FEDERATION OR INCORPORATION? POLAND’S EASTERN BORDER IN 19th- AND EARLY 20th- CENTURY POLISH POLITICAL THOUGHT

This article analyses the place and significance of the issue of the eastern border of the future independent Polish state in Polish political thought of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Such a broad chronological scope makes it possible to trace the evolution of views concerning the shape of the eastern border and to identify the main factors shaping the development of two fundamental geopolitical concepts present in the political discourse of the time – the federalist and the incorporationist approaches. Following the Partitions, the majority of Polish political circles, attached to the multi-ethnic tradition of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, advocated the restoration of Poland within its pre-1772 borders. Such views prevailed both amongst activists of the Great Emigration and during the January Uprising. In the second half of the 19th century, the situation began to change. The development of modern national movements amongst the Lithuanians, Ukrainians and Belarusians undermined the earlier belief in the existence of a single political nation of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In response to these changes, some Polish politicians, particularly those associated with the socialist movement, developed a federalist concept. The greatest weakness of the federal programme was the lack of support from the nations inhabiting the eastern territories of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Belarusian political elites increasingly sought to build their own nation states, rather than to renew their union with Poland. As a result, the idea of a federation proved difficult to implement. The opposing approach was the incorporationist concept, developed by the National Democratic movement, especially by Roman Dmowski. Its proponents argued that Poland should primarily be a nation-state. They advocated the incorporation only of those eastern territories where Poles constituted a majority or played a dominant cultural and economic role. During the First World War, the dispute between supporters of the federalist and incorporationist concepts gained particular importance. Ultimately, the post-war settlement reflected a solution closer to the incorporationist program. Poland’s eastern border was established by the Treaty of Riga in 1921, which effectively eliminated the possibility of creating a federation between Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine. The author emphasizes that debates over the eastern border reflected broader transformations in Polish political thought, namely the transition from the vision of a multinational Commonwealth to the concept of a modern nation-state. At the same time, conflicts over the eastern territories and competing national aspirations made the border issue one of the most challenging problems faced by the Second Polish Republic.