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Russian revolution
The Russian revolution causes rebellion in Central Poland. Mass demonstrations in Warsaw are terminated by the imposition of the state of emergency. -
First World War
Beginning of the First World War (01.08.1914). Russia allies itself with the Western powers in the war against the German Empire and Austria Hungary -
Battle of Tannenberg
Battle of Tannenberg - the Russian army is destroyed by the German troops under guidance of Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff. -
Deportation to Russia
Deportation to Russia - the Russian administration considers the Germans living in Poland as internal enemies. Whole German village communities are deported to Russia (Saratov). Most of them could return in 1918. -
Downfall of the Russian Czar
Downfall of the Russian Czar. The temporary Russian government recognizes the right of self-determination for Poland. Also the allies of the First World War promote a sovereign Polish state. -
Abdication of William II
Abdication of William II. - Prussia becomes a republican Free State. -
The Republic of Poland
The Republic of Poland is proclaimed (11.11.1918). Jozef Pilsudski becomes the temporary head of state and receives dictatorial authority. -
Contract of Versaille
Contract of Versaille - Poland gains the majority of West Prussia, the "Danzig Corridor" and almost the whole province of Posen. -
Polish Soviet war
Polish Soviet war (1920-1921) about the border line between both states. Poland had not recognized the border line already fixed in 1919 that had followed the language border. -
Peace of Riga
Peace of Riga - ends the Polish-Soviet war with a compromise that splits the disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between Poland and Soviet Russia. Two Polish Autonomous Districts within the Soviet Union were created: one in Belarus near Minsk, the other in Volhynia, 100 km west of Zhytomyr. -
Military putsch
Military putsch - Jozef Pilsudski seizes again power (12.05.1926). The political style becomes increasingly authoritarian and is characterized by restrictive minority politics. -
German Soviet
A supplementary protocol of the German Soviet no aggression treaty agreed upon between the dictators Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin plans an allocation of Poland between the USSR and the German Reich. -
Generalgouvernement Poland
The "Generalgouvernement Poland" is created from the remaining areas of Central Poland after West Prussia and Posen were integrated into the German Reich. The Polish population in the "Generalgouvernement" suffers substantial repressions. -
The attack of Hitler
The attack of Hitler on the USSR leads to the occupation of East Poland by the German Reich. -
Warsaw Uprising
Warsaw Uprising - peak of the embittered resistance of Polish partisans and the Armia Krajowa (homeland army).
In July the Red Army crosses the Bug river toward the west. The German army is gradually pushed back. -
Soviet Red Army
May 1945 - the Soviet Red Army reaches Berlin and receives the unconditional surrender of Germany. Thus the war is terminated in Europe. -
Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference - agreement over the Polish east border in favor of the USSR. Poland is to be compensated for it by German areas in the west and the north.
Stalin awarded Poland all the German territories in Pomerania, Silesia and Brandenburg east of the Oder-Neisse Line, plus the southern half of East Prussia. -
Warsaw Pact
Establishment of the "Warsaw Pact" for friendship and co-operation with the Soviet Union and other states of the Eastern Bloc. -
Chancellor Willy
The East contracts, substantially influenced by Chancellor Willy Brandt are meant to relax the relations between Poland and the Federal Republic of Germany by the acknowledgment of the inviolability of the existing borders. -
Jaruzelski
Head of state Jaruzelski places Poland under martial law and uses force of arms against factory hands and miners. -
German Unity
In the contract of the German Unity Germany recognizes obligatorily the west border of Poland following Oder and Neisse as international law.