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Introduction, So Poland Be Polish An Anthology of the Nationalist Underground Press “Poland had to wait for one thousand years for the appearance of the slogan that the Commonwealth should be inhabited solely by the Poles. It was only the Soviet agentura that advanced and implemented this slogan here; we will not encounter it proposed by any Polish thinker.”1 Adam Doboszy ński Introduction This is the first-ever anthology of the Polish nationalist underground press between 1939 and 1949. In other words, we shall concentrate on the clandestine press and publications of Poland’s Right-wing nationalist movement ( ruch narodowy , Endecja ). The objective is to show Polish nationalism and its purveyors under the most extreme of conditions: during the German and Soviet occupations. Initially, we expected to encounter rabid ideological Polish nationalist extremism. Instead, we discovered that the underground nationalist thought was, given the context of the era, paradoxically quite pluralistic, interestingly multifaceted, and rather moderate in comparison with other surrounding nationalisms and competing radical currents, in particular racist national socialism and communism. The chronological framework of the anthology is, on the one hand, the outbreak of the Second World War and, on the other, the destruction of the last large outfits of the nationalist underground by the Communists. In Part One we shall summarize the ideology and practice of Polish nationalism. We shall discuss both the history and the organizational forms of the nationalist movement and we shall also establish the chronological and thematic framework. We shall then describe how the nationalist movement functioned in the underground (1939– 1949) and in its general historical context. Next, we shall explain the concepts of Poland, the Poles, the people and the elite, as the nationalists understood them at the inception of their activities, during the Second World War and under the two occupations. Further, we shall present the nationalist attitude towards the Communists and Polish independentists (from the far right to the radical left outside of Moscow’s control). Then, we shall highlight the nationalist political and economic plans for Poland, including the concept of the nation, family, and individual. We shall then explore the nationalist views on the Polish majority, the national minorities, and the elite. Further, we shall focus on the political system, including the administration, self-government, economy, and foreign policy that the nationalists wished to establish for Poland. Subsequently, we shall examine separately the nationalist attitude towards the Jews in the light of the nationalist press. In Part Two we shall concentrate on the technical aspects of the underground press under the Nazi and Soviet occupations. Initially, we shall describe the work of the clandestine journalists, their news agencies, and the various periodicals, as well as their circulation, distribution and readership. We shall then demonstrate the watershed moment, the collapse of the Warsaw Rising of 1944, and its impact on the subsequent fate of the nationalist underground press under the new Soviet occupation. We shall discuss the printing and copying facilities separately by focusing on the individual 1 Adam Doboszy ński, W pół drogi [Halfway Along] (Warsaw: “Prolog,” 1993). This work was written right after the Second World War but had to wait for half a century to be published. 1 initiatives of the various nationalist political and military groups. Against this background, we shall recount the accomplishments of the underground printers. Last but not least, we shall summarize our analysis, including a discussion the current state of the research on the Polish nationalists and the sources for this project. Our anthology is virtually the first primary source selection on the history of the Polish nationalist movement in general. It is also a contribution to the history of Polish nationalism. This political creed, contrary to most other nationalisms, was characterized by its recognition of the primacy of Christianity over the national idea. It was this defining trait that moderated the movement’s radicalism and ensured the maintenance of ties with Polish tradition. In general , nationalism is an ideology which invokes the concept of “nation” with all of its various cultural, ethnic, and racial definitions. Nationalism is a means of social mobilization by invoking the greater good of the community. It stresses national harmony and abhors class struggle. As a populistic concept calling for the involvement of the masses in politics, nationalism was utilized by both Rightist and Leftist groups. The racist socialists from the German National Socialist Workers’ Party (NSDAP), Benito Mussolini’s Italian Fascists, the Ukrainian nationalists from the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN),2 