NATIONAL-DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT AND THE NATIONAL QUESTION IN THE II RZECZPOSPOLITA

Abstract

The article analyzes the history of the development of the political movement of the National Democrats, also known as endecs, in Poland during the interwar period. The process of appearance of the movement in the previous stateless period of the history of Poland, the formation of the foundations of their ideology is considered. The peculiarities of the development of the national democratic movement in the conditions of the revival of the independent II Rzeczpospolita, creation of new political organizations by the endecs, their participation in parliamentary life and government are described. Attention is drawn to the development of ideological postulates of the movement in which the evolution of the views of Polish nationalism of the first half of the 20th century was reflected. The National Democrats opposed the ideas of marshal J. Pilsudski and his political camp, who were for creating a federal state of peoples in the territories between the Black and Baltic Seas, and wished to build a mono-ethnic state within the boundaries of the resettlement of the Polish people. The views of the endek people on the solution of the national question in the interwar Polish state, which developed the concept of national assimilation of the foreign ethnic group in the Polish environment, are separately highlighted. Important in the ideology of Polish national democracy were the postulates of building a socially-corporate society with the rule of elites where the nation was seen as the highest value and was viewed as a living organism where each of its members fulfills the role assigned to it. Also endecs were opponents of liberalism, individualism and market economy. Stressed the importance of traditions and the Catholic Church for maintaining the unity of the Polish people. Separately, the article examines the land and educational policy of the ruling camp, headed by the National Democrats. In land policy, endeki contributed to the strengthening of Polish landowners in the eastern lands inhabited by the non-Polish majority of the II Rzeczpospolita and contributed to the Polish resettlement movement on these lands, in particular, the actions of settling Polish military colonists. In education they defended the idea of assimilation of Ukrainians, Lithuanians and Byelorussians through the liquidation of the national education and the introduction of bilingual and exclusively Polish-speaking education. The activities of the Polish national-democratic movement in the interwar period greatly contributed to the aggravation of interethnic relations, the intensification of Polish chauvinism and the oppression of national minorities. This, in turn, led to a deepening of the Polish-Ukrainian conflict, which grew into a bloody confrontation during the Second World War and subsequent years.