Roman Dmowski
Encyclopedia
Roman Stanisław Dmowski ' (born August 9, 1864 in Warsaw
; died January 2, 1939 in Drozdowo
) was a Polish
politician
, statesman
, and chief ideologue and co-founder of the National Democracy ("Endecja") political movement, which was one of the strongest political camps of interwar Poland.
Though a controversial personality throughout his life, Dmowski was instrumental in restoring Poland's independence. Together with Józef Piłsudski, he is considered one of the foremost Polish politicians of the 20th century.
, then part of the Russian Empire
. As a student he became active in the Polish Youth Association "Zet" (Związek Młodzieży Polskiej "Zet"), organizing a student street demonstration
on the 100th anniversary of the Polish Constitution
of May 3, 1791. For this he was imprisoned by the Russian Tsarist authorities for six months in the Warsaw Citadel
.
Later Dmowski headed the National League
(Liga Narodowa). In 1895 he settled in Lemberg, Austria-Hungary
(modern Lviv
, Ukraine
; known as Lwów to the Poles), and in 1897 co-founded the National-Democratic Party
(Stronnictwo Narodowo-Demokratyczne or "Endecja"). The Endecja was to serve as a political party, a lobby and an underground organization that would unite Poles who espoused Dmowski's views into a disciplined and committed political group. In 1899, Dmowski founded the Society for National Education as an ancillary group. A biologist
of some repute, he attained great prestige within the Polish community for his scientific accomplishments. Between 1898-1900, he resided in both France
and Britain
. In the face of an ascendant Germany
, he argued for tactical Polish cooperation with Tsarist Russia and brought about a pro-Russian orientation within the National-Democratic Party. In 1901 he took up residence in Kraków
, then part of the Austrian partition of Poland.
Upon the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War
in 1904, Dmowski traveled to Japan
in a successful effort to prevent Japan from providing Józef Piłsudski with Japanese assistance for a planned insurrection in Poland, an insurrection which Dmowski felt would be doomed to failure.
In 1905 Dmowski moved to Warsaw
, at the time, part of the Russian partition
of Poland. During the Russian Revolution of 1905
, Dmowski favoured co-operation with the Imperial Russian authorities and welcomed Nicholas II
's October Manifesto of 1905 as a stepping stone on the road towards renewed Polish autonomy. During the revolt in Łódź in June 1905, the Endeks, acting under Dmowski's orders, opposed the uprising led by Piłsudski's Polish Socialist Party
. Ironically, during the course of the "June Days," as the Łódź uprising is known, a miniature civil war raged between Endecja and the PPS.
As a result of the elections to the First Duma, which were boycotted by the PPS, the National Democrats won 34 of the 55 seats allotted to Poland. Dmowski himself was elected a deputy
to the Second and Third Dumas and as president of the Polish caucus within it. Prior to 1914, Dmowski was prepared to settle for Polish autonomy within the Russian Empire, as he believed that an independent Poland would swiftly become dominated by Germany, as the Germans (in his view) had a better developed state and stronger social organisations. In light of what he regarded as German superiority, Dmowski felt that a strong Russia was in Poland's best interest, and would afford it a better opportunity to ultimately reunite all Polish territories under one rule. In Dmowski's view the Russian policy of Russification
would not succeed in subjugating the Poles, while the Germans would be far more successful with their Germanisation
policies. On the contrary, Dmowski's great rival, Józef Piłsudski, argued that Russia
was a greater threat to the Polish nation than either Germany
or Austria-Hungary
[e.g. "With the Germans, we lose our land. With the Russians, we lose our soul".]
, which Dmowski held in deep contempt and should instead embrace the "modern world". In particular, Dmowski despised the old Commonwealth for its multi-national structure and religious tolerance. He was especially critical of its failure to create a common identity for various ethnic groups, such as Ukrainians
and Belarusians
.
Dmowski was a scientist and preferred logic and reason over emotion and passion. He once told Ignacy Jan Paderewski
that music
was "mere noise". 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. 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. In his view nations could be classified in four categories:
In his 1902 book Myśli nowoczesnego Polaka (Thoughts of a Modern Pole), Dmowski denounced all forms of Polish Romantic nationalism and traditional Polish values. He sharply criticized the idea of Poland as a spiritual concept and as a cultural idea. 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. 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
. In the same book, Dmowski blamed the fall of the old Commonwealth due to its tradition of tolerance. While critical of Christianity, Dmowski viewed some sub-groups of Christianity (other than Catholicism) as beneficial to certain nations. This was particularly true of Anglicanism
and German Protestantism
. Later in 1927 he revised this earlier view and renounced his criticism of Catholicism, seeing it as an essential part of the Polish identity. Dmowski saw all minorities as weakening agents within the nation that needed to be purged. In regard to the Jewish minority, in Myśli nowoczesnego Polaka, Dmowski wrote:
province of Prussia
would be annexed to the Kingdom of Poland when the German Empire
and Austria-Hungary
were defeated. However, subsequent attempts on the part of Dmowski to have the Russians make firmer commitments along the lines of the Grand Duke Nicholas’s Proclamation were met with elusive answers.
