AntiPolonism Centuries Old Memes Still Repeated Today Boswell

The Survival of Polish Civilization, by Alexander Bruce Boswell. 1941

The “Poland is Unworthy of Others’ Esteem or Self-Esteem” Centuries-Old Polonophobic Memes. The Attempted Delegitimization of Poland, Then and Now

Author Alexander Bruce Boswell was Professor of Russian at the University of Liverpool at the time of this work (1941). Boswell’s detailed analysis of the long history of anti-Polonism, beginning with the Prussian, Russian, and Austrian powers needing an excuse to justify their dismemberment of Poland, is eye-opening.

LIKE THEN LIKE NOW: POLAND IS THE BAD BOY OF EUROPE

Boswell’s powerful pamphlet has very much relevance today. Astonishingly the same age-old anti-Polish propaganda is nowadays recycled, modernized, and used as a tool for diminishing Poland’s geopolitical stature in order to reduce potential foreign support for Poland (“Who wants to have anything to do with such a rotten nation?”) in the event of demands on Poland.

All this is also part of the PEDAGOGIKA WSTYDU (Politics of Shame), designed to intimidate Poland into variously bowing before the demands of the Eurocrats, cultural Marxists, globalists, and domestic LEWAKS, as well as paying off the extortionist claims of the Holocaust Industry (lo and behold: Poles are now “complicit in the Holocaust”.) Finally, typical of cultural Marxism in general, it is used in order to induce Poles into despising their own history so that they are easier to control by the powers that be.

ANTI-POLISH THEMES AT THE TIME OF THE PARTITIONS

Boswell writes, “Propaganda was more pronounced after the Partitions in justification of action already taken. It was, as in our own day, illogical, untrue and self-contradictory. Poland was blamed for her conservatism in preserving the ‘golden liberty’ of her gentry at a time when both Russia and Prussia were maintaining that liberty in order to prevent Poland strengthening herself by reforms. She was accused of anarchy, Jacobinism, violence and militarism, as well as of reaction, pacifism and intolerance. These curious and paradoxical attacks on Poland were maintained till our own day, i. e. for 170 years. They were carefully preserved, strengthened by the additions of scholars and military men, and so systematically spread that they gained credence with the general body of European people who knew nothing of Poland, as there was no Polish State, no official representatives and no free press to deny them. Among the more famous supporters of anti-Polish propaganda, it is strange to find Voltaire, Carlyle and several eminent English Liberals in the twentieth century.” (pp. 11-12).

ANTI-POLISH THINKING LONG DOMINATED BRITISH THINKING

British author Boswell admits that, until recent times (WWI), the British view of Poland had been derived from German propaganda about Poland. He writes, “Before 1914 few Englishmen had ever read Polish history in the original Polish. Mention of Poland was either absent from our books or consisted of a few conventional remarks. An analysis of most of these remarks shows that they can be traced back to a defense of Prussian diplomacy by the followers of Frederick the Great and to variations on the same theme later writers, among whom Thomas Carlyle was the most fervent. Poland comes into our history and political outlook as the idle apprentice whose sins bring him to the scaffold, and whose career is contrasted, not with the virtuous life of England, but, significantly, with the success of Prussia, the good boy of our historians before 1914.” (p. 3).

THE SAME ANTI-POLISH PROPAGANDA RE-USED AGAINST THE SECOND REPUBLIC (1918-1939)

Boswell writes, “The second feature is the revival in all its force of propaganda. But this time Germany and Russia were both socialist republics, so all efforts are concentrated on making Poland appear reactionary, aggressive and militarist. Also hints of older propaganda appeared—that Poland was inefficient and unable to remain an independent State. Most of it was ridiculous…But, believed, and Poland was once more the Bad Boy of Europe.” (p. 26).

The same propaganda was later used to justify the Communist puppet government over Poland— making pre-WWII Poland look as terrible as possible. It later also became part of Holocaustspeak—in order to make Poland seem one in spirit, if not action, with the Nazi German-made Shoah. This, of course, serves the goals of German guilt diffusion and the Holocaust Industry (most recently (2018) the farcical voice-vote passage of S.447 the U. S. Government).

