The real state of Poland and our country's policy must begin with a brief diagnosis and summary of what we have experienced over respective decades.
Since the end of planet War II, Poles were sentenced to decision in a tiny space, which was left to us by the victorious powers, which, in the process of agreeing to divide influences in Europe, established fresh borders of Poland and decided to belong to the russian sphere of influence without any alternative. In politics, we seldom deal with simple and unambiguous situations, which is why in this case too, the empirical assessment of the behaviour of the parties co-founding the fresh planet order is not the same as it is now presented in propaganda, black and white tones.
Allies of Poland – in this place I mean first of all the United Kingdom, due to the fact that France had small to say in 1945 – who first encouraged Poland to militarily argue expansionary politics Germany, with all the consequences of losing the defensive war in 1939, in 1945 unilaterally recognized that the agreement concluded with Poland was no longer binding either de jure, de facto, or literally, or in essence. They not only accepted the fresh east border of Poland, but besides opposed besides much enlargement of the borders of the Polish state in the west. On the another hand, the russian Union, although on the 1 hand it imposed its sovereignty on Poland and incorporated into the Lithuanian, Belarusian and Ukrainian republics the Polish east ends with Vilnius and Lviv, on the another hand it pushed a more favourable variant of the western border for Poland. After a fewer decades, the border on Oder and Nysa is comparatively favorable for us, nevertheless arbitraryly established, and remains the border of the Polish state.
As part of the Yalta order, the long-term Polish interest was to preserve the existence of the People's Poland, i.e. the non-sworn Polish state, and thus to avoid violent social appearances and not take extremist action to break out of the russian sphere of influence. specified a line of action was applied in practice by primate Stefan Wyszyński, and this attitude of the "self-limiting revolution" was preserved by most anti-communist opposition operating since the mid-1970s. It should be added here, that as time passed, the state called the People's Poland evolved from the Stalinist version of the totalitarian state towards a national and authoritarian state. In specified a post-war state, the Polish people had comparative freedom of continuation and development, pending a change in the geopolitical situation, namely the dissolution of the communist empire and the nullification of the division of Europe.
The most crucial for knowing our situation today, the change occurred in 1989 with the annulment of the division of Europe and the termination of the russian business of east Germany and the countries of central Europe, including Poland. Since then, Poles have been given greater freedom to choose their own form of government and economical model. The top-down process of democratisation meant that the circulation of elites could begin in Poland, taking into account social dynamics. This was the essence of events, whose symbol was the agreements concluded at the alleged "round table".
After 1989 Polish policy focused on the accomplishment of 2 related strategical objectives: overcoming the partition of Yalta and communist heritage and extremist economical reconstruction, that is, integrating the Polish economy with the planet and with the western economical model. The strategical goal of Polish policy was achieved at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries with Poland's adoption of the NATO Pact (1997) and membership in the European Union (2004). The Iron Curtain was liquidated and Central European countries were integrated into Western countries. However, it should be noted that the abolition of barriers and the application of the liberal-democratic model did not mean that there had automatically been a failure of social differences or differences in the level of life between Western and east Europe.
Unfortunately, with the formal integration of Poland into European and North-Atlantic structures, no fresh challenges and fresh strategical objectives have been identified. In the 21st century, Poland has lost its own responsibility or by omission, a busola that sets out the direction of the state policy and indicates to society the desired improvement direction. Let us repeat: after 1945 it was a patient quest for the evolutionary transformation of communist People's Poland into an independent state of the Polish nation. After 1989 it was hard and painful to follow the way of systemic and economical reforms, leading to the integration of independent Poland into Western and Western Europe of a systemic and economical model. More or little since 2004, a fresh phase should be opened in which Poles could focus on the fresh strategical challenges arising from our presence in Atlantic and European structures and crucial changes in the world. Unfortunately, it did not open, due to the fact that under fresh circumstances, the ruling Polish elites could not formulate a fresh imagination of Polish politics.
