National Democracy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about a Polish political movement. For the Italian party, see National Democracy (Italy). For the Spanish party, see National Democracy (Spain). For the Swedish party, see National Democrats (Sweden). For the major wing in Ukraine's parliament, see Political parties in Ukraine#Major parties and political camps.
National Democracy
Narodowa Demokracja
Leader Roman Dmowski
Founded 1886
Dissolved 1947
Headquarters Warsaw, Poland
Ideology Anti-Semitism,[1][2][3][4]
Polish nationalism
National conservatism,[5]
Political position Right-wing[4][6]
Politics of Poland
Political parties
Elections
Poland
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Poland

Portal icon Politics portal

National Democracy (Polish: Narodowa Demokracja, also known from its abbreviation ND as "Endecja") was a Polish right-wing nationalist political movement active from the latter 19th century to the end of the Second Polish Republic in 1939. A founder and principal ideologue was Roman Dmowski. Other ideological fathers of the movement were Zygmunt Balicki and Jan Ludwik Popławski.[7]

The National Democracy's main stronghold was Greater Poland (western Poland), where much of the movement's early impetus derived from efforts to counter Imperial Germany's policy of Germanizing its Polish territorial holdings. Subsequently a focus of National Democracy interest was countering Polish-Jewish economic competition with Catholic Poles. Party supporters were mostly ethnic-Polish intelligentsia, bourgeoisie, middle class and youth.

During the interbellum Second Republic, National Democracy was a strong advocate for Polonization of the country's German minority and of the non-Polish (chiefly Ukrainian and Belarusian) populations of Poland's eastern Kresy.

With the end of World War II, the National Democracy movement effectively ceased to exist.

Origins

The origins of the ND can be traced to the 1864 failure of the January 1863 Uprising and to the era of Polish Positivism. After that Uprising – the last in a series of 19th-century Polish uprisings – had been bloodily crushed by Poland's partitioners, the new generation of Polish patriots and politicians concluded that Poland's independence would not be won on the battlefield but through education and culture.

In 1886 the secret Polish League (Liga Polska) was founded, in 1893 renamed National League (Liga Narodowa). From 1895 the League published a newspaper, Przegląd Wszechpolski (The All-Polish Review), and from 1897 it had an official political party, the National-Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Narodowo-Demokratyczne). Unlike the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), the ND advocated peaceful negotiations. Influenced by Roman Dmowski's radical nationalist and social-Darwinist ideas, National Democrats turned against other nationalities within the Polish lands, most notably the Jews; anti-Semitism became a key element of ND ideology.[8]

During World War I, while PPS, under the influence of Józef Piłsudski, supported the Central Powers against Russia (the Polish Legions), the ND first allied itself with the Russian Empire (supporting the creation of the Puławy Legion) and later with the Western Powers (supporting the Polish Blue Army in France). At war's end, many ND politicians enjoyed much more influence abroad than in Poland. This allowed them to share power with Piłsudski, who had much more support in the military than they did. Still, due to their support abroad, ND politicians such as Dmowski and Ignacy Paderewski were able to gain backing for some Polish demands at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and in the Treaty of Versailles.

Second Republic

In the newly independent Second Polish Republic, the ND was represented first by the Popular National Union (Związek Ludowo-Narodowy), a conservative political party advocating the parliamentary political means. After Piłsudski's May 1926 Coup d'État, the ND found itself in constant opposition to his Sanation regime. The tightening control of opposition parties and authoritarian tendencies of Sanation regime, led to the gradual radicalization of the ND movement. In December 1926, the Camp of Great Poland (Obóz Wielkiej Polski) was created as an extra-parliamentary organization to fight the Sanation movement. The youth faction of the Camp of Great Poland gradually took control over the whole organization, and from 1931 the camp quickly radicalized and adopted some militaristic elements.[9]

In 1928 the National Party (Stronnictwo Narodowe) was founded, as a successor party to the Popular National Union. In the beginning, the new party adopted the same political line as its predecessor.[10] After the delegalization of the Camp of Great Poland, radicalized youth entered the National Party. The ideologic clash between the old and new generation of National Democrats culminated at the party convention in 1935, where the young activists were elected to the leading party positions.[11] In 1936-1939 the personal changes within the party continued, and the young generation totally dominated the party. Old generation of National Democrats, disagreeing with the new course, exited active politics or left the party at all. A chief characteristic of ND policies was their emphasis on Polonization of minorities: ND politicians such as Dmowski and Stanisław Grabski contributed to the failure of Piłsudski's proposed Międzymorze federation and of the alliance with the Ukrainian leader Symon Petlura, and to the alienation of Poland's ethnic minorities.

