Polscy socjaliści w kampanii wyborczej do Sejmu Ustawodawczego na przełomie 1918 i 1919 r.
Polish socialists in the election campaign for the Legislative Sejm at the turn of 1918 and 1919

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the election campaign for the Legislative Sejm, conducted by the Polish socialists at the turn of 1918 and 1919. Activists of PPS (Polish Socialist Party) and PPSD (Polish Social Democratic Party of Galicia) were trying to convince the voters that the election planned for January 26th 1919 was in fact going to be a plebiscite which would decide about the future of reborn Poland. Founding their propaganda action primarily on slogans referring to defence of the achievements of the “people’s government”, the socialists indicated that only if the radical social and economic reforms were continued, would further evolution of the political system of the Republic of Poland towards democracy and progress be ensured. At the same time, the competitive right-wing camp was harshly attacked and presented as reactionist and clerical. The election campaign of the turn of the 1918 and 1919 ended as an obvious failure for the socialist movement, although it was not a crushing defeat and in the case of Galicia it might even be described as moderate success. It was due to various factors, such as the effectiveness of propaganda from the contending political camps but also their election strategy, experience in running such campaigns and their broad social base.

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