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Patriotic Celebrations in Austrian Poland: The Kościuszko Centennial and the Formation of Peasant Nationalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2009

Keely Stauter-Halsted
Keely Stauter-Halsted
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of History at the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA 50614.
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Extract

The first peasant movement in Eastern Europe to declare its formal independence from other parties grew up in Austrian Galicia. Founded in 1895, the Polish Peasant party (Stronnictwo Ludowe) was characterized by an approach to the problem of Polish nationalism unique to the peasantry. Like many other agrarian groups, the Polish peasants privileged peasant culture and values above upper-class and urban traditions as the true source of national strength. Yet the dynamics of this budding peasant nationalism, its sources and leadership bases, have yet to be fully explored.

Type
Articles
Information
Austrian History Yearbook , Volume 25 , January 1994 , pp. 79 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 1994

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References

1 On the formation of peasant parties in East Central Europe, see, for example, A. Paul Kubricht, “The National-Economic Implications of the Czech Agrarian Party (1899),” and Chary, Frederick B., “Agrarians, Radicals, Socialists, and the Bulgarian Peasantry: 1899–1905,” in The Peasantry of Eastern Europe, ed. Volgyes, Ivan (New York, 1979), vol. 1Google Scholar. Roots of Rural Transformation; and Kiraly, Bela K., “Peasant Movements in the Nineteenth Century,” in The Modernization of Agriculture: Rural Transformation in Hungary, 1848–1945, ed. Held, Joseph (Boulder, Colo., 1980)Google Scholar.

2 For an assessment of peasant political ideology in this period, see Jackson, G. D. Jr, “Peasant Political Movements in Eastern Europe,” in Rural Protest: Peasant Movements and Social Change, ed. Landsberger, H. A. (London, 1974), 259–315CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 The standard works on the Polish peasant movement touch only tangentially on the grassroots sources and national character of the movement. The most important general studies are Kieniewicz, Stefan, The Emancipation of the Polish Peasantry (Chicago, 1969)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Narkiewicz, Olga, The Green Flag: Polish Populist Politics, 1867–1970 (London, 1976)Google Scholar; Duniń-Wąsowicz, Krzystof, Dzieje Stronnictwa Ludowego w Galicji (The history of the peasant movement in Galicia) (Warsaw, 1956)Google Scholar; Inglot, Stefan, ed., Historia Chłopów Polskich (A history of the Polish peasants), 3 vols. (Warsaw, 1972)Google Scholar; and Kowalczyk, Stanisław, Kowal, Józef, Stankiewicz, Witold, and Stański, Mieczysław, Zarys historii polskiego ruchu ludowego (An overview of the history of the Polish peasant movement) (Warsaw, 1965)Google Scholar.

4 Peasant editor and social organizer Father Stanisław Stojałowski acknowledged during the preparations for the Mickiewicz funeral that “those who have already come to Cracow [for the Sobieski celebration] know that many difficulties have met us when peasants have sought lodging and hay, because [of] those who view with disfavor…a peasant meeting and who from 1883 until today have hindered them and present dishonest difficulties.” Wieniec (The wreath), June 1, 1890, 187–88.

5 Duniń-Wąsowicz discusses this in Dzieje Stronnictwa Ludowego, 94–95.

6 These words of peasant independence from other social classes were written by Father Stojatowski, in Wieniec, 06 1, 1890, 187–88Google Scholar.

7 The July 20, 1890, issue of Wieniec summarizes the speeches given during the Mickiewiz funeral (209–16). The peasant reinterpretation of Mickiewicz's, importance appears in Wieniec, 06 1, 1890, 187–88Google Scholar.

8 Przyjaciel Ludu (The people's friend; hereafter, P.L.), 05 1, 1891, 129–31Google Scholar. The highlights of the constitution and the background to its promulgation were reported in P.L., 04 15, 1891, 113–14Google Scholar.

9 Konefał, J., Uniwersał Połaniecki i sprawa jego realizacji (The Polaniec Manifesto and its origins) (Warsaw, 1957)Google Scholar. Cited in Davies, Norman, God's Playground: A History of Poland (New York, 1982), 1: 538–39Google Scholar. Regarding Kościuszko's social and political philosophy, see also Walicki, Andrzej, The Enlightenment and the Birth of Modern Nationhood: Polish Political Thought from Noble Republicanism to Tadeusz Kościuszko (Notre Dame, Ind., 1989), 96–120Google Scholar; and Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, Polska w czasie trzech rozbiorów, 1772–1799; studya do history i ducha i obyczaju (Poland during the period of the three partitions, 1772–1799; a study in the history of spirit and custom) (Warsaw, 1903), 3: 423Google Scholar; and Śreniowski, Krystyna, Kościuszko: bohater narodowy. Opinie współczesnych i potomnych, 1794–1946 (Kościuszko: national hero, contemporary and modern opinions, 1794–1946) (Warsaw, 1973)Google Scholar.

