The "Falanga" officially the National-Radical Movement (Polish: Ruch Narodowo-Radykalny or RN-R), was an illegal political organization formed as a result of a split by Boleslaw Piasecki in the National Radical Camp. Formed (during the political crisis of National Democracy) as a result of a split in the National Radical Camp. Active mainly at universities, propagating nationalist, anti-Semitic and pro-Catholic slogan. Since 1936 cooperated with the Camp of National Unity. Numbered about 5,000 members. During German occupation, Falanga's activities were continued by Confederation of the Nation.[2]
Already in 1933, at the "Akademik Polski" (Polish Academic) an Ideological Committee was established - on the initiative of Bolesław Piasecki - which developed the ideas of the Political Organization of the Nation and a national planned economy. Ideological differences were already evident before the establishment of the ONR, at the beginning of 1934, then they intensified (extremists wanted armed struggle and radicalization of the social program), to explode with full force after Piasecki was released from the camp in Bereza Kartuska. The split finally took place at the beginning of 1935, it was revealed on 25 April, and on 29 June of that year in Kąty the founding congress of the faction, called "Falanga" or - from the initials of the leader - Bepists took place.[3]
The RNR "Falanga" was formed in the spring of 1935 following a split by members of the National Radical Camp held in Detention Camp Bereza Kartuska. Adopting the name of Oboz Narodowo-Radykalny (National Radical Camp), it soon became known as Falanga after the title of its journal (the rival group would also soon be named after its own journal, thus becoming known as National Radical Camp "ABC").[4]
"Falanga" was more numerous than its "ABC" rivals. In 1937, it had 5,000 members. In terms of its social composition, it was, in the words of Bolesław Piasecki himself, "an organization of students and lumpenproletariat." The leading Falanga activists - in addition to Bolesław Piasecki - were Stanisław Cimoszyński, Zygmunt Dziarmaga, Wojciech Kwasieborski, Tadeusz Lipkowski, Adolf J. Reutt, Marian Reutt, Witold Rościszewski, Witold Staniszkis, Olgierd Szpakowski, Bolesław Świderski, Andrzej Świetlicki, Wojciech Wasiutyński. The central theoretical organ of the RNR was "Ruch Młodych" (1935–1938), and later "Przełom" (1938–1939), the agitational journal - "Falanga." Outside Warsaw, the Falanga gained some influence in Podlasie, Polesie, Silesia, Kielce, Poznań, Kraków, Lwów, Wilno, Gdynia, Łódz, Częstochowa, Zamość, Łuck, Kalisz and Równe. The movement - due to the conspiratorial conditions of its activities - took the form of a network of regional and field organizations, which included: National-Radical Movement (e.g., Białystok and Podhale), National-Radical Youth Movement Camp (Lwów, Wilno, Podlasie), Polish Falanga Front (Łódz), National Breakthrough Front (Poznań), "Kuźnica" (Silesia), National Labor Organization, Polish Cultural Action Organization.[5]
The militant organization of the RNR was at first the Combat Section, later transformed into the National Combat Organization “Life and Death for the Nation.” Remaining under the command of Wladyslaw Jamontt and Zygmunt Dziarmaga, the NOB numbered 200-300 men and formed the armed elite of the movement.[6]
Development
Leaflet of the "Falanga". "What are national-radical organizations and what do they fight for?Life and death for the nation."
Largely based on university campuses, the Falanga followed a policy of anti-Semitism and although it had few members,[7] from its power bases in schools it attempted to launch attacks on Jewish students and businesses.[8] Left-wing activists were also as part of this violent activity.[4]
The group soon came under scrutiny from the Polish government. Indeed, unlike similar movements in other European countries that regularly held public rallies, the RNR "Falanga" held only two such gatherings, in 1934 and 1937, both of which were quickly broken up by the police.[9]
For a time, the movement became associated with the Camp of National Unity (Polish: Obóz Zjednoczenia Narodowego, OZN), as Colonel Adam Koc, impressed by the organisation of the RNR "Falanga", placed Piasecki in charge of the OZN youth group. Koc called for the creation of a one-party state and hoped to use the youth movement to ensure this, although his pronouncements upset many pro-government moderates. As such, Koc was removed from the leadership of the OZN in 1938 and replaced by General Stanisław Skwarczyński who quickly severed any ties to the RNR "Falanga".[10]
Disappearance
Bolesław Piasecki holding a speech at an RN-R's rally at the Staniewski circus.
