National Democracy ( pl, Narodowa Demokracja, also known from its abbreviation ND as ''Endecja''; ) was a Polish political movement active from the second half of the 19th century under the foreign partitions of the country until the end of the Second Polish Republic. It ceased to exist after the Nazi–Soviet invasion of Poland of 1939. In its long history, National Democracy went through several stages of development. Created with the intention of promoting the fight for Poland's sovereignty against the repressive imperial regimes, the movement acquired its right-wing

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

character following the return to independence. A founder and principal ideologue was

Roman Dmowski Roman Stanisław Dmowski (Polish: , 9 August 1864 – 2 January 1939) was a Polish politician, statesman, and co-founder and chief ideologue of the National Democracy (abbreviated "ND": in Polish, "''Endecja''") political movement. He saw th ...

. Other ideological fathers of the movement included

Zygmunt Balicki Zygmunt Balicki (30 December 1858 in Lublin – 12 September 1916 in Saint Petersburg) was a Polish sociologist, publicist and one of the first leading thinkers of the modern Polish nationalism in the late 19th century under the foreign Partiti ...

and

Jan Ludwik Popławski Jan Ludwik Popławski (17 January 1854 in Bystrzejowice Pierwsze – 12 March 1908 in Warsaw) was a Polish journalist, author, politician and one of the first chief activists and ideologues of the right-wing National Democracy political camp. ...

. The National Democracy's main stronghold was Greater Poland (western Poland), where much of the movement's early impetus derived from efforts to counter

Imperial Germany The German Empire (), Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditar ...

's policy of Germanizing its Polish territorial holdings. Later, the ND's focus would shift to countering what it saw as Polish-Jewish economic competition with Catholic Poles. Party support was made up of the ethnically Polish intelligentsia, the urban lower-middle class, some elements of the greater middle class, and its extensive youth movement. During the

interbellum In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relative ...

Second Republic, the ND was a strong proponent for the

Polonization Polonization (or Polonisation; pl, polonizacja)In Polish historiography, particularly pre-WWII (e.g., L. Wasilewski. As noted in Смалянчук А. Ф. (Smalyanchuk 2001) Паміж краёвасцю і нацыянальнай ідэя� ...

of the country's German minority and of other non-Polish (Belarusian, Lithuanian and Ukrainian) populations in Poland's eastern border regions (the ''

Kresy Eastern Borderlands ( pl, Kresy Wschodnie) or simply Borderlands ( pl, Kresy, ) was a term coined for the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic during the History of Poland (1918–1939), interwar period (1918–1939). Largely agricultural ...

''). With the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and the occupation of the country by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and its communist puppet regime, the National Democracy movement effectively ceased to exist.

Origins

The origins of the ND can be traced to the 1864 failure of the January 1863 Uprising and to the era of

Positivism in Poland Polish Positivism was a social, literary and philosophical movement that became dominant in late-19th-century partitioned Poland following the suppression of the January 1863 Uprising against the Russian Empire. The Positivist period lasted until ...

. After that Uprising – the last in a series of 19th-century

Polish uprisings This is a chronological list of military conflicts in which Polish armed forces fought or took place on Polish territory from the reign of Mieszko I (960–992) to the ongoing military operations. This list does not include peacekeeping operation ...

– had been bloodily crushed by Poland's partitioners, a new generation of Polish patriots and politicians concluded that Poland's independence would not be won through force on the battlefield, but through education and culture. In 1886 the secret '' Polish League'' (Liga Polska) was founded. In 1893 it was renamed ''

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

'' (Liga Narodowa). From 1895 the League published a newspaper, ''Przegląd Wszechpolski'' (The All-Polish Review), and from 1897 it had an official political party, the '' National-Democratic Party'' (Stronnictwo Narodowo-Demokratyczne). Unlike the

Polish Socialist Party The Polish Socialist Party ( pl, Polska Partia Socjalistyczna, PPS) is a socialist political party in Poland. It was one of the most important parties in Poland from its inception in 1892 until its merger with the communist Polish Workers' ...

