The
Second Polish Republic, also known as the Second Commonwealth of
Poland or
interwar Poland, refers to the country of Poland between the
First and
Second World Wars (1918–1939). Officially known as the
Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was
recreated in 1918, in the
aftermath of World War I. When, after several regional conflicts, the borders of the state were fixed in 1922, Poland's neighbours were
Czechoslovakia,
Germany, the
Free City of Danzig,
Lithuania,
Latvia,
Romania and the
Soviet Union. It had access to the
Baltic Sea via a short strip of coastline either side of the city of
Gdynia. Between March and August 1939, Poland also shared a border with the then-Hungarian province of
Carpathian Ruthenia. Despite internal and external pressures, it continued to exist until 1939, when
Poland was invaded by
Nazi Germany, the
Soviet Union and the
Slovak Republic, marking the beginning of
World War II in Europe. The Second Republic was significantly different in territory to the
current Polish state. It included substantially more territory in the east and less in the west.