Polish nationalism (Polish:polski nacjonalizm) is anationalism which asserts that thePolish people are anation and which affirms thecultural unity of Poles. British historian of PolandNorman Davies defines nationalism as "a doctrine ... to create a nation by arousing people's awareness of their nationality, and to mobilize their feelings into a vehicle for political action."[1]
The nationalism of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth – apolity which existedde facto from 1386, and officially from 1569, until the Commonwealth's 1795Third Partition – incorporating Poles, Lithuanians,East Slavs, and smaller minorities. was multi-ethnic and multi-confessional, though the Commonwealth's dominant social classes became extensivelyPolonized andRoman Catholicism was regarded as the dominant religion.
The nationalist ideology which arose soon afterthe Partitions was initially free of any kind of "ethnic nationalism".[2] It was aRomantic movement which sought the restoration of a Polishsovereign state.[1] Polish Romantic nationalism was described byMaurycy Mochnacki as "the essence of the nation", no longer defined by borders but by ideas, feelings, and thoughts stemming from the past.[2]
The advent of modern Polish nationalism under foreign rule coincided with theNovember 1830 Uprising and the EuropeanRevolutions of 1848 ("the Springtime of Nations"). Their ensuing defeats broke the Polish revolutionary spirit.[2] Many intellectuals turned toHerbert Spencer'ssocial Darwinism and blamed Poland's erstwhileRomantic ("Messianist") philosophy for the insurrectionary disasters.[2]
After the failure of the subsequent PolishJanuary 1863 Uprising, the Romantic schools of thought were firmly displaced by a specificallyPolish version ofAuguste Comte'sPositivist philosophy which dominated Polish thought to the end of the 19th century.
After the three partitioning empires collapsed inWorld War I, Poland returned as a territorially reduced and ethnically more homogeneous polity – though still with substantial minorities, especially the Ukrainians of southeastern Poland, which themselves began to harbor their own national aspirations.
The earliest manifestations of Polish nationalism, and conscious discussions of what it means to be a citizen of the Polish nation, can be traced back to the 17th or 18th century,[3] with some scholars going as far back as the 13th century,[4] and others to the 16th century.[5] Early Polish nationalism, or protonationalism, was related to thePolish-Lithuanian identity, represented primarily by the Polish nobility (szlachta), and by their cultural values (such as theGolden Freedoms andSarmatism).[6] It was founded on civic, republican ideas.[7] This early form of Polish nationalism began to fray and transform with the destruction of the Polish state in thepartitions of Poland from 1772 to 1795.[8]
Modern Polish nationalism arose as a movement in the late-18th and early-19th centuries amongst Polish activists who promoted a Polish national consciousness while rejectingcultural assimilation into the dominant cultures ofAustria,Prussia andRussia, the three empires whichpartitioned Poland-Lithuania and occupied the various regions of Poland.[9] This was the consequence of Polish statelessness, because the Polish nationality was suppressed by the authorities of the countries which acquired the territory of the former Commonwealth.[10] During that time Polishness begun to be identified with ethnicity, increasingly excluding groups such as thePolish Jews, who had previously been more likely to be accepted as Polish patriots.[11][12][13][14][15] This was also the period in which Polish nationalism, which was previously common to bothleft-wing andright-wing political platforms, became more redefined as being limited to the right-wing,[16] with the emergence of the politicianRoman Dmowski (1864-1939), who renamed Liga Polska (the Polish League) as Liga Narodowa (the National League) in 1893.[17]
Polish nationalism reached its height in the second half of the 19th century and in the first half of the 20th century.[citation needed] Crucial waves followed the Polish defeat in theJanuary Uprising of 1864, the restoration of anindependent Polish state in 1918 and the establishment of ahomogeneous ethnic Polish state in 1945.[18]
It has often been pointed out that the period of partition has a strong significance for Poles as a chapter in Polish history where the Polish nation survived and became socially and culturally strongerdespite the loss of independence.
— Dr. Magdalena Kania-Lundholm,Re-Branding a Nation Online, Uppsala University, 2012[19]
An important element of Polish nationalism has been its identification with theRoman Catholic religion, though this is a relatively recent development, with its roots in theCounter-Reformation of the 17th century, and one which became clearly established in theinterwar period.[6][14][15][20] Although the old Commonwealth was religiously diverse and highly tolerant,[21] the Roman Catholic religious narrative withmessianic undertones (theChrist of Nations) became one of the defining characteristics of the modern Polish identity.[11][7][22]Roman Dmowski, a Polish politician of that era, was vital in defining that concept, and has been called the "father of Polish nationalism".[23][24][25]
In 1922G. K. Chesterton published the following opinion on Polish nationalism:[26]
"I judged the Poles by their enemies. And I foundit was an almost unfailing truth that their enemieswere the enemies of magnanimity and manhood. Ifa man loved slavery, if he loved usury, if he lovedterrorism and all the trampled mire ofmaterialistic politics, I have always found that headded to these affections the passion of a hatred ofPoland. She could be judged in the light of thathatred; and the judgment has proved to beright."
- —G. K. Chesterton: Introduction toCharles Saroléa’s Letters on Polish affair, 1922
Thepost-World War II human migrations from 1945, with the resultantdemographic andterritorial changes of Poland that drastically reduced the number ofethnic minorities in Poland, also played a major role in the creation of the modern Polish state and nationality.[18][27]
Incommunist Poland (1945-1989), the regime adopted, modified and used for its official ideology and propaganda some of the nationalist concepts developed by Dmowski. As Dmowski'sNational Democrats strongly believed in a "national" (ethnically homogeneous) state, even if this criterion necessitated a reduced territory, their territorial and ethnic ideas were accepted and practically implemented by the Polish communists, acting withJoseph Stalin's permission. Stalin himself in 1944-45 conferenced with and was influenced by a leading National DemocratStanisław Grabski, coauthor of the planned border and population shifts and an embodiment of the nationalist-communist collusion.[28]
Polish nationalism, together with pro-American liberalism, played an important part in the development ofSolidarity movement in the 1980s.[29] Polish irredentism keeps alive memories of Polish presence in theKresy - the "Eastern Borderlands" formerly under Polish governance and now part of Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine.
In current Polish politics, Polish nationalism is most openly represented by the right-wing - far-right nationalistConfederation and national-conservativePiS. In the2023 elections, both gained 7% and 35% of the vote respectively. The most radical wing of Confederation, the far-right, nationalist, monarchistKKP, split from the main party, led byGrzegorz Braun.