(''PPS''), the ND advocated peaceful negotiations, not armed resistance. Influenced by

's radical nationalist and social-Darwinist ideas, National Democrats soon turned against other nationalities within the Polish lands, most notably the Jews;

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

became an element of ND ideology. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, while the PPS under

Józef Piłsudski Józef Klemens Piłsudski (; 5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesman who served as the Naczelnik państwa, Chief of State (1918–1922) and Marshal of Poland, First Marshal of Second Polish Republic, Poland (from 1920). He was ...

supported the

Central Powers The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in ...

against

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

(through the Polish Legions), the ND first allied itself with the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(supporting the creation of the

Puławy Legion Puławy Legion ( pl, Legion Puławski, russian: Легион Пулави) was a Polish military formation of World War I, as part of the Imperial Russian Army. It was created in late 1914 from volunteers gathered together due to several initia ...

) and later with the

Western Powers The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.

(supporting the Polish Blue Army in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

). At war's end, many ND politicians enjoyed more influence abroad than in Poland. This allowed them to use their leverage to share power with Piłsudski, who had much more support in the military and in the country proper than they did. And because of their support abroad ND politicians such as Dmowski and

Ignacy Paderewski Ignacy Jan Paderewski (; – 29 June 1941) was a Polish pianist and composer who became a spokesman for Polish independence. In 1919, he was the new nation's Prime Minister and foreign minister during which he signed the Treaty of Versaill ...

were able to gain backing for their demands at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and in the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

Second Republic

In the newly independent Second Polish Republic, the ND was represented first by the ''

Popular National Union Związek Ludowo-Narodowy (ZLN; en, Popular National Union}was a Polish political party aligned with the National Democracy (Poland), National Democracy political movement during the Second Polish Republic, gathering together right-wing politician ...

'' (Związek Ludowo-Narodowy), a conservative political party advocating their program through democratic and parliamentary political means. After Piłsudski's May 1926 ''Coup d'État'', the ND found itself in constant opposition to his ''

Sanacja Sanation ( pl, Sanacja, ) was a Polish political movement that was created in the interwar period, prior to Józef Piłsudski's May 1926 ''Coup d'État'', and came to power in the wake of that coup. In 1928 its political activists would go on ...

'' government. The tightening of Sanacja's controls on opposition parties and its general authoritarian drift led to the gradual radicalization of the ND movement. In December 1926, the ''

Camp of Great Poland Camp of Great Poland ( pl, Obóz Wielkiej Polski, OWP) was a far-right,Obóz Wielkiej Polski
,

'' (Obóz Wielkiej Polski) was created as an extra-parliamentary organization in opposition to the Sanacja government. The youth faction of the Camp of Great Poland gradually took control over the whole organization, and from 1931 the camp quickly radicalized and even adopted some militaristic elements. In 1928 the '' National Party'' (Stronnictwo Narodowe) was founded, as a successor party to the Popular National Union. In the beginning, the new party adopted the same political line as its predecessor. After the official banning of the Camp of Great Poland, radicalized youth entered the National Party. The ideological clash between the old and new generation of National Democrats culminated at the party convention in 1935 where the younger activists were elected to lead the party. In 1936–1939 the personnel changes within the party continued, and the young generation totally began its complete domination. The older generation of National Democrats, disagreeing with the new course, left active politics or exited the party completely. A chief characteristic of ND policies at this time was their emphasis on

of minorities: ND politicians such as Dmowski and Stanisław Grabski contributed to the failure of Piłsudski's proposed '' Międzymorze''

federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-govern ...

and the

alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

with the

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

leader Symon Petlura, as well as to the alienation of Poland's

ethnic minorities The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...

. Simultaneously the ND emphasized its anti-Semitic stance, intending to exclude Jews from Polish social and economic life and ultimately to push them to

emigration Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanent ...

out of Poland. Antisemitic actions and incidents – boycotts, demonstrations, even attacks – organized or inspired by National Democrats occurred during the 1930s. The most notorious actions were taken by a splinter group of radical young former NDs who formed the fascist-inspired

National Radical Camp The National Radical Camp ( pl, Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny, ONR) refers to at least three groups that are fascist, far-right, and ultranationalist Polish organisations with doctrines stemming from pre-World War II nationalist ideology. The cur ...

(Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny).

World War II

During

, the ND became part of a coalition which formed the Polish Government in Exile. It was closely linked with the

National Armed Forces National Armed Forces (NSZ; '' Polish:'' Narodowe Siły Zbrojne) was a Polish right-wing underground military organization of the National Democracy operating from 1942. During World War II, NSZ troops fought against Nazi Germany and communist p ...

