Roman Dmowski
Roman Dmowski | |
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State Duma of the Russian Empire | |
In office 1907–1909 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Kamionek, Kingdom of Poland | 9 August 1864
Died | 2 January 1939 Drozdowo, Poland | (aged 74)
Resting place | Bródno Cemetery, Warsaw |
Political party |
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Alma mater | University of Warsaw |
Signature | |
Part of a series on |
Conservatism |
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Roman Stanisław Dmowski (Polish:
Dmowski never wielded significant political power except for a brief period in 1923 as
Early life
Dmowski was born on 9 August 1864 in
He also organized a student street
In April 1893, Dmowski co-founded the
In Myśli nowoczesnego Polaka, Dmowski was harshly critical of the old Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth for exalting the nobility and for its tolerance for minorities, which contradicted his principle of "healthy national egoism".
In 1905, Dmowski moved to Warsaw, back in the
Over time, Dmowski became more receptive to Russian overtures, particularly
World War I
In 1914, Dmowski praised the
In 1915, Dmowski, increasingly convinced of Russia's impending defeat, decided that to support the cause of Polish independence he should go abroad to campaign on behalf of Poland in the capitals of the western
In 1917, Dmowski laid out a plan for the borders of a re-created Polish state; it would include
In part, Wilson's objections stemmed from the dislike of Dmowski personally. One British diplomat stated, "He was a clever man, and clever men are distrusted; he was logical in his political theories and we hate logic; and he was persistent with a tenacity which was calculated to drive everybody mad."
Post-World War I
At the end of the World War, two governments claimed to be the legitimate governments of Poland: Dmowski's in Paris and Piłsudski's in Warsaw. To put an end to the rival claims of Piłsudski and Dmowski, the composer
As a Polish delegate at the Paris Peace Conference and a signatory of the
In regard to
Forever a political opponent of Piłsudski, Dmowski favored what he called a "national state", a state in which the citizens would speak Polish and be of the
Dmowski himself was disappointed with the
Later life
Dmowski was a deputy to the 1919
When the time came to write a Polish constitution in the early 1920s, the National Democrats insisted upon a weak presidency and strong legislative branch. Dmowski was convinced that Piłsudski would become president and saw a weak executive mandate as the best way of crippling his rival. The
He was a
In 1926, in the aftermath of Piłsudski's
Death
Weakening in health, Dmowski moved to the village of Drozdowo near Łomża, where he died on 2 January 1939 at the age of 74.[67]
Dmowski was buried at the
Political outlook
Theorist of nationalism
From his early student years, Dmowski was opposed to socialism and suspicious of federalism; he desired Polish independence and a strong Polish state, and saw socialism and conciliatory federalist policies as prioritizing an international idea over the national one.[5][69] Over the years he became an influential European nationalist thinker.[47][70] Dmowski had a scientist's background and thus preferred logic and reason over emotion and passion.[71] He once told famous pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski that music was "mere noise".[71] Dmowski felt very strongly that Poles should abandon what he considered to be foolish romantic nationalism and useless gestures of defiance and should instead work hard at becoming businessmen and scientists.[71][72] Dmowski was very much influenced by Social Darwinist theories, then popular in the Western world, and saw life as a merciless struggle between "strong" nations who dominated and "weak" nations who were dominated.[71]
In his 1902 book Myśli nowoczesnego Polaka (Thoughts of a Modern Pole), Dmowski denounced all forms of Polish Romantic nationalism and traditional Polish values.[9] He sharply criticized the idea of Poland as a spiritual concept and as a cultural idea.[9] Instead Dmowski argued that Poland was merely a physical entity that needed to be brought into existence through pragmatic bargaining and negotiating, not via what Dmowski considered to be pointless revolts – doomed to failure before they even began – against the partitioning powers.[9] For Dmowski, what the Poles needed was a "healthy national egoism" that would not be guided by what Dmowski regarded as the unrealistic political principles of Christianity.[9] In the same book, Dmowski blamed the fall of the old Commonwealth on its tradition of tolerance.[9] While at first critical of Christianity, Dmowski viewed some sects of Christianity as beneficial to certain nations, through not necessarily Poland. Later in 1927 he revised this earlier view and renounced his criticism of Catholicism, seeing it as an essential part of the Polish identity.[73] Dmowski saw all minorities as weakening agents within the nation that needed to be purged.[9][74] In his 1927 book Kościół, Naród I Państwo (Church, Nation and State), Dmowski wrote:
"Catholicism is not a supplement to Polishness; it is somehow rooted in its very existence and to an important extent it even forms its existence. The attempt to separate Catholicism from Polishness in Poland, cutting off the nation from religion and Church, would mean destroying the very existence of the nation. The Polish State is a Catholic State. This is not because the vast majority of its inhabitants are Catholics or because of the percentage of Catholics. From our point of view, Poland is Catholic in the full sense of the word, because we are a national state, and our people is a Catholic people".[75]
In the pre-war years, the history of Poland was contested terrain as different ideological forces pulled Polish nationalists in opposite directions, represented by Dmowski and Piłsudski.
