Polish Revolutionary Populism: A Study in Agrarian Socialist Thought from the 1820’s to the 1850’s

135 Pages·1977·7.52 MB·English

by  Peter Brock

POLISH REVOLUTIONARY POPULISM:
A STUDY IN AGRARIAN SOCIALIST THOUGHT FROM
THE 1830s TO THE 1850s
PETER BROCK is a member of the Department of History at the Univer-
sity of Toronto. He is the author of The Slovak National Awakening,
and co-editor, with H. Gordon Skilling, of The Czech Renascence of the
Nineteenth Century.
Polish populism, which advocated agrarian socialism by either revolu-
tionary or reformist means, emerged first among the émigrés who had
left Poland after the Russians defeated the nationalist uprising of 1830.
In exile they came into contact with the ideas of French 'Utopian* social-
ists such as Babeuf, Saint-Simon, Fourier, and Cabet, and they at-
tempted to adapt these ideas to the very different conditions prevailing
in their east European homeland. Thus this version of populism pre-
ceded in time, and probably influenced, the emergence of the ideas of
the better-known Russian narodniks.
Polish Revolutionary Populism describes the activities and conflicting
ideologies of the various organizations, abroad and in partitioned Po-
land, which were struggling for national independence and for agrarian
and social reform. Like the author's recent work, The Slovak National
Awakening, this book deals with the emerging national aspirations char-
acteristic of central and eastern Europe at the time and with the variety
of political and social theories that made debate so acrimonious.
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PETER BROCK
Polish Revolutionary Populism:
a study in agrarian socialist
thought from the 1830s
to the 1850s
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto and Buffalo
© University of Toronto Press 1977
Toronto and Buffalo
Printed in Canada
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Brock, Peter, 1920-
Polish revolutionary populism.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Populism-Poland-History. 2. Socialism in
Poland-History, i. Title.
HX315.7.A6B76 335'.009438 77-2840
ISBN 0-8020-5374-2
This book has been written by a member of the Centre for Russian and East
European Studies, University of Toronto. A list of other books sponsored by
the Centre appears at the back of the book.
This book has been published during the
Sesquicentennial year of the University of Toronto
Contents
PREFACE VÍÍ
Prologue 3
1
The birth of revolutionary populism 5
2
Polish narodniks in exile 25
3
Polish narodniks at home 44
Epilogue 87
NOTES 91
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 115
INDEX 121
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Preface
The first - the Polish - phase in the history of East European populism
is virtually unknown in the West, whereas the next period, which saw
the emergence of Russian revolutionary populism, is familiar to many
readers, largely through the massive work of the Italian historian Franco
Venturi, which is accessible in English translation. Although a very
thorough study of early Polish agrarian socialism has been published in
London by Lidia and Adam Ciolkosz, the fact that it appeared in Polish
has prevented it from gaining the attention of non-Polish historians.
Since 1945, scholars in the new Poland have shown great interest in the
subject too. Yet for understandable reasons they have usually skirted
round the fact that it was the Poles, and not the Russians, who were the
innovators in this development. And Soviet historians have normally
done likewise.
Beginning as far back as 1953 I have published a number of articles
devoted to Polish revolutionary populism in the period between the in-
surrections of 1830 and 1863. In the present book, which has been com-
posed with the non-specialist reader in mind, I have attempted to give a
connected account of the whole movement.
Throughout I have used the Russian term for a populist (narodnik),
which first appears in Russia only towards the end of the 1870s, to desig-
nate his Polish predecessor also. I have done so in order to bring out the
many similarities in outlook between them. And my use of an anglicized
plural in this case is also justified, I think. (At least if it is not, why then
sputniks and beatniks?)
Finally, I am grateful to the respective editors for permission to draw
on the following articles of mine: 'The contribution of Leon Rzewuski to
the socialist movement in 1848,' Annali of the Istituto Giangiacomo Pel-
viii Preface
trinelli (Milan) 3 (1960); The Polish "Movement to the People": an
early chapter in the history of East European Populism/ Slavonic and
East European Review (London) 40, no. 94 (Dec. 1961); 'Socialism and
nationalism in Poland, 1840-1846,' Canadian Slavonic Papers (Toronto)
4 (1960); and to Macmillan & Co. Ltd for such permission in regard to
my study 'The socialists of the Polish "Great Emigration," ' in Asa
Briggs and John Saville, eds, Essays in Labour History: In Memory of
G.D.H. Cole (London 1960; new edn, 1967). I would like to thank the
Centre for Russian and East European Studies (University of Toronto)
for providing funds for typing the manuscript of this book, and Larry
MacDonald, my editor, who once again provided valuable asistance at
various stages in its production. The book has been published with the
assistance of a grant from the Social Science Research Council of Cana-
da, using funds provided by the Canada Council, and a grant from the
Publications Fund of University of Toronto Press.
PdeBB
POLISH REVOLUTIONARY POPULISM:
ASTUDY IN AGRARIAN SOCIALIST THOUGHT
FROM THE 1830s TO THE 1850s