The Poles don’t celebrate Polish independence on the Independence Day.
It sounds perverse, but in a way, it is true. Poland did not gain independence on November 11th, 1918. It only marked the beginning of a long process that included several uprisings in the West and wars in the East. Before the Second World War, different political groups celebrated independence on different days, wanting to elevate their own political camp’s struggle for the freedom of Poland over others’. November 11th became a national holiday for the first time in 1937 and was celebrated only twice before the war. After the communist regime suppressed it, November 11th returned as a holiday only in 1989, once Poland became a democracy again.
So what exactly is celebrated that day? Historically, it would be the moment Józef Piłsudski, the leader of the independence movement, received the command over the nascent Polish Army. Piłsudski himself was somewhat of a walking legend, a hero as from Greek myths. A member of the Polish Socialist Party he took part in the 1905 revolution against the Russian Tsar. During the war, he formed Polish Legions that fought alongside the German army, until the Kaiser demanded the Polish troops swear an oath of allegiance to him. For refusal, Piłsudski was sentenced to prison. With the war drawing to an end he was released, and came to Warsaw on November 10th, 1918. The strong and independent Polish state was still a dream that had to be forged in the flames of patriotic praxis. But there was no denying that from the rotten thrones of the German, Russian, and Austrian emperors a free Poland was sprouting. And that is what we are celebrating.
At least that is what we would want to celebrate.
Currently, the Polish Independence Day is associated with images reminiscent of apocalyptic movie scenes. A burning apartment on one of Warsaw's avenues, with its flame covering the balcony towering above it – decorated with the symbols of the Women's Strike and the rainbow flag – has become the most recognizable symbol of Independence Day celebrations.
If you walked through the streets of Warsaw today, you would see a picture completely different from what was happening in 1918. The biggest event in the city is the so-called March of Independence. Originally it was organized by All-Polish Youth, and National Radical Camp (ONR), far-right groups, often defined as neofascist. What was advertised as a peaceful celebration of national independence quickly turned out to be, as the Italian daily La Republicca puts it, “the largest gathering of fascists in Europe”. At the forefront of the march, banners with phrases such as “Europe will be White or desolate”, “No for Euro-kolkhoz”, or the most recent addition – “Stop Ukrainization of Poland” reign supreme. Further behind, the regular guests from other countries, for example, members of the Italian neo-fascist Forza Nuova, raise cheers in their own languages. It would be a commonplace, yet sadly a necessary one, to remind that fascist Italy was among the Axis powers that stripped Poland of its independence in 1939. Warsaw has become a dubious playground for chauvinist organizations and extreme groups.
The ongoing polarization in Poland at the turn of the 2010s and 2020s normalized the politicization of various elements of public life. Appropriation of certain practices by one group makes them the axis of dispute between different environments, deepening the dualistic division into (in this case) liberal-progressive and conservative camps. Since coming to power in 2015, the Polish right wing, led by Law and Justice (PiS), has been looking for symbols on which to base its myths creating a narrative about Poland as a nation enslaved by modern globalism. The Independence March, organized and popularized for over a dozen years, was an ideal opportunity. It united various nationalist circles under a common banner, especially those hostile to institutions such as the European Union, the LGBTQ+ movement, Donald Tusk's Civic Platform, or the secularization of the state.
Partisan (not national) myth-creating
Ideal circumstances to hijack the March appeared in the late 2010s. First, in 2017, the European Parliament called to condemn the march as a manifestation of extremist attitudes and behavior. The European Union's resolution was met with a rather hostile reaction from national groups, all the more motivated to organize the project on the largest possible scale. The march grew bigger every year and its course became more and more violent. Later, in 2018, the mayor of Warsaw, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, banned it due to the escalation of violent acts or xenophobic slogans. This failed attempt only encouraged radical groups to sow discord and unrest on the streets. The peak of this trend arrived in 2020, which saw an unprecedented amount of violence. The event, which lasted less than a few hours, ended with the detentions of several march participants. The charges concerned the previously mentioned arson of the apartment and a bandit clash - in the heart of the city - between police forces and a group of nationalists. For Polish recipients, the latter will be known as the (in)famous Battle of Empik.
But that did not disgrace the March into oblivion. Spotting an opening the then PiS Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, together with the far-right Confederation, took the abandoned nationalists under his protection. He captured the initiative to organize the march, which differed from its (already illegal) predecessor only on paper. The name was extremely similar, the route was practically the same, and the target group was completely unchanged. The march became a flashpoint between two hostile political camps in Polish reality. For some, it was the ultimate expression of radical ideologies, decorated with the very honorable label "tradition". For others, it was a celebration of independence based on Catholic and national values.
Normalization of radicalism
Any attempt to change the perspective on this event usually ends in the opposite way than expected. For its staunch participants and right-wing politicians, an "attack on the march" is understood as an attack on the independence day (and sometimes even independence itself) as a whole. However, it is difficult to create an optimistic discourse about the project, which ends with the arrests of its participants, hospitalization of policemen and journalists, and which introduces gestures and motifs known to Poles from the early 1940s on the streets of Warsaw.
The organization of the march is always accompanied by at least several different counter-demonstrations from liberal or leftist circles (including the remnants of Piłsudski’s Polish Socialist Party itself), which often lead to violent clashes between the participants of these various initiatives. Seven years ago, even German anarchists from groups like Antifa came to Poland to stop the march. The authorities in Warsaw, upon hearing about the guests from the old occupier country, introduced additional security measures, fueling the rhetoric surrounding the security of the event itself and the alleged attack on Polish independence.
Currently, its leading figures have entered parliamentary politics as coalition partners of right-wing parties, which contributed to minimizing the violent nature of the march. However, remembering the image of a burning apartment or brutal clashes with the police, it is not easy to change the perspective on an initiative that for years was a very exclusive form of celebration and was fully appropriated by specific political formations. Even with the March being more peaceful than a few years ago one thing remains clear. The celebrations of Polish independence have been hijacked by the far-right, and there is not much that can be done to undo it.
A joint article by Agata Zagozdzon & Piotr Jaworski
Great article