the official “National-Bolshevik” incarnation of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the Second World War, and Communist subversive movements in Asia and South America during the second half of the twentieth century (the Viet Cong, the Marxist ZANU & ZAPU of Rhodesia, the Maoist “Shining Path” of Peru, the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, the Colombian FARC, or the Zapatistas in Mexico) all invoked nationalist slogans. On the Right, the nationalist program was promoted by, among others, the conservative Catholic Carlist movement and José Antonio Primo de Rivera’s nationalist-radical Falange in Spain, the French conservative and monarchistic Action Française , and the supporters of the authoritarian government of António de Oliveira Salazar in Portugal. 3 2 For details about the activities of the Ukrainian nationalist movement, see Wiktor Poliszczuk, Ideologia nacjonalizmu ukrai ńskiego [The Ideology of Ukrainian Nationalism] (Ph.D. dissertation self-published in Toronto, 1996); Integralny nacjonalizm ukrai ński jako odmiana faszyzmu [Ukrainian Integral Nationalism as a Form of Fascism], 5 vols. (Toronto: n.p., 1998–2003); Doktryna Dmytra Doncowa [The Doctrine of Dmytro Dontsov] (Toronto: n.p., 2006). See also Tomasz Stryjek, Ukrai ńska idea narodowa okresu mi ędzywojenego: Analiza wybranych koncepcji [The Ukrainian National Ideology During the Interwar Period: An Analysis of Selected Conceptions] (Wrocław: Wyd. Funna, 2000). 3 See John Hutchinson and Anthony D. Smith, eds., Nationalism (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1994); Peter F. Sugar, ed., Eastern European Nationalism in the Twentieth Century (Washington, DC: The American University Press, 1995); Stanley G. Payne, A History of Fascism, 1914- 1945 (Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1995); Stanley G. Payne, Fascism: Comparison and Definition (Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1987); F. L. Carsten, The Rise of Fascism (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967); Otto-Ernst Schuddekopf, Fascism: Revolutions of Our Time (New York and Washington: Praeger Publishers, 1973); Nathanael Greene, Fascism: An Anthology (New York, NY: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968); Roger Griffin, ed., Fascism (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1995); Noel O’Sullivan, Fascism: Modern Ideologies (London and Melbourne: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1983); John Weiss, The Fascist Tradition: Radical Right-Wing Extremism in Modern Europe (New York, Evanston and London: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1967); Roger Eatwell, Fascism: A History (New York and London: Penguin Books, 1997); Peter F. Sugar, ed., Native Fascism: In the Successor States, 1918-1945 (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 1971); David Littlejohn, The Patriotic Traitors: The Story of Collaboration in German Occupied 2 Polish nationalism is a defense movement of the constantly modernizing cultural, social, and political heritage of the Poles. According to the nationalists, Poles are those who have identified with Polishness ( polsko ść ) which manifests itself in many shapes and forms (within and without the state) over the centuries but is immutably based on transcendental values. The most significant element of Polish nationalism is its spiritual component which endows it with a Christian character. The domination of its universalist, Christian trait has guaranteed that various novelties, and racism in particular, were either eliminated or, at least, failed to penetrate beyond the verbal sphere, as far as the mainstream Polish nationalist movement is concerned. The spirituality of Polish nationalism translates itself into the fact that, in general, anyone, regardless of one’s descent, could become and feel a Pole, as well as be considered by others as such. The condition for one’s acceptance into the national body was one’s identification with the Polish tradition expressed in a Christian form. By the same token, one’s abandonment of the traditional understanding of Polishness signified – according to the Polish nationalists (and conservatives and others as well) – a voluntary abdication of the function of the guardian of national tradition and, thus, the rejection of Polishness, notwithstanding one’s ethnic background. Simply put, by excercising free choice, anybody could become a Pole and any Pole could cease to be one. Part I: Ideology and Practice 1. Polish Nationalism Modern Polish nationalism produced two competing giants. First of them, Józef Piłsudski, appealed to the heritage of the old multinational Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ( Rzeczpospolita ) and he wished to organize its heirs according to a mild nationalist socialism of sorts but based on Polish culture.
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