In 1915 Dmowski went abroad to campaign on behalf of Poland in the capitals of the western Allies
. During his lobbying efforts, his friends included such opinion makers as the British journalist Wickham Steed
. In particular, Dmowski was very successful in France
, where he made a very favorable impression on public opinion. In 1917, in Paris
, he created a Polish National Committee
aimed at rebuilding a Polish state. In September 1917, the Polish National Committee was recognized by the French as the legitimate government of Poland. The British and the Americans were less enthusiastic about Dmowski's National Committee, but likewise recognized it as Poland's government in 1918. However, the Americans refused to provide backing for what they regarded as Dmowski's excessive territorial claims (Dmowski's Line
). The American President Woodrow Wilson
reported, "I saw Mr. Dmowski and Mr. Paderewski in Washington, and I asked them to define Poland for me, as they understood it, and they presented me with a map in which they claimed a large part of the earth."
In part, Wilson's objections stemmed from 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." Another area of objection to Dmowski was to his antisemitic remarks, as in a speech he delivered at a dinner organized by the writer G. K. Chesterton
, that began with the words, "My religion came from Jesus Christ, who was murdered by the Jews." A number of American and British Jewish organizations campaigned during the war against their governments recognizing the National Committee. Another leading critic of Dmowski was the historian Sir Lewis Namier, who served as the British Foreign Office's resident expert on Poland during the war and who claimed to be personally offended by antisemitic remarks made by Dmowski. Namier fought hard against British recognition of Dmowski and "his chauvinist gang".
, 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 Ignacy Jan Paderewski
met with both men and persuaded them to reluctantly join forces. Both men had something that the other needed. Piłsudski was in possession of Poland after the war, but as the Pole who had fought with the Austrians for the Central Powers
against the Russians, he was distrusted by the Allies. Piłsudski's newly reborn Polish Army needed arms from the Allies, something that only Dmowski could persuade the Allies to deliver upon. Beyond that, the French were planning to send the Blue Army
of General Józef Haller
— loyal to Dmowski — back to Poland. The fear was that if Piłsudski and Dmowski did not put aside their differences, a civil war might break out between the partisans of Piłsudski and Dmowski. Paderewski was successful in working out a compromise in which Dmowski and himself were to represent Poland at the Paris Peace Conference while Piłsudski was to serve as provisional president of Poland.
As a Polish delegate
at the Paris Peace Conference and a signatory of the Versailles Treaty, Dmowski exerted a substantial influence on the Treaty's favorable decisions regarding Poland. On January 29, 1919, Dmowski met with the Supreme Council of the Allies for the first time. At the meeting, Dmowski stated that he had little interest in laying claim to areas of Ukraine
and Lithuania
that were formerly part of Poland, but no longer had a Polish majority. At the same time Dmowski strongly pressed for the return of Polish territories with Polish-speaking majorities taken by Prussia from Poland in 1790s. Dmowski himself admitted that from a purely historical point of view, the Polish claims to Silesia
were not entirely strong, but he claimed it for Poland on economic grounds, especially the coal fields. Moreover, Dmowski claimed that German statistics had lied about the number of ethnic Poles living in eastern Germany and that, "these Poles were some of the most educated and highly cultured in the nation, with a strong sense of nationality and men of progressive ideas". In addition, Dmowski, with the strong backing of the French, wanted to send the "Blue Army" to Poland via Danzig, Germany
(modern Gdańsk
, Poland
); it was the intention of both Dmowski and the French that the Blue Army create a territorial fait accompli. This proposal created much opposition from the Germans, the British and the Americans, and finally the Blue Army was sent to Poland in April 1919 via land. Piłsudski was opposed to needlessly annoying the Allies, and it has been suggested that he did not care much about the Danzig issue.
In regard to Lithuania
, Dmowski didn't view Lithuanians as having a strong national identity, and viewed their social organisation as tribal. Those areas of Lithuania that had either Polish majorities or minorities were claimed by Dmowski on the grounds of self-determination. In the areas with Polish minorities, the Poles would act as a civilizing influence; only the northern part of Lithuania, which had a solid Lithuanian majority, was Dmowski willing to concede to the Lithuanians. These claims caused Dmowski to have very acrimonious disputes with the Lithuanian delegation at Paris. With regard to the former Austrian province of East Galicia, Dmowski claimed that the local Ukrainians were quite incapable of ruling themselves and also required the civilizing influence of Polish leadership. In addition, Dmowski wished to acquire the oil fields of Galicia. However, only the French supported Polish claims to Galica wholeheartedly. In the end, it was the actual fighting on the ground in Galicia, and not the decisions of the diplomats in Paris, that decided that the region would be part of Poland. The French did not back Dmowski's aspirations in the Cieszyn Silesia
region, and instead supported the claims of Czechoslovakia
.
Dmowski himself was disappointed with the Treaty of Versailles, partly because he was strongly opposed to the Minorities Treaty imposed on Poland and partly because he wanted the German-Polish border to be somewhat farther to the west than what the Versailles had allowed. Both of these disappointments Dmowski blamed on what he claimed was the "international Jewish conspiracy". Throughout his life, Dmowski maintained that the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George
had been bribed by a syndicate of German-Jewish financiers to give Poland what Dmowski considered to be an unfavourable frontier with Germany. His relations with Lloyd George were very poor. Dmowski found Lloyd George to be arrogant, unscrupulous and a consistent advocate of ruling against Polish claims to the West and the East. Dmowski was very offended by Lloyd George's ignorance of Polish affairs and in particular was enraged by his lack of knowledge about river traffic on the Vistula
. Dmowski called Lloyd George "the agent of the Jews".
