Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania Socjaldemokracja Królestwa Polskiego i Litwy | |
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| Founded | 1893 (as SDKP); 1899 (as SDKPiL) |
| Dissolved | 1918 |
| Merged into | Communist Party of Poland |
| Membership | 40,000 (1906) |
| Ideology | Socialism Marxism |
| Political position | Far-left |
| International affiliation | Second International |
TheSocial Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (Polish:Socjaldemokracja Królestwa Polskiego i Litwy,SDKPiL), originally theSocial Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland (SDKP), was aMarxistpolitical party founded in 1893 and later served as an autonomous section of theRussian Social Democratic Labour Party.[1] It later merged into theCommunist Workers Party of Poland. Its most famous member wasRosa Luxemburg.
The leading cadre of the SDKPiL were a famous group, many of whom would play a role in theRussian Revolution of October 1917. Chief among them was Rosa Luxemburg, the leading theoretician of the movement. Other notable figures includedLeo Jogiches,Julian Marchlewski,Adolf Warski,Felix Dzerzhinsky,Stanisław Pestkowski,Karl Sobelson,Marcin Kasprzak,Józef Unszlicht,Bronisław Wesołowski,Kazimierz Cichowski andJakob Fürstenberg. Internationalists, many of them would play leading roles in Germany as well as in Russia.
The party was founded in 1893 based on aninternationalist Marxist program. At its core was theUnion of Polish Workers [pl] which refused to back the national demands contained within the program of thePolish Socialist Party (PPS). As a result of the differing positions on the question of Polish national independence the former Union of Polish Workers and the Second Proletariat left the PPS in 1893 establishing the SDKP, differences between the two parties deepening at theInternational Socialist Congress of August 1893 when the All-Polish delegation, led byIgnacy Daszyński of Galicia opposed seating Marchlewski andRosa Luxemburg now making her first appearance at an international gathering. Differences were to deepen at the nextInternational Socialist Congress in 1896 where Luxemburg was opposed by the future dictator of Poland,Józef Piłsudski, representing the PPS.
Conceived as the geographical representative party of the workers, rather than national, the SDKP was to fuse with the Union of Workers in Lithuania in 1899 as a result of the work carried out byFeliks Dzierżyński, future Bolshevik head of theCheka. The SDKP becoming the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania. The young party enjoyed a period of growth impelled by the organisational efforts of Dzierżyński inWarsaw before he was arrested again.
Consistent with its self-conception as a geographic unit of an All-Russian Social Democratic party, the SDKPiL attended the1903 Congress of theRussian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) held in London at which the famous division occurred between theMenshevik andBolshevik factions. The delegation from the SDKPiL was concerned chiefly with maintaining its own autonomy within the party as a whole and with the removal of recognition of theRight of Nations to Self Determination from the party's program. This was the beginning of the long dispute between the Polish and Russian Social Democrats on this question. Only a little while later theoretical differences would also develop in regard to the Bolshevik slogan of "the Democratic Dictatorship of the Proletariat and the Peasantry" which the Polish revolutionaries rejected.[2]
TheWar with Japan and theRussian Revolution of 1905 saw the party playing a leading role in the struggle. Strongly defeatist towards the Tsarist state the SDKPiL opposed the PPS which adopted a pro-Japanese stance. However, as the tide of struggle rose the party worked ever more closely withthe Bund and theleft wing of the PPS. Luxemburg returned from exile and the Mass Strike was placed at the centre of the organisation's revolutionary theory. Despite this emphasis on the actions of the masses the party disposed of fighting squads which defended the workers movement from the Tsarist authorities.By 1906 the party had 40,000 members. 70% werePolish, 25%German and 5% wereJewish.[3]
The period after the revolution was one of retreat for the left and the SDKPiL was to split into two factions as a result. Always closely connected to the RSDLP the Polish party's problems were intricately interwoven with those of the Russian Party. Attending theFifth Congress of the RSDLP held inLondon in 1907Jogiches andWarski were elected to the united Central Committee where they assumed a position of support in respect of the Bolshevik faction. In the following years however the All-Russia party almost ceased to exist as a unified body and the SDKPiL itself distanced itself from all the Russian factions while seeking to promote unity of the various factions. This perspective ensured thatLeon Trotsky was to be a frequent contributor to the theoretical publication of the SDKPiL theSocial Democratic Review. The SDKPiL itself split, in 1911, during the downturn in class struggle of these years with the Warsaw Committee leading a breakaway from the Central Committee dominated by Jogiches.
Despite divisions in its ranks the entire party adopted an internationalist position with the onset ofWorld War I in 1914. The Warsaw Committee of the SDKPiL called a conference of all revolutionary factions for August 2 at which both the Warsaw Committee and Central Committee were joined by the PPS Lewica (Left) and the Bund. The conference issued an unequivocal denunciation of imperialist war and called for the workers to take state power. Despite this attempts to coordinate the different parties came to nothing. But as the war continued both social democratic factions joined theZimmerwald movement with the Warsaw Committee becoming particularly close to the Bolsheviks. The growing clarification of right and left internationally would enable the two factions of the party to reunify at a congress held on November 4, 1916, a new Central Committee was elected and the party pledged support to the Zimmerwald movement.
TheFebruary Revolution of 1917 in Russia saw theRussian Provisional Government issue a manifesto on March 30 recognising Poland's right to an autonomous status, while thePetrograd Soviet recognised Poland's right toself-determination. Those Polish Social Democrats working with the Bolsheviks (such as Dzierżyński andJulian Leszczyński (Leński)) vehemently dissented. The end of the war in 1918 saw SDKPiL members spread throughout revolutionary Europe and playing leading roles everywhere they went. Thus Luxemburg and Jogiches stood at the head of the newly foundedCommunist Party of Germany (KPD, founded 1918), while Dzierżyński, Radek andYakov Hanecki all participated fully in theOctober Revolution in Russia and took up posts in the nascent Soviet government. The history of the SDKPiL drew to a close when its influence and that of its members had never been as widespread. In 1918, many of the party's members would take part in the movement ofworkers' councils in Poland, before eventually merging with the PPS Lewica to form theCommunist Workers Party of Poland.[4]
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