Böhler , Jochen Civil War in Central Europe, 1918–1921: The Reconstruction of Poland (review)

Abstract

SEER, 97, 2, APRIL 2019 376 historians in the Arkhangel´ region, although she does cite them in footnotes. In footnote 3 of chapter 4, she states that ‘This book’s interpretation differs from those of Soviet and the majority of post-Soviet historians who tend to see the Civil War in the North as first and foremost a product of the foreign intervention’ (p. 252). Ironically, as I began to read the book, I heard, quite independently, about local Arkhangel´ historians being critical of her work. I cannot fully explain their differences, but suspect that they perhaps arise out of both genuine divergences in interpreting events and the almost the inevitable tension between local scholars and an outsider from the capital. Novikova provides an interesting history of a relatively less known area of the revolution and civil war. Ironically, however, she does acknowledge that whatever the local population’s activity and outlook in 1917–1920, ‘it was clear that the future of Archangelsk province would be decided in Moscow rather than in the North’ (p. 154). George Mason University Rex A. Wade Böhler, Jochen. Civil War in Central Europe, 1918–1921: The Reconstruction of Poland. The Greater War, 1912–1923. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2018. xiii + 253 pp. Maps. Illustrations. Notes. Archives consulted. Works cited. Travelogue. Glossary. Index. £35.00. This recent study by Jochen Böhler offers an alternative perspective on Poland’s reconstruction following the Great War, and is based on extensive archival research in Poland, Lithuania, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. It includes printed memoirs as well as primary and secondary sources in Czech, French, German, Polish and English. The book focuses on a decisive three-year period in which the modern Polish nation-state’s borders were delineated and constructed through a means of diplomatic negotiation and armed, on-the-ground combat. From the outset this approach may not seem novel. However, Böhler’s investigation shies away from the traditionalist historiographical narrative, questions it and provides a new hypothesis: that the formative process of the Polish people and state stemmed from the throes of civil war and paramilitary violence — a phenomena present in East Central Europe after 1918 and experienced by already war-weary societies. According to the author, paramilitary experiences in state formation are key to better understanding the dynamics and connections between internal and external conflicts faced by the Polish Republic in the first years of its critical, uncertain existence. Böhler’s Polish case study is part of what he refers to as REVIEWS 377 the greater Central European Civil War, or the war of nations. In this context, he claims that the borderland and border struggles Poland engaged in were in fact civil wars, rather than conventional wars between established states. By analysing Poland’s rebirth through the context of civil war, Böhler establishes that, like constructive factors, destructive ones also played a prominent, if not a greater role in state formation. Both appeared in the quintessential problem Poland faced after 1918: the presence of ethnic groups within reconstructing territory. Ethnic minority questions were directly linked to Polish territorial ambitions, since the state was envisioned as being a political project meant for only one titular ethnic group. Approaches towards non-Poles were reflected in two dominant yet paradoxical political leaderships which were split over how to establish Polish supremacy on lands which, for example, hosted large Belarusian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Jewish populations. Józef Piłsudski’s federal concept envisioned cooperation with neighbours in the east under Polish leadership, while Roman Dmowski’s National Democratic ethno-centrist model aimed at their forceful assimilation. These positions also influenced the various military units which formed post-war Poland’s national armed forces and remained present throughout the existence of the Second Republic. As the author shows, the political orientations of militarized forces correlated with the level of vengeance displayed in battle, and that Poland’s ethnic composition after 1921 was determined by armed conflict influenced by these political visions. Böhler presents some interesting facts that, although already well known, have not until now been examined in the context of civil war. He argues...