A political opponent of Józef Piłsudski, Dmowski favored what he called a "national state," a state in which the citizens would speak Polish and be of the Roman Catholic faith. If Piłsudski's vision of Poland was Jagiellon, a multinational
federation
(Międzymorze
federation), Dmowski's vision was the earlier Piast, ethnically and religiously homogeneous. Piłsudski believed in a wide definition of Polish citizenship in which peoples of different languages, cultures and faiths were to be united by a common loyalty to the reborn Polish state. Dmowski regarded Piłsudski's views as dangerous nonsense, and felt that the presence of large number of ethnic minorities would undermine the security of Polish state. At the Paris Peace Conference
, he argued strenuously against the Minority Rights Treaty forced on Poland by the Allies.
who saw life as a zero-sum game in which any gain made by one group came at the expense of another. Dmowski often stated his belief in a "international Jewish conspiracy" aimed against Poland. In his essay "Żydzi wobec wojny" (Jews on the War), which comprises pages 301-308 of his 1925 book Polityka Polska i odbudowanie państwa (Polish Politics and the Rebuilding of the State), Dmowski claimed that Zionism
was only a cloak to disguise the Jewish ambition to rule the world. Dmowski asserted that once a Jewish state was established in Palestine
, this would serve as a nucleus for the Jewish take-over of the world. In the same essay, Dmowski accused the Jews of being Poland's most dangerous enemy and of working hand in hand with the Germans to dismember Poland. Dmowski believed that the 3,000,000 Polish Jews could not be assimilated and that they were far too numerous. In his own words, "a little salt may improve the taste of the soup, but too much will spoil it."
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 favored 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 anti-semitic 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. 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. 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.
On the other hand, in his "Polska polityka i odbudowanie państwa", 1925, he stated: "Polska beż Żydów, byłaby jak zupa bez pieprzu – bez smaku." (Poland without Jews would have been like a soup without any pepper in it - flavourless).
and Minister of Foreign Affairs from October to December 1923. 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 constitution of 1921
did indeed outline a government with a weak executive branch, and a disgusted Piłsudski refused to seek the presidency. Instead, Piłsudski persuaded a friend of his, Gabriel Narutowicz
to run for President. When Narutowicz was elected President by the Sejm in 1922, Dmowski was outraged. Narutowicz was elected with the support of the parties representing the Jewish, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Lithuanian and German minorities. In Dmowski's view the election of Narutowicz was a sign that minorities were powerful in shaping politics of Poland. After Narutowicz's election, the National Democrats started a major campaign of vilification of the "Jewish president" elected by "foreigners". Subsequently, a National Democratic supporter, painter Eligiusz Niewiadomski
assassinated Narutowicz.
In 1926 Dmowski founded the Camp of Great Poland (Obóz Wielkiej Polski), and in 1928 the National Party
(Stronnictwo Narodowe). In 1934, a section of the youth wing of the Endecja found Dmowski insufficiently hardline for their taste and broke away to found the more radical National Radical Camp (known by its Polish acronym as the ONR). Dmowski had long advocated emigration of the entire Jewish population of Poland as the solution to what Dmowski regarded as Poland's "Jewish problem", came to argue for increasing harsh measures against the Jewish minority, though Dmowski never advocated killing Jews. His last major campaign was a series of attacks on the alleged "Judeo-Masonic" associates of President Ignacy Mościcki
.
Dmowski fell ill in 1937 and moved to the village of Drozdowo
near Łomża, where he died on January 2, 1939. He had spent the last few years of his life there.
Dmowski was buried at the Bródno Cemetery
in Warsaw in the family grave. According to Sanacja
sources, disfavourable to Dmowski, the funeral was attended by 100,000 people. According to organizers, funeral was attended by as many as 200,000 people, which would make it the largest national manifestation in interwar Poland.
in Poland, Dmowski's achievements and merits have began to be recognized. Several important roads and bridges have been named after him. In November 2006 statue of Roman Dmowski was unveiled in Warsaw, engraved with his famous quote Jestem Polakiem więc mam obowiązki polskie (I am Polish, therefore I have Polish obligations). Statue of Dmowski holds the Treaty of Versailles
in his left hand.
For his achievement for the independence of Poland and expansion of Polish national consciousness, he was honoured on 8 January 1999 by the Polish Sejm with special legislation. The document honours him also for founding Polish school of political realism and responsibility, shaping Polish (especially Western) borders and "emphasizing the firm connection between Catholicism and Polishness for the survival of the Nation and the rebuilding of the State".
Dmowski was awarded several state awards - the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1923), Order of the Star of Romania
and Order of Oranje-Nassau. He received the honoris causa doctorate from the Cambridge University (1916) and the University of Poznań (1923). He refused to be given other awards.
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
; died January 2, 1939 in Drozdowo
Drozdowo, Podlaskie Voivodeship
Drozdowo is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Piątnica, within Łomża County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland. It lies approximately south-east of Piątnica, east of Łomża , and west of the regional capital Białystok...
) was a Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
, statesman
Statesman
A statesman is usually a politician or other notable public figure who has had a long and respected career in politics or government at the national and international level. As a term of respect, it is usually left to supporters or commentators to use the term...
, and chief ideologue and co-founder of the National Democracy ("Endecja") political movement, which was one of the strongest political camps of interwar Poland.
