Polish nationalism
Polish nationalism (Polish: polski nacjonalizm) was a nationalism which asserted that the Polish people were a nation and which affirmed the cultural unity of Poles. British historian of Poland Norman Davies defines nationalism as "a doctrine ... to create a nation by arousing people's awareness of their nationality, and to mobilize their feelings into a vehicle for political action."[1]
The nationalism of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth – a polity which existed de facto from 1386, and officially from 1569, until the Commonwealth's 1795 Third Partition – incorporating Poles, Lithuanians, East Slavs, and smaller minorities. was multi-ethnic and multi-confessional, though the Commonwealth's dominant social classes became extensively Polonized and Roman Catholicism was regarded as the dominant religion.
The nationalist ideology which arose soon after the Partitions was initially free of any kind of "ethnic nationalism".[2] It was a Romantic movement which sought the restoration of a Polish sovereign state.[1] Polish Romantic nationalism was described by Maurycy Mochnacki as "the essence of the nation", no longer defined by borders but by ideas, feelings, and thoughts stemming from the past.[2]
The advent of modern Polish nationalism under foreign rule coincided with the November 1830 Uprising and the European Revolutions of 1848 ("the Springtime of Nations"). Their ensuing defeats broke the Polish revolutionary spirit.[2] Many intellectuals turned to Herbert Spencer's social Darwinism and blamed Poland's erstwhile Romantic ("Messianist") philosophy for the insurrectionary disasters.[2]
After the failure of the subsequent Polish January 1863 Uprising, the Romantic schools of thought were firmly displaced by a specifically Polish version of Auguste Comte's Positivist philosophy which dominated Polish thought to the end of the 19th century.
After the three partitioning empires collapsed in World War I, Poland returned as a territorially reduced and ethnically more homogeneous polity – though still with substantial minorities, especially the Ukrainians of southeastern Poland, which themselves began to harbor their own national aspirations.
History
The earliest manifestations of Polish nationalism, and conscious discussions of what it means to be a citizen of the Polish nation, can be traced back to the 17th or 18th century,
Modern Polish nationalism arose as a movement in the late-18th and early-19th centuries amongst Polish activists who promoted a Polish national consciousness while rejecting cultural assimilation into the dominant cultures of Austria, Prussia and Russia, the three empires which partitioned Poland-Lithuania and occupied the various regions of Poland.[9] This was the consequence of Polish statelessness, because the Polish nationality was suppressed by the authorities of the countries which acquired the territory of the former Commonwealth.[10] During that time Polishness begun to be identified with ethnicity, increasingly excluding groups such as the Polish Jews, who had previously been more likely to be accepted as Polish patriots.[11][12][13][14][15] This was also the period in which Polish nationalism, which was previously common to both left-wing and right-wing political platforms, became more redefined as being limited to the right-wing,[16] with the emergence of the politician Roman Dmowski (1864-1939), who renamed Liga Polska (the Polish League) as Liga Narodowa (the National League) in 1893.[17]
Polish nationalism reached its height in the second half of the 19th century and in the first half of the 20th century.[
It has often been pointed out that the period of partition has a strong significance for Poles as a chapter in Polish history where the Polish nation survived and became socially and culturally stronger despite the loss of independence.
— Dr. Magdalena Kania-Lundholm, Re-Branding a Nation Online, Uppsala University, 2012 [19]
An important element of Polish nationalism has been its identification with the
In 1922
...
"I judged the Poles by their enemies. And I found it was an almost unfailing truth that their enemies were the enemies of magnanimity and manhood. If a man loved slavery, if he loved usury, if he loved terrorism and all the trampled mire of materialistic politics, I have always found that he added to these affections the passion of a hatred of Poland. She could be judged in the light of that hatred; and the judgment has proved to be right."
Charles Sarolea’s Letters on Polish affair, 1922
The
In
Polish nationalism, together with pro-American liberalism, played an important part in the development of
In current Polish politics, Polish nationalism is most openly represented by parties linked in the Liberty and Independence Confederation coalition. As of 2020[update] the Confederation, composed of several smaller parties, had 11 deputies (under 7%) in the Sejm.
Parties
Current
- Confederation of Independent Poland (1979–present)
- National Revival of Poland (1981–present)
- National Party(1989–present)
- Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland (1992–present)
- National Radical Camp (1933–1934, 1935–1939, 1993–present)
- National-Catholic Movement (1997–present)
- Party of Regions (2007–present)
- National League(2007–present)
- Forward Poland (2008–present)
- National Movement (2012–present)
- United Poland(2012–present)
- Free and Solidary (2016–present)
- Confederation Liberty and Independence (2018–present)
Former
- National Democracy (1886–1947)
- National-Democratic Party (1897–1919)
- Popular National Union (1919–1928)
- Camp of Great Poland (1926–1933)
- National Party (1928–1947)
- Polish United Worker's Party(1948-1990)
- Christian National Union (1989–2010)
- Movement for Reconstruction of Poland (1995–2012)
- League of Polish Families (2001–present) (changed ideology in 2010)
- Polish National Party (2004–2014)
Ideologies and movements
See also
- Politics in Poland
- Polonization
- Anti-Polish sentiment
- Polish national songs
- Polish irredentism
Further reading
- Charles Sarolea’s Letters on Polish affair - see: https://archive.org/stream/lettersonpolisha00sarouoft/lettersonpolisha00sarouoft_djvu.txt[acc.: 16 Jul. 2023]
- Denis Clark. 2019. "Poland in the ‘Paris system’: self- determination, stereotypes, and decisions in 1919." Nations and Nationalism.
- Nationalism on the rise in Poland?, Polskie Radio, 27 Feb 2013
- Punching for Poland: Polish nationalism, The Economist, Nov 12th 2012
- Polish nationalism resurgent, BBC, 9 May 2006
- Nationalism and Communism in Poland, Foreign Affairs, 1962
- Paul Brykczynski, A Poland for the Poles? Józef Piłsudski and the Ambiguities of Polish Nationalism, PRAVO North American Journal for Central European Studies 1 (1), 2007, p. 1-20
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-925340-1. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ^ a b c d Nolan Kinney (Spring 2009). "The Positive Reawakening Of Polish Nationalism" (PDF file, direct download 69.8 KB). Western Oregon University Department of History. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-19-925340-1. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ISBN 978-1-134-37860-9. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- S2CID 233524561.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-226-99305-8. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-226-99305-8. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-226-99305-8. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-19-925340-1. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-19-925340-1. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4443-9067-4. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-226-99305-8. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-226-99305-8. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-134-37860-9. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-134-37860-9. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-7190-5052-7. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-8214-4309-5. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-925340-1. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ISBN 978-91-506-2302-4. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-226-99305-8. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ISBN 978-90-04-16983-8. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-226-99305-8. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ISBN 978-1-84631-214-4. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
- ^ Laura Ann Crago (1993). Nationalism, religion, citizenship, and work in the development of the Polish working class and the Polish trade union movement, 1815-1929: a comparative study of Russian Poland's textile workers and upper Silesian miners and metalworkers. Yale University. p. 168. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
- ISBN 978-1-134-37860-9. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- Charles Sarolea’s Letters on Polish affair - see: https://archive.org/stream/lettersonpolisha00sarouoft/lettersonpolisha00sarouoft_djvu.txt [acc.: 16 Jul. 2023]
- ISBN 978-1-134-37860-9. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-300-10586-5.
- ^ Boduszyński, Mieczysław; Carpenter, Michael (1 August 2017). "How Polish populism explains the surge of Trump and nationalism". The Hill (blog).