RUSSIA, THE POLES, AND GERMANY.
IF we still had an alert public opinion, demanding and obtaining from the Press detailed information on all points which nearly concern the interests of Great Britain, there could hardly have been need of the informing letter of M. de Zwan in Monday's Times on Russia and the Poles. M. de Zwan sketches the more recent of those develop- ments which have brought the Polish question to the fore in Eastern Europe. Though at times he is not very precise, his statement covers nearly all the ground, and will be most useful to those who require a °first introduction to the study of one of the most interesting movements now in progress in Europe. The subject calls for a careful analysis on our part, and on all the main points we find ourselves able to confirm the view taken by M. de Zwan.
First we have to realise that Poland, as a nation, still exists, though the National Anthem which tells us this has long been forbidden in the territory which fell to Russia at the time of the partition. There are some- thing like twenty millions of Poles divided among three Empires. They have a long historical tradition, a fine literature, a great and living language, and, what is most important of all, a strong instinct of nationality. The partition dates from the eighteenth century ; but it was only in 1831 that the nucleus of the Kingdom was deprived of self-government and of the possession of a national Army. The Kingdom did not pass directly under the yoke of the Russian bureaucracy until the failure of the abortive revolt of 1863, so that the direct oppression of Russian Poland only synchronises with the late disastrous period of reaction in Russia as a whole. There is, then, nothing unnatural in a revival of Poland at the time when the Russian Empire is entering the era of Constitu- tionalism. But it is in another, and a far more important, sense that the year 1863 marks an epoch in Polish history. So far Poland had hoped desperately for three things, all of -which were unattainable. She hoped to recover her political unity ; and that involved a triumph of physical force over the combined forces of Russia, Austria, and Prussia. She hoped to recover her independence ; but economic chancres made the independent existence of a
small Poland changes three such powerful neighbours practically impossible. She hoped to recover her "lost provinces " of Lithuania, where the bulk of the population was not Polish but Russian. The rising of 1863 brought about the dissipation of these dreams, the bankruptcy of romance.
The revolutions of the middle of the century had all ended in apparently hopeless failure. But there came a time of practical statesmanship, a period of construction. It was as if a breath of Cavour were passing all over Europe. French ideals and influence were succeeded by English. The Poles set themselves to make the best of the real forces which were left to them ; and in this task they have had the most remarkable success. The so-called " Real Policy " originated in Austrian Poland, in the editorial office of the Czas at Cracow. The opportunity of the Austrian Poles was very soon in coming. The triumph of Germany over Austria at Sadowa convinced the Emperor Francis Joseph of the wisdom of conciliating all his subjects. Austria passed from bureaucratic centralisation to the most complete system of local government. Galicia received a Diet of her own, and the whole administration passed under the control of the inhabitants,—that is, of the Austrian Poles. There are a Polish Viceroy, a Polish police, Polish local services ; the Poles play a prominent part in the Imperial Parliament, and as often as not occupy a. seat in the Austrian Cabinet. In return the Poles are loyal to the Austrian connexion. They might wish that the advan- tages which they possess were shared by their brothers in Russia and in Prussia; but they could not hope to turn Austria into an aggressive State; and in the mean- while the Emperor's policy of conciliation has done more than all efforts of repression to make the partition permanent.
But the vast majority of Poles belong to Russia. Here a. similar movement was in progress. The period of reaction was also the period of the development of capitalism in Russia. Little as we may appreciate the fact, this vast Empire is opening up most rapidly as a field of industry ; and this alone makes reform and local government inevitable. Russian Poland was the natural entrepOt for the European trade of the Empire. Industrially this part of Russia, moved the fastest of all. Thus material ties every day linked the Kingdom closer to Russia ; and in one sense the annexation proved to be a blessing in disguise. It remained that the system of government should corre- spond to the most material needs of the population. But it was just here that the Russian bureaucracy broke down worst of all. During the reaction of 1863-1905 the Polish language was forbidden in all the higher schools of the Kingdom, and every attempt was made to break down all the educational traditions of the Polish nation. Poland was ruled by a small colony of Russian officials (there is no considerable Russian population there), and some of these looked forward to the day when Polish mothers should lull their children to sleep in Russian. More than once unworthy attacks were made upon the integrity of the national Church.
Yet it was under these conditions that the National Democratic Party grew up in Russian Poland. The All Polish Review gathered round it many of the ablest minds in all the three sections of Poland,—Austrian, Russian, and German. And the National Democrats, though much more bold and vigorous than the Realists of Austria, were yet practical politicians of high ability. In the late M. Poplawski they had a fine publicist, and in M. Dmowski, the present leader of the Poles in the Russian Duma, they have one of the few statesmen of Europe. The party grew up out of the soil. It did not assume a formal name until the beginning of the reform movement in Russia ; but, unlike the Russian Liberals, it prepared its way by a, long and effective organisation of the real forces of the country. It includes most of the best of the country gentry, and a remarkably large number of the priests. But it also has roots deep down amongst the peasants. To these it set a. hard but a simple task. The object which lay nearest to them was the triumph of their language over the alien and police-enforced language of Russia. They were to drive out Russian from their local administration by simply insisting on talking Polish. At one time this victory was achieved in two-thirds of the parish communes of the country. The question of the language is closely associated with that of the schools. The organisation known as the " Polish Mother" in a few years succeeded in establishing several hundreds of private schools. The Government schools, in spite of their more or less exclusive monopoly of the prospects of public appointments, were practically boycotted by the bulk of the population ; but, after living through the " Russian Revolution." the schools of the " Polish Mother " were abolished wholesale by a stroke of the pen of the Governor-General, Skalon. Still more remarkable was M. Dmowski's success amongst the working men. Here he had to fight at once the Russian bureaucracy and Socialism, the latter of which had many adherents in the well- organised " Polish Socialist Party." He fought both enemies with the same weapons. He stood as an enlightened Conservative for the development of the moral and social traditions of Polish history ; and for him the Russian bureaucracy was, indeed, an anarchist force destructive of the whole framework of society. This essentially English attitude met with its due success. On the one hand, the factory class were converted from being a stronghold of revolution into giving a solid support to the national claim for self-government. Ou the other, the whole country was united by this aim in a solid protest against Russian misrule.
