Great Russia/Chapter 14
CHAPTER XIV
THE RESURRECTION OF POLAND
I
THE English traveller on his way from London to Odessa, after crossing the dreary march of Brandenburg, reaches a vast and monotonous plain where three Empires meet, where Prussia ends, where Russia and Austria begin, a region inhabited by one of the most gifted races of Europe, whose sufferings are one of the tragedies of history, and whose future is one of the perplexing enigmas of international politics. That vast plain, of which no hill relieves the melancholy uniformity, is the once mighty Kingdom of Poland. It is true that neither the name of the country nor that of the people appears on any map of Europe, but then it is often the most important maps that are ignored by the cartographer. In this case it must be confessed in extenuation of the cartographer's omission that the boundaries of that Kingdom of Poland are arbitrary and indefinite. Few geographers will agree as to the exact area occupied by the Polish race. But we shall not be far wrong if we estimate the total number of Polish-speaking people at twenty millions, of whom four millions belong to Austria, and four millions and twelve millions respectively are unwilling subjects of the Kaiser and of the Tsar. And that number is increasing, for amongst many uncertainties one fact is certain, that in the wide expanse where the Pole and the Teuton are confronted, it is the Teuton who is losing ground, and it is the Pole who is gaining.
II
Perhaps the simplest way to explain the unique position of Poland to a British reader is to describe her as the Ireland of Central Europe, with this difference, that whereas Ireland has long ago been delivered from the despotism of the Conqueror, Poland is still in the grip of her oppressors. Otherwise the annals of Poland are very much a repetition of the tragic annals of Ireland, and both countries make a similar appeal to the student of history, of ethics, and of politics.
In the first place, we ought to be interested in Poland on historical grounds. Poland can boast of a heroic past. On more than one occasion Poland saved Europe from the invasion of Turk and Tartar, and although the Poles are branded to-day by the Prussians as an inferior race, predestined to slavery, the truth is that Poland was a highly civilized country when the Prussians and the Russians were only hordes of barbarians.
In the second place, we ought to be interested in Poland on moral grounds, for the Poles have been, and still are, the victims of an odious persecution, which must rouse the indignation of all those who believe in justice, and who believe in freedom.
In the third place, we ought to be interested in Poland on practical grounds, because the question of Poland remains a burning question. Poland remains an open sore. The map of Europe will be recast by the future Congress, on the principle that each nation has the right to decide its own destinies. It is quite safe to prophesy on the basis of that principle of nationalities, that a not distant future will see the resurrection of the ancient Kingdom of Poland.[1] III
The "partition" of Poland, the murder of a great civilized people, is one of the most revolting political crimes of modern times. Of this crime, Frederic, called "the Great," was the
instigator, and he secured impunity for his crime by obtaining the complicity of Russia and Austria, of Maria Theresa and Catherine "the Great." To use the cynical phrase of Frederic, "the three Sovereigns partook of the Eucharistic body of Poland." The three murderers of the Polish nation have tried to justify themselves, and they have justified themselves by slandering the Poles. Even thus, in Imperial Rome, the public executioner dishonoured his victim before execution. We are told that the Poles fully deserved their fate. We are told that they were a prey to the Jesuits, or that they were a prey to anarchy, or that they were a prey to an unruly aristocracy. We have been long familiar in the past with similar arguments on the Irish Question, and in both controversies the arguments have about equal value. It is quite true that Poland was a prey to anarchy, but that anarchy was largely caused by the intrigues of her mighty neighbours. It is quite true that after playing an important part in European culture, after resisting the Tartar and the Turk, the Polish aristocracy oppressed the people whom they had originally saved. But, alas! the oppression of the people by a tyrannical aristocracy is not a phenomenon peculiar to Poland, and it was more apparent in Poland simply because of the total absence of any Middle Class, owing to the poverty of the country, and owing to the insecurity of war. It is only in our own generation that we have witnessed in Poland the gradual emergence of a Middle Class. Even to-day trade and industry are largely in the hands of the Jews, to whom, for historical reasons, Poland has become a country of refuge, and a second Palestine. About five million Jews are living within the limits of the old Kingdom.
