The Legislative Sejm ( pl, Sejm Ustawodawczy) of the Second Polish Republic was the first national parliament (

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...

) of the newly independent Second Polish Republic. It was elected in the

1919 Polish legislative election Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 26 January 1919, electing the first Sejm of the Second Polish Republic. The elections, based on universal suffrage and proportional representation, was the first free election in the country's histor ...

Background

The Legislative Sejm was formed in the aftermath of World War I on the territories of the newly independent Second Polish Republic. In late 1918 Polish state was governed by

Józef Piłsudski Józef Klemens Piłsudski (; 5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesman who served as the Naczelnik państwa, Chief of State (1918–1922) and Marshal of Poland, First Marshal of Second Polish Republic, Poland (from 1920). He was ...

, who quickly begun the work to organize election to the first Polish national parliament (

) since the

Grodno Sejm Grodno Sejm ( pl, Sejm grodzieński; be, Гарадзенскі сойм; lt, Gardino seimas) was the last Sejm (session of parliament) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Grodno Sejm, held in autumn 1793 in Grodno, Grand Duchy of Li ...

of 1793, held two years before partitions of Poland ended the independent existence of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi- confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Poland and Lithuania ru ...

History

The elections to the Sejm took place on January 26, 1919. At that time, Poland did not have fixed boundaries, and was involved in territorial conflicts and disputes. On the territories under the nascent Polish state's control, in the lands of former

Congress Kingdom Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...

and Podlasie region, and western

Lesser Poland Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name Małopolska ( la, Polonia Minor), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a ...

, 42 electoral districts returned 302 deputies. In addition, 20 Polish deputies to the

German Parliament The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Common ...

, 26 Polish deputies to the

Austro-Hungarian Parliament The Imperial Council (german: Reichsrat; cs, Říšská rada, links=yes; pl, Rada Państwa, links=yes; it, Consiglio Imperiale, links=yes; sl, Državni zbor, links=yes; uk, Райхсрат, Державна рада, links=yes; bs, Carevins ...

, and selected candidates from the

Cieszyn Cieszyn ( , ; cs, Těšín ; german: Teschen; la, Tessin; szl, Ćeszyn) is a border town in southern Poland on the east bank of the Olza River, and the administrative seat of Cieszyn County, Silesian Voivodeship. The town has 33,500 inhabitan ...

region (where elections were disrupted due to hostilities) were added to the Sejm. In the coming months, as the Polish control grew over some disputed territories, more elections were held: on April 25, 1919, in Greater Poland and on June 15, 1919 in the Białystok and Podlasie regions. Some deputies who were provisional representatives yielded their seats to the newly elected ones. On March 24, 1922, the Sejm was joined by 20 deputies from the

Republic of Central Lithuania The Republic of Central Lithuania ( pl, Republika Litwy Środkowej, ), commonly known as the Central Lithuania, and the Middle Lithuania ( pl, Litwa Środkowa, , be, Сярэдняя Літва, translit=Siaredniaja Litva), was an unrecognize ...

(the dissolved

Sejm of Central Lithuania Sejm of Central Lithuania ( pl, Sejm Litwy Środkowej), also known as the Vilnius Sejm, or Wilno Sejm ( pl, Sejm Wileński) or the Adjudicating Sejm ( pl, Sejm Orzekający), was the parliament of the short-lived state of Central Lithuania. Formed ...

). The Sejm thus had a changing number of deputies, starting at 348 and ending its term with 432 members. About 5 million votes were cast in the election. Important legislation passed by the Sejm included laws on the

military draft Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day und ...

land reform Land reform is a form of agrarian reform involving the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution, generally of agricultural ...

, and the development of a

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

, and the state-sponsored health insurance system. In 1921 the Sejm passed the March Constitution.

Composition

Due to the changing number of deputies, and the ongoing fragmentation and merger of various parties, there is a number of different composition listings for the Legislative Sejm. The composition of the Legislative Sejm was as follows:

Marshal of the Sejm The Marshal of the Sejm , also known as Sejm Marshal, Chairman of the Sejm or Speaker of the Sejm ( pl, Marszałek Sejmu, ) is the speaker (chair) of the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish Parliament. The office traces its origins to the 15th ...

was

Wojciech Trąmpczyński Wojciech Stefan Trąmpczyński (8 February 1860 – 2 March 1953) was a Polish lawyer and National Democratic politician. Voivode of the Poznań Voivodeship in 1919. He served as marshal of the Sejm of Poland from 1919–1922 and Senate of ...

In July 1922

Notes

a. Neither Nohlen and Stöver nor Jędruch did retain original for Polish parties and groups; they used their own translations. As such, identification with a particular entity was not always possible.

Background

History

Composition

In July 1922

Notes

References

See also