Polish Socialist Party Research Articles

More than Canteen Control: Polish and Italian Socialists Confronting Their Workers, 1944–1947

This article explores the chasm between party leaders and rank-and-file workers within the postwar Italian Socialist Party and Polish Socialist Party between 1944 and 1947. So far only studied in the context of communist parties, existing historiography on this theme has observed a deep rift between the radicalization amongst grassroots activists defending the self-management workers had won during the final days of World War II and the moderation practised by party leaders desperate to demonstrate their trustworthiness as government partners. Based on an analysis of the sentiments amongst socialist workers in Łodz and Sesto San Giovanni, and of the visions espoused by provincial and national socialist leaders, this article argues that the dynamics within socialist parties were exactly the other way around. Whereas socialist leaders ascribed a crucial role to grassroots participatory structures in their efforts to teach the working classes democracy, socialist workers were more concerned with day-to-day survival than with participation, self-management, or any other question.

Relations between the Bund and the Polish Socialist Party from a micro-historical perspective: Tarnów in the interwar period

This article examines how and why the Bund and the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) cooperated on the local level in Tarnów in the interwar period. Besides the ideological rapprochement of the two parties, there was an intrinsic logic to the relations between the Bund and the PPS in Tarnów, which may be measured in the successes oyf der yidisher gas (such as common protest actions on the streets) and in municipal institutions, and in the contact between both local leaders and their outlooks. The relations of the party members in daily life and everyday encounters generate new insights from a micro-historical perspective. The fact that working together yielded real outcomes and that some changes were palpable in daily life encouraged further collaboration. Particular attention is devoted to work in a joint Socialist Club within the city council of Tarnów between 1934 and 1939 and to the trials and successes of this club.

Dancing with the Devil: Rosa Luxemburg's Conception of the Nationality Question in Polish Socialism

Rosa Luxemburg is probably one of the best-known and most ardent Marxist opponents of everything national—she has become synonymous with revolutionary internationalism. She epitomized Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels's international cosmopolitanism, economism and belief in the inevitable progression of the historical forces towards a workers’ revolution. When Luxemburg entered politics in the early 1890s, she encountered a blossoming socialism of the Golden Age. Yet her intellectual evolution quickly became defined by the growing divide over the issue of nationalism. In Polish socialism, this division translated into a partisan confrontation between supporters and opponents of the restoration of Polish statehood. Emerging as a leading figure of the latter camp, Luxemburg carried the mantle of international revolutionism, economic determinism and anti-nationalist rhetoric. Unfortunately, Luxemburg's obsession with the battle against Poland's independence—embodied in the conflict between the Polska Partia Socjalistyczna (Polish Socialist Party) and the Socjaldemokracja Królestwa Polskiego i Litwy (Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania)—carried her towards determinism. Moreover, Luxemburgism, which opposed Polish independence, became one of the key factors that prevented the spread and popularity of Communism in the interwar Second Republic. Throughout the interwar years, it was the inability and unwillingness of the Komunistyczna Partia Robotnicza Polski (Communist Workers’ Party of Poland) to construct a viable nationality policy—inspired by adherence to Luxemburgism—that prevented the party from achieving solid grassroots loyalty.

„Taki Krakauer prawdziwy”. Krakowskie korzenie Feliksa Grossa

The article presents the Cracow-centered biography of Feliks Gross. It is primarily based on archival documents, reminiscences, interviews, Professor’s letters and his publications. The author describes the history of the Gross family, concentrating on Adolf, Feliks’ father, politician and social worker. The important quality of this family seemed its religious diversity, liberal political views and its belonging to the Polish intelligentsia. Feliks also exhibited his pacifist and socialist sympathies rather early. The period of his studies at the Law Department of the Jagiellonian University was the time of his political activism and growing interest in social problems and sociology. On the list of his mentors, we could find: Stanisław Estreicher, Jan Stanisław Bystroń, and (later) Bronisław Malinowski. Gross merged his careers as an attorney with political activism (Polish Socialist Party and education of adults) and scholarly work (Ph.D. in ethnology of law). When growing antisemitism prevented him from doing his post-doctoral dissertation, Malinowski came to his aid and offered Gross the opportunity to lecture at the London School of Economics. The WWII disabled those plans.The author analyzes documents related to Gross in terms of the Fritz Schütze biographical process theory and points to the models of action, institutional patterns, trajectories and concealments.

