Jews Not Nobility Exploited Peasants Thomas

The Polish Peasant in Europe and America: a classic work in immigration history, by William I. Thomas, Florian Znaniecki. 1996

Valuable Insights into Early 20th-Century Polish-Jewish Relations, Polish Society, Peasant Thinking and Habits, etc.

My review of this 5-volume work is limited to the 1st volume of the 1956-reprinted 1918 edition. It consists of text provided by the authors, as well as a large selection of correspondence from peasants to their emigrant relatives in the USA. I divide the content of lasting interest into TOPICS:

POLISH-JEWISH RELATIONS:NO SIMPLE DIALECTIC BETWEEN POLE AND JEW

Instead of attacking Poles for anti-Semitism, the authors place Polish-Jewish conflicts alongside Polish-Jewish conciliation—and all that within the broader context of Polish self-preservation. They comment, (quote) Surrounded by peoples of various degrees of cultural development…having on her own territory the highest percentage of the most unassimilable of races, the Jews, Poland is fighting at every moment for the preservation of her racial and cultural status. Moreover, the fight assumes…various methods of dealing with the Jews—passive toleration, efforts to assimilate them nationally (not religiously), social and economic boycott. All these ways of fighting develop the greatest possible variety of attitudes. (unquote)(pp. 84-85).

The authors allude to the residual Jewish ways that made it difficult for Poles to accept fully even assimilated and converted Jews as “us”. They write, (quote) …there usually remains enough difference in traditions and habits to provoke a certain unreceptivity in the group, but the spirit of proselytism is flattered. As so it happens, for example, that a converted Jews is laughed at within the Christian community, but defended against his former co-religionists. (unquote)(p. 116).

JEWISH ECONOMIC HEGEMONY HAMPERS THE POLISH PEASANTRY

Thomas and Znaniecki also point out the direct and indirect ways that the large Jewish presence was hindering the economic development of Poland. They comment, (quote) Not only was the town life less developed in Poland than in the West, but the Polish bourgeoisie had to share its role of capitalistic class with the Jews who, being themselves outside of Polish society, could not impose the capitalistic principle of social distinction. On the contrary, the fact that the Jews were to a large extent representatives of the capitalistic economy has certainly helped to maintain, almost up to the present time, a certain contempt toward “money-making” and the attitudes of business in general. (unquote)(p. 133).

PEASANT HABITS AND FEARS REINFORCE JEWISH ECONOMIC HEGEMONY

Even so, the niche represented by the old-style Jewish merchant was quite stable. Thus, the peasant would rather deal with the old-style Jewish merchant than with the new, assimilated, middle-class Jewish merchant. (p. 139). The Polish peasant commonly preferred to buy from the Jewish merchant than from the newfound Polish merchant, and this led to limited success of the pre-WWI boycotts of Jews. (p. 139). In addition, some Polish peasants feared angering the Jewish merchants. For this reason, they were disinclined to patronize the new Polish entrepreneurs. (p. 369).

JEWS EXPLOIT PEASANTS?

The peasant commonly thought of Jews as driven by money (p. 292), and some Jewish opinions concurred. (p. 965). The peasant also viewed the Jew as a cheat, and, according to the authors, the Jewish merchant often cheated the peasant in various ways. (pp. 292-293). Some Jews engaged in unscrupulous practices. Thus, for instance, a Jewish barber in Goworowo doubled as a physician who performed abortions, and did artificial crippling so that the recipient could avoid travel or military service. (pp. 543-544).

JEWS AND THE LIQUOR TRADE

The Jewish tavern owner, and PROPINACJA, persisted well into the 20th century. Some Poles spent all their money to drink at taverns. (pp. 569-570). The ideal of temperance became emphasized among the peasantry in order to deal with this problem. (p. 917).

The 1906 BIALYSTOK POGROM

One peasant letter describes the 1906 pogrom at Bialystok. Evidently, some Russian hooligans had opened fire on an Eastern Orthodox procession and Jewish properties and persons were, for some unstated reason, attacked in the ensuing disturbance. (p. 340).

