288 FENIKS
military regime over the Regency Council never wavered until the autumn of
1918.
When it finally occurred, the collapse of the Central Powers took place with
startling rapidity. The first crack in the monolith appeared on the Western Front
on 'Black Friday', 18 July 1918, when the French, British, and Americans broke
through the German lines and started an advance which gradually gained
momentum. But no irremediable breach appeared until October, when on the
Eastern Front the soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army simply packed their
bags and made for home. In three weeks, the Austrian Zone of Occupation was
denuded of its garrisons. The Czech regiments made for Bohemia; the Magyars
for Hungary; the Tyroleans, for Tyrol; and the Galicians for their towns and vil-
lages. The officers lost all semblance of order, and disappeared in the general
melee. State officials handed over the keys of their offices to the caretakers, and
departed. The astonished population which had lived under military law for
four years, was left to their own devices. They had been abandoned. The first
Polish territory to find its freedom in this way was Cieszyn. On 28 October 1918,
the National Council of the Duchy of Cieszyn Silesia declared its independence,
announced its intention of joining the Polish Republic (which did not then
exist), and signed a treaty ceding the western part of the Duchy to the local
Czech council.^22 Cracow found its freedom on the same day. Lwow, freed on 1
November, was seized simultaneously by Polish and Ukrainian elements.^23
The politics of the Austrian collapse were exceedingly confused. In Cracow,
the leaders of the 'Polish Circle' of the Reicbsrat formed a Polish Liquidation
Commission (PKL) to administer Galicia in the absence of orders from Vienna.
Its chairman was Wincenty Witos. Some of its more conservative members were
still calling in 1919 for loyalty to the Austrian Empire, even when the Austrian
Empire had ceased to exist. In Lublin on 7 November, in the former headquar-
ters of the Austrian Zone, socialist leaders formed a 'Provisional People's
Government of the Polish Republic', with Daszyriski as Premier. As the only
party to have consistently favoured independence in previous years, they could
not fairly claim to be representative of the nation as a whole. But their associ-
ation with the Legions, and their radical National Manifesto won them a meas-
ure of popular support.^24
At this point, the crack spread to the German Zone. Kiel was in mutiny. The
revolution had broken out in Berlin. The German Command in Warsaw, as else-
where, lacked orders. The soldiers of the garrison began to form 'Soviets' on the
model that they had learned in the Ober-Ost. The workers joined them, and
formed Workers' Committees. The Regency Council was powerless. Its attempt
to form a 'Government' under J. Swiezynski in place of the late Council of State,
found no support. Anarchy threatened. Then, the unexpected happened. Pilsud-
ski, released from Magdenburg Castle on 10 November, arrived at Warsaw
Station. He was the one man whose reputation was big enough to save the situ-
ation. His Socialist past promised a measure of influence over the leftist work-
ers: his military experience gave a chance that he could deal with the German