In spite of the inviting opportunities of the Japanese War, the Polish Nationalists constantly opposed all idea of a rising. During the Congresses of the Russian Reformers in 1905 they with equal firmness refused to sink their Polish individuality and become a kind of wing of the Russian Liberal Party in Poland. At the elections for the first Duna they captured practically every seat allotted to Poland. In the second Duma their party even assimi- lated to its policy the Poles who sat for other constituen- cies in the Empire, and with its able debaters and its phalanx of intelligent and well-disciplined voters it several times swayed the decisions of the Assembly. What it asked for was the concession of local government, beginning with the permission to use the Polish language and to open Polish schools, and ending with such a Diet as is possessed by the Poles of Galicia. All separatism it steadily repu- diated. What it had to offer was a contented Poland, the oonverting of a, huge festering sore on the very frontier of the Empire into a strong rampart of defence. More than this : Austria will never unite all Poland, but it is not impossible that Russia might,—indeed, the idea has often enough been before statesmen and Sovereigns as practical politics. Anyhow—if moral forces are to be counted for anything—it would not be without value to Russia that every Pole should wish to be a Russian subject.
M. Stolypin has gone into the Polish question ; but he has not acceded to this view. When the second Duma was dissolved the Imperial Edict conveyed a rebuke to the Poles for taking so prominent a part in Russian politics, and the Polish representation, admittedly the most capable section of the Duma, was halved by the new electoral law. In the third Duma the Premier called upon the Poles to " strengthen themselves with the cement of Russian patriotism," and M. Dmowski replied that the Poles would never be content with the position of " second-class citizens of the Russian Empire.' But these two remarks are complementary rather than contradictory ; and the recent past has greatly assisted the Polish cause. Russian Liberalism has itself become more moderate and more practical. It takes more account of economic questions and of questions of foreign policy. Apart from party names, there is quite clearly forming in Russia a great nucleus of liberal opinion which can put the reactionaries into an almost hopeless minority. Nearly all this central mass is for making peace betWeen Russia and Poland. It is deeply patriotic, and would atone for Russian reverses in the Far East by resuming the old advocacy of Slavonic interests in Europe. It understands that the Western Slays will always be suspicious of Russian patronage as long as they have before them the object-lesson of Russia's present treatment of Poland. The advocates of the new policy belong indiscriminately to all the central parties in Russia. There are Cadets, but there are also Octobrists, and even Rights. One of the most vigorous champions of peace with Poland is the leader of the Moderate Right, Count Bobrinsky ; and it is precisely his group in the Puma which is supposed to represent most nearly the views of M. Stolypin. Under these conditions, the recent visit of the Bohemian Dr. Kramarz to Russia, and the subsequent Congress of All the Slays at Prague, were nothing less than triumphs for the policy of M. Dmowski. tor. Kramarz told all his Russian audiences that if there were to be any great Slavonic movement, Russia had got to put things straight with Poland.
The rest is almost repetition to the English reader; but it makes all the difference to our interest in the matter. There is a third section of Poland,—the Prussian. Though it is the smallest, it has defied assimilation as successfully
as either of the others. The Prussian Government also has tried to prohibit the Polish language. It has recently confessed its weakness by a Bill to expropriate land still belonging to the German Poles. This action has resulted in a boycott of German goods all over Poland. It has been the interest of Prussia that tussle should govern her section of Poland at least as badly as Prussia herself governs hers. German influence has all along opposed the settlement of the question between Poland and Russia ; nor is this strange, for it is quite clear who gains by the sore on the Russian frontier and the estrangement between Russia and the Western Slays. Meanwhile it is Berlin that keeps in countenance the reactionaries in Russia ; and more than that, a very large proportion of these reactionaries, though Russian subjects, are theMselves of German blood. How many of her officials has Russia always owed to her Baltic provinces ? And the Russian- German is not a person who believes in a Russian Constitution, in a Russian Parliament expressing the inclinations of the Russian people.
As Russia has become more Constitutional she has become more friendly to Great Britain. Every relaxation of the censorship is to our profit. The vast majority of Russian opinion is for emancipating itself from the political and economic tutorship of Germany. It is also for settling the Polish question ; but that is only a part of a whole new Western policy of Russia, which consists in cham- pioning the interests of the Western Slays against the onward march of Germany. For this purpose Russia must have friendship with Great Britain. "The Slavonic movement," said a sympathising Russian Conservative, " is another side of our rapprocitement with England."_ And though we take no pleasure in the sharp turn of events which has worked out so much to the disadvantage of Germany, we welcome anything which makes at once for the ending of Our own misunderstandings with Russia, and for the realisation of something more like our own political ideals on the Eastern side of Europe.
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