Endek Practical Activism DEFINITIVE WORK Wolsza

Narodowa Demokracja Wobec Chlopow w Latach 1887-1914, by Tadeusz Wolsza. 1992

Endeks Driven Not By Hatred, But By Practical Initiatives to Elevate the Polish Peasantry, Resist Poland’s Oppressors, Free Poland From Jewish Economic Hegemony, and Prepare Poland For Eventual Independence

THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATS IN RELATION TO THE PEASANTS IN THE YEARS 1887-1914, is the title of this Polish-language book. One of its most useful features is a set of tables, including annotated lists of: Endek organizations active in villages (pp. 307-308), Endek periodicals (pp. 208-209), major Endek-sponsored events (pp. 309-310), and major Endek activists among the Polish peasantry. (pp. 310-313).

PEASANT PATRIOTIC INACTION STEMMED FROM OVERALL LOWLINESS, NOT A LACK OF PEASANT NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Roman Dmowski was a strong advocate of Endek peasant initiatives, notably education. (p. 67). However, this fact is not support for the notion that preliterate peasants lacked national consciousness. There is a difference between a lack of national consciousness and the inability to express it effectively and to translate it into practical action. For instance, Jan Ludwik Poplawski characterized the Polish peasantry as one that, up to that time, and owing to their lowliness, were connected neither to Polish national life, nor to the means of self-defense of their interests, nor to the pre-requisites for self-improvement in both the spiritual and material sense. (pp. 24-25).

ENDEKS MODERNIZE THE PEASANTRY, AND HELP PEASANTS HELP THEMSELVES

Endek-sponsored activities to enlighten the peasantry, besides formal schooling, included the furthering of self-education, reading rooms, and libraries. One society, the TCzL (TOWARZYSTWO CZYTALNI LUDOWYCH), already had 149 libraries, with 3,067 books, all over foreign-ruled Poland, by the end of 1882. (p. 245). Other activities included lectures, informal courses, and evening social affairs that included such things as literature and music. Endek-sponsored enlightenment initiatives encompassed academic, religious, vocational, as well as patriotic issues. (e.g., p. 27, 161).

In addition to all this, there were major drives to eliminate peasant illiteracy. (e. g., p. 241). Endek-sponsored enlightenment activities occurred in all three occupation zones—even among the Polish minority of distant Kiev. (p. 246).

SECRET ENDEK POLITICAL ACTIVISM

Owing to the fact that partitioned Poland was under foreign occupation, many Endek activities had to be covert. For instance, Roman Dmowski had to write under over 30 pseudonyms. (p. 56).

Interestingly, a woman Endek activist, Helena Ceysingerowna, led secret peasant-enlightenment activities under Russian rule. (p. 312).

ENDEKS PUSH BACK AGAINST POLAND’S OPPRESSORS–IN A PRODUCTIVE MANNER

Poland’s enemies, ruling over her, had long been trying to de-nationalize the Poles, as by suppression of the Polish language. Endek initiatives combated this by promulgating the use of Polish (p. 163), and by supporting school strikes, not only in Prussian-ruled Poland, but also in Russian-ruled central Poland. For instance, female Endek activists Ceysingerowna and Dzierzanowska led school strikes. (p. 132).

In 1875, the “liberal” tsar Alexander II tried to force Uniates to convert to Eastern Orthodoxy, notably in the Polish provinces of Chelm and Podlasie. (pp. 111-on). Endeks resisted these efforts. [Decades later, when Poles tried to reverse the tsarist action, Ukrainians accused Poles of trying to suppress their religion.]

ENDEKS RESIST THE INROADS OF COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA

The Endeks opposed the attempts of the socialists to entice the peasantry. Evidently using scare tactics, the socialists, even in the 20th century, were warning peasants that serfdom could return. In response, the Endeks pointed out that the right of peasants to own their own land was unquestioned (p. 179), and that the socialists are preaching stupidity in view of the fact that serfdom had, by then, long been abolished virtually everywhere. (p. 180).