THE FAULTS OF POLAND’S NOBILITY: NEITHER UNUSUAL NOR THE DECIDING ELEMENT IN POLAND’S FALL

The author keeps Poland’s feudal social structure, as specifically applicable to the last century or so before the Partitions, in perspective, “While clinging passionately to the “golden liberty” of the old times, the gentry lost their equality, their civic sense of responsibility and became parochial, corrupt, and obscurantist. It is possible that the faults of the Polish gentry were common to all such classes in the eighteenth century. Pride of class, ignorance, faction fighting were common in France and Germany. The English gentry were just as selfish and corrupt as the SZLACHTA. But most countries had a central administration run by a body of experts, whereas in Poland the legislature, run by the general body of gentry, was supreme.” (p. 9).

The LIBERUM VETO, first used in 1652, had originally been a good thing, in that it had served as a democratic safeguard. It only became a problem when it became constantly used, and abused, the Polish nobility, in the 1700’s. (p. 9).

THE END OF SERFDOM

The author assesses the end of Poland’s feudal structure as follows, “Serfdom was now abolished in all parts of Poland. The emancipation promised by Kosciuszko in 1794 had been delayed by the Partitioning Powers till 1823 in Prussia, 1848 in Austria, and 1864 in Russia.” (p. 20).

JEWS—GOOD FOR POLAND OR BAD FOR POLAND?

Boswell takes a middle view of this question. He writes, “From the Charter of 1364, the Jews were given the right to settle, to speak Hebrew or Yiddish, to practice their own religion and maintain their own schools, which they never lost. They gave Poland skilled middlemen and artificers, who made an important contribution to her economic life; but at the same time they hampered the rise of a national middle class and formed an alien body in the Polish community, presenting problems, particularly in the days of oppression by Russia, which grew greater as modern nationalist feeling grew up.” (pp. 5-6).

Fast forward to the 19th century, and especially as applicable to Prussian-ruled Poland. Boswell comments, “One great weakness in Poland had been the dependence of landowner and peasant on the Jewish moneylender and German capital.” (p. 22).

WHY THE NUMERUS CLAUSUS IN INTERWAR POLAND

The author identifies the reason behind the much-condemned NUMERUS CLAUSUS of Jewish students in the interwar Polish universities. It was not because Poles were mean and (what else?) anti-Semitic. It was because the Jewish students had, “…poured into the universities in such large masses that their numbers were limited the authorities.” (p. 28).

POLISH ROMANTICISM: POLAND AS THE “JESUS CHRIST OF NATIONS”

Nowadays, the theme of Poles thinking themselves as the “Jesus Christ of Nations” is much overemphasized by the critics of Poland, especially those who want to depreciate her sufferings in favor of those of the Jews in the Holocaust, and to make Poland the perennial “Bad Guy” in Polish-Jewish relations.

Ironic to those who keep shooting this dead horse, the Polish Romanticist view of Polish suffering had largely disappeared long ago. Moreover, it had largely been replaced by practical nation-building initiatives (see section below).

As for the temporary hold, on the Polish mind, of “Jesus Christ of Nations”, Boswell comments, “Themes of revenge, the theory of a Messianic mission of Poland, unscientific views of Polish history had their day and fanned the flame of rebellion at home. Practical workers or believers in compromise were unpopular beside the glittering visions of the romantics. The failures of 1848 and the futile guerrilla war of 1863 brought an end to these dreams.” (p. 19).

“NON-ROMANTICISM” AND THE STELLAR PRACTICAL WORK OF PIOTR WAWRZYNIAK

Contrary to the mischaracterization of Poland as a land of romantics, Boswell tells the reader much about Polish nation-building work. This is notably true of Polish priest Piotr Wawrzyniak, whose successes are detailed on pp. 22-23 of this book. For instance, 1912, there were 197 Co-operative Societies with a membership of 121,875, involving Polish bankers, administrators, and various experts. For more on the stellar German- and Jewish-defying achievements of Piotr Wawrzyniak, see my review of author Bruce Boswell’s 1919 work, Poland and the Poles.