“Can Poles Win Their Independence?” The First Programmes of the Polish Nation to Regain Sovereignty and Survive in the Early 19th Century

Abstract

Already at the beginning of the period of national captivity, two different programmes were formulated for Poland to end the chapter of its non-existence and regain independence. In 1800, Józef Pawlikowski’s historical pamphlet entitled Czy Polacy wybić się mogą na niepodległość? (Can Poles Win Their Independence?) was published in Paris. It presented a programme of initiating a nationwide uprising against the invaders, including underhand tactics to be used by the entire nation, by people who are equal and put freedom above all else. In the same year, the Warsaw Society of the Friends of Science was established and its programme was formulated mainly in the writings of Jan Paweł Woronicz. It entailed focusing on activities in the area of culture, on strengthening the memory of the heroic past, on internal independence, on heroic persistence reinforced by the national spirit, on preserving the substance, the “existence”, the “selfhood” of Poles. These two ways of thinking about winning independence continually coexisted and marked the history of our country in the decades and centuries to come.