Polish Socialist Party – Revolutionary Faction

The Polish Socialist Party – Revolutionary Faction (Polish: Polska Partia Socjalistyczna – Frakcja Rewolucyjna, PPS–FR) also known as the Old Faction (Polish: Starzy) was one of two factions into which the Polish Socialist Party split in 1906.^[1] The Revolutionary Faction's primary goal was to restore an independent Poland, which was envisioned as a representative democracy. It saw itself as a spiritual successor to the Red Faction of the 1863 January Uprising, which had the goal of creating an independent Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth.

History

Split in the Polish Socialist Party

For several years the Polish Socialist Party had an internal struggle: Originally, the PPS was founded as a patriotic, pro-independence party. In preperation for the creation of a new Polish army and in order to fight the Russian occupants, the PPS, led at the time by Piłsudski founded a Combat Organization, that became extremely active in the 1905 unrests in Russia. The Combat Organization grew increasingly influential and cooperated with the Japanese Empire, receiving funding in exchange for information and strikes against Russian state servants. While Piłsudski was concentrated on preparing the basis for a future Polish Army, the PPS was taken over by more internationalist, marxist-leaning members, which were worried by the rising popularity of Piłsudski and his Combat Organization.

That internal struggle led to the party to split, with the marxist members becoming the Polish Socialist Party – the Left (also known as PPS–L or the Young Faction), which believed that Poland should be a marxist country, established through proletarian revolution, as part of a larger international communist movement, in collaboration with the Russian proletariate. The idea of an independent Polish state was abandoned by that faction. Piłsudski and his followers thus left the party and founded the Revolutionary Faction of the PPS in 1906. The declared goal of the party was an reborn Polish commonwealth. The party would serve to gather funds for a Polish army.

Activism

With the Combat Organization of the Polish Socialist Party and the conspiratory Związek Walki Czynnej, the party continually worked to build the basis for a future Polish army.

It organized several raids and assassinations of Tsarist officials in the Russian partition, most prominent the Bezdany raid, which became the last action of the PPS–FR in the Russian partition. After that last raid, Piłsudski and his followers left the Russian Empire and moved to Galicia-Lodomeria (Austrian Poland), where there was a relative freedom. In the Austrian partition, Piłsudski was able to organize several paramilitary organisations under the guise of being rifle-clubs, which would be the basis for the Polish Legions in 1914.

Thus the leadership of the PPS–FR would become some of the most prominent fathers of Polish independence, with many of them serving as Prime Ministers, famously Aleksander Prystor and Walery Sławek, two as Presidents (Wojciechowski, Mościcki) and several ministers.

Later History

With the failure of revolution in the Kingdom of Poland (1905-1907) PPS–Left lost popularity, and PPS–FR regained dominance. In 1909 PPS–FR renamed itself back to Polska Partia Socjalistyczna (Polish Socialist Party); the increasingly marginal PPS–L merged with Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, led by Róża Luksemburg in 1918 to form the Communist Party of Poland.

In independent Poland, in 1928, the PPS split once more. While the PPS had supported Piłsudski during the May Coup in 1926, they disagreed afterward whether to support his Sanation movement. When the PPS decided to go into opposition, a faction of Piłsudski's supporters in the PPS split off and created the Polish Socialist Party – old Revolutionary Faction.

Notable Members

Józef Piłsudski, Walery Sławek, Aleksander Prystor, Ignacy Daszyński, Kazimierz Pużak, Tomasz Arciszewski, Rajmund Jaworowski, Leon Wasilewski, Mieczysław Niedziałkowski, Norbert Barlicki, and Jędrzej Moraczewski.

See also

• Polish legions in WWI
• Riflemen's Association
• Związek Walki Czynnej

References