In February of the year, erstwhile news of youths in the mediate Ages of Siedle, Bialysts and others began to come to our writings, we realized that the so - called issue of a Russian - speaking Catholic religion opened up a fresh period in the political life of the Kingdom — a period of conflict for the law.
We predicted that this first step in the fresh field would end in our victory, if there was clearly a limited nonsubjective to be pursued and if we all supported this initiative. “In any case, we have written about nothing more than the abolition of the lecture of Catholic religion in Russian, the withdrawal of the russification strategy by just 1 step.”
The February National League appeal, which supported this speech by young people, but powerfully opposed to extension to another junior advanced schools in the Kingdom in which religion is taught in Polish, clearly besides sought to keep the substance within the limits of the conflict for a certain object, to focus all its strength in order to accomplish this 1 modest achievement. “The fight — we read below — started for a real purpose, in order to learn religion in the native language of the east districts of the Kingdom and the United States, must proceed there until the goal is achieved, but must be limited, must not turn into a pointless movement, without a reasonable basis... It would be a disgrace for us if 1 of the priests who were expelled for this holy origin had no further training if the parents of these courageous young men had to humble themselves in the face of the enemy, if, after specified a dignified speech, the young people were in the Kingdom and in the country taken, at least 1 Catholic priest who agreed to proceed the religion lecture in another language, as in his native language."
Under these conditions, the Central Committee of the Organisation provided for a successful outcome. “The brave attitude of young people,” says the same response, allows us to anticipate that the sacrifice of young people will have the merit of achieving national conquest through collective resistance, wisely maintained within the limits of the goal.”
The action intended for all junior advanced schools, where Polish youth must learn religion in Russian, so not only to the east districts of the Kingdom, but besides to the full Land of the Taken, had to close in a modester way. In Lithuanian schools, youths have made a fewer occasional appearances that have not been decently heard in local society and, more importantly, in the clergy. But the battle, limited to the east part of the Kingdom, continued in various phases for sixteen months, from the known to the last almost moment. Finally, the end of the book was brought by the Tsaric sermon, allowing to teach Catholic religion throughout the Kingdom in Polish.
The intended prey has been achieved and we can say that the fight ended with our victory. It's not a large prey that could be
Intoxicate. The main meaning of it is political and educational: it teaches us all that fighting the Russian Government for its right can be that a fight conducted wisely and persistently can bring victory.
It is not a large prey to be drunk. The main meaning of it is political and educational: it teaches us all that fighting the Russian Government for its right can be that a fight conducted wisely and persistently can bring victory. However, it would be a very superficial science, which could lead to erroneous conclusions, if we did not think more profoundly about it, as long as we easy came to this prey and due to which we mostly owe it. It is crucial to remember that in an uncrafted, untrained society in political combat people are very easy moved from 1 utmost opinion to another. The same immature politician who couldn't fit in yesterday's head that you can force a government with millions of bayonets to do anything, next day due to his immaturity, is ready to prove that everything can be accomplished as shortly as possible, just as hard as possible. The triumph over the doctrine of religion has been a large effort, but without the large comparatively casualties. We owe this above all the nature of the case itself, which is easy to realize for the full of Poland and able even with its political failure present to bring it into conformity, and with the highly favorable circumstances in which the case was initiated.
The full course of the substance is highly informative. As is well known, September was the starting point. In a performance of widespread outrage against the Prussian school, imposing brutally on Polish children the teaching of religtion in abroad language, the first violin was captured by the Russian press, and the humanitarian her pathos sounded loudest, speaking loudly in our opinion. It seemed that the press did not know that the same harm was happening to Poles in the Russian state, and we were forgotten for a minute behind the cordon. The Polish general in the Russian partition felt all the painful falseness of this game, in which the Moscals, harassing us at home, performed as our moral protectors behind the cordon. On the another hand, people looking at things more clearly saw in this cunning policy of the Russian government, consciously seeking to gain without the cost of the Polish cordon opinion in order to usage it as a tool in its abroad policy.