POLISH PEASANTS LEARN HOW TO BE POLITICALLY ACTIVE–THANKS TO ENDEK ACTIVISM

Endeks supported peasant political initiatives, notably local (GMINA) self-governments. (e. g, p. 157). Peasants also increasingly became active in higher-level politics. For instance, peasants represented Polish interests, to a significant and increasing extent, in the DUMA. (p. 203).

ENDEK ACTIVISM FOR A ONE-DAY FREE POLAND

The Endek emphasis on organic work, and opposition to fruitless bloodletting in insurrections, in no sense implies that they were “pro-Russian”, or that they had lost sight of the goal of Polish independence. Developments near the beginning of the 20th century served as a source of inspiration for Endek thinkers and their teachings. This included the successes of the Boers against the English, and the newly achieved independence of nations such as Bulgaria and Greece. (p. 65).

One day, there would be a Polish Army fighting for a resurrected Poland. For now, paramilitary organizations came into existence, including the gymnastics society Sokol (pp. 274-on) and the DRUZYNY BARTOSZOWE. (pp. 280-on). The first Polish Sokol was formed in Lwow in 1867. (p. 274).

ENDEKS OPPOSED JEWS BECAUSE JEWISH ECONOMIC HEGEMONY THWARTED POLISH ASPIRATIONS

Considering all the volume of negative attention given to Endeks in relation to Jews, the reader may be surprised to find that Wolsza mentions Jews only once. In contrast to those who stridently accuse Endeks of being anti-Semitic, Wolsza characterizes the Endek statements about Jews as measured in nature, and ones that react to Jewish economic dominance as a barrier to Polish peasant economic emancipation. (p. 152).

In addition, there may be an allusion to Jews in the form of Endeks opposing Polish peasant involvement in the 1905 Revolution, in part because its leadership was not Polish (in addition to the fact that it did not serve Polish interests, and could trigger an intensified tsarist Russian repression of Poles). (p. 172).

ENDEKS BOYCOTTED RUSSIANS, NOT JUST JEWS

It is interesting to note that Endeks advocated the boycott of the Russian language (p. 162) and the boycott of occupant-sponsored schools (see the listed 1905 Tract #50, p. 299). Clearly, then, the eventual Endek boycott of Jews was not solely aimed at them, and was part of broader Endek boycott initiatives directed against those acting against Polish national interests. Although Wolsza does not mention the 1912 Duma and the Dmowski-led boycott of Jews, he points out that the Polish representation in the previous (1st and 2nd) Duma had emphasized such issues, crucial to Polish national development, as Polish autonomy, schooling, Russia’s appropriation of Polish churches of the Chelm area, and agrarian reform. (p. 203). No wonder, then, that the Jewish action in 1912 would provoke such a vigorous Polish counter-reaction.

ENDEKS DID NOT PREACH HATRED OR SCAPEGOATING OF JEWS

Far from being instigators of fear and hatred, as nowadays portrayed by LEWAKS and certain Jews, the Endeks repudiated demagoguery and doctrinaire thinking, in favor of rational, practical action. (p. 27). In no sense were Endek ideology and policies a matter of making scapegoats out of Jews or other non-Poles. Endeks realized that Polish problems were partly of the Poles’ own making. Thus, for instance, there were Endek initiatives against alcoholism among Poles. (p. 300, tract #56).

Evidently alluding to the “Polish vice” of division and quarrelsomeness, the Endeks taught peasants how to act in unity towards common local as well as national objectives.

WHY THE GERMANS WERE POLAND’S NUMBER ONE ENEMY

On another subject, Endek initiatives against the Prussian occupiers included the struggle against Germanization. (e. g., p. 217). Roman Dmowski clarified his anti-German outlook. He called the Germans “Poland’s eternal enemy”, citing the thousand years of German acts of greed against Slavic peoples. (p. 65).