In any case, those accusations against Polish anarchy, against the unruly Polish aristocracy, were only a thinly veiled pretence on the part of the conquerors to excuse their crime. Those excuses were merely used to deceive public opinion. In his moments of cynical outspokenness, Frederic, yclept "the Great," never concealed his real motive for the annexation of Poland, which was the same as his motive for the annexation of Silesia, namely, self-aggrandisement and the lust of territory.
IV
It is, then, under such flimsy pretences, which added insult to violence, that Poland was divided amongst the three Empires of Central Europe, and that Poland was deleted from the map of Europe. This is not the place to recall the tragic history of the nation since the Partition. In Austria the Poles rose and failed, they rose again and succeeded, and were granted autonomy. In Prussia the Poles were too weak, and the army of the Hohenzollern too strong to give any chance to the rebels; they had, therefore, to be content with opposing a passive and sullen resistance to unjust laws. But most poignant of all was the national tragedy in Russia. The Poles rose in 1830, they rose again in 1863, and once more they rose in 1905. Each time they were unsuccessful. After each revolution, they have been governed with more ruthless severity. Oppression, rebellion, and repression have been the three recurrent phases in the monotonous drama of Russian Poland.
To a superficial observer, the story of the Polish nation may appear to be, on the whole, a history of national failure, but as in Ireland, so in Poland, the people have really triumphed. For their spirit has never been broken. The strength of the three great military powers has not been equal to the indomitable resistance of a poverty-stricken, disarmed, dismembered race. The Polish people were determined to live, and as a result they are stronger to-day than they were a hundred years ago. Poland is to-day more than a dream, more than a pious aspiration. Unless patriotism is only an illusion, unless nationality is only based on political force, and is to be measured only by commercial success, the Polish nationality is an accomplished fact, for the Polish people are united by the strongest bonds which can unite any people: a common language, a common religion, common traditions, the memory of common sufferings, and an unshakable faith in a common Destiny
V
Of the three component parts of Poland, the Austrian part, Galicia need not detain us, although to the ordinary traveller it is far more interesting that the two other parts. Its capital, Cracow, the Polish Rome, is one of the historical cities of the world. Austrian Poland possesses in the Carpathian Mountains some of the finest scenery in Central Europe. Its Alpine resorts attract an ever-increasing number of tourists, and Zakopane is, in summer, a brilliant and fascinating Kurort, and the gathering place of Polish patriots from the three Empires. But to the student of politics, Austrian Poland appeals much less than Prussian or Russian Poland, except in so far as it shows the political capacity of the people. After being the most disloyal, Galicia has become one of the most loyal provinces of the Austrian Empire. The influence of the Austrian Poles in politics is shown not on the side of anarchy, but on the side of conciliation and moderation. The result of such Polish autonomy as has been granted to Galicia is the best answer to those that maintain that the Poles are incapable of self-government.
VI
If Austrian Poland is the least important, Russian Poland is the most important of the three branches of the Polish family. It is also the most homogeneous. There are some two hundred thousand Germans, three hundred and fifty thousand Russian soldiers and officials, and three million Jews, who are the proletariate of Israel. But the bulk of a population of over twelve millions are Poles, and their numbers are rapidly increasing with the industrial expansion and the prosperity of the country, for, as Prince von Bülow, the German Chancellor, graciously put it, the Poles breed like rabbits. He might, perhaps, have added that they have often been shot like rabbits. Russian Poland, with the ancient capital of the Kingdom, Warsaw (population, 850,000), is one of the busiest centres of the Russian Empire. But this extraordinary industrial and commercial expansion has brought neither contentment nor real prosperity to the people. Not only has Russian Poland more than her share of the industrial unrest, prevalent all over Europe, but that industrial unrest is complicated by constant political and religious troubles, by the conflict between conquerors and conquered, between Greek Orthodox and Uniats and Roman Catholic. Warsaw, once the gayest of cities, is now one of the saddest. Occupied by a Russian army corps, she gives the impression of a beleaguered city. Any autonomous political life, or even any free expression of political opinion, are paralyzed. The writer of these lines was invited not long ago by a group of leading Liberals in Warsaw to give a lecture describing his impressions of the country. He accepted the invitation, but was given to understand that it would be safer for him not to deliver his address, and subsequent events clearly proved that it was better to err on the side of caution.