10 When asked about what the great leader must think about the singer's drinking, the man replied confidently, “Kościuszko also drank and so forgives it.” Witos, Wincenty, Moje wspomnienia (My memoirs) (Warsaw, 1978), 77Google Scholar.

11 Rado, Michał (Kliszów, Mielec district) to P.L., 03 1, 1894, 67Google Scholar.

12 Words to a song by Teofil Lenartowicz, cited in Wysłouchowa's, Maria discussion of Kościuszko's importance to the peasants. P.L., 03 1, 1894, 68–71Google Scholar.

13 Zwiqzek Chłopski (The peasant union) reported the appearance of peasant delegations from the mountain town of Zakopane, from the districts of Tarnów, Dąbrowa, , Mielec, , Rzeszów, , Sącz, , “and still further.” Zwiqzek Chłopski, 04 1, 1794, 17–19Google Scholar. Przyjaciel Ludu noted that “thousands of peasants from the mountains were in the theater” during the battle reenactment. P.L., 04 15, 1894, 113–14Google Scholar.

14 The estimate of “thousands of peasants” is given by Wysłouch, Bolesław, editor of Przyjaciel Ludu, presumably culled from the reports of his numerous correspondents. P.L., 04 15, 1894, 113Google Scholar.

15 “We are receiving new information constantly about Kościuszko celebrations,” the editor of Przyjaciel Ludu noted. P.L., 05 1, 1894, 140Google Scholar. Wysłouch wrote that he had a complete list of all commemorative activity in his possession, although it is not available among his papers.

16 Letter from village of Jakubkowice, April 12, 1884, to Zwiqzek Chtopski, 05 15, 1894, 45Google Scholar.

17 Zwiqzek Chłopski, 04 1, 1894, 17‐19Google Scholar.

18 P.L., 05 1, 1894, 140Google Scholar.

19 Zwitpek Chłopski, April 1, 1894, 17–19Google Scholar.

20 These were the districts of Cracow, Dąbrowa, Gorlice, Jarosław, Jasło, Krosno, Łańcut, Mielec, Nowy Sącz, Nowy Targ, Rseszów, Sanok, Tarnów, and the area surrounding Lvov.

21 P.L., 05 1, 1894, 140Google Scholar.

22 P.L., July 15, 1894; cited in Szaflik, Józef Ryszard, “Czynniki kształtujące świadomość narodowa chłopa polskiego w końcu XIX i w początkach XX wieku” (Factors in the formation of national consciousness among Polish peasants at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries), Przeglqd humanistyczny 27, 4 (1983): 75–76Google Scholar.

23 P.L., July 1, 1894; cited in Szaflik, “Czynniki kształtujáce,” 75–76.

24 Peasant leaders were characterized by their unusual levels of education, their experience abroad, their possession of large, successful farms, or by the holding of public office in the village. Regarding these rural “linking figures” who helped bring the Galician villages closer to the wider communities beyond them, see Stauter-Halsted, Keely, “From Serf to Citizen: Peasant Political Organizations in Galician Poland, 1848–1895” (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1993), 242–316Google Scholar.

25 Excerpts from Maria Wysłouchowa's Powstaniu Kościuszkowskim (The Kościuszko Uprising), reprinted in Przyjaciel Ludu, March 1, 1894, 68–71, and March 15, 1894, 91. Wysłouchowa also wrote a shorter historical work intended for the peasants, entitled Opowiadanie Bartosza o Polsce (Bartosz's story about Poland), and was active in organizing peasant meetings and popular theater presentations and in the preparations for the National Exhibit in Lvov, which opened on the occasion of the Kościuszko centennial. For more on Wysłouchowa's active life working for the peasantry, see Wawrzykowska-Wierciochowa, Dioniza, Wystouchowa (Warsaw, 1975)Google Scholar.

26 Szaflik, “Czynniki kształtujące,” 72–74.

27 Description from J. Bystroń (1924); cited in Szaflik, “Czynniki kształtujące,” 72–74.

28 Szaflik, “Czynniki kształtujące,” 72–74.

29 P.L., April 15, 1894, 116.

30 P.L., May 1, 1894.

31 Związek Chłopski, May 1, 1894, 45.

32 See Walicki, The Enlightenment and the Birth of Modern Nationhood, 96–120.

33 The editor of the journal Związek Chłopski, for example, cautioned one enthusiastic peasant correspondent that Kościuszko probably did not believe in the socially revolutionary idea indicated by such quotes. Związek Chtopski, 05 1, 1894, 45Google Scholar.