The louder the Russian press outraged the Prussians and felt compassion for the Western “Slavic brothers”, the more the Kingdom needed protest against this uninvited and false care. In the behaviour of the Russian press and to a large degree the Polish cordon press, the full Kingdom saw insults to itself and felt the request for moral redress in any way. For the energy that might have discharged itself in any pointless protest, a happy expression was found in the speech of junior advanced school students against the same crime as that of September and the hypocrisy that Moscals were hypocritically outraged at. Thus, the speech of the youth found moral support for the opinion and, on the another hand, put the Russian government in a hard position. In conducting the Moscalophilic propaganda between the Poles behind the cordon, it did not seem appropriate to hotel to harsh repression against their own in the event that they protested against harm, branded freshly in the Prussians by the full Russian press. You can't imagine a minute more appropriate for this kind of action,
It is besides understandable why the national organization in the Russian partition immediately took it vigorously into its hands and led it, protecting from deviations from the right path.
If the junior advanced events had spread throughout the Kingdom — in this direction they were tried to blow them from the socialist side — the substance of spiritual discipline would have been pushed into the shadows, and the government, faced with general youth riots, would have suppressed them in the shortest possible ways, with nothing to do with it. Polish society, without seeing the intent of specified riots, would not give them moral support, and outside the case would be in the most favorable light for the government. In this direction too, the school authorities had to have instructions, for they behaved most provocatively throughout the Kingdom, trying to lead to violent occurrences. Organized efforts, supported by the League's celebrated call, managed to defend the action from deviations and keep within the right limits.
The Russian authorities were so forced to treat the substance clearly, to accept the challenge on a strictly defined ground. School events in Siedlce, Biała, Zamość were only the beginning of the fight, which, starting with them, on both sides develops further and lasts for respective months. Knowing the fear of our general and his submission to the government, especially erstwhile it comes to the destiny of his sons, the authorities now base their reckoning on the parents of rebellious youths. advanced school directors call on their fathers to sign a declaration that they want their sons to learn religion in Russian. But here they found resistance. On the 1 hand, the influence of the opinion that stood on the side of the youth, on the another hand the firm behaviour of their own sons led the citizens of Podlasie to resist. An agreement was formed between the fathers and sons: the last vowed that they would stay calm, and the first gave assurance that they would not submit to authority and make declarations of opposition. The fathers even went further and supported the opposition of their sons, organizing a petition to the Tsar to reconstruct the lecture of religion in Polish.
In dealing with the Russian government, this could not be stopped. This government, as we know, does not like to yield, and its officials are able to invent means of combating the opposition of oppressed populations. It was so essential to assure another organization who had a serious voice in the matter. It was the clergy. If it had resisted decisively and jointly, a lecture of Catholic religion in Russian would have been impossible. Unfortunately, the condition of our clergy is not specified that they can be full counted on. In particular, in the east districts of the Kingdom, where forced Orthodoxy replaced the abolished Union, Catholic priests leave much to be desired. Many of them with their greed for a penny and brutal bypass with the population as if they deliberately discourage the locals from their belongings to our Church and hesitate to throw into the embrace of Orthodox pops, which government instructions urge to the people as much as possible. And in this case, the appetite for a mediocre wage of a religion teacher in junior advanced was so strong that the government had no difficulty uncovering among our priests volunteers willing to teach the principles of father's religion in the language of invaders.
When youths categorically stated that they would not learn religion in Russian, the full substance would be facilitated if prefects immediately resigned. But saying goodbye to the government wage was not easy for those who cared for the well-being of worldly shepherds: the first was the prefect of the settlement, but any insisted all year long and only in the beginning of the year.The consequence was that all schools (Siedlce, White, Chelm, Zamość, Hrubieszów) in which religion was taught in Russian, were deprived of catechists due to the fact that they had resigned. This was influenced by the force of the opinion, which was increasingly consistent with those who helped the government in this matter, and, on the another hand, the position of the higher clergy that understood that the welfare of the church and the religion required their support of the public's attempts in this regard. The views of breaking opposition declined over time, alternatively than increasing, as the government predicted, accustomed to our deficiency of perseverance. The authorities were making extraordinary efforts. Bishop of Lublin, Fr Jaczewski, was summoned to St. Petersburg, where 3 state dignitaries, Minister of the Interior, Minister of Education Zenger and manager of the Department of abroad Religions Mosolov held a conference with him, attempting to endanger him to take a stand on the side of the government. The bishop persisted in resistance, and an interesting conversation between him and dignitaries was announced by Polish writings.
