Polish antimilitarists and pacifists on the eve of World War I

Abstract

At the beginning of the twentieth century, one could fi nd few radical antimilitarists and only a slightly larger group of pacifi sts within the Polish population of the three partitioning states. In the summer of 1906, with the permission of the Russian government, the Polish Association  of the Friends of Peace was created, which was the fi rst moderate pacifi st institution in the Polish lands that promoted world peace. In the years 1910-1911, some less numerous pacifist associations of similar social and political origins appeared in Kraków. For in both Warsaw and Kraków, supporters of pacifi sm came from the milieu of the intelligentsia and from conservative, landowner, and National Democracy circles. As World War I approached, the cooperation between Warsaw and Kraków pacifi sts grew more diffi cult. The program of this small group of supporters of peace never enjoyed much social support. After the global conflict, the conservatives, landowners, and especially National Democrats distanced themselves from the idea of
pacifism.