Between legal regulation and ideology. Citizenship in the First Years of the Second Polish Republic (1918-1926)

Abstract

The main aim of this paper is to analyze citizenship in the first years of the Second Polish Republic (1918-1926). The time between 1918 when Poland regained its independence after 123 of the “Partitions period”, and 1926 when Józef Pilsudski led a coup d’état, was in fact the only period of parliamentary democracy until 1989. Therefore, it is particularly captivating to research the debate on the concept of citizenship that took place in Poland nearly 100 years ago, during the period of transition from the peripheral lands of Austrian, German and Russian empires into a united Polish state. In the first years of its existence the reborn Polish statehood had to face many crucial problems. One of the most important among them was: how to define a “Polish citizen”? Was he supposed to be only a member of the Polish nation in the ethnic meaning? Or maybe the Polish constitution should rather include such a definition which could include everyone living within the borders of the Polish state? The question became crucial in 1922, when it occurred that nearly 1/3 of inhabitants of the reborn state were members of ethnic minorities. The paper presents the debate on citizenship which took place in Poland between 1918 and 1926. The regulations of the bill on citizenship of 1920 and the constitution of 1921 are discussed as well as the judiciary of the Supreme Court. The paper is supplemented with a brief review of statements by leading Polish statesmen and jurists.