Dmowski admired
Antisemitism
Dmowski often communicated his belief in an "international Jewish conspiracy" aimed against Poland. "The tool of the Jews was Wilson, who was concerned that the Allied troops did not cross the German border...Lloyd George stopped regions from becoming part of Poland as they were before: the great majority of our Upper Silesia, Malborg, Sztum and Kwidzyn, and also Gdansk. Lloyd George acted like an agent of the Jews, and nothing gave the impression that Wilson was any less dependent on them. The Jews, therefore, negotiated an agreement with German Freemasonry, who, in return for help at the conference on the border question, agreed to provide them with a leading position in the German Republic. Eventually, after the peace, the Jews worked for Germany and against Poland in England, American, and even in France, but especially stove so that Germany became less and less a German state and more a Jewish one".[93]
For Dmowski, one of Poland's principal problems was that not enough Polish-speaking Catholics were middle-class, while too many ethnic Germans and Jews were. To remedy this perceived problem, he envisioned a policy of confiscating the wealth of Jews and ethnic Germans and redistributing it to Polish Catholics. Dmowski was never able to have this program passed into law by the Sejm, but the National Democrats did frequently organize "Buy Polish" boycott campaigns against German and Jewish shops. The first of Dmowski's antisemitic boycotts occurred in 1912 when he attempted to organize a total boycott of Jewish businesses in Warsaw as "punishment" for the defeat of some Endecja candidates in the elections for the Duma, which Dmowski blamed on Warsaw's Jewish population.[94] Throughout his life, Dmowski associated Jews with Germans as Poland's principal enemies; the origins of this identification stemmed from Dmowski's deep anger over the forcible "Germanization" policies carried out by the German government against its Polish minority during the Imperial period, and over the fact that most Jews living in the disputed German/Polish territories had chosen to assimilate into German culture, not Polish culture.[95] In Dmowski's opinion Jewish community was not attracted to the cause of Polish independence and was likely to ally itself with potential enemies of Polish state if it would benefit their status.[95]
Dmowski was also a vocal opponent of freemasonry,[64] as well as of feminism.[96]
Recognition and legacy
Dmowski is considered one of the most influential conservative politicians in the history of modern Poland, although his legacy is controversial and he continues to be a highly polarizing figure. He has been called "the father of Polish nationalism" and the "icon of the contemporary Polish political right" who, as a signatory of the Treaty of Versailles, played a critical role in the restoration of Polish independence after World War I.[97][26][98] Conversely, he has been described as the founder of contemporary Polish antisemitism and criticized for his disdain for women's rights.[99] Dmowski's life and work has been subject to numerous academic articles and books. Andrzej Walicki in 1999 noted that main sources on Dmowski are Andrzej Micewski's Roman Dmowski (1971), Roman Wapiński's Roman Dmowski (1988) and Krzysztof Kawalec's Roman Dmowski (1996).[26]
Suppressed in
On 8 January 1999, he was honoured by the Polish Sejm with special legislation "for his achievement for the independence of Poland and expansion of Polish national consciousness". The document honours him also for founding Polish school of
Dmowski was awarded several state awards: the Grand Cross of the
Selected works
- Myśli nowoczesnego Polaka (Thoughts of a Modern Pole), 1902.
