BRICKS WITHOUT STRAW

to be dealt with, in addition to the tens of thousands
of Germans who were still on Polish soil—fully
armed. As yet, there was no Polish Army, and
the means of creating one were lacking. Even
the frontiers of the new country had not been
defined.

It was from the remnants of the Legions that
Pilsudski created the nucleus of the Polish National
Army. The P.O.W., which had been commanded
by Smigly-Rydz during Pilsudski's internment in
Magdeburg, provided more than 10,000 men, and
there were also thousands of volunteers. It was
with this new and for the greater part untried
army behind him that Pilsudski, with consummate
skill and diplomacy, managed to disarm the
80,000 Germans who were still on Polish territory
and send them home to their own country, despite
German intrigues to embroil this German force
with the Poles. A worse menace had to be faced
in the East, where the Ukrainian Republic of
Petlura which, early in 1919, made a treaty of
union with the Western Ukrainian Republic.
There was also the spectre of Bolshevism, which
became more and more real as the German armies
withdrew from White Russia and other areas and
were replaced by Red Troops.

However, by the beginning of 1919, Pilsudski
had organized an army of approximately 120,000
men. They were ill-equipped and lacking in
homogeneity, and the urgency of sending them
into the field made matters worse. Pilsudski
appealed to the Allies for help, but the Allies

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