Though a controversial personality throughout his life, Dmowski was instrumental in restoring Poland's independence. Together with Józef Piłsudski, he is considered one of the foremost Polish politicians of the 20th century.
Early life
Dmowski was born in Congress PolandCongress Poland
The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire...
, then part of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. As a student he became active in the Polish Youth Association "Zet" (Związek Młodzieży Polskiej "Zet"), organizing a student street demonstration
Demonstration (people)
A demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as...
on the 100th anniversary of the Polish Constitution
Constitution of May 3, 1791
The Constitution of May 3, 1791 was adopted as a "Government Act" on that date by the Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Historian Norman Davies calls it "the first constitution of its type in Europe"; other scholars also refer to it as the world's second oldest constitution...
of May 3, 1791. For this he was imprisoned by the Russian Tsarist authorities for six months in the Warsaw Citadel
Warsaw Citadel
Cytadela is a 19th-century fortress in Warsaw, Poland. It was built by order of Tsar Nicholas I after the suppression of the 1830 November Uprising in order to bolster imperial Russian control of the city. It served as a prison into the late 1930s.- History :The Citadel was built by personal...
.
Later Dmowski headed the National League
National League (Poland)
National League was a conspirational Polish organization active in all three partitions. It was founded in April 1893 from the transformed Polish League. National League was the first organization of the nascent National Democracy movement...
(Liga Narodowa). In 1895 he settled in Lemberg, Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
(modern Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
; known as Lwów to the Poles), and in 1897 co-founded the National-Democratic Party
National-Democratic Party (Poland)
Stronnictwo Narodowo-Demokratyczne was a Polish political party founded in 1897 by Roman Dmowski to represent the National Democracy movement at elections. It was a political opponent of the Polish Socialist Party. In 1919, when Poland regained independence, the National-Democratic Party was...
(Stronnictwo Narodowo-Demokratyczne or "Endecja"). The Endecja was to serve as a political party, a lobby and an underground organization that would unite Poles who espoused Dmowski's views into a disciplined and committed political group. In 1899, Dmowski founded the Society for National Education as an ancillary group. A biologist
Biologist
A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
of some repute, he attained great prestige within the Polish community for his scientific accomplishments. Between 1898-1900, he resided in both France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Britain
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
. In the face of an ascendant Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, he argued for tactical Polish cooperation with Tsarist Russia and brought about a pro-Russian orientation within the National-Democratic Party. In 1901 he took up residence in Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
, then part of the Austrian partition of Poland.
Upon the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
in 1904, Dmowski traveled to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in a successful effort to prevent Japan from providing Józef Piłsudski with Japanese assistance for a planned insurrection in Poland, an insurrection which Dmowski felt would be doomed to failure.
In 1905 Dmowski moved to Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, at the time, part of the Russian partition
Russian partition
The Russian partition was the former territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that were acquired by the Russian Empire in the late-18th-century Partitions of Poland.-Terminology:...
of Poland. During the Russian Revolution of 1905
Russian Revolution of 1905
The 1905 Russian Revolution was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. Some of it was directed against the government, while some was undirected. It included worker strikes, peasant unrest, and military mutinies...
, Dmowski favoured co-operation with the Imperial Russian authorities and welcomed Nicholas II
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
's October Manifesto of 1905 as a stepping stone on the road towards renewed Polish autonomy. During the revolt in Łódź in June 1905, the Endeks, acting under Dmowski's orders, opposed the uprising led by Piłsudski's Polish Socialist Party
Polish Socialist Party
The Polish Socialist Party was one of the most important Polish left-wing political parties from its inception in 1892 until 1948...
. Ironically, during the course of the "June Days," as the Łódź uprising is known, a miniature civil war raged between Endecja and the PPS.
As a result of the elections to the First Duma, which were boycotted by the PPS, the National Democrats won 34 of the 55 seats allotted to Poland. Dmowski himself was elected a deputy
Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of deputies is the name given to a legislative body such as the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or can refer to a unicameral legislature.-Description:...
to the Second and Third Dumas and as president of the Polish caucus within it. Prior to 1914, Dmowski was prepared to settle for Polish autonomy within the Russian Empire, as he believed that an independent Poland would swiftly become dominated by Germany, as the Germans (in his view) had a better developed state and stronger social organisations. In light of what he regarded as German superiority, Dmowski felt that a strong Russia was in Poland's best interest, and would afford it a better opportunity to ultimately reunite all Polish territories under one rule. In Dmowski's view the Russian policy of Russification
Russification
Russification is an adoption of the Russian language or some other Russian attributes by non-Russian communities...
would not succeed in subjugating the Poles, while the Germans would be far more successful with their Germanisation
Germanisation
Germanisation is both the spread of the German language, people and culture either by force or assimilation, and the adaptation of a foreign word to the German language in linguistics, much like the Romanisation of many languages which do not use the Latin alphabet...
policies. On the contrary, Dmowski's great rival, Józef Piłsudski, argued that Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
was a greater threat to the Polish nation than either Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
or Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
[e.g. "With the Germans, we lose our land. With the Russians, we lose our soul".]
Political outlook
Throughout his life, Dmowski deeply disliked Piłsudski and everything he stood for. Dmowski came from an impoverished urban background and had little fondness for Poland's traditional social structure. Instead, Dmowski favored a modernizing program and felt Poles should stop looking back nostalgically at the old Polish-Lithuanian CommonwealthPolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...
