Politics&Diplomacy Federalism and Nationalism in Polish Eastern Policy Timothy Snyder As the European Union admits more and more states of the Timothy Snyder is Assistant Professor of former communist bloc, the eastern border of the Euro- History at Yale Univer- pean Union will overlap with a number of other very sity. His most recent book is The Reconstruction important divides: between more and less prosperous states, of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, between western and eastern Christianity, between states Lithuania, Belarus, 1569- with historically friendly ties with the United States and 1999. those without. Integration into the European Union will become far more than a metaphor, as its borders will func- tion like those of a sovereign state. Wh e r e will the European Union find its eastern policy, its Os t p o l i t i k ? During the Cold War, West Germany was the main so u r ce of eastern policy, for good reason. A divided Germany then marked the border of eastern and western Europe. Tod a y , Germany has been reunified, and soon the European Union will enlarge to include Germany’s eastern neighbors, most importantly Poland and Lithuania. The cold war lasted for two ge n e r ations; the new divide between eastern and western Europe promises to last at least as long. Poland and Lithuania will soon become, and long remain, the eastern marches of the European Union. Their ideas and initiatives are likely to guide whatever eastern policy the European Union devises. What exactly their inclinations will be, however, is far from clear. The eastern question persisted throughout modern Pol - Winter/Spring 2003 [1 1 1 ] F E D E R ALISM AND NAT I O NALISM IN POLISH EASTERN POLICY ish and Lithuanian political history, The Union of Lublin. In the 1560s, from the founding moment of the Pol - the first important question about the ish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in st r u c t u r e of the Polish state arrived along 1569 to its collapse, from the re c re- with the golden age of Polish civilization ation of Poland and Lithuania in 1918 and statehood: How should Poland deal to the Second World War, and through with its eastern neighbors? Luckily, the the Cold War to modern-day Euro- middle nobility of the Grand Duchy of pean integration. Eastern policy has Lithuania, who sought to secure for been an uneasy mixture of two distinct themselves the rights already enjoyed by concepts: the creation of common their Polish peers, answered the question institutions with neighbors, which I for them by supporting union. That shall call federalism, and the incorpo- union was established at Lublin in 1569; ration of territory, which I shall call it was the final achievement of Polish King nationalism. In general, nationalism Zygmunt II, who was the last member of The tension between nationalism and fe d e r alism was overcome perfectly only once, in a grand strategy formulated in the 1970s. proved to be simpler but more risky, the Jagiellon dynasty. Upon his death, while federalist solutions were more Polish and Lithuanian nobles asserted complicated yet also more dura b l e . their right to elect his successor at the The tension between nationalism and Gr eat Confederation of Warsaw in 1573. fe d e r alism was overcome perfectly only Although the words federalism and once, in a grand strategy formulated in nationalism were not used at the time, the 1970s that radically rei n t e r p re t e d the Lublin Union rep r esents the first nationalist and federalist legacies. This important attempt at deciding between st r ategy was based on the idea that Pol i s h whether to create common institutions i n t e rests demanded the creation of with eastern neighbors or incorporat e Lithuanian, Belarusian, and Ukrai n i a n them into Poland. The Lublin Union is nation-states. However, the success of quite properly rem e m b e r ed as an exam- that eastern strategy has made it red u n - ple of the first tendency, for the Gran d dant since its application after 1989 Duchy of Lithuania retained its own (along with other reforms) helped assure ad m i n i s t r ation, treasury, code of law, Poland’s (and Lithuania’s) accession to and army. However, the Lublin Union the European Union. also involved incorporation. The Pol i s h Once this integration is complete, king demanded, and received, the the entire eastern question will be southern provinces of the Grand Duchy posed anew, with different, and per- of Lithuania, known as Bratslav, Kyiv, haps higher, stakes. As this historical and