Undemonizing Dmowski Duma Elections Corrsin

Warsaw Before the First World War: Poles and Jews in the Third City of the Russian Empire,1880-1914, by Stephen D. Corrsin. 1989

Includes Corrective, Seldom-Mentioned Details on 1912 Elections to the Duma, and the Much-Condemned Dmowski-Led Boycott of Jews

This work provides much data on the development of Russian-ruled Warsaw in the late 19th and early 20th century. This includes many tables of information.

Increasing urbanization went hand in hand with increasing crime. On the west side of Warsaw, two major criminal gangs, one Polish and one Jewish, functioned. They controlled the prostitution in the area. (p. 16).

Jewish support for the Polish patriotic movement, which led to the January 1863 Insurrection, came from various quarters. This included assimilationists, such as the wealthy Mathias Rosen, as well as liberal rabbis Marcus Jastrow and Isaac Kramsztyk. It also featured the orthodox chief rabbi of Warsaw, Dov Berush Meisels. (p. 10).

The tsarist Russian rule, over even Congress Poland, was stifling. Underground Polish education included the so-called flying universities. (p. 18). (Such flying universities later became famous under the German Nazi occupation of Poland).

NATURE OF ASSIMILATION. ASSIMILATED POLISH JEWS ARE NOT NECESSARILY POLES

Corrsin uses the term acculturation to refer to Jews adopting Polish ways, and restricts the term assimilation to refer to Jews coming to adopt the national identity of the majority. (pp. 121-122). Elsewhere, Corrsin calls this “identificational assimilation”. (p. 108). According to the 1897 Russian tsarist census, 13.7% of Warsaw’s Jews gave Polish as their mother tongue, but this admittedly does not inform us how many of them actually identified with Poland. (p. 31). In fact, use of the Polish language increasingly had little to do with a Jew’s ethnic or political allegiances. (p. 33).

Even avowedly assimilationist Jewish institutions, such as the newspaper IZRAELITA, professing to speak for Poles of the Mosaic faith, and to oppose both Polish and Jewish nationalism, did not follow a consistent pro-Polish path. For a time, at about the beginning of the 20th century, it veered into Zionism. (p. 74).

THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATS (ENDEKS) WERE NOT INVARIABLY HOSTILE TO JEWS

Endek hostility to Jews was not unilateral. In fact, as recently as 1906-1907, the Endeks still considered at least some assimilationist Jews as part of the Polish nation. (p. 86). In 1912, National Democrats still praised the “handful of Jewish Poles” that had joined the National Concentration. (p. 88).

It all boiled down to who was master of Warsaw. (pp. 86-88). Was it the Poles, or were Poles and Jews co-masters of Warsaw? [Imagine a group of Poles living in Jerusalem, organizing into a political bloc, and demanding that they be co-masters of Jerusalem along with the Jews. Would the Israeli Jews just step aside, and welcome such an arrangement?]

JEWS WERE DEMOGRAPHICALLY TAKING OVER

A number of factors led to the increasing polarization of Jews and Poles, besides the growing nationalism in both peoples. In 1882-1914, the Jewish population of Warsaw rose by 163.5% and the Polish population of Warsaw increased by only 118.7%. (p. 24). In addition, the rapid increase in the number of newspapers, both Polish and Jewish, intensified the sense of ethnic identification within these groups. (p. 67). Endek newspapers were notable in their numbers and the variety of targeted Polish audiences. (pp. 71-72).

JEWISH URBANIZATION AND JEWISH OVERREPRESENTATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE 1912 DUMA ELECTIONS AND THE DMOWSKI-LED BOYCOTT OF JEWS

Jews had, in recent centuries, always been an urban people. This meant, of course, that if political representation was apportioned according to the population of particular cities, Jews would have an inordinately large representation. [Such concerns, of course, occur in various political contexts, and it does not follow that representation in government necessarily should follow population. For instance, in the U. S. Senate, each U. S. state gets two representatives (senators), regardless of whether the state is populous (e. g., California) or not (e. g., Alaska).]

Because of this population imbalance, the Poles supported a Duma policy in which Jews would be no more than one-fifth of a city council, even if Jews were the majority in a city. (p. 89). However, a technicality in the policy, under unclear circumstances, allowed Jews to assume 55% of the voters in Warsaw even though the 1912 proportion of Warsaw’s population was about 36% Jewish. (p. 90). Kucharzewski, a member of the National Concentration that had earlier broken with Dmowski, expressed himself as follows, (quote) “I am a supporter of the principle of Jewish equal rights.” On the specific issue of urban self-government, however, he felt that limitations would have to be put on Jewish participation. Without this, since Jews made up a majority in many Polish cities, they would be able to control the institutions of self-government. He said that this would be an unacceptable “privilege” for the Jews, and not “equal rights” at all: “the seizure of urban administration by the Jews would be tantamount to the removal of the Poles from the organization of their own economic and cultural life.” On a broader issue, he supported the abolition of the Pale of Settlement. (unquote). (p. 95).

SOME POLISH JEWS CONCURRED WITH DMOWSKI’S POSITION ON THE JEWISH POLITICAL USURPATION OF THE 1912 DUMA ELECTIONS

Most interestingly, an article in the Jewish assimilationist newspaper, IZRAELITA, fully concurred with the National Concentration and Endek position on this matter, (quote) “Warsaw is a Polish city! The Jews must not benefit from their accidental voting majority! They must vote for a man of tested civic virtues, for a fervent Polish patriot! A manifestation of Jewish separatism must not be allowed to take place.” (unquote) (pp. 92-93).

BROAD-BASED POLISH OPPOSITION TO JEWISH USURPATIONIST POLITICS IN THE 1912 DUMA ELECTIONS

Jewish support for the socialist Jagiello, and his election, had obvious consequences. The Poles of Warsaw were deprived of Polish representation in the Duma. (pp. 103-104). Earlier, Roman Dmowski had stated that it made no difference if an elected politician was Jewish or Polish, if he represented Jewish instead of Polish interests. (p. 91).

The ensuing militant Polish opposition to the political conduct of the Jews, including the boycotts, came to encompass not only the National Democrats (Endeks) and members of the National Concentration, but also many Polish liberal elements. The latter fact is stressed by author Stephen D. Corrsin. (e. g., p. 102, 104, 107).

JEWISH SEPARATIST POLITICS: A WEAPON OF RUSSIAN RULE OVER POLAND

The aggressive, politicized separatism of the Jews of Russian-ruled Congress Poland (framed in terms of “civil rights” or “equal rights”) was not just a local matter. Although author Corrsin does not put it this way, there is evidence of a broad-based collusion of Empire-wide Jewish and Russian influences behind the Jewish bloc voting in the 1912 Warsaw elections to the Duma. With reference to the Yiddish newspaper, HAYNT, Corrsin comments, (quote) One development in late October [1912] that caused a furor came when HAYNT interviewed Russian Kadet Party leaders in St. Petersburg. Pavel Miliukov, Ivan Petrunkevich, Fedor Rodichev, and Maksim Vinaver (the last by birth a Warsaw Jew) stated that the Jewish and Polish electors must compromise on a liberal Pole who would support Jewish equal rights. By November 4, Vinaver had gone further and added that, since no Polish nationalist elector had been found who would make this commitment, the Jewish electors should support the socialist Jagiello. (unquote). (p. 98; See also p. 101).

The foregoing matter raises questions. To what extent were the tsarist authorities meddling with Polish elections in order to weaken the Polish patriotic element?