Dr. Tomasz Greniuch, a historian known for his uncompromising approach to fresh history, announced on Facebook the beginning of work on a fresh book. The task has a working title ‘Retaliation 1906’ and – as he writes – he is to talk about “the real civilian war on the streets of Łódź, erstwhile the castet and the browning replaced political arguments.” Short, sharp and with a precise tone. This time Grenich reaches for the subject of 1 of the most silent and at the same time the most bloody episodes in the past of the Polish labour movement.
However, it will not be the first publication by the author to address the subject of difficult, unobvious or controversial. Grenich was introduced as the author of historical books combining reliable origin writing with individual commitment and expressive style. Among his achievements are: "Death. A communicative based on facts", documenting the destiny of the NSZ ‘Bartek’ grouping; “King of Podbeskid” – the biography of Captain Henry Flame; or “Christ for us, we for Christ”In which he sported soldiers of the underworld of independency as people of ideas, fighting not only with arms in hand, but besides with value. In fresh years he has expanded his interest in military topics outside Poland – in books ‘Natal 1899–1900’ and ‘Paardeberg 1900’ described the Boer Wars in South Africa. Each time he reached for the subjects marginalized, frequently absent in the mainstream historical debate.
The fresh task fits into the same line of thought. This time, the author focuses on events that took place in Łódź at the turn of 1906 and 1907. It's a time of social boiling, political confrontation and violent violence. Violence, which victims were not the invaders, but the Poles themselves.
The conflict was underpinned by revolutionary sentiments caused by Russia's defeat in the war against Japan. In the Kingdom of Poland, and especially in Łódź – an industrial centre inhabited by hundreds of thousands of workers – demands for political, social and national reforms intensified. The left-wing labour parties, mainly the Polish Socialist organization (PPS) and the Sociallemocracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL), were developing rapidly. Although they differed in their approach to independence, the 2 formations focused on the conflict for labour rights and the democratisation of social life.
They were opposed by the end of 1905, which formed the National Labour Union (NZR). It was an effort to make its own alternate to left-wing working groups. The NZR proclaimed that the revolution was the work of Jews and socialists, aimed at Polishness and the Catholic Church. Endece powerfully preferred an evolutionary fight to bring Poland back to the map of Europe. specified rhetoric not only brought the people closer to the church hierarchy, but besides radicalized the atmosphere among the workers. The ideological dispute rapidly turned into a physical confrontation.
In the 350,000th Łódź SDKPIL and PPS had about 20,000 members, NZR – about 4,000. Street fights, beatings, intimidation, and assaults occurred in the city. The escalation of force was gradual, but inevitable. After a strike announced by PPS in October 1906, the nationalists claimed compensation for lost regular earnings. erstwhile they met with a refusal, they began physically blocking socialist activists' access to workplaces. On October 8, the first major confrontation took place – shots were fired at the gate of the Gamma and Albrecht factory. The same day akin incidents occurred in respective another places of Łódź. The central structures of the organization tried to contain the situation, but the atmosphere in the city was already besides tense.
The following weeks brought a wave of violent assaults and regular executions of activists. Both sides created their own militias, mill militias and self-defense groups. By the end of November 29 people were killed, 30 were injured. In December – 54 killed, 34 wounded. There have been cases of home invasions, street bombings, shelling at mill gates. The symbol of the escalation was the shooting of January 18, 1907 outside St. Anne's Church. erstwhile the crowd demanded the sacrifice of coffins of 2 murdered socialists, the priest refused, and shots were fired from inside the temple. 8 people were killed, forty wounded.
Religious changes have besides begun against the background of violence. Left workers, not accepting the open support of the Catholic Church for nationalists, began to convert to mariavitism. Within 2 years, the number of mariavits in Łódź increased from just over a 100 to 50 thousand. And this environment besides fell victim to attacks and 1 of them was even murdered. Throughout this period, the Tsarist police almost did not respond. She observed the situation from a distance, hoping that the common elimination of the most active activists would remove the work to conduct investigations and surveillance.
The breakthrough occurred in April 1907. The crew of 1 of the Łódź factories made a call for a joint conference to end violence. On April 24, 350 delegates from 275 workplaces appeared at the meeting. They adopted a resolution condemning fratricidal fighting and hatred fueled by organization media. An interparty investigation committee was besides set up to identify the perpetrators of the murders. The conflict was slow fading. Although there have been isolated incidents for respective more weeks, a wave of force has been stopped.
According to careful estimates, 322 people died in the battles in Łódź in 1906–1907 and more than 400 were injured. These are figures comparable to the victims of uprisings and armed forces, only Poles died in this case, at the hands of another Poles.
Tomasz Grenich reaches for this communicative as social and political tensions emergence again. If the "Retaliation of 1906" maintains the character of his erstwhile books – based on documents, full of testimonies, but written in a strong, expressive language – it can not only be an crucial voice about events more than a 100 years ago, but besides a informing for today. This is simply a communicative of what radicalization, dehumanization of the opponent leads to, and resignation from dialogue.
"Retaliation 1906" promises to be a book that can become the strongest in the author's work so far.