Poles, Jews, and the Politics of Nationality: The Bund and the Polish Socialist Party in Late Tsarist Russia, 1892 – 1914 by Joshua D. Zimmerman (review)

Poles, Jews, and the Politics of Nationality: The Bund and the Polish Socialist Party in Late Tsarist Russia, 1892 – 1914 by Joshua D. Zimmerman (review)

Book Review

Few issues have divided Poles and Jews more deeply than the Nazi occupation of Poland during the Second World War and the subsequent slaughter of almost ninety percent of Polish Jewry. Many Jewish historians have argued that, during the occupation, Poles at best displayed indifference to the fate of the Jews and at worst were willing accomplices of the Nazis. Many Polish scholars, however, deny any connection between the prewar culture of antisemitism and the wartime situation. They emphasized that Poles were also victims of the Nazis and, for the most part, tried their best to protect the Jews. This collection of essays, representing three generations of Polish and Jewish scholars, is the first attempt since the fall of Communism to reassess the existing historiography of Polish-Jewish relations just before, during, and after the Second World War. In the spirit of detached scholarly inquiry, these essays fearlessly challenge commonly held views on both sides of the debates. The authors are committed to analyzing issues fairly and to reaching a mutual understanding. Joshua D. Zimmerman is an assistant professor of East European Jewish History at Yeshiva University, where he holds the Eli and Diana Zborowski Chair in Holocaust Studies. He is the author of the forthcoming title Poles, Jews and the Politics of Nationality: The Jewish Labor Bund and the Polish Socialist Party in Late Czarist Russia, 1892-1914.

Joshua D. Zimmerman. Poles, Jews, and the Politics of Nationality: The Bund and the Polish Socialist Party in Late Tsarist Russia, 1892–1914. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004. xiii, 360 pp.

For a half-millennium until the 1940s, the history of Poles and Jews was inextricably intertwined. In particular, from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, Poles and Jews alike were faced with sweeping economic and social changes that challenged—even threatened—livelihood, traditions, and identity. One way in which both Jews and Poles attempted to make sense of “modernity” (to use the word as shorthand for industrialization, secularization, and the communications revolution of this period) was to subscribe to one or another form of socialism. In the Polish lands, socialism and nationalism were never mutually exclusive, indeed on the whole, the two movements overlapped considerably. Again, this was just as true for Jews (Bund, Poalei Tsiyon) as for Poles (PPS). Josh Zimmerman's important book examines relations between the two most important pre-1914 Polish and Jewish socialist parties, the Bund and the PPS. Both parties aimed simultaneously to pave the way for international socialism and to develop their respective nations (Jews and Poles). Both parties rejected national chauvinism or prejudice, arguing in a Herderian vein that only when each nation developed its full potential could true internationalism reign. Despite their theoretical agreement, however, the parties frequently clashed on practical issues. Examining these practical differences, Zimmerman has much to tell us about the nature of being Jewish, Polish, and/or socialist in late imperial Russia.

Joshua D. Zimmerman. <italic>Poles, Jews and the Politics of Nationality: The Bund and the Polish Socialist Party in Late Tsarist Russia, 1892–1914</italic>. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. 2004. Pp. xv, 360. $45.00

Joshua D. Zimmerman. <italic>Poles, Jews and the Politics of Nationality: The Bund and the Polish Socialist Party in Late Tsarist Russia, 1892–1914</italic>. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. 2004. Pp. xv, 360. $45.00

Reviews of Books:Poles, Jews and the Politics of Nationality: The Bund and the Polish Socialist Party in Late Tsarist Russia, 1892-1914 Joshua D. Zimmerman

Reviews of Books:Poles, Jews and the Politics of Nationality: The Bund and the Polish Socialist Party in Late Tsarist Russia, 1892-1914 Joshua D. Zimmerman

Poles, Jews and the Politics of Nationality: The Bund and the Polish Socialist Party in Late Tsarist Russia, 1892-1914. By Joshua D. Zimmerman. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004. xviii, 360 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Illustrations. Photographs. Figures. Tables. Maps. $45.00, hard bound. $29.95, paper.

