On the eve of the next anniversary of the November Łódź Polish thought Club together with the Roman Dmowski Club organized a gathering with ed. Adam Laughter entitled „Insurgent myths of Polish history”. The gathering was devoted to the critical analysis of the insurrection and rising tendencies profoundly rooted in Polish tradition and mentality. Although these trends have repeatedly led to national disasters and disasters, historical errors are unfortunately inactive repeated.
According to the speaker, the November uprising was a classical example of a completely irrational and unthinkable armed struggle. Until the outbreak, the situation in the post-Viennese Kingdom of Poland was comparatively good. The Kingdom had its own constitution, Sejm, army, coin and education, and authoritative activities were held in Polish. Thanks to a sensible policy of specified people as Stanisław Staszic, whether Franciszek Drucki-Lubecki Kingdom was undergoing a dynamic process of modernization and development. However, these achievements were undermined by the outbreak of the November uprising and its collapse. Since then, the autonomy of the Kingdom has been gradually limited – including the abolition of the Constitution of the Kingdom, the liquidation of the Sejm and the independent army, and the civilian and military power was assumed by politician Ivan Paskiewicz. Despite this, insurgents repeated periodically in later times, frequently leading to tragic consequences.
According to ed. Adam Laughter, many factors influenced the fixation of the insurrection and emergence myth. Already in the days of the Kościuszko Uprising and Napoleonic Wars, the belief that freedom can only be recovered through armed combat. This led to the cultivation of an insurgent act, even if it ended in defeat and was covered with blood. At the time, irrational reasoning in terms of “all or nothing”, “the worse, the better”. These trends are present to this day, which is simply a manifestation of the current historical narrative, according to which without uprisings there would be no free Poland. This can be seen at the yearly celebrations of the Warsaw Uprising. The talker undoubtedly felt that the negative function played in shaping awareness and collective mentality mysticismwhich in turn led to messianism and prometeism. These trends have already developed in the era of romanticism and have proved to be highly vital. Very often, spiritual arguments were utilized to justify irrational actions, which besides happens today, for example in the rhetoric of Law and Justice.
During the meeting, the talker did not mention only to historical issues, but confronted them with the current reality. In this regard, he cited the words of president Andrzej Duda, who stated on the anniversary of the November Uprising in 2022 that "this is simply a very crucial day and a joyful holiday." Similarly, joyful days are for the rulers the subsequent anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, resulting in the death of nearly 200 1000 inhabitants of Warsaw, and the capital was almost razed. Concerning current affairs, ed. Laughter was especially dangerous the preservation of insurgent myths in the context of current politics, including in relation to relations with Russia, and especially the war in Ukraine. Irrational policy in this area threatens with tragic consequences that have already happened many times in Polish history.
Michał Radzikowski