, which Dmowski held in deep contempt and should instead embrace the "modern world". In particular, Dmowski despised the old Commonwealth for its multi-national structure and religious tolerance. He was especially critical of its failure to create a common identity for various ethnic groups, such as Ukrainians
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
and Belarusians
Belarusians
Belarusians ; are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Old Belarusian...
.
Dmowski was a scientist and preferred logic and reason over emotion and passion. He once told Ignacy Jan Paderewski
Ignacy Jan Paderewski
Ignacy Jan Paderewski GBE was a Polish pianist, composer, diplomat, politician, and the second Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland.-Biography:...
that music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
was "mere noise". 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. Dmowski was very much influenced by Social Darwinist
Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism is a term commonly used for theories of society that emerged in England and the United States in the 1870s, seeking to apply the principles of Darwinian evolution to sociology and politics...
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. In his view nations could be classified in four categories:
- Nations on the lowest scale of being able or desiring to become independent and self-governing, for example in Dmowski's view the Belarusians.
- Nations capable of self-governing themselves with awakened nationalistic aspirations, for example Ukrainians.
- Nations wishing to regain independence with centuries-old cultures and statehoods past (e.g. Poles).
- Nations on the highest ladder of social development and tradition, possessing a country currently (e.g. Germans).
In his 1902 book Myśli nowoczesnego Polaka (Thoughts of a Modern Pole), Dmowski denounced all forms of Polish Romantic nationalism and traditional Polish values. He sharply criticized the idea of Poland as a spiritual concept and as a cultural idea. 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. 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
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
. In the same book, Dmowski blamed the fall of the old Commonwealth due to its tradition of tolerance. While critical of Christianity, Dmowski viewed some sub-groups of Christianity (other than Catholicism) as beneficial to certain nations. This was particularly true of Anglicanism
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
and German Protestantism
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
. Later in 1927 he revised this earlier view and renounced his criticism of Catholicism, seeing it as an essential part of the Polish identity. Dmowski saw all minorities as weakening agents within the nation that needed to be purged. In regard to the Jewish minority, in Myśli nowoczesnego Polaka, Dmowski wrote:
"...in the character of this race [the Jews], so many different values strange to our moral constitution and harmful to our life have accumulated that assimilation with a larger number of Jews would destroy us, replacing us with decadent elements, rather than with those young creative foundations upon which we are building the future".
First World War
In 1914 Dmowski praised the Grand Duke Nicholas's Proclamation of August 15, 1914 which vaguely assured the Tsar's Polish subjects that there would be greater autonomy for "Congress Poland" after the war, and that the Austrian provinces of East and West Galicia together with PomeraniaPomerania
Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...
province of Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
would be annexed to the Kingdom of Poland when the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
and Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
were defeated. However, subsequent attempts on the part of Dmowski to have the Russians make firmer commitments along the lines of the Grand Duke Nicholas’s Proclamation were met with elusive answers.
In 1915 Dmowski went abroad to campaign on behalf of Poland in the capitals of the western Allies
Allies
In everyday English usage, allies are people, groups, or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out between them...
. During his lobbying efforts, his friends included such opinion makers as the British journalist Wickham Steed
Wickham Steed
Henry Wickham Steed was a British journalist and historian. He was editor of The Times from 1919 until 1922.-Life:...
. In particular, Dmowski was very successful in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, where he made a very favorable impression on public opinion. In 1917, in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, he created a Polish National Committee
Polish National Committee (1917-1919)
Polish National Committee was formed in Lausanne on 15 August 1917 by Polish National Democracy politician Roman Dmowski. Its goal was to support Entente by creating the Polish Army fighting alongside of it in exchange of receiving support for independent Poland...
aimed at rebuilding a Polish state. In September 1917, the Polish National Committee was recognized by the French as the legitimate government of Poland. The British and the Americans were less enthusiastic about Dmowski's National Committee, but likewise recognized it as Poland's government in 1918. However, the Americans refused to provide backing for what they regarded as Dmowski's excessive territorial claims (Dmowski's Line
Dmowski's Line
Dmowski's Line was a proposed border of Poland after World War I. It was proposed by the Polish delegation at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and it was named after Roman Dmowski, Polish foreign minister...
). The American President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
reported, "I saw Mr. Dmowski and Mr. Paderewski in Washington, and I asked them to define Poland for me, as they understood it, and they presented me with a map in which they claimed a large part of the earth."
In part, Wilson's objections stemmed from 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." Another area of objection to Dmowski was to his antisemitic remarks, as in a speech he delivered at a dinner organized by the writer G. K. Chesterton
G. K. Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....
, that began with the words, "My religion came from Jesus Christ, who was murdered by the Jews." A number of American and British Jewish organizations campaigned during the war against their governments recognizing the National Committee. Another leading critic of Dmowski was the historian Sir Lewis Namier, who served as the British Foreign Office's resident expert on Poland during the war and who claimed to be personally offended by antisemitic remarks made by Dmowski. Namier fought hard against British recognition of Dmowski and "his chauvinist gang".