Poles, Jews and the Politics of Nationality: The Bund and the Polish Socialist Party in Late Tsarist Russia, 1892-1914. By Joshua D. Zimmerman. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004. xviii, 360 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Illustrations. Photographs. Figures. Tables. Maps. 29.95, paper. - Volume 64 Issue 1

The “Polishness” of Production: Factory Politics and the Reinvention of Working-Class National and Political Identities in Russian Poland's Textile Industry, 1880-1910

While the development of nineteenth-century Polish nationalism has received considerable scholarly attention, it has almost always focused on how the intelligentsia became the standard-bearers of Polish national consciousness. As a result, we know very little about how other members of Polish society constructed national identities. This is particularly perplexing when it comes to studying Russian Poland's workers, for there was no dearth of Polish nationalist activity among these workers. National demands articulated by Łodź's Polish workers during strikes in 1892, for example, inspired a group of social democrats to abandon internationalism and instead create the Polish Socialist Party (PPS). During the revolution of 1905, nationalism once again assumed an important place in both working-class protest and organization. Workers played a prominent role in the Polish school strikes. They also supported and sustained a uniquely Polish phenomena—a nationalist working-class political party, the National Union of Workers (NZR). Although the NZR and its constituent trade unions could be found within every industry within Russian Poland, the organization gained its greatest foothold within the textile industry. Moreover, it was within the textile industry in 1906 where bitter debates between nationalist and socialist workers erupted in violence after a disgruntled weaver from the Social Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL) concluded a political argument with an NZR coworker by gunning him down in the street.

The Relation of the Polish Socialist Party: Proletariat to the Bund and the Jewish Question, 1900–1906

The Relation of the Polish Socialist Party: Proletariat to the Bund and the Jewish Question, 1900–1906

A NEW CHALLENGE FOR AN OLD ENIGMA-BUSTER

In the summer of 1976, Marian Rejewski, Polish mathematician-cryptologist, the solver of the German Enigma cipher, was sent, by a former signals office from England, a letter including a photocopy of an enciphered message, dated 26 April 1904. This was the period of the Russo- Japanese War. The piece was a correspondence between the Polish Socialist Party (of which Józef Piłsudski was a leader) and its emissaries in London. Despite his advanced age and prolonged ailment, and contrary to his initial objections, Rejewski solved the cipher, which turned out to reveal an interesting historical document.

Polish Socialism and the Jewish Question on the Eve of the Establishment of the Polish Socialist Party (PPR) and Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland (SDKP)

Polish Socialism and the Jewish Question on the Eve of the Establishment of the Polish Socialist Party <i>(PPR)</i> and Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland <i>(SDKP)</i>

The Origins of Polish Socialism. The History and Ideas of the First Polish Socialist Party 1878-1886

Preface 1. The defeated past 2. A new generation 3. The beginning 4. A party of Marxist revolutionaries 5. Time of success 6. Time of terror 7. The government's revenge 8. The inheritance Notes Bibliography Index

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:THE CZECHS UNDER NAZI RULE: The Failure of National Resistance 1939–1942. By Vojtech Mastny.COLLECTED PAPERS ON THE JACOBITE RISINGS: Vol. 1. By Rupert C. Jarvis.THE COLONIAL OFFICE 1868–1892. By Brian L. Blakeley.THE ANTI‐POOR LAW MOVEMENT 1834–44. By Nicholas C. Edsall.THE FACTORY SYSTEM: Volume II: The Factory System and Society. By J. T. Ward.THE WORLD WE HAVE LOST. By Peter Laslett.VILLAGE AND BUREAUCRACY IN SOUTHERN SUNG CHINA. By Brian E. McKnight.ENSERFMENT AND MILITARY CHANGE IN MUSCOVY. By Richard Hellie.TYRANNY: A Study in the Abuse of Power. By Maurice Latey.CLUSTER ANALYSIS. By Robert C. Tryon and Daniel E. Bailey.EUROPE, MOTHER OF REVOLUTION. By Friedrich Heer. Translated from the German by C. Kessler and J. Adcock.THE POLITICS OF REVOLUTION. By Harvey Wheeler.PARADTCM FOR REVOLUTION? The Paris Commune 1871–1971. Edited by Eugene Kamenka.RUSSIA SINCE 1801: The Making of a New Society. By Edward C. Thaden.THE CZECHOSLOVAK REFORM MOVEMENT: Communism in Crisis 1962–1968. By G. Golan.THE INTELLECTUAL ORIGINS OF THE PRAGUE SPRING: The Development of Reformist Ideas in Czechoslovakia. By V. Kusin.THE ORIGINS OF POLISH SOCIALISM: The History and Ideas of the first Polish Socialist Party, 1878–1886. By Lucjan Blit.THE ESSENTIAL TITO. Edited by Henry M. Christman.COLONIALISM IN AFRICA 1870–1960. Volume Two: THE HISTORY AND POLITICS OF COLONIALISM 1914–1960. Edited by L. H. Gann and Peter Duignan.THE OXFORD HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA: Volume Two: SOUTH AFRICA, 1870–1966. Edited by Monica Wilson and Leonard Thompson.THE NIGERIAN MILITARY: A Sociological Analysis of Authority and Revolt 1960–67. By Robin Luckham.THE NIGERIAN ARMY 1956–1966. By N. J. Miners.MANUSCRIPTS IN THE BRITISH ISLES RELATING TO AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND AND THE PACIFIC. Edited By Phyllis Mander‐Jones.RICHARD BOURKE. By Hazel King.PUNISHMENT AND PROFIT: The Reports of Commissioner John Bigge on the Colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, 1822–23; their origins, nature and significance. By John Ritchie.AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW: Cases, Materials and Text. By J. I. Fajgenbaum and P. Hanks.AUSTRALIAN DIPLOMAT: Memoirs of Sir Alan Watt. By A. S. Watt.THE DECLINE OF WORKING CLASS POLITICS. By Barry Hindess.OFFICIAL REPORTS OF THE 27th COMMONWEALTH CONFERENCE AND SPECIAL CONFERENCE [1967] AND 28th COMMONWEALTH CONFERENCE [1969]. By the Australian Labor Party.THE CHILD'S CONSTRUCTION OF POLITICS. By R. W. Connell.MAX STIRNER: The Ego and His Own. Edited and introduced by John Carroll.THE POLITICAL THEORY OF ANARCHISM. By April Carter.REBELLION IN THE UNIVERSITY: A History of Student Activism in America. By S. M. Lipset.COMMUNITY AND IDENTITY: Refugee Groups in Adelaide. By Jean I. Martin.FUTURE AUSTRALIANS: Immigrant Children in Perth, Western Australia. By Ruth Johnston.SOCIOLOGY IN ITS PLACE AND OTHER ESSAYS. By W. G. Runciman.