Volhynia. While Lithuania pre- realignment approaches, a review of served and developed its native institu- traditional Polish eastern problems and tions, Ukraine was wrenched from solutions is very much in order. Lithuania and added to Poland. It [1 1 2 ] Georgetown Journal of International Affairs S N Y D E R Politics&Diplomacy became part of the Polish Kingdom, Cossacks. When the Cossacks were with no special rights. needed, higher numbers were allowed Th e re f o r e, there was a differen t i a t i o n and pay was sent. In this way, the incor- in policy between Lithuania and Ukrai n e po r ation of Ukraine by Poland sharp- from the very beginning. Instead of being ened the incipient conflict between two a separate political entity, as Lithuania native Ukrainian groups: the richest was and is, Ukraine became an undefined local boyars, who used Polish prac t i c e s addendum, more a space than a country. to become wealthy landowners, and the Even so, the connection to Po l a n d Cossacks, who grew in size thanks to revived and rejuvenated Ukrainian civi- peasant suffering but were never inte- lization. The formation of a political gr ated into the political system. This union with Poland led to great sociocul- tension escalated into a full-scale tu r al intermixing. Confronted with new Uk r ainian civil war in 1648 after the Polish religious thought and the achieve- provocation of Bohdan Khmel’nyts’kyi. ments of Latin and Polish scholarship, After Khmel’nyts’kyi allied with Mus- the Ukranian Orthodox clergy launched a covy in 1654, his Cossacks helped Mus- brilliant Renaissance and Reformation, covy to make war on the Pol i s h - L i t h u a n - ch a r acterized by cosmopolitan education ian Commonwealth. The results were and religious tolerat i o n . 1 disastrous: nearly a third of the Com- However, every step Ukraine took monwealth’s inhabitants died in the war to w a r ds the Polish model of European and associated calamities; official rel i - civilization deepened the gaps between gious toleration was undermined by a Uk r ainian magnates and the rest of soci- new suspicion of non-Catholics; and the ety. Roman Catholicism and the Pol i s h Commonwealth itself began a fatal eco- language unified the Ukrainian and Pol - nomic and political decline. This first ish noblemen, but distanced Ukrai n i a n attempt at federalism had failed miser- noblemen from their own peasantry. ably. The internal Ukrainian tensions Meanwhile, Ukrainian peasants were ge n e r ated by the political union were too enserfed and impoverished as Polish and gr eat to sustain. From the experience of Jewish agents were brought in by the early modern Poland-Lithuania, it seems gr ain trade to organize the cultivation of that federations are inherently harder to Uk r aine’s fertile black earth. manage than policies of incorporat i o n . The Cossacks, Ukraine’s special caste This is all the more true in times of war, of free warriors, posed a special dilem- when the various parties concerned are ma. Although they helped Polish and mo r e likely to be absorbed by prospects Lithuanian knights defeat Sweden, of immediate gain and loss, and less Muscovy, and the Ottomans, the Pol - inclined to negotiate complicated com- ish-Lithuanian nobility took an promises. The complexity of federal ungenerous view of the Cossacks. solutions places them at an inherent dis- Although many Cossack officers were advantage to nationalist ones. themselves nobles, the rank and file we r e mainly of peasant origins. Since P ilsudski and Dmowski . Jo z e f noble landowners wished to keep the Pilsudski and Roman Dmowski, the two peasants on the land, they tried to lim- most important Polish politicians of the it the numbers of legal or “reg i s t e re d ” early twentieth century, articulated Winter/Spring 2003 [1 1 3] F E D E R ALISM AND NAT I O NALISM IN POLISH EASTERN POLICY mutually exclusive ideas of Poland. Pil - tion collapsed, and Vilnius was simply sudski was a federalist from the east, a in c o r p o r ated into Pol a n d . socialist of noble origin who imagined In attempting to build his federat i o n , Poland reborn in a federation with Pilsudski was unable to overcome his lack Lithuania. His Poland would be bound of local allies. Popular support would together by ancient traditions, the com- have helped, but the peasants and Jews of mon sense of the Polish-speaking elite of tr aditional Lithuania saw no special rea - whatever ethnic origin, and the generos- son why they should be governed from ity and effectiveness of a modern state. Warsaw.