Simultaneously the ND emphasized its anti-Semitic program, aimed at excluding Jews from Polish social and economic life and ultimately at pushing them to emigration from Poland.[12] Antisemitic actions and incidents – boycotts, demonstrations, even attacks – organized or inspired by National Democrats occurred during the 1930s. The most notorious actions were taken by a splinter group of radical young former NDs who formed the fascist-inspired National Radical Camp (Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny)[13]

World War II

During World War II, the ND became part of a coalition which formed the Polish Government in Exile. It was closely linked with the National Armed Forces (Narodowe Siły Zbrojne), an underground organization which became a part of the Polish resistance movement. ND armed organizations fought not only against Nazi Germany but also against the Soviet Union. Both occupying forces regarded members of the movement as their mortal enemy, and its leaders were killed in mass executions, in concentration camps and in the Katyń massacre. Among those killed are:

  • Leopold Bieńkowski (father of Zygmunt Witymir Bieńkowski), arrested by the NKVD in early 1940, died in a Gulag near Arkhangelsk in 1941
  • reverend Feliks Bolt, a senator of the Republic of Poland, died in Stutthof in 1940
  • Tadeusz Fabiani, a lawyer, shot at Pawiak in 1940
  • Stanisław Głąbiński, died in NKVD prison in Lubyanka in 1940
  • doctor Wincenty Harembski, shot in NKVD prison in Kharkiv in 1940
  • Tadeusz Zygmunt Hernes, journalist, killed in Katyń massacre
  • Czesław Jóźwiak, murdered by the Gestapo in 1940 in Dresden prison
  • Jan Mosdorf, Auschwitz
  • reverend Marceli Nowakowski, shot in Warsaw in December 1939
  • Stanisław Piasecki, writer, shot in Palmiry in June 1941
  • reverend Józef Prądzyński, died in the Dachau concentration camp in 1942
  • Jozefat Sikorski, murdered by the Gestapo in the Berlin-Plotzensee prison in 1942
  • Michał Starczewski, murdered in the Katyn massacre
  • Tadeusz Szefer, murdered in the Katyn massacre
  • Jan Szturmowski, murdered by the Germans in September 1939
  • Jan Waliński, murdered by the NKVD in Kharkiv in 1940
  • Antoni Wolniewicz, murdered by the Gestapo in the Berlin-Plotzensee prison in 1942
  • Jan Wujastyk, murdered in the Katyń massacre

Righteous among the Nations

  • Edward Kemnitz [14]
  • Marceli Godlewski [15]

After the war

After the war, when Poland found itself controlled by Polish communists and the Soviet Union, most remaining NDs either emigrated to the West or continued an ultimately futile struggle against the Soviet occupation. Others joined the new regime – most notably, the ONR-Falanga leader Bolesław Piasecki, who co-organized a regime-controlled Catholic movement.

Today's Poland

Since the fall of communism, when Poland became once again a democratically governed country, several political parties have sought to re-establish some ND traditions; their adherents prefer to call themselves the "national movement" (ruch narodowy). The only significant party that declared itself a successor to the ND was the League of Polish Families (Liga Polskich Rodzin) [citation needed], founded in 2001 by Roman Giertych, grandson of Jędrzej Giertych, pre-war ND politician; it received 8% of the parliamentary vote in 2001, rising to 16% in 2004, then failing to receive the necessary 5% of the vote in 2007 and losing all of its parliamentary seats.

Polish national-democratic and nationalist association with legal personality is also Camp of Great Poland (association). The association was established on March 28, 2003, as a response of the National Party (Stronnictwo Narodowe; SN) Youth Section to the deletion of the party from the national registry.[16] In Februar 17 2012 the OWP was registered in the National Registrar of Companies and Legal Entities (Krajowy Rejestr Sądowy; KRS),[17] gaining legal personality.