- Niemcy, Rosja a sprawa polska (Germany, Russia and the Polish Cause), 1908. French translation published under the title: La question polonaise (Paris 1909).
- Separatyzm Żydów i jego źródła (Separatism of Jews and its Sources), 1909.
- Upadek myśli konserwatywnej w Polsce (The Decline of Conservative Thought in Poland), 1914.
- Polityka polska i odbudowanie państwa (Polish Politics and the Rebuilding of the State), 1925.
- Zagadnienie rządu (On Government), 1927.
- Kościół, naród i państwo (The Church, Nation and State), 1927.
- Świat powojenny i Polska (The World after War and Poland), 1931.
- Przewrót (The Coup), 1934.
See also
- History of Poland (1918-1939)
- Poland in World War I
- Dmowski's Line
References
- ^ Within the Camp of Great Poland from 1926
- ^ Walicki 1999, p.46
- ISBN 978-1-84631-214-4.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b c Chrzanowski and Konopczyński (1946), p.213
- ^ a b c d e f Chrzanowski and Konopczyński (1946), p.214
- ^ a b c d e f Kossert p. 90
- ^ ISBN 978-0-313-26007-0.
- ^ a b c d e Chrzanowski and Konopczyński (1946), p.215
- ^ a b c d e f g Zamoyski, Adam The Polish Way page 329.
- ^ Zamoyski pages 329–330.
- ^ a b Chrzanowski and Konopczyński (1946), p.216
- ^ a b c d Kossert p. 91
- ISBN 0-8108-4927-5.
- ^ a b c d Zamoyski page 330.
- ^ Walicki 1999, p.25
- ^ a b Chrzanowski and Konopczyński (1946), p.217
- ^ Zamoyski page 332.
- ^ a b c Kossert p. 95
- ^ a b c d Walicki 1999, p.26
- ^ a b c d Chrzanowski and Konopczyński (1946), p.218
- ^ a b c d e f g Lerski 1996, p.116
- ^ a b Chrzanowski and Konopczyński (1946), p.219
- ^ a b Walicki 1999, p.28
- ISBN 978-0-8032-5637-8.
- ^ a b Zamoyski, Adam The Polish Way page 333.
- ^ S2CID 145366684., p.12
- ^ a b c d e f Chrzanowski and Konopczyński (1946), p.220
- ^ a b Zamoyski page 334.
- ^ a b c d e f Chrzanowski and Konopczyński (1946), p.221
- ^ Immanuel Geiss "Tzw. polski pas graniczny 1914–1918". Warszawa 1964
- ^ Goeman, H.E. (2000). War and Punishment: The Causes of War Termination and the First World War. Princeton University Press. p. 105.
- ^ Stanisław Schimitzek, Truth or Conjecture?: German Civilian War Losses in the East, Zachodnia Agencia Prasowa, 1966, p. 366.
- ^ To the Threshold of Power, 1922/33: Origins and Dynamics of the Fascist and Nationalist Socialist Dictatorships, pp. 151–52.
- ^ Bartov, Omer; Weitz, Eric D. (2013). Shatterzone of Empires: Coexistence and Violence in the German, Habsburg, Russian, and Ottoman Borderlands. Indiana University Press. p. 55.
- ^ The Red Prince: The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke By Timothy Snyder "On the annexations and ethnic cleansing, see Geiss, Der Polnische Grenzstreifen"
- ^ Absolute Destruction: Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany Isabel V. Hull page 233 Cornell University Press, 2005
- ^ Ewolucja systemu politycznego w Polsce w latach 1914–1998. T. 1. Odbudowanie niepodległego państwa i jego rozwój do 1945 r. Cz. 1, Zbiór studiów 1999. Polska myśl zachodnia XIX I XX wieku Czubiński Antoni
- ^ Macmillan, Margaret Paris 1919 pages 209–210 & 212.