The Origins of Polish Socialism: The History and Ideas of the First Polish Socialist Party, 1878-1886

The Origins of Polish Socialism: The History and Ideas of the First Polish Socialist Party, 1878-1886

Tulodziecki brothers – tribute to biography

The aim of the article is to portray the heroes of Sierpc from the first half of the 20th century: Henry, Edward and Felician Tulodziecki. It comprises a synopsis of their activity in the fields of education and politics, including their participation in the organisational units of the Polish Socialist Party.

Polish youth in the thirties

In a country which had regained independence after 123 years of subjection and partition among its three powerful neighbours, there was bound to be intense national feeling. In Poland on ii November I918 young men were disarming the Germans who had been occupying the country and were closely involved in the organization of the state and the army. Europe was undergoing a series of revolutionary upheavals. The wave which swept through Russia, Germany, and Hungary did not bypass Poland, but there was no revolution there because the country was dominated by the national problem, and because Jozef Pilsudski, enjoying the appeal of a socialist, came to power and endeavoured to maintain a balance between the Right and the Left. Then came the war of I92o-2I with Soviet Russia, which again took precedence over other considerations. Pilsudski was guided all his life by the idea of Poland's independence and greatness. This he envisaged in the form of a federation of Poland and the countries immediately to the east. With this in mind he ordered the march on Kiev, but in the end had to use his troops to defend Warsaw. Poland's fate once more hung in the balance, and national problems increasingly preoccupied Polish society. The elections of December I922 resulted in a victory for the nationalist right wing in Poland, and Pilsudski withdrew from political life; but his young followers, who had supported the national independence policy of the Polish Socialist Party (PP S) and the Polish legions of the first world war, remained in the army. Those who now looked to him were the left-wing parties, the socialists and some members of the Peasant Party. In May I926, when Pilsudski carried out a coup d'etat against the right-wing regime, he at first also enjoyed the support of the communists. The coup d'etat of May I926 was to a certain extent an expression of revolt by the younger generation of military men grouped around Pilsudski and the young radical intelligentsia against the

The Crisis in the Polish Communist Party

Just as the Russo-Yugoslav dispute was reaching its climax, and before the meeting of the Cominform, which issued a detailed condemnation of the Yugoslav Party, a plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish Workers' Party took place. What happened at this plenum of June 3, 1948 is known to us, not directly but from many accounts given at the August 31—September 3 plenum. At the June meeting Secretary General of the Party and Deputy Prime Minister of Poland Gomulka-Wieslaw, (Wieslaw was the party name of Gomulka during the war and it is used throughout the debate), delivered the main report, ostensibly an “historical analysis” of the character of the Polish working class movement. In his speech Gomulka took as the basis of Polish Socialism the tradition of the fervently nationalistic Polish Socialist Party, and condemned the internationalist and Pro-Russian Social Democratic Party of Poland, and by implication as well the pre-1938 Polish Communist Party of which the Workers' Party was supposed to be a continuation in everything but name.