Poland’s regaining of independence in 1918 after 123 years of dependence would not have been possible if it had not been for the joint efforts of many generations of Poles. They included people who made a special mark in the history of the struggle for a free Poland, not only on the battlefields, but also through the diplomatic negotiations conducted in the privacy of the cabinets. One of them was Roman Dmowski.
He was born on 9 August 1864 in Kamionek, near Warsaw. His father Walenty worked hard initially as a paving worker, later becoming the owner of a paving company. In addition, he leased two lakes, earning a living for his family by selling fish. His mother Józefa, née Lenarska, was responsible for raising seven children, two of whom died in early childhood. The young Roman began his education at the Third Philological Gymnasium in Warsaw, at a time when the Russian authorities made Russification of Polish children and youth.
At first, Dmowski did not care about his education, which resulted in him repeating his studies in the next three grades from second to the fourth one. The breakthrough came when he founded a secret pupils’ organisation called “Strażnica”, which included classes in history, geography, Polish language, and literature. In his last school years, due to the death of his father, he gave tutoring lessons to earn a living.
After leaving grammar school in 1886, he enrolled at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the Imperial University of Warsaw. Here, he became involved in the activities of “Zet”(the Union of Polish Youth) and became a member of the conspiratorial Polish League, an organisation active in the years 1887-1893 in exile and in Poland, then under the partitions of Russia, Austria, and Germany. During that time, he made the acquaintance of one of the founders of the theory of the national movement – Jan Ludwik Poplawski. This person made a great impression on the young Dmowski and became an authority for him.
Influenced by this new and inspiring contact, Dmowski began to publish journalistic texts in the “Głos”. In 1890, he completed his studies, writing a dissertation “Contribution to the morphology of ciliates”. The following year, Dmowski became involved in the unofficial celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the 3rd of May Constitution. In the autumn of 1891, he went to Paris for further studies, which was made possible thanks to an allowance offered to him.
On his return from France to Warsaw, in August 1891, he was detained by the Russian authorities for organising a patriotic manifestation for the 100th anniversary of the 3rd of May Constitution. He was imprisoned in the Warsaw Citadel, from where he was only released on bail in January 1893. After his release, despite the actions of the “Okhrana”, the Russian secret police, together with Poplawski he led the transformation of the Polish League into the National League and became its leader.
In the autumn of 1893, he was sentenced to a 5-year ban on staying in the Polish territories occupied by Russia during the partitions. For 3 years he was under strict police supervision in Mitava near Riga. Then, at the beginning of 1895, he illegally crossed the border into Austria-Hungary and settled in Lwów. There he began to publish texts in the “All-Polish Review”, quickly becoming its editor-in-chief. In 1896, he took part in the National League congress in Budapest, becoming a member of the organisation’s top leadership. When the ban on staying in Poland expired, Dmowski moved to Kraków, from where, in 1904, he travelled to Japan, which was then at war with Russia. There, he tried to destroy the plans of members of the Polish Socialist Party led by Józef Piłsudski to launch an anti-Russian uprising in Poland, with Japanese approval. During his meetings with Japanese politicians, Roman Dmowski argued that the Polish uprising would not bring Japan any real benefit and would be brutally suppressed by the Russian army.
In 1905, he returned to Warsaw. Unfortunately, his arrival coincided with the closure of the All-Polish Review. However, this did not prevent him from developing a political career – from 1907 to 1909 he was a member of the Duma, the Russian parliament, where he served as president of the Polish Circle. During this time, he published the book ‘Germany, Russia the Polish Question’, in which he demonstrated that the greatest threat to the Polish nation was Germany’s actions.
After the outbreak of the First World War, in 1915, he left Warsaw first for the Russian capital, Petrograd, and then for the United Kingdom, France and Switzerland. He used his stay in these countries to meet with local politicians, whom he convinced of the need to rebuild Polish statehood after the end of war hostilities. In August 1917, the Polish National Committee was established in Switzerland, headed by Roman Dmowski. The Committee was soon officially recognised internationally as a representative of Poland. France was the first to do so, followed shortly thereafter by Great Britain and the United States. Dmowski became seriously involved in France in the creation of a Polish army, attracting many Poles from Europe and America. This army, commanded by General Jozef Haller, played a key role in the struggle for independence after being transported to the country in 1919.
During the Versailles peace talks, Dmowski represented Poland together with the eminent musician Ignacy Jan Paderewski. Between 1919 and 1922, he was a member of the legislative Sejm. In the government formed by Wincenty Witos in 1923, he became Minister of Foreign Affairs. After the May Coup of 1926 by Józef Piłsudski, Dmowski set up a new political formation, the Camp of Great Poland (OWP), which included many right-wing parties that formed an opposition to the Sanation government. The main task of the OWP was to build national solidarity. Dmowski proposed a close relationship between the state and the Catholic Church and the need to shape social and moral discipline. The OWP was dissolved by the authorities in 1933.
As part of the consolidation of the national movement, the politician simultaneously transformed the People’s National Union into the National Party in 1928. In this party, however, his role became less and less important over the years.
Roman Dmowski died in Drozdowo near Łomża on 2 January 1939. He was buried in the Bródnowski Cemetery in Warsaw. The funeral ceremony was attended by more than 100,000 people.