- ^ Macmillan pages 212–213.
- ^ Macmillan page 210.
- ^ a b c Macmillan page 212.
- ^ Walicki, 1999, p. 2930.
- ^ Macmillan page 213.
- ^ a b c d e f Macmillan pages 213–214.
- ^ Macmillan page 214.
- ISBN 978-83-7001-914-3.
- ^ a b Walicki 1999, p.13
- ^ a b Lundgreen-Nielsen, K. The Polish Problem at the Paris Peace Conference pages 131–134 & pages 231–233
- ^ Lundgreen-Nielsen pages 223–224.
- ^ a b Lundgreen-Nielsen page 225.
- ^ Lundgreen-Nielsen pages 225–226.
- ^ Lundgreen-Nielsen pages 238–240.
- ^ Wybór pism Romana Dmowskiego: Przypisy do "Polityki polskiej i odbudowania panśtwa". Kościół, narod i państwo. Świat powojenny i polska Roman Dmowski, Antonina Bogdan, Stanisław Bojarczuk Instytut Romana Dmowskiego, page 210 1988 – History
- ^ ISBN 978-0-313-30571-9.
- ISBN 978-0-87052-747-0.
- ISBN 978-0-300-10586-5.
- ISBN 978-0-299-19463-5.
- ^ a b c Lundgreen-Nielsen page 217.
- ISBN 0199253404.
- ^ a b c d e Chrzanowski and Konopczyński (1946), p.222
- ISBN 978-0-19-822114-2.
- ^ a b Walicki 1999, p.30
- ^ ISBN 978-0-86516-245-7.
- ^ a b c d e f Chrzanowski and Konopczyński (1946), p.223
- ^ a b Walicki 1999, p.31
- ^ a b Zamoyski, Adam The Polish Way page 347.
- ^ a b c Chrzanowski and Konopczyński (1946), p.224
- ISBN 978-1-905791-70-5.
- ^ Walicki 1999, p.23
- ^ a b c Walicki 1999, p.14
- ^ a b c d e f g h Macmillan, Margaret Paris 1919 page 209.
- ^ a b Walicki 1999, p.15
- ^ Modras, Ronald (1994). The Catholic Church and Antisemitism in Poland, 1933–1939. Chur. p. 30.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Walicki 1999, p.32
- ^ Kossert p. 97
- ^ Patrice M. Dabrowski, "Uses and Abuses of the Polish Past by Józef Piłsudski and Roman Dmowski," The Polish Review (2011) 56#1 pp. 73-109
- ^ a b Walicki 1999, p.19-20
- ISBN 978-1-135-28617-0.
- ISBN 978-1-57607-940-9.
- ISBN 978-0-8214-4420-7.
- ISBN 978-1-135-15097-6.
- ^ pages 301–308 of his 1925 book Polityka Polska i odbudowanie państwa (Polish Politics and the Rebuilding of the State)
- ISBN 978-1-107-04074-8.
- ^ Mendelsohn page 38.
- ^ a b Walicki 1999, p.33
- ISBN 9780300095463.
- ^ Paulsson page 70.
- ISBN 978-1-85109-439-4.
- ^ Walicki 1999, p.28-29
- ^ Israel Oppenheim, "The Radicalization of the Endecja's Anti-Jewish Line during and after the 1905 Revolution," Shvut (2000), Vol. 9, pp 32–66.
- ^ Kossert pp. 98–99
- ISBN 9781845116972.
- ^ Kossert p. 98
- ^ Paulsson page 21.
- ^ a b Paulsson page 41.
- ISBN 978-0-8214-1695-2.
- ISBN 978-1-84631-525-1.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: others (link - ^ a b Kossert p.100.
