Roman Dmowski - Early Life

Early Life

Dmowski was born on 9 August 1864 in Warsaw in Congress Poland, then part of the Russian Empire. As a student he became active in the Polish Youth Association "Zet" (Związek Młodzieży Polskiej "Zet"), organizing a student street demonstration on the 100th anniversary of the Polish Constitution of 3 May 1791. For this he was imprisoned by the Russian Tsarist authorities for six months in the Warsaw Citadel.

Later Dmowski headed the National League (Liga Narodowa). In 1895, he settled in Lemberg, Austria-Hungary (modern Lviv, Ukraine; known as Lwów to the Poles), and in 1897 co-founded the National-Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Narodowo-Demokratyczne or "Endecja"). The Endecja was to serve as a political party, a lobby and an underground organization that would unite Poles who espoused Dmowski's views into a disciplined and committed political group. In 1899, Dmowski founded the Society for National Education as an ancillary group. A biologist of some repute, he attained great prestige within the Polish community for his scientific accomplishments. Between 1898-1900, he resided in both France and Britain. In the face of an ascendant Germany, he argued for tactical Polish cooperation with Tsarist Russia and brought about a pro-Russian orientation within the National-Democratic Party. In 1901 he took up residence in Kraków, then part of the Austrian partition of Poland.

Upon the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, Dmowski traveled to Japan in a successful effort to prevent Japan from providing Józef Piłsudski with Japanese assistance for a planned insurrection in Poland, an insurrection which Dmowski felt would be doomed to failure.

In 1905, Dmowski moved to Warsaw, at the time, part of the Russian partition of Poland. During the Russian Revolution of 1905, Dmowski favoured co-operation with the Imperial Russian authorities and welcomed Nicholas II's October Manifesto of 1905 as a stepping stone on the road towards renewed Polish autonomy. During the revolt in Łódź in June 1905, the Endeks, acting under Dmowski's orders, opposed the uprising led by Piłsudski's Polish Socialist Party. Ironically, during the course of the "June Days," as the Łódź uprising is known, a miniature civil war raged between Endecja and the PPS.

As a result of the elections to the First Duma, which were boycotted by the PPS, the National Democrats won 34 of the 55 seats allotted to Poland. Dmowski himself was elected a deputy to the Second and Third Dumas and as president of the Polish caucus within it. Prior to 1914, Dmowski was prepared to settle for Polish autonomy within the Russian Empire, as he believed that an independent Poland would swiftly become dominated by Germany, as the Germans (in his view) had a better developed state and stronger social organisations. In light of what he regarded as German superiority, Dmowski felt that a strong Russia was in Poland's best interest, and would afford it a better opportunity to ultimately reunite all Polish territories under one rule. In Dmowski's view the Russian policy of Russification would not succeed in subjugating the Poles, while the Germans would be far more successful with their Germanisation policies. On the contrary, Dmowski's great rival, Józef Piłsudski, argued that Russia was a greater threat to the Polish nation than either Germany or Austria-Hungary