After the First World War
At the end of World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, two governments claimed to be the legitimate governments of Poland: Dmowski's in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and Piłsudski's in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
. To put an end to the rival claims of Piłsudski and Dmowski, the composer Ignacy Jan Paderewski
Ignacy Jan Paderewski
Ignacy Jan Paderewski GBE was a Polish pianist, composer, diplomat, politician, and the second Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland.-Biography:...
met with both men and persuaded them to reluctantly join forces. Both men had something that the other needed. Piłsudski was in possession of Poland after the war, but as the Pole who had fought with the Austrians for the Central Powers
Central Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...
against the Russians, he was distrusted by the Allies. Piłsudski's newly reborn Polish Army needed arms from the Allies, something that only Dmowski could persuade the Allies to deliver upon. Beyond that, the French were planning to send the Blue Army
Blue Army
The Blue Army, or Haller's Army, are informal names given to the Polish Army units formed in France during the later stages of World War I. The army was created in June 1917 as part of the Polish units allied to the Entente. After the Great War ended, the units were transferred to Poland, where...
of General Józef Haller
Józef Haller de Hallenburg
Józef Haller de Hallenburg was a Lieutenant General of the Polish Army, legionary in Polish Legions, harcmistrz , the President of The Polish Scouting and Guiding Association , political and social activist, Stanisław Haller de Hallenburg's cousin.Haller was born in Jurczyce...
— loyal to Dmowski — back to Poland. The fear was that if Piłsudski and Dmowski did not put aside their differences, a civil war might break out between the partisans of Piłsudski and Dmowski. Paderewski was successful in working out a compromise in which Dmowski and himself were to represent Poland at the Paris Peace Conference while Piłsudski was to serve as provisional president of Poland.
As a Polish delegate
Delegate
A delegate is a person who speaks or acts on behalf of an organization at a meeting or conference between organizations of the same level A delegate is a person who speaks or acts on behalf of an organization (e.g., a government, a charity, an NGO, or a trade union) at a meeting or conference...
at the Paris Peace Conference and a signatory of the Versailles Treaty, Dmowski exerted a substantial influence on the Treaty's favorable decisions regarding Poland. On January 29, 1919, Dmowski met with the Supreme Council of the Allies for the first time. At the meeting, Dmowski stated that he had little interest in laying claim to areas of Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
and Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
that were formerly part of Poland, but no longer had a Polish majority. At the same time Dmowski strongly pressed for the return of Polish territories with Polish-speaking majorities taken by Prussia from Poland in 1790s. Dmowski himself admitted that from a purely historical point of view, the Polish claims to Silesia
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
were not entirely strong, but he claimed it for Poland on economic grounds, especially the coal fields. Moreover, Dmowski claimed that German statistics had lied about the number of ethnic Poles living in eastern Germany and that, "these Poles were some of the most educated and highly cultured in the nation, with a strong sense of nationality and men of progressive ideas". In addition, Dmowski, with the strong backing of the French, wanted to send the "Blue Army" to Poland via Danzig, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
(modern Gdańsk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
); it was the intention of both Dmowski and the French that the Blue Army create a territorial fait accompli. This proposal created much opposition from the Germans, the British and the Americans, and finally the Blue Army was sent to Poland in April 1919 via land. Piłsudski was opposed to needlessly annoying the Allies, and it has been suggested that he did not care much about the Danzig issue.
In regard to Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, Dmowski didn't view Lithuanians as having a strong national identity, and viewed their social organisation as tribal. Those areas of Lithuania that had either Polish majorities or minorities were claimed by Dmowski on the grounds of self-determination. In the areas with Polish minorities, the Poles would act as a civilizing influence; only the northern part of Lithuania, which had a solid Lithuanian majority, was Dmowski willing to concede to the Lithuanians. These claims caused Dmowski to have very acrimonious disputes with the Lithuanian delegation at Paris. With regard to the former Austrian province of East Galicia, Dmowski claimed that the local Ukrainians were quite incapable of ruling themselves and also required the civilizing influence of Polish leadership. In addition, Dmowski wished to acquire the oil fields of Galicia. However, only the French supported Polish claims to Galica wholeheartedly. In the end, it was the actual fighting on the ground in Galicia, and not the decisions of the diplomats in Paris, that decided that the region would be part of Poland. The French did not back Dmowski's aspirations in the Cieszyn Silesia
Cieszyn Silesia
Cieszyn Silesia or Těšín Silesia or Teschen Silesia is a historical region in south-eastern Silesia, centered around the towns of Cieszyn and Český Těšín and bisected by the Olza River. Since 1920 it has been divided between Poland and Czechoslovakia, and later the Czech Republic...
region, and instead supported the claims of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
.
Dmowski himself was disappointed with the Treaty of Versailles, partly because he was strongly opposed to the Minorities Treaty imposed on Poland and partly because he wanted the German-Polish border to be somewhat farther to the west than what the Versailles had allowed. Both of these disappointments Dmowski blamed on what he claimed was the "international Jewish conspiracy". Throughout his life, Dmowski maintained that the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
had been bribed by a syndicate of German-Jewish financiers to give Poland what Dmowski considered to be an unfavourable frontier with Germany. His relations with Lloyd George were very poor. Dmowski found Lloyd George to be arrogant, unscrupulous and a consistent advocate of ruling against Polish claims to the West and the East. Dmowski was very offended by Lloyd George's ignorance of Polish affairs and in particular was enraged by his lack of knowledge about river traffic on the Vistula
Vistula
The Vistula is the longest and the most important river in Poland, at 1,047 km in length. The watershed area of the Vistula is , of which lies within Poland ....
. Dmowski called Lloyd George "the agent of the Jews".