Wojciech Turek
Instead, we could observe the process of losing the position of independent and progressive vassalization of Polish policy and economy, subject to decision-makers in Berlin and/or Washington. 1 of the manifestations of this vasalization was the engagement of public debate in Poland in interior disputes and animosities between 2 feudal camps, or "plemions". There was a decline in the level of political discourse: a rational exchange of views replaced propaganda presentations, highly popular in social media, but harmful and obscured the real situation of Poland. Another highly crucial manifestation of vassalization is the tendency for the ruling, regardless of the political option, to apply the policy pictured by Wojciech Wasiutyński as a ‘colour cult’. At this point I will remind you that the eternal merit Roman Dmowski and his students, there was a demonstration of a foreign, agentural backdrop of hurr patriotic actions and emotional exultations replacing a rational and realistic political analysis.
The real, dangerous situation for the future of Poland, characterised by the failure of realistic and long-term reasoning and political action, did not change the appearance on the political phase Grzegorz Braun and the Confederation of the Polish Crown – with a request to turn distant from vassism and apply the rule of primacy of national interest besides in interior politics. It has not changed due to the fact that both Braun and his supporters have not yet been allowed to supply anything, even to participate in the public debate.
So now the dominant political circles have erased from memory and public discourse not only the experiences of respective decades, including their own accomplishments over the past decades, but at the same time they have withdrawn the Polish political thought to the times before the birth of modern political movements and the formation of a school of political realism, whose most outstanding typical was Dmowski. Leaders of modern political movements in the 20th century, notabene not only from the national camp, understood that political activity was not about careless repetition of effective and catchy formulas that patriotism was not about leading the nation from defeat to defeat, that politicians accounted not for promises, but for the results of their work. Above all, they realized that the determinants of their activities were coherent political programs, not gaining power by any means available. The biggest historical merit of Roman Dmowski was to rise the level of political reflection of the Polish elite – to exposure the smallness and tragic consequences of insurgent activity in the 19th century. Activities frequently inspired from outside and always bringing to Poles – alongside unquestionable glory – painful and hard to recover.
With all these skills, described above, the ruling elite of Poland resigned in the 21st century. Leading in a fresh and superior to everything, the rule of efficiency in gaining power, she began to limit herself to controlling social sentiments and referring to emotions that are crucial to strengthening a sense of community and can be utilized for propaganda purposes, but uncontrollable by reason are always a bad advisor in politics. This “colour cult of ulana” has become the current determinant of Polish patriotism. Emotional consequence and software anti-Russianity are controllers with which external forces in Poland can accomplish their own objectives. Of course, it cannot be excluded that the interest of external forces can be temporarily and to any degree coincided with the Polish national interest, but this cannot be determined without a thorough and rational analysis of the geopolitical situation. Unfortunately, there are no specified analyses, debates, discourses in Poland. Braun’s views of the mainstream are not disputed, but he is hysterically fighting them.
Emotional attitude to the planet and axiomatic anti-Russianism form the foundation not only of mainstream media, but besides of widely understood pedagogy, promoted by the educational system. A model of not so much a civic attitude, due to the fact that this concept does not work at all, what patriotic is the alleged "soldier cursed", that is, the 1 who declared the communist war of Russia and its minions "for death and life" and in this fight heroically persisted, like the 19th century insurgents – usque ad finem. The historical communicative is dominated by the apotheosis of militarism, which is to focus attention on the military and fighting soldiers or insurgents. No wonder that the work of the Primate Stefan Wyszyński or the unbreakable attitude and intellectual accomplishment of postwar political emigration have been sidelined. Even “Solidarity”, its program and achievements, are not noteworthy, but for the résumés of current elite representatives who began their political career as anti-communist opposition activists or union activists.
In specified circumstances, it is not amazing that in the authoritative communicative there is simply a sign of equality between the Communist russian Union and modern Russia. Earlier, the same levelling procedure was carried out in People's Poland, as if there was no difference between the Stalinist period and Poland after the turn of October 1956. akin propaganda forgeries of reality took place during the communist period, erstwhile the authoritative message marked equality between pre-war and post-war Germany or between fascist movements and Polish national camp.
The usage of a black-and-white template and single-dimensional optics makes it much easier to control public opinion. It is astonishing, though it should not, due to the fact that here we are not talking about rational perception of reality, that the same people who presently cultivate the cult of “soldiers cursed” are outraged by worship Stepana Bandery and UPA in Ukraine. After all, these are 2 national in content, unveiling the same universal scheme: a combination of emotional view of the planet with axiomatic anti-Russianism, which whitens and justifies everything anti-Russian and condemns all who effort to look at Russia through the prism of real facts, not delusions.
