National Democracy (Poland)

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This article is about the historic movement in Poland. For other uses, see National Democracy (disambiguation).
"National Democracy Movement" redirects here. For an ideological movement in the Philippines, see
National democracy (Philippines). Not to be confused with National Democratic Movement
.
National Democracy
Narodowa Demokracja
LeaderRoman Dmowski
Founded1886; 138 years ago (1886)
Dissolved1947; 77 years ago (1947)
HeadquartersWarsaw, Poland
IdeologyPolish nationalism
National conservatism[1]
Political positionRight-wing[2][3]
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National Democracy (Polish: Narodowa Demokracja, also known from its abbreviation ND as Endecja; [ɛn̪ˈd̪ɛt̪͡s̪jä]) was a Polish political movement active from the second half of the 19th century under the foreign partitions of the country until the end of the Second Polish Republic.[4] It ceased to exist after the German–Soviet invasion of Poland of 1939.

In its long history, National Democracy went through several stages of development.

nationalist character following the return to independence.[4] A founder and principal ideologue was Roman Dmowski. Other ideological fathers of the movement included Zygmunt Balicki and Jan Ludwik Popławski.[5]

The National Democracy's main stronghold was

Germanizing
its Polish territorial holdings. Later, the ND's focus would shift to countering what it saw as Polish-Jewish economic competition with Catholic Poles. Party support was made up of the ethnically Polish intelligentsia, the urban lower-middle class, some elements of the greater middle class, and its extensive youth movement.

During the

interbellum Second Republic, the ND was a strong proponent for the Polonization of the country's German minority and of other non-Polish (Belarusian, Lithuanian and Ukrainian) populations in Poland's eastern border regions (the Kresy). With the end of World War II and the occupation of the country by the Soviet Union and its communist puppet regime
, the National Democracy movement effectively ceased to exist.

Origins

The origins of the ND can be traced to the 1864 failure of the

Polish uprisings – had been bloodily crushed by Poland's partitioners
, a new generation of Polish patriots and politicians concluded that Poland's independence would not be won through force on the battlefield, but through education and culture.

In 1886 the secret

National-Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Narodowo-Demokratyczne). Unlike the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), the ND advocated peaceful negotiations, not armed resistance. Influenced by Roman Dmowski's radical nationalist and social-Darwinist ideas, National Democrats soon turned against other nationalities within the Polish lands, most notably the Jews; antisemitism became an element of ND ideology.[6]

During

Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and in the Treaty of Versailles
.

Second Republic

In the newly independent

Sanacja government. The tightening of Sanacja's controls on opposition parties and its general authoritarian drift led to the gradual radicalization of the ND movement. In December 1926, the Camp of Great Poland (Obóz Wielkiej Polski) was created as an extra-parliamentary organization in opposition to the Sanacja government. The youth faction of the Camp of Great Poland gradually took control over the whole organization, and from 1931 the camp quickly radicalized and even adopted some militaristic elements.[7]

In 1928 the

ethnic minorities
.

Simultaneously the ND emphasized its antisemitic stance, intending to exclude Jews from Polish social and economic life and ultimately to push them to

National Radical Camp (Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny).[11]

World War II

During

Katyń massacre
. Among those killed are:

Righteous among the Nations

After the war

After the war, when a communist, pro-Soviet government took power in Poland, most remaining NDs either emigrated to

Catholic
movement.

Today's Poland

Since the

fall of communism, with Poland once again a democratically governed country, several political parties have sought to re-establish some ND traditions; their adherents prefer to call themselves the "National Movement" (Ruch Narodowy). The only significant party that declared itself a successor to the ND was the League of Polish Families (Liga Polskich Rodzin),[citation needed] founded in 2001 by Roman Giertych, grandson of Jędrzej Giertych
, a pre-war ND politician. It received 8% of the parliamentary vote in 2001 and 16% in 2004, but then fell below the 5% threshold in 2007 and lost all its parliamentary seats.

Another Polish national-democratic association with legal standing is the Camp of Great Poland. The association was established on March 28, 2003, as a response of the National Party (Stronnictwo Narodowe; SN) Youth Section to the deletion of the party from the national registry.[14] On February 17, 2012, the OWP was registered in the National Registrar of Companies and Legal Entities (Krajowy Rejestr Sądowy; KRS),[15] gaining legal personality.

Today the main party promoting National Democracy is the National Movement. The party was formed originally as a nationalist coalition by Robert Winnicki, Krzysztof Bosak, and other defectors from the LPR. As of 2019, it has 5 deputies in the Sejm.

Newspaper Nasz Dziennik often represents national democracy viewpoints.[16]

Notables

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Bohler, Jochen (2019). Civil War in Central Europe, 1918–1921: The Reconstruction of Poland. Oxford University Press. p. 99.
  2. ^ Stachura, Peter D. (2004). "Poland, 1918–1945: An Interpretive and Documentary History of the Second Republic". Routledge: viii. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. ^ Chodakiewicz, Marek Jan (2004). "Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics in Poland, 1939–1947". Lexington Books: 41. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. ^ a b c Michał Szukała interview with Aleksander Hall (2014-08-05). "Dziedzictwo Narodowej Demokracji. W 150. rocznicę urodzin Romana Dmowskiego – rozmowa z Aleksandrem Hallem" (in Polish). 2013 © Muzeum Historii Polski (Museum of Poland's History). Retrieved 15 August 2014. Podzielam pogląd Wiesława Chrzanowskiego, który był moim zdaniem najwybitniejszym kontynuatorem endecji, który uważał, że Narodowa Demokracja należy do przeszłości, ponieważ wypełniła z powodzeniem swoje najważniejsze zadanie polegające na stworzeniu nowoczesnego narodu obejmującego wszystkie warstwy społeczne. Podobnie jak swoje misje wypełniły kształtujące się w tej samej epoce ruch ludowy, czy patriotyczny nurt PPS nadający świadomość narodową warstwie robotniczej. — Aleksander Hall, dissident under communism, minister during Solidarity years, member of Parliament Sejm, recipient of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland).
  5. ^ Davies 2005, 40.
  6. ISBN 978-0-521-55917-1
    . Retrieved 22 December 2012. Hardly surprisingly, anti-Semitism became a key element in the ND ideology
  7. ISBN 83-06-01728-5
    .
  8. OCLC 7972621
    .
  9. OCLC 7972621
    .
  10. ISBN 978-0-8047-4976-3
    .
  11. ISBN 978-0-521-55917-1. Retrieved 22 December 2012. The appeal of fascism and of anti-Semitism was most pronounced among young radical NDs, who in 1934 formed the National Radical Camp (ONR), from which emerged the distinctly totalitarian ONR-Falanga under Bolesław Piasecki
    .
  12. ISBN 978-1-84545-410-4
    .
  13. ^ http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/pdf/virtial_wall/poland.pdf Archived 2012-08-17 at the Wayback Machine [bare URL PDF]
  14. ^ [1] Polish Club Online – Wywiad z Przewodniczącym Obozu Wielkiej Polski – Dawidem Berezicki
  15. ^ [2] Official KRS Website
  16. ^ B. Sobczak, Medialne obrazy świata z perspektywy retorycznej (na przykładzie recepcji medialnej śmierci i pochówku Czesława Miłosza), „Poznańskie Studia Polonistyczne. Seria Językoznawcza”, 18, 2011, 2, s. 37.

References

External links

Further reading

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