- ^ Krzemiński, Ireneusz (2016). "Dmowski i antysemityzm narodowo-katolicki" (PDF). Nigdy Więcej (22).
- ^ "Mosty Romana Dmowskiego, Wrocław" (in Polish). dolny-slask.org.pl. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
- ^ wiadomości.wp.pl. "Odsłonięto pomnik Romana Dmowskiego – Wiadomości". Wiadomosci.WP.PL. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
- ^ "Roman Dmowski na pomnik. Białystok zrobi krok do tyłu?" (in Polish). Wyborcza.pl. 3 February 2002. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
- ^ "Dmowski zasłonięty balonami. Ale tylko w przenośni". M.wyborcza.pl. 9 November 2011. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
- ^ Kossert p.102
- ^ "Uchwała Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 8 stycznia 1999 r. o uczczeniu pamięci Romana Dmowskiego". (29.7 KB)
- ^ Kunert and Smogorzewska 1998, 388.
Further reading
- Cang, Joel: "The Opposition Parties in Poland and Their Attitude towards the Jews and the Jewish Question" Jewish Social Studies, Volume 1, Issue #2, 1939. pages 241–256
- Dabrowski, Patrice M. "Uses and Abuses of the Polish Past by Józef Piłsudski and Roman Dmowski," The Polish Review (2011) 56#1 pp. 73–109 in JSTOR
- Davies, Norman "Lloyd George and Poland, 1919–20," Journal of Contemporary History, (1971) 6#3 pp 132–54 in JSTOR
- Fountain, Alvin Marcus Roman Dmowski: Party, Tactics, Ideology 1895–1907, Boulder: East European Monographs, 1980 ISBN 0-914710-53-2.
- Groth, Alexander J. "Dmowski, Piłsudski and Ethnic Conflict in Pre-1939 Poland," Canadian-American Slavic Studies (1969) 3#1 pp 69–91.
- Komarnicki, Titus Rebirth of the Polish Republic: A Study in the Diplomatic History of Europe, 1914–1920, London, 1957.
- Kossert, Andreas. "Founding Father of Modern Poland and Nationalistic Antisemite: Roman Dmowski," in In the Shadow of Hitler: Personalities of the Right in Central and Eastern Europe edited by Rebecca Haynes and Martyn Rady, (2011) pp 89–105
- Lundgreen-Nielsen, K. The Polish Problem at the Paris Peace Conference: A Study in the Policies of the Great Powers and the Poles, 1918–1919: Odense, 1979.
- ISBN 0-375-50826-0, pp 207–28
- Mendelsohn, Ezra. The Jews of East Central Europe between the World Wars, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983 ISBN 0-253-33160-9.
- Porter, Brian. When Nationalism Began to Hate. Imagining Modern Politics in Nineteenth-Century Poland, (Oxford University Press, 2000). ISBN 0-19-515187-9
- Seitz, Richard George. "Dmowski, Piłsudski, and the Ideological Clash in the Second Polish Republic." PhD dissertation University of Washington., 1975.
- Valasek, Paul S. Haller's Polish Army in France, Chicago : 2006 ISBN 0-9779757-0-3.
- Walicki, Andrzej. "The Troubling Legacy of Roman Dmowski," East European Politics & Societies (2000) 14#1 pp 12–46. stresses xenophobia, anti-Semitism and role of Church
- Wandycz, Piotr Stefan"Dmowski's Policy and the Paris Peace Conference: Success or Failure?" from The Reconstruction of Poland, 1914–23, edited by P. Latawski: London, 1992.
- Wandycz, Piotr S. "Poland's Place in Europe in the Concepts of Piłsudski and Dmowski," East European Politics & Societies (1990) 4#3 pp 451–468.
- ISBN 0-7195-4674-5.
In Polish
- ISBN 83-7006-014-5.
- ISBN 83-7059-392-5.
- ISBN 83-222-0480-9.
- Ignacy Chrzanowski; Władysław Konopczyński (1946). Stefan Batory (in Polish). Vol. V.
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