POLISH STRATEGIC
CULTURE
JAROSLAV UŠIAK, Ph.D.
INTRODUCTION
The origins of Polish strategic culture date back to
the 10th Century, when the Polish tribes
belonging to the Western Slavs settled in the area
of Vistula River.
Throughout the 11th to 13th Century Polish
territory oscillated between consolidation and
weakness, depending on the raids of nearby
Polabian and Russian tribes, with the Krakow
principality being the strongest centre.
EARLY HISTORY
The importance of Polish territory as a stable
Slavic settlement was twofold: in the early Middle
Ages it created the conditions for cordon
sanitaire between Germanic and Russian
territory. Secondly, its importance is related to the
ancient “amber route” that since the Roman
period led from the Adriatic Sea through the
Balkans, Moravia to the Baltic Sea.
POLISH-LITHUANIAN
COMMONWEALTH
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth completed the
unification of the Polish crown lands with the
incorporation of Mazurska (1526), thus stretching
from the Baltic Sea to the lower basins rivers
Dniester and Dnieper, the Grand Duchy of
Moscow was the second largest European state
from the territorial point of view.
In the 16th Century, the Polish-Lithuanian nobility
became the most powerful Estate, which defined
national security and interests of the state. These
interests derived from the necessity to protect its
territory by the mean of alliances with Lithuania,
Bohemia, and to guards against threats, in
particular the Turkish incursions into Southern and
Central Europe.
TRIPLE DIVISION OF POLAND
Frederick II. the Great was the first monarch to
put forward the proposal for distribution of Polish
territory. In 1772 began the traumatic period in
Polish history, which marked 150 years of the
future development of Poland in a position of a
vassal state of the then European powers, and
which historians refer to as the triple division of
Poland.
Polish statehood, which existed since the 10th
Century and was cultivated through language,
Christianity and aristocratic identity, disappeared
after nearly eight centuries, together with the
strategic culture based on permanent defence
of the territory.
THE NOVEMBER UPRISING IN 1830
The uprising was based on the ideas of
redefinition of the Polish statehood, the right to
self-determination and the need to recognize the
Poles as heirs of nearly millennial identity.
Although the uprising did not bring the expected
results, for Poland and other Slavic nations it
meant the end of subservience to another
country and strengthened the Polish national
consciousness. It has become a base on which
illegal attempts to create an independent state
started. This idea formed important part of the
strategic culture of the future Polish state, as it
evolved in many emigrant groups in Western
Europe and was encouraged also by Polish
intellectuals and artists of world prominence.
The practical implementation of the idea of
Polish independent state has been for the first
time formulated in a document of international
importance – Wilson’s Fourteen Points, elaborate
by U.S.
WORLD WAR I
The origins of the modern sovereign Polish state
are thus associated with the end of World War
I. In the vision of Polish Chief of State
General J. Piłsudski two ideas of the future
Poland competed. The first concerned the
necessary consolidation of economically, socially
and politically fragmented state; the second one
was kind of a new idea of “Greater Poland”
extending from the Baltic to the Black Sea, which
has become a threat to the new socialist state –
the Soviet Union.
WORLD WAR II
Poland has found herself at the intersection of
geopolitical and strategic objectives of stronger
states. United Kingdom and France, which
promised to provide assistance to Poland, fulfilled
this promise only at sea and by declaring war on
Germany. Due to the fact that Poland missed the
interwar evolution of trends towards national
defence or expansion (contrary to the USSR and
Germany), strategic culture remained embedded
only in traditions and legends of the past, lacking
any realistic vision of defence built on ideology
and warfare doctrine.
COLD WAR
This period – from 1945 until March 5, 1946, may
be seen as the beginning of Poland’s internal
political schizophrenia. On the one hand, there
were forces inclined to the communist ideology
supported by the USSR, and on the other hand,
there lingered an unfulfilled desire of a nation to
have its own identity and freedom of choice,
supported by the West.
Crisis in post-war Poland had two main causes: first,
nationalisation of property of the Church, and
mandatory five-year implementation plan for the
years 1951-1956.
The strategic culture of the Communist regime
developed in accordance with the requirements
of the Warsaw Pact, at least officially. Internally,
however, it was nurtured by ideas tending rather
to liberalism, supported by the liberal intellectual
development, especially in Social and Political
Science, unparalleled in other countries of
Central Europe.
BEGINNINGS OF 90’S
In the June 1989 elections Solidarity Movement
caused a breakdown of all internal political
structures which were replaced the civil
parliamentary committee. In this committee
various platforms formed, alternated, and finally
ceased to exist. This ultimately led to the
disintegration of Solidarity as a political
movement. L. Walesa, however, was elected
President in 1990.
Thank you for your attention
Jaroslav Ušiak, PhD.
e-mail: [email protected]