1918-1939
The first years of independence were very difficult: war havoc, hyperinflation and the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1920. In the course of this war, the huge Battle of Warsaw was fought on the Eastern outskirts of the city in which the capital was successfully defended and the Red Army defeated. Poland stopped on itself the full brunt of the Red Army and defeated an idea of the "export of the revolution." Communist time table was slowed 24 years and countries of the Central Europe were spared from communist rule for a quarter of a century. Western Europe, where revolutionary fever was boiling over on the streets, was spared a bloody fight for survival. Unfortunately, political and military significance of this victory was never fully appreciated by Europeans. According Lord d’Abernon: The history of contemporary civilization knows no event of greater importance than the Battle of Warsaw, 1920, and none of which the significance is less appreciated. To commemorate these events, the 15 August is celebrated in Poland as the Day of Polish Army.
On 16 December 1922, in the gallery Zachęta, Eligiusz Niewiadomski, a painter with mental disorder, who belonged to the right-wing National Democracy, assassinated the first President of Poland, Gabriel Narutowicz, who had been elected five days earlier by Sejm.
The other event was the May Coup d’Etat (1926). On 12 May, Marshall Józef Piłsudski, displeased with the situation in Poland and in particular with the appointment of a new government, arrived on Warsaw from his residence in Sulejówek (small town at the east of Warsaw) at the head of the faithful troops. On the Poniatowski Bridge, he talked a bit with the President Stanisław Wojciechowski, who was trying to convince him to give up the action – but unsuccessfully. The next day, the Piłsudski’s troops forcibly conquered Warsaw and forced the government and Wojciechowski to resign. During the coup, as a result of the street fighting almost 400 people died – but mostly they were the rubbernecks who wanted to watch the fighting. The May Coup started the 13-year period of sanation - the authoritarian rules of Piłsudski’s camp. Although Piłsudski himself never accepted the office of President (but twice was Prime Minister), always played a preponderant role in Polish political life.
In 1925, there lived 1,000,000 people in Warsaw. In the next 5 years, the city’s wealth doubled thanks to a good economic situation on the world. It enabled to build new, broad streets as well as a new airport. The first, temporary airport was opened in 1921 in the park Pole Mokotowskie, the second – permanent – in Okęcie, where it operates till today. Besides, the city’s government worked out the planes of metro (the realization was hampered by the outbreak of World War II) and opened the first radio station whose range covered almost all the Polish territory.
In 1934, the sanation camp suspended the Warsaw’s government and appointed Stefan Starzyński as President of Warsaw. He was a faithful supporter of “sanation” - at the beginning of his presidency consequently expelled all officials attached to his predecessor. But he was also an efficient official – stabilized the city’s budget, fought against corruption and bureaucracy, smartened up the city. However, the Poles remember him mainly due to his heroic behavior during September Campaign.
Read more about this topic: History Of Warsaw