The Fall of the Dynasties: The Collapse of the Old Order: 1905-1922

by Edmond Taylor

Most Poles regarded the Germans and the Russians as their real oppressors; there was little animosity toward Austria. After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and the Russian Revolution, the Polish deputies in the Reichsrat shifted to the opposition. On October 15 they informed the House that they now no longer considered themselves subjects of the Dual Monarchy, but citizens of the reborn Poland. The pianist, Ignace Paderewski, heading the 6migr6 Polish National Committee in Paris, proved to be as able a propagandist for Poland in the United States as Masaryk had been for Czechoslovakia, and it was largely due to him that Wilson’s Thirteenth Point demanded the creation after the war of an independent Poland with free access to the sea. At the end of October Austrian troops began withdrawing from Galicia.