Narodowe Sily Zbrojne (Polish Edition)

Jan Paczkis|Tuesday, December 22, 2009

The ONR favored a non-totalitarian form of government that also rejected the weaknesses of democracy. (p. 13, 69, 76). Although the ONR promoted fervent nationalism, it rejected the cult of the absolute leader (Fuhrer, Duce, etc.)(p. 203). Instead of being state-centered or racialist-centered, ONR ideology was Catholic-centered (as a system of values, not in a Church or clerical sense.)(e. g., p. 13, 241).

The ONR favored a non-totalitarian form of government that also rejected the weaknesses of democracy. (p. 13, 69, 76). Although the ONR promoted fervent nationalism, it rejected the cult of the absolute leader (Fuhrer, Duce, etc.)(p. 203). Instead of being state-centered or racialist-centered, ONR ideology was Catholic-centered (as a system of values, not in a Church or clerical sense.)(e. g., p. 13, 241).

Both socialist-style collectivism and unbridled capitalism were rejected. (pp. 80-81). The ONR's position stated that big businesses cause social injustice, and are harmful to Poland in that they are owned by foreigners and Jews, in effect making Poland their colony. (p. 12). A system of small businesses was seen as the one that was most compatible with Catholic values. (p. 81). The ONR also favored agrarian reform, in which every peasant would have the right to own a sizeable piece of land. (p. 242).

Although the ONR was a revolutionary movement that advocated violence as necessary, including street violence (p. 16), its ranks were, unlike those of the early Italian fascists and German Nazis, largely free of the criminal element. (p. 16). At no time did the ONR's position partake of expansionist or imperialist nationalism. It accepted the permanence of the Riga eastern border, and rejected any idea of resurrecting pre-Partition Poland in some form.

Before WWII, the ONR had suggested that Poland follow neither a pro-Soviet nor pro-German orientation. Instead, Poland should be allied with other middle-European states, such as Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Romania. (p. 75).

Although the ONR's position can be seen as being so pro-Polish as to be anti-minority, this was not unilaterally so. The continued presence of Lithuanians, Byelorussians, and part of the Ukrainians (Rusins) on Polish soil was deemed compatible with Poland's interests, insofar as these minorities were deemed susceptible to Polonization. In contrast, Germans, Jews, and hostile Ukrainians were to be expelled. (p. 12, pp. 82-83).

The ONR's position on Jews was admittedly anti-Semitic. (p. 82). Jewish middlemen contributed to the poverty of Poland's peasants, and Jewish economic dominance was seen as fundamentally incompatible with Poland's interests. (p. 242). When the Holocaust later occurred, the ONR noted that, whereas the Nazi actions had fulfilled ONR's goals of a largely Jewish-free Poland, the ONR had never imagined physical extermination of the Jews. Nazi methods were rejected, and an article in SZANIEC (THE RAMPART) stated that: "Murder is not our weapon." (p. 82).

Unlike the AK, the NSZ permanently considered the Soviets to be just as much enemies as the Nazis, and opposed any fighting on behalf of the advancing Red Army. (e. g., p. 112). After the Soviet "liberation" of Poland, part of the NSZ fought the Communists alongside like-minded groups. In fact, according to a cited Polish Communist source, there existed, in 1944-1948, 1,364 illegal political and military groups, comprising 91,000 members. The U.B. (UB, or Communist security forces) lost 886 men killed, and captured 46,000 firearms from the anti-Communist guerillas. (p. 174).

There is a chapter on the Holy Cross Brigade. For additional details, see the Peczkis review of Bylem Dowodca Brygady Swietokrzyskiej: Narodowych Sil Zbrojnych (The Holy Cross Brigade of the NSZ: I Led it.). The remainder of the book includes NSZ and ONR documents, as well as biographic details of important members.

Interestingly, as far back as 1940 (p. 35), the ONR had suggested that Poland be compensated for German aggression and crimes by being awarded German-ruled lands up to the Oder-Neisse (Odra-Nysa) line. (See also p. 69, 75). [Ironically, this became reality under Soviet auspices in 1945, albeit with simultaneous loss of the kresy (Poland's eastern half)].