64 Facts About Roman Dmowski

Roman Dmowski saw the Germanization of Polish territories controlled by the German Empire as the major threat to Polish culture and therefore advocated a degree of accommodation with another power that had partitioned Poland, the Russian Empire.

Roman Dmowski favoured the re-establishment of Polish independence by nonviolent means and supported policies favourable to the Polish middle class.

Roman Dmowski was an instrumental figure in the postwar restoration of Poland's independent existence.

Roman Dmowski remains a key figure of Polish nationalism and has been frequently referred to as "the father of Polish nationalism".

Roman Dmowski was born on 9 August 1864 in Kamionek near Warsaw, in the Kingdom of Poland, which three years later became part of the Russian Empire.

Roman Dmowski's father was a road construction worker and later an entrepreneur.

Roman Dmowski attended schools in Warsaw, studying biology and zoology at Warsaw University, from which he graduated in 1891.

The Zet had links with the Liga Polska, which Roman Dmowski joined in 1889.

Roman Dmowski organized a student street demonstration on the 100th anniversary of the Polish Constitution of For this he was imprisoned by Russian Imperial authorities for five months in the Warsaw Citadel.

Roman Dmowski was then exiled to Libau and Mitau in Kurland.

The group differed from the Liga Polska as Roman Dmowski insisted that there could be one Polish national identity, leading him to attack regionalism as a form of split loyalty that was weakening the Polish nation.

In 1899, Roman Dmowski founded the Society for National Education as an ancillary group.

Roman Dmowski rejected liberalism and socialism for putting the individual above the nation-state, which for Dmowski was the only unit that really mattered.

Roman Dmowski argued that the privileged status of the aristocracy in the old Commonwealth had hindered national development, and what was needed was a strong sense of nationality that would unite the nation into one.

Roman Dmowski attacked the Romantic nationalism of the 19th century for viewing Poland as the "Christ of Nations", instead arguing for a hard-headed national egoism.

Roman Dmowski opposed revolutionary means of fighting, preferring political struggle, and aimed for independence through increased autonomy.

In 1905, Roman Dmowski moved to Warsaw, back in the Russian partition of Poland, where he continued to play a growing role in the Endecja faction.

Roman Dmowski himself was elected a deputy to the Second and Third Dumas and was president of the Polish caucus within it.

Roman Dmowski was seen as a conservative, and despite being a Polish caucus leader, he often had more influence on the Russian than the Polish deputies.

In light of what he regarded as Russian cultural inferiority, Roman Dmowski felt that a strong Russia was more acceptable than a strong Germany.

Roman Dmowski explained those views in his book Niemcy, Rosja i kwestia Polska, published in 1908.

Roman Dmowski viewed this as a personal insult; in exchange, he organized a successful boycott of Jewish businesses throughout much of Poland.

In 1914 Roman Dmowski praised the Grand Duke Nicholas's Manifesto to the Polish Nation of 14 August, which vaguely assured the Tsar's Polish subjects that there would be greater autonomy for "Congress Poland" after the war and that the Austrian provinces of East and West Galicia, together with the Pomerania province of Prussia, would be annexed to the Kingdom of Poland when the German Empire and Austria-Hungary were defeated.

However, subsequent attempts on the part of Roman Dmowski to have the Russians make firmer commitments along the lines of the Grand Duke Nicholas's manifesto were met with elusive answers.

In 1915, Roman Dmowski, increasingly convinced of Russia's impending defeat, decided that to support the cause of Polish independence he should go abroad to campaign on behalf of Poland in the capitals of the western Allies.

In particular, Roman Dmowski was very successful in France, where he made a very favourable impression on public opinion.

Roman Dmowski gave a series of lectures at Cambridge University, which impressed the local faculty enough that he was given an honorary doctorate.

Roman Dmowski was a vocal critic of Austro-Hungary, and campaigned for the creation of a number of Slavic states in its place.

In 1917 Roman Dmowski laid out a plan for the borders of a re-created Polish state; it would include Greater Poland, Pomerania with Gdansk, Upper Silesia, south strip of East Prussia and Cieszyn Silesia.

Roman Dmowski refused to admit a single Polish Jew to the National Committee, despite support for such a proposal from Paderewski.

On 29 January 1919, Roman Dmowski met with the Allies' Supreme War Council for the first time; his five-hour presentation there, delivered in English and French, was described as brilliant.

At the meeting, Roman Dmowski stated that he had little interest in laying claim to areas of Ukraine and Lithuania that were formerly part of Poland, but no longer had a Polish majority.

