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Polish League An organization founded on June 25, 1848 in Berlin
by Polish envoys to the Prussian parliament, aiming to defend
Polish interests by legal means. Initially, only a few Polish
activists, each having his own separate motivations, joined the
league. The league grouped both democrats and conservatives, the
latter striving to retain their superiority over the lower
classes and to counteract the emigre revolutionary propaganda.
The league was managed by a body called the principal
directorate. At first, it intended to appoint county
directorates and parochial posts of the League in the Grand Duchy
of Poznan, Western Prussia, and Upper Silesia. However, the
organizing movement in the provinces was deficient, mainly
because of the lack of activists. Most probably, news coming
from Berlin about the growing counter-revolutionary efforts and
dissolution of the Diet also had a negative influence.
Delegates of the county leagues could met for the first time on
January 10-11, 1849 at Kornik. They approved the statutes of the
league's objectives, which were "to strengthen, defend, support,
and develop the Polish cause with overt and legal means." The
major task was to increase the number of parochial leagues and to
promote systematic educational and patriotic work in them. The
intended effects were never fully achieved in spite of numerous
sacrifices on the part of the league's leaders. In late 1849,
i.e. during the league's full bloom, the network of local
organizations of the Polish League numbered as few as about thee
hundred grass-roots groups with a total of thirty seven thousand
members, mostly recruited from among peasants, farm hands, and
artisans. No organization could be established in the Upper
Silesia due to the lack of a Polish intelligentsia there. The
activity of local organizations was, with some exceptions, rather
slight. Members gathered to develop certain educational and
patriotic projects; articles from Polish journals were read
aloud and lectures on the Prussian state system, parliament and
elections, obligation to vote for the Polish candidates, respect
for the private property and the existing social order were
heard. Some parochial posts managed to establish community loan
and savings banks, libraries, and day care centers for village
children. Prussian authorities did not err in regarding the
Polish League as a "state within the state" of sorts, this
opinion being substantiated by the organizational structure of
the league and its maintaining a certain tension among the Polish
population by publishing and disseminating journals and leaflets.
Therefore, membership in the league was forbidden for teachers,
village headmen, and civil servants; in April 1850, invoking the
earlier associations act, the Prussian authorities forced the
dissolution of the league. The Polish League was the first,
short-lived attempt to manage the social, political, and cultural
aspects of life of Poles in the Grand Duchy of Poznan and Western
Prussia, and it was directed against the Prussian state.
Witold Molik