Roman Dmowski - Later Life

Later Life

Dmowski was a deputy to the 1919 Sejm and Minister of Foreign Affairs from October to December 1923. When the time came to write a Polish constitution in the early 1920s, the National Democrats insisted upon a weak presidency and strong legislative branch. Dmowski was convinced that Piłsudski would become president and saw a weak executive mandate as the best way of crippling his rival. The constitution of 1921 did indeed outline a government with a weak executive branch, and a disgusted Piłsudski refused to seek the presidency. Instead, Piłsudski persuaded a friend of his, Gabriel Narutowicz to run for President. When Narutowicz was elected President by the Sejm in 1922, Dmowski was outraged. Narutowicz was elected with the support of the parties representing the Jewish, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Lithuanian and German minorities. In Dmowski's view, the election of Narutowicz was a sign that minorities were powerful in shaping politics of Poland. After Narutowicz's election, the National Democrats started a major campaign of vilification of the "Jewish president" elected by "foreigners". Subsequently, a National Democratic supporter, painter Eligiusz Niewiadomski assassinated Narutowicz.

In 1926 Dmowski founded the Camp of Great Poland (Obóz Wielkiej Polski), and in 1928 the National Party (Stronnictwo Narodowe). In 1934, a section of the youth wing of the Endecja found Dmowski insufficiently hardline for their taste and broke away to found the more radical National Radical Camp (known by its Polish acronym as the ONR). Dmowski had long advocated emigration of the entire Jewish population of Poland as the solution to what Dmowski regarded as Poland's "Jewish problem", came to argue for increasing harsh measures against the Jewish minority, though Dmowski never advocated killing Jews. His last major campaign was a series of attacks on the alleged "Judeo-Masonic" associates of President Ignacy Mościcki.