On the spot, in the country, the authorities were eagerly seeking priests who would agree to the Russian lecture, but those under force of opinion refused, although any would be happy to accept the proposal under another conditions. 1 had even agreed, but he was saddened by the not - sweet life in his fresh position, and he shortly withdrew his commitment. Last month, Governor-General Chertkov personally had a conference with 1 of the priests who were not peculiarly opinionable: he offered him 3,600 rubles of a year's salary, three-month leave and 600 rubles for a journey abroad, so the wage was extraordinary, six times higher than the usual wage of the catechet. Yet this priest, despite the insistent requests and force of the dignitary, resisted the temptation and responded to the proposal with no answer.
The course of religion in these schools did not take place, and students were notified that in the certificate of maturity they would not have a degree in religion and, wishing to enter the university, they would gotta submit an additional examination in 1 of the gymnasiums of the Land of Taken, i.e. where the Catholic religion is taught in Russian. erstwhile all these measures did not lead to anything, erstwhile the government realized that it was dealing with the persistent opposition of the full society, able to force moral compulsion on those who wanted to betray them, the Tsaric revelation, freely allowing the Polish doctrine of religion in all Kingdom advanced schools, came out.
We deliberately stayed longer on the communicative of the full case, in order to become aware of all the conditions that were laid down in our victory. These conditions were many and all were in our favor. We were victorious due to the fact that the case was initiated at the right time, erstwhile the government had somewhat restrained hands, and the society felt stronger than usual the request for protest; for all the elements on our side of the case depended on — youth, her fathers and clergy — went in 1 direction, either
with the desire, be under the force of opinion; for we have made ourselves self-sacrifice, beginning with the youth who have exposed themselves to expulsion from schools, and ending with the vast number of those who hastened with the contributions of money to aid the expelled; for we have yet had an organization that, having influenced a large part of society and young people, has watched over the full matter, giving it the character of a planned and consistent action.
Who then prevailed? All who took part in the substance and who sacrificed something in it, and most of all the political thought which proclaims the rule of fighting for national rights, which says that concessions from the government are not achieved by faithful manifestations and begging, but by firmness, consistent, organized action against the policy of an enemy government, yet by readiness to sacrifice. We are faced with an example that shows the effectiveness of a reasonable policy of action to anyone who looks clearly at things and is honest with them. This example teaches us a lot. First of all, it teaches us that if an active national policy, which is committed to fighting concessions from the government, is possible, it besides presents immense difficulties, which are essential to measure precisely if this policy is to be adopted as a system. We are raising these difficulties due to the fact that we want to fight effectively and in vain erstwhile we preach the rule of combat and victims. Therefore, we do not want unearly, immature ideas to be born immediately under the influence of this 1 success, in the belief that if 1 has succeeded, we will have the same effect.
It should not be forgotten that if the case for the Polish lecture of religion was brought to fruition in a comparatively short time, it is due to the fact that the case itself is easy understood, accessible to wider spheres of society, and that it was initiated under exceptionally successful circumstances; 1 should be prepared to do much more in another cases, to endure much longer, to bear more sacrifices and to be content with little visible results. We have seen from this case how the government has stubbornly defended its once-achieved conquests. Who worked there? Starting with ministers trying to sterilize the bishop, and from the politician general trying to bribe the priest, and ending with police guards telling among the Podlasie people that youths rebelled due to the fact that they were ungodly and refused to learn religion — the state organs active in it at all levels of the hierarchy.
And how many obstacles in society alone had to be overcome? The fear of any fathers who were ready to fear the destiny of the kid to support the russification of power; the greed of any priests who, for a mediocre profit, desired to keep themselves in the mediate school teaching or to get jobs against conscience and the general voice; the indiscretion of any youth in another junior advanced schools who were willing to make this sensible political action pointless; the mania of yet settling and mosscalitism of part of our opinion, especially behind the cordon that caused most of the Polish press in Galicia and the Prussian election not to support it, to effort to silence it or to give false news about it in order to present the Russian government in a more favourable light — all these were serious obstacles, which had cost a lot and required considerable effort of energy. The fight for the law is so possible with the Russian government, but it is not easy and requires the consideration of many
conditions if they are to bring crucial fruit. The goal to be fought for and the ways to be fought at a given minute cannot depend on the case, cannot be the consequence of our tense reflexes, an unthinkable reaction to enemy irritation. It is essential to choose a goal that is easier for our society to fight for at any time, and which is harder for the government to defend; to have an approximate power account that is being launched to fight, and the means to keep the movement in motion within the appropriate limits of the stated goal, to defend it from perversions, from overflowing beyond the edges of the bearing which it has encountered; to yet be able to keep constant watch over the matter, to keep it to the end, whether the broad general is inactive alive or to forget it.