A political opponent of Józef Piłsudski, Dmowski favored what he called a "national state," a state in which the citizens would speak Polish and be of the Roman Catholic faith. If Piłsudski's vision of Poland was Jagiellon, a multinational
Multinational state
A multinational state is a sovereign state which is viewed as comprising two or more nations. Such a state contrasts with a nation-state where a single nation comprises the bulk of the population...
federation
Federation
A federation , also known as a federal state, is a type of sovereign state characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government...
(Międzymorze
Miedzymorze
Międzymorze was a plan, pursued after World War I by Polish leader Józef Piłsudski, for a federation, under Poland's aegis, of Central and Eastern European countries...
federation), Dmowski's vision was the earlier Piast, ethnically and religiously homogeneous. Piłsudski believed in a wide definition of Polish citizenship in which peoples of different languages, cultures and faiths were to be united by a common loyalty to the reborn Polish state. Dmowski regarded Piłsudski's views as dangerous nonsense, and felt that the presence of large number of ethnic minorities would undermine the security of Polish state. At the Paris Peace Conference
Paris Peace Conference, 1919
The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities...
, he argued strenuously against the Minority Rights Treaty forced on Poland by the Allies.
Anti-Semitism
Dmowski was an anti-semite and Social DarwinistSocial Darwinism
Social Darwinism is a term commonly used for theories of society that emerged in England and the United States in the 1870s, seeking to apply the principles of Darwinian evolution to sociology and politics...
who saw life as a zero-sum game in which any gain made by one group came at the expense of another. Dmowski often stated his belief in a "international Jewish conspiracy" aimed against Poland. In his essay "Żydzi wobec wojny" (Jews on the War), which comprises pages 301-308 of his 1925 book Polityka Polska i odbudowanie państwa (Polish Politics and the Rebuilding of the State), Dmowski claimed that Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
was only a cloak to disguise the Jewish ambition to rule the world. Dmowski asserted that once a Jewish state was established in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, this would serve as a nucleus for the Jewish take-over of the world. In the same essay, Dmowski accused the Jews of being Poland's most dangerous enemy and of working hand in hand with the Germans to dismember Poland. Dmowski believed that the 3,000,000 Polish Jews could not be assimilated and that they were far too numerous. In his own words, "a little salt may improve the taste of the soup, but too much will spoil it."
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 favored 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
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
, but the National Democrats did frequently organize "Buy Polish" boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
campaigns against German and Jewish shops. The first of Dmowski's anti-semitic boycotts occurred in 1912 when he attempted to organize a total boycott of Jewish businesses in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
as "punishment" for the defeat of some Endecja candidates in the elections for the Duma, which Dmowski blamed on Warsaw's Jewish population. 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
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
, and over the fact that most Jews living in the disputed German/Polish territories had chosen to assimilate into German culture, not Polish culture. 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.
On the other hand, in his "Polska polityka i odbudowanie państwa", 1925, he stated: "Polska beż Żydów, byłaby jak zupa bez pieprzu – bez smaku." (Poland without Jews would have been like a soup without any pepper in it - flavourless).
Later life
Dmowski was a deputy to the 1919 SejmSejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
and Minister of Foreign Affairs from October to December 1923. 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 constitution of 1921
March Constitution of Poland
The Second Polish Republic adopted the March Constitution on 17 March 1921, after ousting the occupation of the German/Prussian forces in the 1918 Greater Poland Uprising, and avoiding conquest by the Soviets in the 1920 Polish-Soviet War. The Constitution, based on the French one, was regarded as...
did indeed outline a government with a weak executive branch, and a disgusted Piłsudski refused to seek the presidency. Instead, Piłsudski persuaded a friend of his, Gabriel Narutowicz
Gabriel Narutowicz
Gabriel Narutowicz was a Lithuanian-born professor of hydroelectric engineering at Switzerland's Zurich Polytechnic, and Poland's Minister of Public Works , Minister of Foreign Affairs , and the first president of the Second Polish Republic....
to run for President. When Narutowicz was elected President by the Sejm in 1922, Dmowski was outraged. Narutowicz was elected with the support of the parties representing the Jewish, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Lithuanian and German minorities. In Dmowski's view the election of Narutowicz was a sign that minorities were powerful in shaping politics of Poland. After Narutowicz's election, the National Democrats started a major campaign of vilification of the "Jewish president" elected by "foreigners". Subsequently, a National Democratic supporter, painter Eligiusz Niewiadomski
Eligiusz Niewiadomski
Eligiusz Niewiadomski was a Polish modernist painter and art critic who belonged to the right-wing National Democratic Party till 1904 and later continued supporting it. In 1922 he assassinated Poland's first President, Gabriel Narutowicz.-Life:Niewiadomski was born into a family of gentry descent...
assassinated Narutowicz.
In 1926 Dmowski founded the Camp of Great Poland (Obóz Wielkiej Polski), and in 1928 the National Party
National Party (Poland)
Stronnictwo Narodowe was a Polish political party formed on 7 October 1928 after the transformation of National Populist Union. It gathered together most of the political forces of Poland's National Democracy right-wing political camp. SN was one of the main opponents of the Sanacja regime...