Notables

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Beyrau, Dietrich (1993). "Anti-Semitism and Jews in Poland, 1918-1939". Hostages of Modernization: Studies on Modern Antisemitism 1870-1933/39 - Austria, Hungary, Poland, Russia (de Gruyter): 1087 
  2. ↑ Naimark, Norman M. (2010). "The Killing Fields of the "East": Three Hundred Years of Mass Killing in the Borderlands of Russia and Poland". Nation, Nationalitäten und Nationalismus im östlichen Europa (University of Vienna, Lit Verlag). p. 185. 
  3. ↑ Michlic, Joanna Beata (2006). Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present. University of Nebraska Press. pp. 1, 76 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Stachura, Peter D. (2004). Poland, 1918-1945: An Interpretive and Documentary History of the Second Republic. Routledge. p. viii 
  5. ↑ Michlic, Joanna Beata (2006). Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present. University of Nebraska Press. p. 60 
  6. ↑ Chodakiewicz, Marek Jan (2004). Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics in Poland, 1939-1947. Lexington Books. p. 41 
  7. ↑ Davies 2005, 40.
  8. ↑ Jerzy Lukowski; W. H. Zawadzki (2001). A Concise History of Poland: Jerzy Lukowski and Hubert Zawadzki. Cambridge University Press. pp. 173–174. ISBN 978-0-521-55917-1. Retrieved 22 December 2012. "Hardly surprisingly, anti-Semitism became a key element in the ND ideology" 
  9. ↑ Kawalec, Krzysztof (1989). Narodowa Demokracja wobec faszyzmu 1922-1939: Ze studiów nad dziejami myśli politycznej obozu narodowego. Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy. p. 115. ISBN 83-06-01728-5. 
  10. ↑ Terej, Jerzy Janusz (1979). Rzeczywistość i polityka: Ze studiów nad dziejami najnowszymi Narodowej Demokracji (2nd ed.). Warszawa: Książka i Wiedza. p. 18. OCLC 7972621. 
  11. ↑ Terej, Jerzy Janusz (1979). Rzeczywistość i polityka: Ze studiów nad dziejami najnowszymi Narodowej Demokracji (2nd ed.). Warszawa: Książka i Wiedza. p. 28. OCLC 7972621. 
  12. ↑ André Gerrits, Dirk Jan Wolffram (2005). Political Democracy and Ethnic Diversity in Modern European History. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-4976-3. 
  13. ↑ Jerzy Lukowski; W. H. Zawadzki (2001). A Concise History of Poland: Jerzy Lukowski and Hubert Zawadzki. Cambridge University Press. pp. 217–18. ISBN 978-0-521-55917-1. Retrieved 22 December 2012. "The appeal of fascism and of anti-Semitism was most pronounced among young radical NDs, who in 1934 formed the National Radical Camp (ONR), from which emerged the distinctly totalitarian ONR-Falanga under Bolesław Piasecki." 
  14. ↑
  15. ↑
  16. ↑ Polish Club Online – Wywiad z Przewodniczącym Obozu Wielkiej Polski – Dawidem Berezicki
  17. ↑ Official KRS Website

References

Further reading

  • Friszke, Andrzej (1989). O kształt niepodległej. Warszawa: Biblioteka "Więzi". ISBN 83-7006-014-5. 
  • Grott, Bogumił (1993). Religia, kościół, etyka w ideach i koncepcjach prawicy polskiej: Narodowa Demokracja. Kraków: Nomos. OCLC 35198390. 
  • Holzer, Jerzy (July 1977). "The Political Right in Poland, 1918-39". Journal of Contemporary History 12 (3): 395–412. doi:10.1177/002200947701200301. 
  • Kawalec, Krzysztof (1989). Narodowa Demokracja wobec faszyzmu 1922-1939: Ze studiów nad dziejami myśli politycznej obozu narodowego. Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy. ISBN 83-06-01728-5. 
  • Maj, Ewa (2000). Związek Ludowo-Narodowy 1919-1928: Studium z dziejów myśli politycznej. Lublin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej. ISBN 83-227-1585-4. 
  • Michlic, Joanna Beata (2006). Poland's Threatening Other - The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press. p. 386. ISBN 978-0-8032-2079-9. 
  • Porter, Brian A. (Winter 1992). "Who is a Pole and Where is Poland? Territory and Nation in the Rhetoric of Polish National Democracy before 1905". Slavic Review (Slavic Review, Vol. 51, No. 4) 51 (4): 639–53. doi:10.2307/2500129. JSTOR 2500129. 
  • Rudnicki, Szymon (1985). Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny: Geneza i działalność. Warszawa: Czytelnik. ISBN 83-07-01221-X. 
  • Terej, Jerzy Janusz (1979). Rzeczywistość i polityka: Ze studiów nad dziejami najnowszymi Narodowej Demokracji (2nd ed.). Warszawa: Książka i Wiedza. OCLC 7972621. 
  • Wapiński, Roman (1980). Narodowa Demokracja 1893-1939. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy Imienia Ossolińskich. ISBN 83-04-00008-3. 
  • Wapiński, Roman (1989). Roman Dmowski (2nd ed.). Lublin: Wydawnictwo Lubelskie. ISBN 83-222-0480-9. 
  • Wapiński, Roman (1991). Pokolenia Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy Imienia Ossolińskich. ISBN 83-04-03711-4. 
  • Wizerunek endeka ratującego Żydów był komunistom nie na rękę
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.