This is an attempt to examine the intellectual roots of Roman Dmowski, one of the co‑founders of National Democracy, the Polish version of integral nationalism.
This articles investigates the impact of conceptions of fin‑de -siècle theories on the whole Polish independence‑oriented movements of the second part of XIX Century. Multivariate analysis of documents of the epoch demonstrate that anti‑materialist, anti‑positivist, and anti‑liberal sets of ideas, the so‑called ‘idealist revolt” mixed with sociodarwinism was a fundamental part of the experience of the entire Polish generation of the 1890s. Furthermore, the apparent effect of Social Darvinism on the whole generation – both left and right – was stronger than other factors that scholars have typically stressed before, including positivist ideas, anti‑Russian and anti‑German sentiments. Such an interpretation in the case of young Dmowski’s world‑view puts an emphasis on the crucial role played by anti‑socialist beliefs combined with racial theories taken from Western political traditions. Yet, in Dmowski’s first political writings, in his holistic revision of Enlightenment tradition in the Polish national discourse, at their centre is radical anti‑Semitism.
Keywords: Dmowski · Krzywicki · national democracy · anti-semitism · nationalism
The journal founded by Leszek Kołakowski, Bronisław Baczko and Jan Garewicz appears continuously since 1957.