Piłsudski Freed

Following the entry of the US into the war, both kaisers decide to play va banque.

The entry of the US into the war put the Central Powers in a precarious and rather bad position. The never-ending flood of the US soldiers into the Western Front, together with the simultaneous need to keep a significant part of German army in the east due to the Reds' continued participation--even if it was mostly defensive) was too much for the Central Powers.   In this situation, both kaisers decided to play va banque. The Act of 5th November, created to draft Poles as soldiers against Russia, was mostly dead at this point - it was never done for real, and all pretenses were mostly dropped following the oath crisis and imprisonment of J. Piłsudski. Now it was the time to resurrect it.   It was a hard decision for the Central Powers. They were, however, mortally afraid of the terms the Entente might demand for the end of war. Millions had died, and the Entente seemed to be becoming more and more radical, practically apocalyptic. It was either the loss of all colonies, Alsace and Lorraine, massive war reparations and disarmament... or restored Poland, strong enough to be able to free significant ammount of German forces from the Eastern Front.   Poland that, if the war ended, was most likely going to stay as a country secondary to the Central Powers, most likely being politically subservient to the two Empires. It was the only logical choice, though numerous nobles and higher-ups in the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires accepted it begrudgingly.   Soon Piłsudski was marked as regent of the Kingdom of Poland, with a growing Polish Army replacing German forces on the Eastern Front. Poland officially joined Central Powers, and soon declared war against Entente.