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Polish Silesian Autonomy movement [67]
What you wrote about the politicla history of Poland is a heresy...
Alligator - first of all, thanks for reading what I wrote and thanks for the feedback. In your response, you've clarified Dmowski's anti-German position. All I said in the article was that Dmowski held an anti-German position - I didn't say there was anything wrong with that. Read it through again - I don't think you'll find I was being critical of Dmowski's position, just trying to outline it very briefly. Yes, I could've written a lot more about Dmowski - but then it wouldn't have been an article about Kaczyński's comments on Silesianness. I agree with everything you say in the first paragraph and I think Kaczyński would argue that what Dmowski wrote about Germany's imperial ambitions is still relevant today (although I may be wrong on this).
You said I should read something before I write an article. OK - here's my source for the stuff on Dmowski/Piłsudski (which I'll remind you is only supposed to be a brief outline):
There existed two conflicting visions of Poland's role in the eastern lands of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with their complex mosaic of intermingling nationalities and religions ... The narrowly nationalistic NDs called for the outright annexation of Lithuania, most of Belarus and western Ukraine, areas which they considered could be effectively absorbed within a unitary Polish state and assimilated in terms of national identity. Piłsudski's patriotism, on the other hand, was not based on modern ethnic criteria but owed much to the traditions of the former multi-ethnic Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He felt that there existed a rare historic opportunity to achieve wider regional security under Polish leadership against a resurgent Russia by creating an extensive east European federation, encompassing ethnic Poland, the Baltic states, Belorus and the Ukraine.
pp. 224-225 A Concise History of Poland (Lukowski and Zawadzki, 2nd ed.) Of these two concepts of nationalism, I would argue that Kacyński's reflects Dmowski's/the NDs as opposed to Piłsudski's. At least his comments on Silesianness would appear to be closer to Dmowski's anti-German stance and what I would describe as 'narrow' nationalism (which isn't necessarily to say that 'narrow' is a bad thing).
Alligator - I have to change a baby's nappy. I'll come back to this as soon as I get the chance. You're obviously pretty well-informed. What are your views on Silesian Autonomy?
