Rewolucja: Russian Poland, 1904-1907

by Robert E. Blobaum

The revolution of 1905 in the Russian-ruled Kingdom of Poland marked the consolidation of major new influences on the political scene. As he examines the emergence of a mass political culture in Poland, Robert E. Blobaum offers the first history in any Western language of this watershed period. Drawing on extensive archival research to explore the history of Poland's revolutionary upheavals, Blobaum departs from traditional interpretations of these events as peripheral to an essentially Russian movement that reached a climax in the Russian Revolution of 1917. He demonstrates that, although Polish independence was not formally recognized until after World War I, the social and political conditions necessary for nationhood were established in the years around 1905. The emancipation of the peasantry and mass migration to urban centers transformed Polish society, and by 1905 the Polish industrial economy was in a state of crisis exacerbated by Russian trade policies. Although most Poles may have been reconciled to Russian control, all groups from conservative clericalists to revolutionary socialists united against Russia's attempts to eradicate the Polish language, religion, history, and culture. Blobaum describes how a bitter boycott of the russified school system focused attention on education as an aspect of nation-building. He also shows that the ambivalent response of the Catholic church to popular unrest resulted in an unprecedented alienation and secularization of Polish political culture. A complex array of nationalist and socialist allegiances developed among peasants and industrial workers, and the general strikes of 1905 signaled the emergence of a nationwide labor movement. Blobaum argues that, despite subsequent Russian repression, the revolution contributed to establishing the conditions for a modern civil society in Poland.

Genres: Poland

320 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1995

Reviews

[Peter Podbielski · Rating 5 out of 5]

To better understand 21st centrury Poland, Robert Blobaum provides insight into the psyche of a nation and its people. The failure of the 1905 revolution in Russian Poland is meticulously documented. The lessons learned from this particular failure provided the seeds both to the success in gaining independence in 1918 and dysfunction which persisted through the interwar period and possibly to present day.