Most of these conditions are summarised in 1 word: the organisation. Although the elements straight active in the White-Siedish case were not organized, for neither the youth nor her fathers nor the clergy who played an crucial function in the case were in any formal relation with the country's organization, it would not have been possible to carry out the case if the national league had not existed. Only through the organization of the school event did all the Kingdom gymnasium, where religion was taught in Russian, and did not grow beyond it; it was only through it that funds were raised for the aid of youth expelled from school, and only with the aid of its branched relations and its press was able to produce constant emphasis of opinion on those spheres where the full result of the case depended. An unorganized society, at least without organized political leadership, must live by its reflexes: its political actions — these will not be designed, leading to a clear goal, both with external conditions and with its own means. These acts will frequently be like taking the sword by the blade, and not the enemy of them will be harmed, but ourselves. And if it is hard to find a society at our level of civilization whose political conduct would be so lacking in reasonable justification and consequences, then the origin of this must be that we do not have the right organization.
The Barbarian political conditions that the Russian government has created for us have abolished all the organization of public life, and they do not let it to be created in the least modest way today. Against all the organizations created against the constraints of the government, against its laws, and so necessarily secretive, society has traditionally become accustomed to looking as a conspiracy, as a conspiracy, as a goal — to put the destiny of the full nation on the line, against its will, in any gambling act. In this preposterous superstition, they effort to keep in general a multitude of thoughtless, politically uneducated writers blinded by the nature of the danger threatening us from our enemies. Our society, accustomed from the past to political incarnation, to giving in to the staff and disfavor of the enemy, has not seen any another national organization, specified as youth organizations, ignorant of the forces of enemies, or psychology of their own society, believing that good will and zeal are able to overcome all obstacles. It was afraid of these organisms, kept from them, but eventually, as an unorganized mass, it had to submit to their direction. We know well today, and in fact, erstwhile we talk about a wide scope of things, we don't know how much we feel on our own, how the country went on this political inactivity.
a mature general and at the dedication of the national organization to the hands of youth. However, we do not realize the fact that we were lost not to organize young people, but the passiveness and deficiency of organization of the mature generation, which made young people, as the only organized force, reign in the country and regulation the society, leading them towards, pointed out by sincere inflammation and deficiency of male fortitude, coupled with a trifle. And today, erstwhile the spectrum of past disasters disturbs us, fearing that they will not be repeated, we believe that the best way to do so is to fight all the organizations, to punish all those who effort to political conduct of the nation to put a consistent strategy in the carbs, to depend on the constantly functioning, liable to the society of leadership.
A nation that does not want to be a game of destiny and a blind tool in the hands of its own enemies must have an organization. erstwhile he is enslaved to make it openly, he must make a secret. If society is healthy, reasoning and active, its organization, openly or secret, it will not be anything but the expressor of the will of the nation, its interests, needs, and aspiracy. In society, I have politically immature or degraded even so openly and legally from the will of the nation, an addicted organization like the Republican government, will act against the will and aspirations of the majority, allowing itself to venture gambling for which the nation would not want to take work and which are even ugly to it. But an active society, conscious of its needs and aspirations, the most secret organization can depend on its will. It is besides the future of our society that lies not in protecting it from a secret organization, but in exercising its unripe political elements so quickly, that no secret organization can lead it out of the right way, so that, on the contrary, each 1 is simply an executive of its will, only to take into the strategy of the act to which the nation has matured, and which it needs for its self-preservation and progress.
