Polish National Committee
Polish National Committee
(PNC), a committee founded Aug. 15, 1917, in Lausanne (and later transferred to Paris) by the leaders of several Polish bourgeois parties, primarily the National Democrats. The committee’s objective was the creation of a Polish state with the help of the Entente powers that would incorporate Lithuanian, Byelorussian, and Ukrainian lands without granting them autonomy. The committee’s chairman was R. Dmowski. Between September and November 1917 the governments of France, Great Britain, Italy, and the USA recognized the PNC as the official representative of the Polish people. The PNC reached an agreement with J. Piłsudski and his supporters at the beginning of 1919. A coalition government headed by I. Paderewski, a member of the committee, was formed in January 1919, and the PNC was dissolved in August 1919.