Hurrah Revolutionaries and Polish Patriots: the Polish Communist Movement in Canada, 1918-1950
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Hurrah Revolutionaries and Polish Patriots: The Polish Communist Movement in Canada, 1918-1950 Patryk Polec Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Post Doctoral Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the PhD degree in History Department of History Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa © Patryk Polec, Ottawa, Canada, 2012 ABSTRACT This thesis constitutes the first full-length study of Polish Communists in Canada, a group that provided a substantial segment of the countries socialist left in the early 20th century. It traces the roots of socialist support in Poland, its transplantation to Canada, the challenges it faced within an ethnic community heavily influenced by Catholicism, the complications caused by its links to the Comintern, and its changing strength and decline. It offers a deeper understanding of the ways in which the Communist party was able to appeal to certain ethnic groups, such as through cultural outreach, as well as its complicated and often arguably counter- productive relationship with the Comintern. It also furnishes important information on the efforts of the RCMP and Polish consulates to maintain control over the communists, as well as how generally improved material conditions among Poles, especially following the Second World War, along with the influence of the Cold War, accounted for a rapid decline in support. The thesis is primarily based on sources generated by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs or, more precisely, by the Polish consulates in Winnipeg, Montreal and Ottawa. One the Canadian side, the thesis took advantage of RCMP records, Canadian security bulletins, immigration records and Polish-language newspapers printed in Canada. By utilizing these sources, this study not only analyses the interaction of the Polish Canadian communist movement with other segments of the Polish community in Canada, but it also moves beyond the introverted approach that has characterized most studies of ethnic organizations in Canada by placing the movement within a “Canadian” context to analyze its relations with the government, broader segments of Canadian society, and the Communist Party of Canada (CPC). i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Professor M. Mark Stolárik for his ongoing guidance, encouragement, and support. His expertise and experience made the work on my thesis a great learning experience. I am also indebted to Professor Anna Reczyńska for providing valuable advice and research materials; Dr. Krzysztof Smolana who welcomed me in his home and generously donated his time at the Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw; Krzysztof Barbarski and Andrzej Suchcic at the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London, England; Nicholas Siekierski at the Hoover Institution and to the many members of the Polish Canadian community who shared their insights and experiences. I would also like to extend my appreciation to Myron Momryk who helped with my research at Library and Archives Canada; Professor Jan Grabowski for his valuable feedback and editing; members of the Canadian-Polish Research Institute; the Adam Mickiewicz Foundation for it generous financial support; Jeff Keshen, Eda Kranakis, Michael D. Behiels and Barrington Walker for their suggestions and guidance. Lastly, I am grateful to my parents and to my brother for teaching me to never give up. I must add here that some of the information that is presented in this thesis would have been destroyed had my father and brother not recognized the importance of salvaging and preserving some the documents that are cited in this work. Finally, I owe much gratitude to my wife Lana for her love, understanding, and constant support. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................................... ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................. iii Introduction Politics, History and “Deviant(?)” Polish Canadians ....................................................1 Capturing Totality: Ethnicity, the Canadian Working-Class and the Polish Left ..................................... 10 The Polish Émigré School ........................................................................................................................ 21 Chapter 1 Gorączka Emigracyjna – Emigration Fever .................................................................... 29 Old World: The Partitioned Res Publicae ................................................................................................ 33 Harvesting a New Nation: Peasant Politics and the Polish National Question ....................................... 37 Workers Unite!: Politicizing the Polish Proletariat ................................................................................ 43 The Law of Attraction: Polish Immigrants on the Move ......................................................................... 48 Making Sense of Canada: Disappointments and Dreams of a Better (Socialist?) Future ...................... 52 Discrimination, Pride and Prejudice ........................................................................................................ 63 Chapter 2 Getting Organized: Polish Reds, Rebels and Radicals .................................................... 70 A New Kind of Polish Canadian Organization ......................................................................................... 81 Chapter 3 Gaude, Mater Polonia: The Battleground ....................................................................... 95 The Bulwark of Faith: The Catholic Church ............................................................................................. 96 Religious Nationalists and Not-So-Religious Nationalists ....................................................................... 98 Creating a Super-Territorial Polonia: Clerics, Anti-Clerics and Polish Consuls ...................................... 103 The ZZPwK: Poland is for Poles, but Poles are for Poland .................................................................... 107 Doing Battle: Clerics, Consuls and Communists and the Fight for Supremacy ..................................... 114 Chapter 4 The Law of Appeal: Joining the Revolutionary Movement .......................................... 123 The Social Mosaic of the Polish Canadian Communist Movement ...................................................... 129 iii The Party’s Core: Adherents and Intellectuals...................................................................................... 135 Patriotic Poles and the Politics of Resistance ....................................................................................... 140 Chapter 5 Treading on Hostile Ground: Promoting Proletarianism, Mutualism and Internationalism in Canadian and Polish Canadian Society ......................................................... 147 Canada .................................................................................................................................................. 149 Poland ................................................................................................................................................... 153 Relations with the CPC and Fellow Ethnic Comrades ........................................................................... 156 The Spanish Civil War ............................................................................................................................ 164 Relations with Komunistyczna Partia Polski (KPP) ................................................................................ 168 Chapter 6 Red Culture ................................................................................................................. 173 Education .............................................................................................................................................. 176 “Red” Theatres, Orchestras and Films .................................................................................................. 182 Proletarian Sports ................................................................................................................................. 187 The Polish-language Communist Press ................................................................................................. 190 Red Funerals.......................................................................................................................................... 194 Chapter 7 The Changing Tide: Polish Communists in the Wake of the Second World War ......... 199 The Deluge: 1 September 1939 ............................................................................................................ 203 War-Time Relations with the Canadian Polonia ................................................................................... 207 Buttressing a New Poland: Collecting Aid and Helping “True” Patriots ............................................... 215 Chapter 8 The Last Leap of Faith ......................................................................................................... 228 Making Sense of the Situation in Poland .............................................................................................