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The Politics of the Polish Peasant
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2008
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The Polish Peasant Party celebrated its sixtieth anniversary last year. Founded in July 1895 in the provincial town of Lwow, its influence was at first confined to the parts of Poland then under Austrian rule. From modest beginnings, however, it eventually came to play a vital role in Polish politics. The important part taken by the peasant in Polish cultural life over the last half century has been largely the achievement of the political peasant movement. It was to give the reborn Polish state one of its greatest political leaders, Wincenty Witos, who three times held the office of Prime Minister between the two wars; and Witos's successor as leader of the Peasant Party was Mr Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, Prime Minister of the war-time Polish Government-in-Exile during some of the most crucial years in Polish history. Inflexibly opposed to the semi-authoritarian regime which ruled Poland during the 'thirties, the party likewise opposed the imposition of Communism on the country after the last war.
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- Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1956
References
Page 212 note 1 For the political Peasant Movement in Galicia, see the introduction and bibliography in Krzysztof Dunin-Wasowicz, Czasopismiennictwo Ludowe w Galicji (Wroclaw, 1952), and the references in my articles in the Slavonic and East European Review (London), December 1951, and the Journal of Central European Affairs (Colorado), October 1954. There are no general studies of either Congress Kingdom populism or the inter-war peasant parties, which contain adequate bibliographical details.
Page 213 note 1 Syska, Henryk, Przez walke do zwyciestwa (Warsaw, 1949), p. 56.Google Scholar
Page 213 note 2 His memoirs, written in extreme old age and published under the title Chlopski Ruch Zaraniarski w Bylej Kongresowce przed pierwsza wojna swiatowa (Warsaw, 1947), are of considerable interest, though chaotically put together.
Page 215 note 1 See Zweig, Ferdynand, Poland between the Two Wars (London, 1944), pp. 124–130.Google Scholar
Page 215 note 2 Thugutt, Stanislaw, Wybor Pism i Autobiografia (Glasgow, 1943), p. 109.Google Scholar
Page 217 note 1 For land reform during the inter-war years, see Zweig, op. cit., pp. 131–34.
Page 217 note 2 Kora, Stefan, Witos a Panstwo Polskie (Lwow, 1936), p. 62.Google Scholar
Page 217 note 3 Witos, Wincenty, Wybor Pism i Mow (Lwow, 1939), p. 126.Google Scholar
Page 218 note 1 Kora, op. cit., p. 2.
Page 221 note 1 Rek, Tadeusz, Ruch Ludowy w Polsce, vol. III (Warsaw, 1947), pp. 116–120.Google Scholar
Page 222 note 1 Almost every book or article dealing with the political situation in Poland during the war and immediate post-war years at least touches upon the position of the Peasant Party. Mr. Mikolajczyk has given his account of events in The Pattern of Soviet Domination (London, 1948).
Page 222 note 2 The Polish Countryside in Figures (Warsaw, 1954), p. 22.Google Scholar Cf. Bulletin of the International Peasant Union (New York), July – August, 1954, p. 4Google Scholar, which gives the figure as “about 50 percent”.
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