PrePartition Poland’s Internal Weakness Unremarkable Patterson

Pilsudski: Marshall of Poland, by Eric James Patterson. 1934

Poland’s Pre-Partition Weaknesses Were Nothing Unusual Among Nations. 1926: The Myth of Pilsudski the Dictator: Poland’s Democracy Was Never Abolished

This delightful book spans the life of Pilsudski from before his birth, his revolutionary days in tsarist-Russian occupied Poland, the resurrection of the Polish state, and the Polish government until Pilsudski’s death in 1935. It was near this time that Pilsudski, having retained a lifelong cherished memory of his mother (who had taught him fervent love of Poland in his childhood: p. 23), had requested that his heart by buried at her feet [at the Rossa Cemetery in Wilno (Vilnius)]. The rest of his body was interred at the Wawel Castle in Krakow. (p. 127).

POLAND’S PRE-PARTITION INTERNAL WEAKNESSES, THOUGH NOT RARELY PROPAGANDIZED AS “POLISH INCOMPETENCE”, WERE ACTUALLY NOTHING REMARKABLE

The British author finds parallels between the internal weaknesses of the Polish state leading up to the Partitions, and a corresponding situation during part of English history. He says that: “When parliamentary institutions and liberties, such as they existed, outran the administrative necessities of strong government, as in the Lancastrian period of Great Britain, anarchy, private armies and a weak state were the result. But Britain was an island, and therefore free from many continental complications, whilst Poland was a cock-pit of Europe.” (p. 12).

UNDEMONIZING THE POLISH NOBILITY

Poland’s feudalism, alleged cruelties towards the peasantry, etc., must be kept in perspective: “There were great nobles and there were small nobles in Poland and Lithuania, but as a class the small noble was numerous. There was serfdom, but serfdom was not exclusive at that time to Poland…it was not self-complacency so much as the attempt to reform abuses which brought about the final destruction of the Polish state.” (p. 13).

WHO IS A POLE? THE MYTH OF POLISH ETHNOCENTRIC NATIONALISM

Poles are not limited to those who are ethnically Polish just as the British are not limited to those who are ethnically Angles and Saxons. When discussing Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz’ “Lithuania my Country” statement, Patterson compared it to the following: “In like manner, in fact, might a son of Cornwall, of Wessex or of Scotland give strength to the name of Britain.” (p. 21).

PILSUDSKI’S 1926 “COUP” IN NO SENSE ABOLISHED POLISH DEMOCRACY

Poland’s detractors have accused Pilsudski of having totalitarian ambitions, and, if nothing else, of pre-WWII Poland being essentially undemocratic. Such was not the case. The Pilsudski coup of 1926 followed the wrangling in, and the impotency of, the Polish parliamentary processes. Pilsudski despised this anarchic situation. Patterson comments: “Pilsudski was not the dictator of Poland in the same way as Hitler and Mussolini are the dictators of their respective countries. He might rather be said to have been the tutor of his country…Yet he never abolished Parliament nor the constitution. He maintained, however, that if Parliament existed, it must be made to function. For Parliament exists for Poland, and not Poland for the Parliament…Yet although he had had many opportunities, he had never taken advantage of any occasion to make himself the dictator.” (pp. 115-116).