(Stronnictwo Narodowe). In 1934, a section of the youth wing of the Endecja found Dmowski insufficiently hardline for their taste and broke away to found the more radical National Radical Camp (known by its Polish acronym as the ONR). Dmowski had long advocated emigration of the entire Jewish population of Poland as the solution to what Dmowski regarded as Poland's "Jewish problem", came to argue for increasing harsh measures against the Jewish minority, though Dmowski never advocated killing Jews. His last major campaign was a series of attacks on the alleged "Judeo-Masonic" associates of President Ignacy Mościcki
Ignacy Moscicki
Ignacy Mościcki was a Polish chemist, politician, and President of Poland . He was the longest-serving President of Poland .-Life:...
.
Dmowski fell ill in 1937 and moved to the village of Drozdowo
Drozdowo, Podlaskie Voivodeship
Drozdowo is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Piątnica, within Łomża County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland. It lies approximately south-east of Piątnica, east of Łomża , and west of the regional capital Białystok...
near Łomża, where he died on January 2, 1939. He had spent the last few years of his life there.
Dmowski was buried at the Bródno Cemetery
Bródno Cemetery
Bródno Cemetery is an old cemetery in the Targówek district, in the eastern part of Warsaw, Poland. Occupying an area of , it is the largest cemetery in Warsaw...
in Warsaw in the family grave. According to Sanacja
Sanacja
Sanation was a Polish political movement that came to power after Józef Piłsudski's May 1926 Coup d'État. Sanation took its name from his watchword—the moral "sanation" of the Polish body politic...
sources, disfavourable to Dmowski, the funeral was attended by 100,000 people. According to organizers, funeral was attended by as many as 200,000 people, which would make it the largest national manifestation in interwar Poland.
Recognition
After the fall of communismRevolutions of 1989
The Revolutions of 1989 were the revolutions which overthrew the communist regimes in various Central and Eastern European countries.The events began in Poland in 1989, and continued in Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and...
in Poland, Dmowski's achievements and merits have began to be recognized. Several important roads and bridges have been named after him. In November 2006 statue of Roman Dmowski was unveiled in Warsaw, engraved with his famous quote Jestem Polakiem więc mam obowiązki polskie (I am Polish, therefore I have Polish obligations). Statue of Dmowski holds the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
in his left hand.
For his achievement for the independence of Poland and expansion of Polish national consciousness, he was honoured on 8 January 1999 by the Polish Sejm with special legislation. The document honours him also for founding Polish school of political realism and responsibility, shaping Polish (especially Western) borders and "emphasizing the firm connection between Catholicism and Polishness for the survival of the Nation and the rebuilding of the State".
Dmowski was awarded several state awards - the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1923), Order of the Star of Romania
Order of the Star of Romania
The Order of the Star of Romania is Romania's highest civil order. It is awarded by the President of Romania...
and Order of Oranje-Nassau. He received the honoris causa doctorate from the Cambridge University (1916) and the University of Poznań (1923). He refused to be given other awards.
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.
Further reading
- Cang, Joel: "The Opposition Parties in Poland and Their Attitude towards the Jews and the Jewish Question" pages 241-256 from Jewish Social Studies, Volume 1, Issue #2, 1939.
- Davies, NormanNorman DaviesProfessor Ivor Norman Richard Davies FBA, FRHistS is a leading English historian of Welsh descent, noted for his publications on the history of Europe, Poland, and the United Kingdom.- Academic career :...
"Lloyd George and Poland, 1919-20"" from Journal of Contemporary HistoryJournal of Contemporary HistoryThe Journal of Contemporary History is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering the study of twentieth-century history. It was established in 1966 by Walter Laqueur and George L. Mosse and is now published quarterly by Sage Publications and edited by Richard J...
, Volume 6, Issue 3, 1971. - Fountain, Alvin Marcus Roman Dmowski: Party, Tactics, Ideology 1895-1907, Boulder : East European Monographs, 1980 ISBN 0-914710-53-2.
- Groth, Alexander: "Dmowski, Pilsudski and Ethnic Conflict in Pre-1939 Poland" pages 69-91 from Canadian Slavic Studies, Volume 3, 1969.
- Komarnicki, Titus Rebirth of the Polish Republic: A Study in the Diplomatic History of Europe, 1914-1920, London, 1957.
- 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.
- Macmillan, MargaretMargaret MacMillanMargaret Olwen MacMillan, OC is a historian and professor at the University of Oxford, where she is Warden of St. Antony's College. She is former provost of Trinity College and professor of history at the University of Toronto and previously, at Ryerson University...
Paris 1919 : Six Months That Changed The World, New York : Random HouseRandom HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
, 2003, 2002, 2001 ISBN 0-375-50826-0. - Mendelsohn, Ezra The Jews of East Central Europe Between The World Wars, Bloomington : Indiana University PressIndiana University PressIndiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. It was founded in 1950. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana....
, 1983 ISBN 0-253-33160-9. - Porter, Brian, When Nationalism Began to Hate. Imagining Modern Politics in Nineteenth-Century Poland, New York/Oxford: Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, 2000. ISBN 0-19-515187-9 - Valasek, Paul S. Haller's Polish Army in France, Chicago : 2006 ISBN 0-9779757-0-3.
- 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.
- Zamoyski, AdamAdam ZamoyskiCount Adam Stefan Zamoyski is a historian and a member of the ancient Zamoyski family of Polish nobility.-Life:Zamoyski was born in New York City, but was raised in England and was educated at Downside School and The Queen's College, Oxford...
The Polish Way A Thousand-Year History of the Poles and their Culture, London: John Murray Ltd, 1987 ISBN 0-7195-4674-5.