—————-

POLISH NOBILITY AND TOWNSPEOPLE (pp. 128-129)

Traditionally, the highest rank was the great nobility— numbering only 40-50 families. Originally, members of the great nobility had their own armies, directed politics, and–in the case of Lithuanian and Ruthenian princes—had recognized titles. After the Partitions, they lost all their privileges, and became essentially indistinguishable from other nobility.

The middle nobility was numerous. Unlike the lower nobility, the middle nobility had fortune and culture.

The lower or peasant nobility, comprising the SZLACHTA ZASCIANKOWA (“village nobility”), SZLACHTA ZAGONOWA (“bed nobility”—having small beds of land), and SZLACHTA SZARACZKOWA (“gray nobility”), had no serfs. The peasant nobility had almost full political rights, and coats-of-arms, but were otherwise little different from the peasantry. With the emancipation of the peasants, the distinction between the peasant nobility and the peasant became one of tradition only. (pp. 128-129).

Among the townspeople, the Jews were outsiders, and the Poles functioned in a hierarchy. (pp. 129-130). This hierarchy was based primarily on fortune, and less by culture and birth. The hierarchy consisted of some wealthy trades-families, then the intellectual workers and craftsmen, and finally the petty merchants and unskilled workers.

THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE PEASANTS

The emancipation of the townspeople and the peasantry began in the 1700’s, as a result of private initiative and the May 3 Constitution, and was largely halted by the Partitions. (p. 130). After the abolition of serfdom in tsarist Russia in 1864, conditions at first became worse for the peasants, as they were often unprepared to pay taxes and to manage their new property. It took almost 50 years for peasants to develop fully the attitudes necessary for economic advance. (pp. 188-189). [This situation supports the contentions of those who had cautioned against the instant, fiat abolition of serfdom as the best means of emancipating the peasantry. A gradual, guided end of serfdom would have been better.]

“SLAVIC FATALISM”: LOW EXPECTATIONS FROM LIFE

As for the persistence of some degree of “peasant fatalism”, this was unlike Oriental fatalism and its belief in divine predestination. Rather, it was a holdover from the serf status, under which diligence and initiative produced little tangible reward. In addition, the successful crop depended as much upon uncontrollable factors (e. g, the weather) as it did on initiative and hard work, etc. (pp. 172-173).

RIGHTS OF LAND OWNERSHIP WERE LIBERATING TO THE PEASANT

The peasant was attached to his land, and saw it as belonging not so much to himself as to his family over many generations. (p. 158). This led to awkward division of land according to dowries and inheritances. It made Communist-sponsored collective farming repulsive to many peasants. (p. 161). [Whence the ongoing KULAK resistance in the USSR.] It also made many peasants unwilling to abandon the soil of their ancestors in order to emigrate to the New World. (p. 420, 827).

THE PEASANTRY AND POLAND’S STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE

The half-century-old integration of the peasant into modern Polish society is described as follows (quote) He has been invited by the upper classes to collaborate in the construction of Polish national life, and in certain lines his development is due to the conscious educational efforts of his leaders—the nobility, the clergy, the middle class. (unquote)(p. 75; see also p. 203).

Secret instruction in the spirit of Polish patriotism went back to the immediate aftermath of the Partitions. Later, schooling variously emphasized patriotism and practical matters. The just-developed Scouting movement in England was modified to include a Polish sense of patriotism, chivalry, purity, general efficiency, and temperance. (p. 917). Although the idea of resurrecting Poland through revolutionary violence had long been abandoned, the 50th anniversary (1913) of the January 1863 Insurrection was widely celebrated, and great honor was bestowed upon the remaining veterans. (p. 653).

PEASANT RELATIONSHIP WITH ANIMALS

This work describes many peculiar peasant beliefs. For instance, peasants believed that animal life should be respected because animals can pray. (p. 220). [My grandmother, who was not from a peasant background, instilled similar ideas in me when I was a little boy.]