Religious minorities were tolerated at the start, but soon became to meet more and more obstacles. To have sons in the Police or Army began to be a bigger mark of prestige and power than wealth, and many families prided themselves with the fact that they ‘pruned away the weak branches’ by reporting their more decadent relatives to the government. People were widely encouraged to report their neighbour’s crimes, something that created an atmosphere that lacked trust. Soon the effects of such a strong government began imprinting themselves upon society. Criminals were often sentenced on the spot and it was not uncommon for the lowest of the low (Socialists) to be executed in their own houses by overzealous Policemen. Detectives were very rare, and the power structure was very flat one Officer sometimes had hundreds of Policemen under his command, and as such the force had an enormous autonomy in how it enforced the law. These units very rarely had to fire, but they imposed an enormous amount of fear upon and also gave an illusion of strength that helped uphold the new regime. Cities would be patrolled by what was essentially soldiers, riding in pairs on warhorses, armed with high calibre rifles and sabres. Nearly all cavalry divisions and brigades of the Polish army were dissolved, and the horses, now without purpose, were quickly moved over to the new Police Force. Dmowski did not want them on any front, so instead he gave them the task of maintaining order within the cities. These men were almost entirely youth, made up of combat inexperienced soldiers. Dmowski replaced the “Weak apparatus” that lead the Polish society crumble in the face of the Bolshevik with a new force, of “strong, faithful men”. The Police initially sided almost entirely with Piłsudski, and as such, was mostly destroyed when the new government was funded in Poland. Repression and political assassinations were used from the very onset of the new Polish government. This kind of thinking was very quickly spread across the academia, and all those who chose to oppose it were either threatened into staying quiet or simply driven away, never to be seen again. He said that the partition of Poland was not a military endeavour, but rather a colonial one using multiple cultures to undermine the others so that in the end they are all subjugated. The diversity of Poland was also shown as a weakness Dmowski gave multiple lectures at head universities, where he stated that a country diverse in cultures is one that is easy to divide. The nobility, and particularly their exploits, were viewed as un-Catholic and decadent. The constitution was painted as a good idea that was corrupted by foreign powers. In order to prevent decentralization and uphold its power, the new government almost immediately began a wide scale campaign of demonizing the values of pre-partition Poland. The Dmowski government knew full well, from its birth, that people, particularly those that were members of the upper and middle classes, still remembered the dangerous privileges that their ancestors held. These values, albeit enlightened for the time, eventually contributed to the downfall of the Polish state. Poland was also the second state in the world, after the United States, to adopt a constitution. Seeing as the nobility chose the King, this lead to around one tenth of the population being enfranchised to vote. The state also resembled something of a democracy due to the laws that governed inheritances, around ten percent of the entire population was technically nobility. Prior to its final partition, the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth was a vast state, with an array of diverse cultures and religions. It does not store any personal data.President Dmowski, Leader of the Polish People The Society The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". ![]() This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly.
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