Page 148 - Ciancia, On Civilization's Edge

composition of the town council would result in the wellbeing of both the Christian and the Jewish

populations. By promoting the demolition of “ghetto” walls—a discursive concept, rather than a

physical reality, in the towns and cities of Poland—the author drew on nominally progressive

Positivist ideas from the nineteenth century that called on Jews to discard backwardness and embrace

39
assimilation into the more “civilized” Polish national community.

At the same time, however, Poles across the political spectrum continued to fear that the

national civilizing mission in the eastern borderlands remained fragile and full of unresolved

tensions. Indeed, the concept of Jewish backwardness that was espoused by supporters of the Sanacja

was always entangled with the idea that urban-dwelling Poles had themselves become infected with

negative local influences. Even before the coup, the pro-Piłsudski press in Volhynia was accusing

local Polish power holders of governing in a way that was detrimental to the fundamental health of

all urban inhabitants. One article from the Volhynian Review in 1925, for instance, lamented the fact

that sanitation decrees were published and displayed everywhere in Łuck, but were not implemented,

and further mused that the Polish local authorities seemed not to understand how urban hygiene

40
affected the health of town dwellers. According to the newspaper, such failings were symptomatic

of rotten political governance, with towns allegedly being run as the personal fiefdoms of their

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ethnically Polish mayors, rather than in the public interest. When he described Łuck’s disorganized
town council meetings in 1928, the reporter for the Volhynian Review also pointed out that those

ethnic Poles who were supposed to sit on the council did not regularly attend meetings. The fact that

th
th
39 Alina Cała, “The Discourse of ‘Ghettoization’ – Non-Jews and Jews in 19 - and 20 -Century Poland,” Simon
Dubnow Institute Yearbook 4 (2005): 445-458.
40 “O stan sanitarny w Łucku,” Przegląd Wołyński, February 4, 1925, 2-3. A report on the town of Równe noted that
the town authorities did not post sanitary announcements in a timely manner and, even then, did not post them in
visible locations. J. Rudolf, “Stosunki sanitarne w mieście Równem Woj. Wołyńskiego,” Zdrowie 43, no. 1 (January
1928): 15-16.
41 “O gospodarkę miast,” Przegląd Wołyński, February 25, 1925, 1.

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