(Narodowe Siły Zbrojne), an underground organization that became part of the Polish resistance movement. ND armed organizations fought not only against

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

but also against the

. Both occupying forces regarded members of the movement as their mortal enemy, and its leaders were hunted down and killed in mass executions, in concentration camps, and in the

Katyń massacre The Katyn massacre, "Katyń crime"; russian: link=yes, Катынская резня ''Katynskaya reznya'', "Katyn massacre", or russian: link=no, Катынский расстрел, ''Katynsky rasstrel'', "Katyn execution" was a series of m ...

. Among those killed are: * Leopold Bieńkowski (father of

Zygmunt Witymir Bieńkowski Zygmunt Witymir Bieńkowski (2 May 1913 Warsaw – 15 August 1979) was a Polish pilot and a writer of many articles and poems. His 303 squadron diary is held in the Polish Museum and Sikorski Institute in London. Zygmunt Witymir Bieńkowski w ...

), arrested by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

in early 1940, died in a Soviet concentration camp near

Arkhangelsk Arkhangelsk (, ; rus, Арха́нгельск, p=ɐrˈxanɡʲɪlʲsk), also known in English as Archangel and Archangelsk, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina near ...

in 1941 * reverend Feliks Bolt, a senator of the Republic of Poland, died in

Stutthof Stutthof was a Nazi concentration camp established by Nazi Germany in a secluded, marshy, and wooded area near the village of Stutthof (now Sztutowo) 34 km (21 mi) east of the city of Danzig ( Gdańsk) in the territory of the Germ ...

in 1940 * Tadeusz Fabiani, a lawyer, shot at

Pawiak Pawiak () was a prison built in 1835 in Warsaw, Congress Poland. During the January 1863 Uprising, it served as a transfer camp for Poles sentenced by Imperial Russia to deportation to Siberia. During the World War II German occupation ...

in 1940 * Stanisław Głąbiński, died in NKVD prison in Lubyanka in 1940 * doctor Wincenty Harembski, shot in NKVD prison in Kharkiv in 1940 * Tadeusz Zygmunt Hernes, journalist, killed in

* Czesław Jóźwiak, murdered by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

in 1940 in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

prison *

Jan Mosdorf Jan Mosdorf (30 May 1904 – 11 October 1943), was a Polish right-wing politician, director of the nationalist organization All-Polish Youth (''Młodzież Wszechpolska'', MW) and member of the far-right political party National Radical Camp ...

, Auschwitz * reverend Marceli Nowakowski, shot in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

in December 1939 * Stanisław Piasecki, writer, shot in Palmiry in June 1941 * reverend Józef Prądzyński, died in the Dachau concentration camp in 1942 * Jozefat Sikorski, murdered by the Gestapo in the Berlin-Plotzensee prison in 1942 * Michał Starczewski, murdered in the Katyn massacre * Tadeusz Szefer, murdered in the Katyn massacre * Jan Szturmowski, murdered by the Germans in September 1939 * Jan Waliński, murdered by the NKVD in Kharkiv in 1940 * Antoni Wolniewicz, murdered by the Gestapo in the Berlin-Plotzensee prison in 1942 * Jan Wujastyk, murdered in the Katyń massacre

Righteous among the Nations

* Edward Kemnitz * Marceli Godlewski

After the war

After the war, when a communist, pro-Soviet government took power in Poland, most remaining NDs either emigrated to

the West West is a cardinal direction or compass point. West or The West may also refer to: Geography and locations Global context * The Western world * Western culture and Western civilization in general * The Western Bloc, countries allied with NATO ...

or continued to oppose the

Communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...

. Others joined the new regime – most notably, the ''RNR-Falanga'' leader

Bolesław Piasecki Bolesław Bogdan Piasecki, alias Leon Całka, Wojciech z Królewca, Sablewski (18 February 1915 – 1 January 1979) was a Polish politician and writer. Biography In the Second Polish Republic he was one of the more prominent Polish nationa ...

, who co-organized a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

movement.

Today's Poland

Since the

fall of communism The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Nat ...

, with Poland once again a

democratically Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...

governed country, several political parties have sought to re-establish some ND traditions; their adherents prefer to call themselves the "National Movement" (''Ruch Narodowy''). The only significant party that declared itself a successor to the ND was the '' League of Polish Families'' (Liga Polskich Rodzin), founded in 2001 by

Roman Giertych Roman Jacek Giertych (; born 27 February 1971 in Śrem, Poland) is a Polish politician and lawyer; he was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education until August 2007. He was a member of the Sejm (the lower house of the Polish parliament) f ...

