Before the Opening of the Sejm [Józef Piłsudski and Ignacy Jan Paderewski on their Way to the Ceremony of Inauguration of the Legislative Sejm of the Polish Republic on 9th February 1919]

The photograph presents Józef Piłsudski and Ignacy Jan Paderewski on their Way to the Ceremony for the Inauguration of the Legislative Sejm of the Polish Republic. Paderewski became prime minister of a state that did not yet exist on the European map. The eventual shape of the territory of Poland was to be decided in a peace conference in Paris, but also by the bloody war still being waged in the East, which would come to an end only in 1920. To rebuild the ruined country was a massive effort, one huge achievement of the new cabinet being the orchestration of the first election to the Legislative Sejm.