As there is little political life, so there is little intercourse between the different sections of the people. The Jew does not mix with the Christian, nor the Pole with the Russian. Social life is at its lowest ebb. The police is everywhere visible, and the Polish population lives in an atmosphere of suspicion and suppression.
VII
It seems inconceivable that national antipathy could go any further than the antipathy which existed between Russian and Pole before the present war of liberation. Yet Prussia has succeeded in inspiring her Polish subjects with a hatred even more deadly. And this is not because Poles and Russians belong to the same Slav race, whilst Poles and Prussians belong to different races. The Pole hates the Prussian, because there is in Prussian despotism something much more odious than in Russian despotism. The Russian was content in the past to persecute the Pole. But the Prussian both persecutes him, despises him, and slanders him. The Russian at least did not use any canting phrases. He oppressed the Pole, merely because the Russian was the stronger. The Prussian oppresses the Pole, and calls it civilizing him. He brands him as being of an inferior stamp. German Liberals for two generations have denounced the imperial policy of expropriation and Germanization. But it is getting worse. The Pole is not allowed to hold public meetings, or to wear his national colours. The Polish child is not allowed to pray in its mother-tongue, because German culture, forsooth, in virtue of its superiority must stamp out Polish culture. The Polish peasant is not allowed to possess the land of his fathers, and whereas the Russian bureaucracy in the days of Milioutine has distributed millions of acres to Polish peasants, the Prussian bureaucracy have already spent hundreds of millions of marks to expropriate them.
VIII
Limitation of space prevents me from discussing the Prussian theory. Nor is it worth discussing. The whole pedantic contention can be disproved by the summary verdict of history, and disposed of in the following single statement of fact: Surely a race which in modern times has produced a thinker like Copernic, a hero like Sobieski, a musician like Chopin, a poet like Mickiewicz, a physicist like Madame Curie, a race which still can boast of the most beautiful, the most witty women of Central Europe, cannot be said to be so incurably inferior to the heavy-booted, sword-rattling Prussian, nor will such a race be subjected much longer to brutal persecution.
- ↑ This was written in the Spring of 1913. In the Summer of the succeeding year the Grand Duke Nicholas announced the fulfilment of my prophecy in the following proclamation. The proclamation is a striking and illuminative commentary on some of the opinions expressed in this chapter.
PROCLAMATION
"Poles!
"The hour has struck in which the sacred dream of your fathers and forefathers may find fulfilment.
"A century and a half ago, the living flesh of Poland was torn asunder, but her soul did not die. She lived in hope that there would come an hour for the resurrection of the Polish nation and for sisterly reconciliation with Russia.
"The Russian Army now brings you the joyful tidings of this reconciliation. May the boundaries be annulled which cut the Polish nation to pieces! May that nation re-unite unto one body under the sceptre of the Russian Emperor. Under this sceptre Poland shall be re-born, free in faith, in language, in self-government.
"One thing only Russia expects of you: equal consideration for the rights of those nationalities to which history has linked you.
"With open heart, with hand fraternally outstretched, Russia steps forward to meet you. She believes that the sword has not rusted which, at Grünwald, struck down the enemy. From the shores of the Pacific to the North Seas, the Russian armies are on the march. The dawn of a new life is breaking for you.
"May there shine, resplendent above that dawn, the sign of the Cross, symbol of the Passion and Resurrection of Nation!
(Signed.) "Commander-in-Chief General Adjutant.
"NICHOLAS."
i (14) August, 1914