The SDKPiL and the Polish Question (Revisited)

Abstract

The ideological identity of the Marxist political organisation of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SKDPiL) has often been defined primarily by its negative stance on the ‘Polish Question’. Most historians of Polish socialism, regardless of their own political persuasion or ideological bias, argue that the SKDPiL from its inception in 1894 staked out its infamous hard-line position against an independent Poland, a position to which the party remained inflexibly loyal for the duration of its existence. This straight-line approach also assumes that ideological and political leadership of the SKDPiL rested firmly and always in the hands of Rosa Luxemburg and her companion, Leon Jogiches-Tyszka, whose early prescriptions on the Polish Question were accepted as gospel by the entire party, with little or no opposition or deviation.KeywordsPolish WorkerPolish QuestionPolish SocialNational QuestionIdeological IdentityThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.