With EBR off fishing, I thought I'd post this without asking him first.
@Ephraim Ben Raphael, if you want me to remove this, I gladly will.
Second Polish Republic
Greenpoint, the northernmost suburb of Brooklyn, is visible from Manhattan across the water. It is now an upper-class neighborhood, its working class roots barely visible. The gleaming glass offices and community centers visible outside the windows of my rental car replaced the old lumberyards and iron works. Even now, Greenpoint is a neighborhood on the rise; my car passed by at least half a dozen new developments, promising more high-end condos and, in one case, a new mall.
On my way to the Polish president’s residence, or “Brooklyn’s White House” as the locals referred to it, I saw just why this part of the city was referred to as “Little Poland.” While the street signs were all in English, storefronts and advertisements were mostly in Polish. Polish flags, notably without the red star, flew from flagpoles and were draped over shop windows. Many newer buildings, if not built in modernist style, were modeled off traditional Polish structures. Every other person, young and old, dressed in a traditional Polish style, although some exaggerated so much they seemed to be extras in a historical film. I even saw police vehicles with Polish markings parked outside a strip mall. I even counted at least three statues of Jozef Pilsudski.
I reached Brooklyn’s White House: a large, 19th century home surrounded by security fencing. I parked my rental in a lot across the street, which primarily catered to the office complex which, I was informed later, was where the
Sejm – Poland’s legislature – met. For a government building, it was completely unassuming.
After crossing the street and getting past the relatively lax security checkpoint, I was escorted by a secretary to the office of the President of the Second Polish Republic: Waclaw Sobol. The president was a younger gentleman, likely in his forties, but his balding head, graying hair and wrinkles made him look at least a decade older. A half-finished bottle of whiskey on his desk told me more about the stress of his job. President Sobol’s office was covered in bookshelves, along with several glass cases filled with artifacts. On the wall behind Sobol, there hung an old Polish flag in a glass case.
“That was the flag that flew over the Sejm building in Warsaw, before the Nazis took the city,” President Sobol told me in his Brooklyn accent, noticing that my eyes were fixed on the case. “All of the artifacts in this room were evacuated from Warsaw in the final days.”
President Sobol motioned for me to take a seat. He looked at me with weary eyes, as if the man had not had a good night’s sleep for a week. I asked him if he was bothered by anything.
“The assorted resistance movements in the mother country are planning another series of protests in Warsaw, and the Sejm is split on the issue. I want to support them, but it’s not my call alone. If I make a speech supporting the protesters without their approval, and the reds crack down, I get all of the blame, and I can kiss this office goodbye.”
I asked why protesters an ocean away are waiting for approval from men in the United States.
“People might have forgotten, but Poland is still at war with the Soviets. Every act against the Soviet occupation of Poland is an act of war, and must be approved by the Polish government. Poland has a habit of disappearing from the maps, but the Polish people endure. Their government, their
true government, endures with them.”
President Sobol was right on that account. The Polish state has been partitioned four times in recent history by her neighbors, primarily the German states of Prussia and Austria to the West, and Russia to the East. After the First World War, the weakened Russian, German and Austrian states gave way to the Second Polish Republic, which established itself with the aid of the Allies. The Treaty of Versailles confirmed Poland’s sovereignty and independence, but this was not accepted by various groups within Germany and Russia. Germany, led by the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, with an invasion from the Soviet Union a few days later. The Polish government retreated to London, and continued the war with British support.
After Operation Barbarossa, the German-Soviet agreement to divide Poland was revoked, and Poland was briefly placed entirely under Nazi rule. Later, the Soviet Union, in cooperation with the communist wing of the Polish resistance, conquered the country from Germany in their push towards Berlin. Even after the cessation of hostilities, the Polish government-in-exile continued to support the non-communist Polish resistance and refused to return to Soviet-occupied Poland, where they believed they would be immediately arrested. The Soviets established their own separate Polish state, the Polish Soviet Republic, and seized territories from Poland. In exchange, territories were taken from Germany and grafted onto communist Poland.
Increased hostility between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, particularly over the issue of the Soviets occupying the entirety of Germany, led to Allied condemnation of the new Polish government and continued recognition of the Second Republic, which now moved its headquarters to the Polish district of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The Second Republic, with the cooperation of the Western powers, asked that any Pole who could escape from communist rule should do so. At first, the communist Polish government and the Soviets allowed this to happen, in order to purge Poland of anti-communist elements. The Korean War and the Soviet detonation of their first atomic bomb in 1950 increased tensions, and fears of global nuclear annihilation, to new heights. Fearing spies, the borders between East and West were abruptly closed shut by both sides, and they remain closed to this day. However, nearly nine million Poles had already fled Poland, most moving to the United States.
