Before a split. Conflicts in a Galitia peasant movement in 1913 Cover Image

Przed rozłamem Konflikty w galicyjskim ruchu ludowym w 1913 roku
Before a split. Conflicts in a Galitia peasant movement in 1913

Author(s): Tomasz Kurpierz
Subject(s): History
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego

Summary/Abstract: A split that took place in a Galitia peasant movement in 1913 created a sensation in a political life and eventually buried a system of powers existing on the political scene already for several years. A creation and, an ultimate structure of the opposition in Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe in 1913 towards Jan Stapiński, a PSL political leader, led to the election of the organizing committee of the future Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe “Piast” headed by Wincenty Witos in Tarnów on 20th December 1913. The reasons of the split in a Galitia peasant movement were diversified and complex. They derived from the fact that PSL, after a democratization of the elections after the 1907 election, introduced a large group of its own MPs to the Austrian State Council who dominated in the Polish Circle. The success caused the influx of numerous new members of different peasant groups to the party, but also the ones who did not necessarily represented the ...peasants’ interests. It also had an influence on the lack of stability of the policy of the party management and Stapiński himself who, has aimed to move to the radical opposition and agreement, among other things, with the peasant Ukraine groups in 1913 since his alliance with conservatists in the Austrian parliament. The very alliance shaped the so called Lviv frond (Bolesław Wysłouch, Jan Dąbski and others), a group who left PSL in 1911 (in 1914 was to enter into a new PSL Piast). In 1913 Stapiński announced changes of the party policy and movement into a radical opposition in the parliament. His lack of decisiveness in many important issues increased the criticism towards him on the part of some of the activists, Zygmunt Lasocki, among others. The criticism did not concern only the programming, but also financial issues. Among other things, Stapiński was accused of gaining funds on the activity from “illegal sources”, also from one of the colonizational‑marine committees. A sharp press campaign, among other things, in a new magazine “Piast”, as well as an address against the president of PSL on the parliament forum which happened in autumn 1913 in connection with financial abuses, undoubtedly, weakened his already seriously‑undermined authority in the party and laid the ground for, as it appeared, the non‑distant split.

  • Issue Year: 6/2009
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 174-201
  • Page Count: 28
  • Language: Polish