, grandson of

Jędrzej Giertych Jędrzej Giertych (7 January 1903 – 9 October 1992) was a Polish right-wing politician, journalist and writer. Biography Jędrzej Giertych was born in Sosnowiec on 7 January 1903, the son of Franciszek Giertych (1868–1938), an engineer. He ...

, a pre-war ND politician. It received 8% of the parliamentary vote in 2001 and 16% in 2004, but then fell below the 5% threshold in 2007 and lost all its parliamentary seats. Another Polish national-democratic association with legal standing is the

Camp of Great Poland Camp of Great Poland ( pl, Obóz Wielkiej Polski, OWP) was a far-right,Obóz Wielkiej Polski
,

. The association was established on March 28, 2003, as a response of the National Party (Stronnictwo Narodowe; SN) Youth Section to the deletion of the party from the national registry. On February 17, 2012, the OWP was registered in the National Registrar of Companies and Legal Entities (Krajowy Rejestr Sądowy; KRS), gaining legal personality. Today the main party promoting National Democracy is the

National Movement Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

. The party was formed originally as a nationalist coalition by

Robert Winnicki Robert Artur Winnicki (born 18 July 1985) is a Polish politician who has been a member of the Sejm since 2015. He heads the National Movement political party. Before entering politics, Winnicki worked as a journalist. He served as a chairman of ...

Krzysztof Bosak Krzysztof Bosak (, born 13 June 1982) is a far-right Polish politician. He was a member of the Sejm for the League of Polish Families from 2005 to 2007 and has been a member of the Sejm again since 2019 for the Confederation. Bosak was the chairm ...

, and other defectors from the LPR. As of 2019, it has 5 deputies in the Sejm. Newspaper ''

Nasz Dziennik ''Nasz Dziennik'' ("Our Daily") is a Polish-language Roman Catholic daily newspaper published six times a week in Warsaw, Poland. It is connected to the Lux Veritatis Foundation. Its viewpoint has been described as right-wing to far-right (har ...

'' often represents national democracy viewpoints.B. Sobczak
''Medialne obrazy świata z perspektywy retorycznej (na przykładzie recepcji medialnej śmierci i pochówku Czesława Miłosza)''
„Poznańskie Studia Polonistyczne. Seria Językoznawcza”, 18, 2011, 2, s. 37.

Notables

* Ignacy Chrzanowski *

* Adam Doboszyński *

* Stanisław Grabski *

Władysław Grabski Władysław Dominik Grabski (; 7 July 1874 – 1 March 1938) was a Polish National Democratic politician, economist and historian. He was the main author of the currency reform in the Second Polish Republic and served as Prime Minister of Poland ...

Józef Haller Józef Haller von Hallenburg (13 August 1873 – 4 June 1960) was a lieutenant general of the Polish Army, a legionary in the Polish Legions, harcmistrz (the highest Scouting instructor rank in Poland), the president of the Polish Scouti ...

Feliks Koneczny Feliks Karol Koneczny (; 1 November 1862 – 10 February 1949) was a Polish historian, theatrical critic, librarian, journalist and social philosopher. He founded the original system of the comparative science of civilizations. Biography Ko ...

Władysław Konopczyński Władysław Konopczyński (26 November 1880 – 12 July 1952) was a leading Polish historian'' Encyklopedia Polski'', p. 305. and publisher of primary-source materials.''Encyklopedia powszechna PWN'', vol. 2, p. 539. Life Władysław Konopczyńs ...

* Wojciech Korfanty * Stanisław Kozicki *

Leon Mirecki Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again f ...

* Roman Rybarski *

Marian Seyda Marian may refer to: People * Mari people, a Finno-Ugric ethnic group in Russia * Marian (given name), a list of people with the given name * Marian (surname), a list of people so named Places * Marian, Iran (disambiguation) * Marian, Queensla ...

Józef Świeżyński Józef Świeżyński (; 19 April 1868 – 12 February 1948) was the prime minister of the Kingdom of Poland (1916–1918), Kingdom of Poland for a short time — from 23 October 1918 to 4 November 1918. Citations

1868 births 1948 ...

* Zygmunt Wasilewski * Maurycy Zamoyski

Notes

References

External links

Digital Library of National Thought
(Polish)