The Second Republic claimed citizenship over all ethnic Poles, revoking the citizenship of any Pole who becomes a member of the Communist Party. Believing that war in Europe would be inevitable and come soon, and that a loyal population would be necessary for rebuilding Poland, the American government allowed the Second Republic to remain in Greenpoint. The children of these Poles were allowed to have dual Polish and American citizenship, and similar schemes arose in other countries. In exchange, these Poles would fight to liberate their homeland from Soviet rule, and move to Poland proper when communism fell. However, the Third World War never came, and the Second Republic has remained in Greenpoint ever since.
The question of Polish territoriality vexed me, so I took this opportunity to ask President Sobol what he would tell a child who asked him where Poland is located.
“I’d tell the kid that Poland is between East Germany and the Soviet Union, but it’s under Soviet occupation. But I’d also tell him that Poland is in the hearts of every Pole,” he said, gesturing to his chest.
“If you want a more academic answer, the Second Republic has full sovereignty over all of the buildings it owns, including the one you’re sitting in now. We have dual sovereignty with the United States and the State of New York here in Greenpoint. That means we have to obey all federal and state laws, but we can also pass our own laws that apply only to our citizens. We don’t do much to get tangled up with the American government, but our ban on communist political organizations has been through the courts now and again.”
Noting the wealth of Greenpoint, I asked the president how the Second Republic made its money.
“The Polish government understood prior to 1939 that war with Hitler was inevitable,” President Sobol told me. “They also guessed, rightly, that while Poland may be able to stand against Germany on her own, she is doomed if the Russians took the opportunity to take eastern Poland. To protect the Polish people’s wealth from the Nazi and communist wolves, the government secreted away as many assets as it could to Swiss banks, for withdrawal at a later time. The government knew that the Nazis themselves were using Swiss accounts to hold their plunder until Europe was theirs, so they would never dare invade. This program began in 1936, after the annexation of Austria, and continued until the German invasion. That gave the government plenty of resources to buy land and assets around the world, particularly to help Poles who escaped after the war. We also own many companies around the world, and their profits benefit us directly. We invest those profits back into the Polish community.”
So the Second Republic is a corporate, profit-making venture? President Sobol scoffed.
“I wish! Although we are the smallest government in the world, we still have to maintain a network of organizations around the world. In particular, maintaining the Polish military. Buying hardware and renting bases from our allies is expensive, even if they do give us discounts. Most of our money comes from taxes, which we do not have the resources to collect ourselves. Instead, all Polish citizens must pay taxes in exchange for the right to vote.”
How do politics work in the Second Republic?
“Every Polish citizen who pays taxes is given a single vote. We used to vote via mail, but now we do it online. There are two major parties, Conservative and Liberal, and three minor parties, Social Democratic, Jewish, and Unity. I’m a Liberal, although these days if you ask some of the guys in the Sejm they’ll tell you I’m a far-right extremist.”
I asked about the dynamic of the parties.
“I’m going to be biased, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. Better yet, bring the saltshaker.” President Sobol chuckled. “The Liberals and the Conservatives are the big guy, of course. These days we’re mostly fighting about the resistance in the homeland. Most Conservatives want to just bomb the reds or assassinate their leaders, as if that will work. I’ve broken from the nuttier parts of my party by saying I want to voice my support for the movement, but you’re insane if you think that makes me a Conservative. Words aren’t bombs.”
“The Social Democrats, you won’t find many of them here, but you will in Europe. They’re too extreme for my tastes, wanting to nationalize this and that, as if that wouldn’t get us into trouble with our host countries. The Jewish Party, they’re a party by Israeli Poles, for Israeli Poles. They do their own thing, sometimes voting with us, sometimes against. And Unity” - President Sobol rolled his eyes - “they want us to just roll over and rejoin the Soviet occupation government in some kind of ‘compromise.’ As if the reds wouldn’t stab us in the back! I suspect most of them are communists, but they don’t want to say so.”
What would a communist have to worry about?
“Any self-avowed communist immediately has their citizenship revoked. The Unity and the Social Democrats want to limit that to membership in the Communist Party of Poland, but God knows if we do that, the Second Republic is dead. No way Washington will let possible Soviet agents enter the country!”
Sensing that my time might be up, I wanted to wrap up by asking about the Second Republic’s purpose. For the first time since meeting him, the president smiled.
“To take back our homeland! My grandparents were forced out of Poland when they were just children by the damn reds, and I intend to take it back. For them, and for every Pole that still lives under Soviet oppression. The Conservatives are right when they say that Poland will have to be liberated by war. I’m just not ready to play atomic craps for the chance.”
The Second Republic, while holding no territory of its own, does have its own military. Although attached to NATO armies, the Polish military was highly trained, with the Second Republic sparing no expense. I asked the president what Poland expects to do with its military.
“The same thing they’ve always done: fight for the Polish people. When the Germans occupied Poland, we continued the fight in the skies over England. When the chance comes to liberate our homeland, we will be the spearhead of liberty.”
