Act of 5 November

The act, also called the act of the two emperors, was proclaimed simultaneously in Warsaw and Lublin by the Governors-General Hans von Beseler and Karl Kuk. The Kingdom was to be a "self-governing" rather than an independent state, a hereditary constitutional monarchy bound to both powers; its borders and authorities were left for later. The decision was forced through after the losses of 1916 by Ludendorff, who according to some studies expected 350,000 Polish soldiers. The call for volunteers of 9 November, issued before any Polish government existed, brought in only a few thousand men.

Russia and its allies protested, but the Polish question was no longer an internal Russian affair. In December the Tsar promised a free Poland made up of all three partitions, and in March 1917 the Russian Provisional Government recognised Polish independence. In the Kingdom the act opened the way to the first Polish institutions: the Provisional Council of State (January 1917) and the Regency Council (October 1917), which handed power to Piłsudski in November 1918.