34 Peasant activist Jakub Bojko noted the lack of clerical participation in the Cracow ceremonies in P.L., 05 1, 1894, 133–34Google Scholar. The general lack of clerical support at the official ceremonies was also noted by Wysłouch in P.L., April 15, 1894, 125. Press reports in the weeks and months following the official anniversary, however, consistently note the willingness of provincial clerics to take part in centennial events. For example, P.L., May 1, 1894, and P.L., 07 15, 1894, 21Google Scholar.

35 Events in Strzyzów and Odrzykonia, in which notaries and schoolteachers played key organizational roles, are good examples of this cross-class cooperation. P.L., May 1, 1894 and P.L., 07 15, 1894, 213Google Scholar.

36 Newspaper reports make no mention of noble participation in the organization of any of the rural festivals.

37 Wójcik, Franciszek (Wyciąży, Cracow district) to P.L., 03 15, 1894, 79–80Google Scholar.

38 Rado, Michał (Kliszów, Mielec district) to P.L., 03 1, 1894, 67Google Scholar.

39 P.L., 07 15, 1894, 213Google Scholar.

40 Szaflik, “Czynniki kształtujące,” 75–76. Similar reenactments occurred elsewhere in the Galician countryside in the years following the centennial. In the summer of 1895, for example, a crowd of some 3,000 assembled in the district of Łańcut, including over 100 representatives from each village in the district, to act out the battle of Racławice. P.L., July 15, 1895.

41 Regarding the inconsistency of peasant soldiers in 1794, see Kraszewski, Polska w czasie tnech rozbiorów 3:384–88.

42 Minutes of the meeting of the Polish Democratic Society General Assembly, May 31, 1895; reprinted in Nowa Reforma (New Reform), June 2, 1895, nr. 126.

43 Bojko's speech is reprinted in P.L, April 15, 1894, 114–16.

44 The minutes to the meeting were published in P.L., April 15, 1894, 116–18.

45 Although elected to the Galician Diets (Sejm Krajowy) of 1861 and 1867, conservative efforts soon forced peasant deputies from the Sejm. They returned in small numbers beginning only in 1889, when five peasants were elected and a Peasant Club founded.

46 See Benet, Sula, Song, Dance, and Customs of Peasant Poland (New York: 1951, 1979)Google Scholar. On traditional peasant culture and its transmission, see also Dobrowolski, Kazimierz, “Peasant Traditional Culture,”Ethnografia Polska 1 (1958): 19–56Google Scholar; and Thomas, William and Znaniecki, Florian, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America, 2 vols. (New York, 1958)Google Scholar.

47 P.L, May 1, 1894, 140.

48 Summaries of provincial celebrations involving peasant processions are provided in Zwiqzek Chtopski, May 1, 1894, 35–36; and P.L, May 1, 1894, 140, and July 15, 1894, 213.

49 J. S. (of Zawadka, near Wadowice), May 1891, to Wieniec, September 22, 1891, 25.

50 Wieniec, September 22, 1891, 25.

51 P.L, April 15, 1894, 113–14.

52 P.L, May 1, 1894, 133–34.

53 P.L, May 1, 1891, 129–31.

54 P.L, May 1, 1894, 133–34.

55 Wojciech Albrycht, memoirist from the village of Lubiatówek; cited in Śreniowska, Kościuszko, 168–69.

56 Editorial by Bołeslaw Wysłouch. P.L, April 15, 1894, 113.

57 P.L, 1897; cited in Szaflik, “Czynniki kształtujace,” 77–78.

58 During the anniversary of the May Third Constitution, for example, the peasant Ziemba sparked such an enthusiastic response by reading a poem dedicated to the constitution that his fellows “carried him about the hall on their hands shouting ‘Bartoszu, Bartoszu!”’ P.L, June 15, 1891; cited in Szaflik, “Czynniki kształtujące,” 72–78.

59 Szaflik, “Czynniki kształtujące,” 75–78.

60 Bolesław Wysłouch in P.L, April 15, 1894, 113.

61 Stanisław Potoczek in Zwiqzek Chtopski, March 15, 1894, 10.

62 These were among the goals stressed at the mass peasant meeting held during the Kościuszko celebration in Cracow. A complete summary of the proceedings was published in P.L, April 15, 1894.

63 P.L, April 1, 1894, 107–8.

64 The Peasant party's goals and concerns are recorded in the “Address of the Central Election Committee of the Peasant Party,” 1895, Zakład Historii Ruchu Ludowego (Collection of the history of the peasant movement), Warsaw, sygn. Z.S./I-l.