Roman Dmowski himself admitted that from a purely historical point of view, ethnic-linguistic considerations aside, the Polish claims to Silesia were not entirely strong, but he claimed it for Poland on economic grounds, especially the coal fields.

In regard to Lithuania, Roman Dmowski did not view Lithuanians as having a strong national identity, and viewed their social organization as tribal.

Roman Dmowski himself was disappointed with the Treaty of Versailles, partly because he was strongly opposed to the Minority Rights Treaty imposed on Poland and partly because he wanted the German-Polish border to be somewhat farther to the west than Versailles allowed.

Roman Dmowski found Lloyd George to be arrogant, unscrupulous and a consistent advocate of ruling against Polish claims to the West and the East.

Roman Dmowski was very offended by Lloyd George's ignorance of Polish affairs and in particular was enraged by his lack of knowledge about river traffic on the Vistula.

Roman Dmowski was a deputy to the 1919 Legislative Sejm, but he attended only a single session, seeing the Sejm as too chaotic for him to exert much influence; he spent much of that year either in Paris or recuperating from a lung infection, in Algeria.

Roman Dmowski reorganized endecja into a new party, Popular National Union.

Roman Dmowski was a Minister of Foreign Affairs from October to December 1923 in the government of Wincenty Witos.

Roman Dmowski's last major campaign was a series of political attacks on the alleged "Judeo-Masonic" associates of President Ignacy Moscicki.

Roman Dmowski was buried at the Brodno Cemetery in Warsaw in the family grave.

From his early student years, Roman Dmowski was opposed to socialism and suspicious of federalism; he desired Polish independence and a strong Polish state, and saw socialism and conciliatory federalist policies as prioritizing an international idea over the national one.

Roman Dmowski had a scientist's background and thus preferred logic and reason over emotion and passion.

Roman Dmowski was very much influenced by Social Darwinist theories, then popular in the Western world, and saw life as a merciless struggle between "strong" nations who dominated and "weak" nations who were dominated.

Roman Dmowski sharply criticized the idea of Poland as a spiritual concept and as a cultural idea.

For Roman Dmowski, what the Poles needed was a "healthy national egoism" that would not be guided by what Roman Dmowski regarded as the unrealistic political principles of Christianity.

Roman Dmowski saw all minorities as weakening agents within the nation that needed to be purged.

Roman Dmowski came from an impoverished urban background and had little fondness for Poland's traditional elitist social structure.

In particular, Roman Dmowski despised the old Commonwealth for its multi-national structure and religious tolerance.

Roman Dmowski saw the ethnic minorities in Poland as a direct threat to the cultural identity, integrity and ethnic cohesion of Poland, directly in competition with the Polish petit bourgeoisie with which he identified.

Roman Dmowski argued that good citizens should only have one allegiance to the nation, and there is no middle ground.

Roman Dmowski often communicated his belief in an "international Jewish conspiracy" aimed against Poland.

Roman Dmowski asserted that once a Jewish state was established in Palestine, it would form "the operational basis for action throughout the world".

Roman Dmowski believed that the 3,000,000 Polish Jews were far too numerous to be absorbed, and assimilated into the Polish Catholic culture.

Roman Dmowski had advocated emigration of the entire Jewish population of Poland as the solution to what he regarded as Poland's "Jewish problem", and over time came to argue for increasing harsh measures against the Jewish minority, though he never suggested killing Jews.

Roman Dmowski opposed physical violence, arguing for the boycotts of Jewish businesses instead, later supplemented with their separation in the cultural area.

Roman Dmowski made anti-Semitism a central element in Endecja's radical nationalist outlook.

Roman Dmowski was never able to have this program passed into law by the Sejm, but the National Democrats did frequently organize "Buy Polish" boycott campaigns against German and Jewish shops.

Roman Dmowski was a vocal opponent of freemasonry, as well as of feminism.

Roman Dmowski is considered one of the most influential conservative politicians in the history of modern Poland, although his legacy is controversial and he continues to be a highly polarizing figure.

Roman Dmowski has been called "the father of Polish nationalism" and the "icon of the contemporary Polish political right" who, as a signatory of the Treaty of Versailles, played a critical role in the restoration of Polish independence after World War I Conversely, he has been described as the founder of contemporary Polish antisemitism and criticized for his disdain for women's rights.

In November 2006 a statue of Roman Dmowski was unveiled in Warsaw; it led to a series of protests from organizations which see Dmowski as a fascist and an enemy of progressive politics; due to similar protests plans to raise statues or memorials elsewhere have been delayed.

Roman Dmowski received honorary degrees from Cambridge University and the University of Poznan.