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(Wschód Polski), which was not published until December 1919, the editors argued that Piłsudski’s

approach provided the antidote to the ongoing threat of Russian and German imperialism, while

another article stated that the recent European war had constituted a chapter in the age-old battle

between “the eastern despotism of Asia” and the “ideals of political freedom, originating in

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Greece.” Glossing over the fact that the partitioning empires had begun to introduce elements of

mass participatory politics and even the language of citizenship before the war—and not mentioning

that those same empires had effectively collapsed by this point anyway—the Guard’s publicists

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highlighted Poland’s role in an epic global showdown between the forces of empire and democracy.

Even before the publication of these articles, however, representatives of the Guard had

begun to spread their particular vision of democracy into the Polish-occupied borderlands, with 27

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Guard employees at work on the ground in Volhynia by November 1919. Charged with
transforming what they called the “consciousness of the wide masses” and ingraining in them

nothing less than “an attachment to Polish statehood,” these men were the Guard’s operational

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tentacles. In spite of the fact that occupied populations did not vote in the initial nationwide
parliamentary elections in 1919, the instructors aimed to acquaint people with the “democratic

mechanisms” of the new Polish republic and supported so-called people’s councils (rady ludowe) to

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foster their work.
Their collective background led them to espouse a particular style of democratic activism.

They were, for one, very young, meaning that their formative experiences had occurred just before

31 “Od Redakcji,” Wschód Polski, December 1919, 3; W. Lutosławski, “Siedmiorzecze Polskie,” Wschód Polski,
December 1919, 7.
32 For an overview of the development of Polish political parties during the partitions, see Robert E. Blobaum, “The
Rise of Political Parties, 1890-1914,” in The Origins of Modern Polish Democracy, ed. Biskupski et al., 61-94. On
discussions of citizenship in the Russian empire, see Susan Morrissey, “Subjects and Citizens, 1905-1917,” in The
Oxford Handbook of Modern Russian History, edited by Simon Dixon (New York, 2015).
33 Schenke, Nationalstaat und nationale Frage, 71.
34 Organizational Section in Warsaw to the Commissioner General of the Eastern Lands (14 August 1919), AAN
TSK 147.
35 “Memoriał w sprawie położenia na Wołyniu, Zadań administracji i Straży Kresowej” (Antoni Zalewski, 18.X.19),
AAN TSK 217/91.

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