs: English words with Polish definion. polityczne porozumienie działaczy stronnictw centrowych z 1936 r.; jego celem było zjednoczenie opozycji przeciw tendencjom autorytarnym i polityce zagranicznej obozu rządzącego po śmierci Piłsudskiego, naczelny organ sił zbrojnych w II RP; Generalny Inspektor przygotowywał i kontrolował wojsko w zakresie wszystkich spraw istotnych dla przyszłych zadań wojennych oraz personalnej obsady stanowisk w wojsku, ugrupowanie polityczne zwolenników rządów J.