Interwar years in Poland

Pilsudski's first task was to reunite the Polish regions that had assumed various economic and political identities since the partition in the late eighteenth century, and especially since the advent of political parties. Pilsudski took immediate steps to consolidate the Polish regions under a single government with its own currency and army. In May 1926, Pilsudski staged a military coup, ushering in the so-called Sanacja regime. He functioned as the state's commander-in-chef until his death in 1935. Parliamentary life continued, but opposition was emasculated by the creation of Non-Party Bloc for Co-operation with the Government, and disaffected groups were brought to heel by force if necessary. Having a country held by Stalin on one frontier was bad enough; when Hitler sized power in Germany in 1933, Poland was a sitting target for two ruthless dictators, despite managing to sign ten-year nonaggression pact with each. From the beginning Hitler's ambition was to wipe Poland of the map again, treating Slavs as a race of slaves. He also wanted to unite ethnic Germans under his rule, what was quickly put in effect (annexation of Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia in 1938). As Hitler's attentions turned towards Poland, his foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and his Soviet counterpart Vyacheslav Molotov concluded the notorious Nazi-Soviet Pact in August 1939, which allowed either side to pursue any aggressive designs without the interference of the other. It also included a secret clause which agreed on a full partition of Poland along the lines of the Narew, Wisla and San rivers.