Perhaps there is no example in past that a secret organization has made so much effort to merge with the full nation as an organization of the National League during its seventeen-year existence. Composed primarily of the elements of political inadequacy, it does a number of tests to make a political action strategy that best suits the position of the nation and its ability to activate forces. Its main task is to see for a long time the political and educational activities it seeks to carry out in all layers of society. And he conducts it honestly, due to the fact that he is not reasoning about creating himself a crowd of blind followers, but is developing in society awareness of his own interests, knowing the political position and the resulting tasks. Thus, the League, creating an active and politically reasoning component in society, simultaneously becomes its organized representation. It is influenced by fast political advancement — gradually expanding realism, practicality, moderation, and, losing the signs of conspiracy, collusion, if any, as an expression of society's aspirations, the organization of its active policy, in only a possible Russian secret form.
In order to full realize society and to be understood by it, the organization of its secrecy is limited only to method details to be hidden from the police, and
disclose its existence and objectives and notify the general improvement of its activities. There is secrecy here not as a principle, not as a means of imposing on the society alien to his aims, to lead him where he does not want to go, but as a essential evil, resulting from the political and police conditions of the Polish society, and is limited to those parties of activity which have no political significance. The full National League policy is public, and this transparency comes from a sense of work towards society. This disclosure necessarily involves playing open cards with the Russian government, which does not present difficulties for the non-conspiracy organization, based on its activities on a continuous, systematic conflict alternatively than preparing a single assassination.
Thanks to this evolution from the essential conspiracy at the beginning to the ever-increasing transparency of the National League during its 17 years of existence, it has already managed to become rather closely associated with society, to bring roots into it, to guarantee lasting existence and improvement for the future. If its creators and managers can be arrogant of the fact that under the harsh conditions of our political existence they have an organization with an uninterrupted 17-year tradition, then much more have a title to it due to the fact that present the state of this organization and its relation with society is that the Russian state does not have the means in its regulation to destruct it. According to the increasing desire within it, the League becomes an organic part of national life, connected with countless nodes that no 1 can cut. As the nodes that connect it to society grow closer and multiply, as the wider sphere succumbs to the political influence of the League and thus gains a direct influence on it, our nation from a loose, politically broken cluster transforms into a coherent, organized host capable of intelligent, collective action, to consequences in the proceedings, to have a plan in operation, to make a strategy of its policies.
So far, the Russian government has behaved towards our society, like a politician towards the crowd: it has counted on our mood, but it knew that it was possible to play on our nerves, that you could easy throw panic at this crowd, hypnotize it, or drag it on the way with an empty word. At first he did not know us enough, so he did not have adequate confidence, and in leading us he preferred to stick to the roads of the lost, stenciled, conventional roads of east despotism, based his reign on panic and bribery. In time, however, erstwhile he accumulated a large number of sufficiently talented activists in our country, they studied us properly, learned our weaknesses, and began to point out fresh ways to the government. Thanks to the increase in cognition of Polish psychology in the spheres of government, the attitude of the Russian government towards our nation changed powerfully in his favour: he utilized to be like a politician towards a abroad crowd from whom he did not know what to anticipate – it took his assurance and paralyzed his movements; present he met this crowd, he knows how to play on his nerves, and thus the danger on his part increased enormously. The only way to save ourselves is to halt being an incoherent, loose crowd and turn into a heavy organized, penal army. erstwhile the crowd responds straight to any pleasant or unpleasant irritations and thus becomes an act in the hands of skillful politicians, standing at the control of the government, the army will decision in a certain direction, according to the command, resulting from a planned, critical political action plan. Today, erstwhile the government has its own
The hands of the means to origin specified or another behaviour on our part, erstwhile allowing for the monument of Mickiewicz gives us enthusiasm, and letting the Cossacks on the walking audience throw terrors, according to what he needs at the moment, organizing ourselves in criminal ranks will give us the ability to act always as our national interest dictates. The government will one more time face an unconceived force for itself, due to the fact that its helms have become accustomed to dealing only with the crowd within the state and do not realize what a criminal political army is.
Such an army, thanks to the improvement of the National League, is gradually created, and the first test of its fitness in the fight for the learning of the religion took place, as we see, with successful results. This test was comparatively easy due to the highly favourable conditions we discussed above. erstwhile it comes to fighting for another prey, difficulties will undoubtedly be greater. This, too, must be improved and covered, straight or indirectly, by expanding social circles.
Roman Dmowski