The organization weakened from the summer of 1938. There were several reasons. The growing threat from the Third Reich resulted in an increasingly widespread distancing from the Nazi models with which Falanga was associated. A severe blow was the break with the Sanation, while the earlier rapprochement with the regime had compromised the idea of the National Breakthrough in the eyes of many supporters. Finally, Piasecki's egocentrism turned out to be a significant factor. Although this may seem excessive psychologizing, it shows the incompatibility of the idea of leadership with Polish conditions: the "soldiers of the Breakthrough" rebelled against being reduced to the role of powerless tools. As a result, after the split in OZN, Włodzimierz Pietrzak, Marian Reutt, Kazimierz Hałaburda and Władysław Hackiewicz remained, while Wojciech Wasiutyński, Bolesław Świderski, Witold Staniszkis and Stanisław Cimoszyński founded the dissident journal "Wielka Polska" in January 1939. The arrogant statement about the boycott of the elections to the Sejm in 1938 masked the weakness of the organization - wherever it ran in the elections, it was defeated (as in the local elections in Łódź, where it won only 333 votes). The disintegration of local organizations was progressing, which was admitted in the Internal Communique of the Department of Ideological Action, writing that the RNR "is in an exceptionally difficult position". According to W. Wasiutyński: "When the war broke out, Piasecki's organization practically ceased to exist".[11]
However, following the establishment of a communist government in 1945, Piasecki was allowed to lead the PAX Association (Polish: Stowarzyszenie PAX), a supposedly Catholic organisation that was in fact a front group of the NKVD which aimed to promote the new communist regime to Poland's Catholics whilst turning them away from the Vatican.[12]
RN-R "Falanga" symbols
The symbol of the RNR was initially a black sword referring in appearance to the Szczerbiec, but without a ribbon and raised with the blade upward. White armbands with "Falanga" printed in black were also used as an alternate organizational badge, used by the magazine's distributors - usually members of the RNR. In 1937, a new badge design appeared in the form of a geometrically simplified image of a hand with a sword placed on a green background. This emblem was referred to as a "falanga"; it was intended to symbolize modernity and the coming of the "national revolution." Logos were also developed for the RNR's satellite organizations; the National Labor Organization, a small trade union of about 5,000 workers, used a symbol modeled on the "falanga" of a hand holding a hammer. In turn, the Polish Cultural Action Organization, which brought together representatives of the broader world of culture and art, used a hand with a hammer based on the initials of its name. It is not known whether RNR members, in addition to armbands with the "falanga," used other organizational badges - iconographic documents confirm that popular among them were classic swords with a sash without initials. The Falangists also had their own uniforms: at first they wore outfits according to OWP designs, with the difference that they wore green armbands with a white image of a simplified hand with a sword on the left forearm. In time, however, the sand-colored shirts were replaced by green ones to symbolize self-reliance, a radicalization of attitudes and a desire to put into practice the so-called Green Program prepared by Piasecki.[13]
Party emblem of the National-Radical Movement. So-called "falanga".
Sanation was a Polish political movement that was created in the interwar period, prior to Józef Piłsudski's May 1926 Coup d'État, and came to power in the wake of that coup. In 1928 its political activists would go on to form a Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government (BBWR).
National Democracy was a Polish political movement active from the second half of the 19th century under the foreign partitions of the country until the end of the Second Polish Republic. It ceased to exist after the German–Soviet invasion of Poland of 1939.
Roman Franciszek Rybarski was a Polish economist and politician. He was the foremost economist of the right-wing National Democracy political camp and creator of its economic program.
Bolesław Bogdan Piasecki, alias Leon Całka, Wojciech z Królewca, Sablewski was a Polish writer, politician and political theorist. During the war, he was active in the anti-German and anti-Soviet armed underground. Initially of national radical views, he became associated after the war with the ruling Polish communists and led a group of lay Catholics who collaborated with the communist regime.
Obóz Zjednoczenia Narodowego was a Polish political party founded in 1937 by sections of the leadership in the Sanation movement.
Władysław Gizbert-Studnicki was a Polish politician and publicist. Throughout his life, Studnicki was famous for his strongly pro-German stance, and in the Polish People's Republic all his books were banned from publication. He was the older brother of historian Wacław Studnicki.
Camp of Great Poland was a far-right, nationalist political organization of National Democracy in interwar Poland.
The National Radical Camp was an ultranationalist and antisemitic political movement which existed in the pre-World War II Second Polish Republic, and an illegal Polish anti-communist, and nationalist political party formed on 14 April 1934 mostly by the youth radicals who left the National Party of the National Democracy movement.
Organizacja Wojskowa Związek Jaszczurczy was an organization of Polish resistance in World War II. Created in 1939 and transformed into National Armed Forces in 1942, it represented the far right of the Polish political spectrum (related to the National Radical Camp political party. It refused to recognise the broadly internationally recognised Polish Government-in-exile, although there was some uneasy tactical cooperation for practical reasons. It and descendants also refused to recognise the Soviet-aligned Polish Committee of National Liberation and continued to resist the new Polish communist regime and the USSR after the war.
Group Szaniec was a far-right World War II Polish underground movement founded by the activists of the Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny ABC party. Szaniec's military arm was the Military Organization Lizard Union.
Tadeusz Pankracy Bielecki was a Polish politician and writer. Personal secretary to Roman Dmowski, member of the National Party and Camp of Great Poland ; he was however opposed to radicals from National Radical Camp. He fought in the Polish September Campaign, then escaped occupied Poland to join the National Council of Poland. He was a vocal opponent of Władysław Sikorski's policies in the Polish government in exile. After the war he remained in emigration, where he was a member of the Political Council and the Council of National Unity.