In what direction, then, should a resurgent realistic and rational Polish political thought take place, which are presently facing Polish fresh challenges? With a first goal and a condition sine qua non any rebirth, was spoken above. Poland must regain its independence, that is, the ability of its elite to establish a governing policy serving our short and long-term interests. Without this, there is no and there will be no full realistic designation of things. Unfortunately, there is no fresh modern successor to Dmowski, due to the fact that people like him appear erstwhile all 100 years and even less. We can only bring political reflection to the right level by teamwork and filling the most crucial positions in the country with appropriate and competent people. State institutions must start working for Poland and in its interest.
This should actually be stopped, but in conclusion I will effort to describe briefly the situation in which, in my view, we are presently in. We are part of the West, colonized by the United States and Germany. I do not know the overall balance of our relations with the United States, but Polish abroad policy is clearly subordinate to the American Ambassador to Warsaw, as in the late 18th century the real centre of power in Warsaw was in the Russian embassy. On the another hand, there are and are easy available studies demonstrating the colonial nature of Polish-German relations – Poland is simply a base of inexpensive labour and logistics for the German economy and the balance of relations remains powerfully unfavourable for us. It is only in this context that the balance of Polish-European Union relations, frequently quoted in the public debate, which covers only part of Poland's real political and economical relations with European countries, should be assessed. In short, while Poland's accession to the European Union has brought a number of benefits in fresh years, the situation has most likely changed to our disadvantage.
However, 1 should be aware that Poland is not in the desert, but – as has been mentioned – is part of the Western in a multipolar world, in which only large powers or transnational organisms, specified as the European Union, are important. Even if we wanted to, even after regaining sovereignty in our own country, we would not have much area for manoeuvre. We can decision in the space we can work out.
Our top asset is, paradoxically, the geographical location which in war conditions was (and if the present war does not end) a curse for us, but in peace conditions, given the Chinese-American rivalry, makes us a part of the trade trail, the alleged "single trail". At this point, American interests do not coincide with ours, due to the fact that the United States (also the United Kingdom) is trying to halt the improvement of the way between Europe and China.
Poland has no reason to stay in conflict with China (also with Russia). On the another hand, we have reason to fear repercussions in the event of an effort to become independent of Germany (and the United States, of course). Paradoxically, the possible triumph of the right-wing AfD in Germany will reduce the emphasis on independent Poland from Germany, as the fresh German policy will halt the process of centralising the European Union, thus reducing Germany's ability to influence Poland through EU institutions. In addition, fresh Germany can start supporting Poland's drive to become independent of the United States.
The biggest local challenge facing independent Poland in the 21st century is our policy towards our nearest neighbours in the east. It is indisputable to have average relations with Belarus. The situation in Ukraine requires comment. Fantasmagoria are reported by influential people projects of close Polish-Ukrainian interstate relations (symbolic announcement of the abolition of borders reported by the president of Poland). The Polish-Ukrainian reconciliation, like the French-German reconciliation after planet War II, will be possible in the distant future, but must be preceded by a Polish-German reconciliation that has not yet taken place. Poland is not an equal partner for Germany. Poland must enforce extremist changes and concessions from Ukraine to safe its east border.
I don't think it's real, which means I'm pessimistic about the position of Polish-Ukrainian relations. Therefore, I believe that – paradoxically – further successes of the Russian troops in the east War Ukraine is in the long-term Polish interest due to the fact that it weakens Ukraine demographicly, militarily, economically and geostrategically. Poland will be able to enforce anything only from weak Ukraine. knowing this paradox completely changes our perception of Poland's current policy towards Ukraine and Russia. The attitude of Poland to Ukraine should be the following: we support weak Ukraine erstwhile opposed to Russia, while we absolutely do not support the construction of "Big Ukraine". The escalation or extension of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict is not in Poland's long-term interest, as it hinders the improvement of the alleged "single route".
The discussion on the challenges facing Poland in the 21st century is inactive ahead of us. First, we must regain an independent state.
Wojciech Turek
Historian and journalist, lives in Gdańsk
Think Poland, No. 41-42 (11-18.10.2026)