Krzysztof Maria Kawalec is a Polish historian, lecturer and professor at the University of Wrocław. He specializes in the history of Polish political thought of 19th and 20th centuries, Second Polish Republic and right-wing National Democracy political camp.
Feliks Młynarski was a Polish banker, philosopher and economist.
Andrzej Świetlicki was a Polish politician, a member of the far-right National Radical Movement "Falanga". After the 1939 German invasion of Poland, in October 1939 he formed the collaborationist National Radical Organization. After a few months of collaboration with the Germans, and the takeover of power by the civil administration of the General Government, Hitler issued a ban on cooperation with political organizations in Poland. The NOR was deprived of protection and cooperation from the Nazis. In May 1940, Świetlicki was arrested and imprisoned in Pawiak. On 21 June 1940, he was executed in the Palmiry massacre.
National Radical Organization was a Polish collaborationist pro-Nazi organization, founded following the 1939 German invasion of Poland by Andrzej Świetlicki and Stanisław Trzeciak.
Wojciech Jerzy Muszyński is a Polish historian. His areas of interest are the recent history of Poland and military history.
Movement of Polish Nationalists Zadruga was a Polish neopagan nationalist movement.
The Union of Trade Unions was a trade union confederation formed as a result of an attempt to unite pro-social trade unions. It operated until 1939 and was one of the three largest union centers in Poland. It was pro-government at first, but under the influence of anarchists, it began to lean towards anarcho-syndicalism from 1936 onward. Soon it became the target of police and judicial repression, and their efforts were finally interrupted by the outbreak of World War II.
Common Organization of the Society (POS) (Polish: Powszechna Organizacja Społeczeństwa) was the unfinished project of social and political organization proposed by colonel Walery Sławek – a close associate of Józef Piłsudski and a key contributor to the April Constitution. The organization was to unite economic and professional self-governments and social organizations into a nationwide structure; it was to replace political parties in mediating between society and the state, and, according to some scholars, even have legal exclusivity to have a seat in the Sejm. The project was quashed by both Marshal Śmigły-Rydz and President Ignacy Mościcki, and Sławek himself eventually retired from political life.
References
↑ Antoni Dudek, Grzegorz Pytel: Bolesław Piasecki. Próba biografii politycznej. Londyn: 1990. p. 58. ISBN0-906601-74-6.
↑ Tomasiewicz, Jarosław (2019). W kierunku nacjokracji: tendencje autorytarne, totalistyczne i profaszystowskie w polskiej myśli politycznej (1933-1939): narodowcy - narodowi radykałowie - narodowi socjaliści. Prace Naukowe Uniwersytetu Śląskiego w Katowicach (Wydanie Ied.). Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego. p.124. ISBN978-83-226-3356-4.
1 2 3 C.P. Blamires, World Fascism: A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-Clio, 2006, p. 523
↑ Tomasiewicz, Jarosław (2019). W kierunku nacjokracji: tendencje autorytarne, totalistyczne i profaszystowskie w polskiej myśli politycznej (1933-1939) narodowcy - narodowi radykałowie - narodowi socjaliści. Prace naukowe Uniwersytetu Śląskiego w Katowicach (Wydanie Ied.). Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego. p.125. ISBN978-83-226-3356-4.
↑ Tomasiewicz, Jarosław (2019). W kierunku nacjokracji: tendencje autorytarne, totalistyczne i profaszystowskie w polskiej myśli politycznej (1933-1939): narodowcy - narodowi radykałowie - narodowi socjaliści. Prace Naukowe Uniwersytetu Śląskiego w Katowicach (Wydanie Ied.). Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego. p.163. ISBN978-83-226-3356-4.
↑ J.W. Borejsza, "East European Perceptions of Italian Fascism", S. U. Larsen, B. Hagtvet & J. P. Myklebust, Who Were the Fascists: Social Roots of European Fascism, Scandinavian University Press, Oslo, 1980, p. 358
↑ Norman Davies, God's Playground: A History of Poland Volume 2: 1795 to the Present, Columbia University Press, 1982, p. 262
↑ Tomasiewicz, Jarosław (2019). W kierunku nacjokracji. Tendencje autorytarne, totalitarne i profaszystowskie w polskiej myśli politycznej (1933-1939): narodowcy-narodowi-radykałowie-narodowi socjaliści[Toward a Nationocracy. Authoritarian, totalitarian and pro-fascist tendencies in Polish political thought (1933-1939): nationalists-national-radicals-national socialists]. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego. pp.129–130.
↑ Rafał Dobrowolski, Wojciech Jerzy Muszyński. Z dziejów obozu narodowego. "Szczerbiec Chrobrego i symbolika polskiego ruchu narodowego w latach 1926–1939". Glaukopis 23-24. p.114-115
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5,000 (1937 est.) [1] 
