Propaganda wojenna a postawa społeczeństwa Białegostoku w przededniu wybuchu II wojny światowej
War Propaganda and the Attitude of Białystok’s Society on the Eve of the Outbreak of World War II

Summary/Abstract: The article, using Bialystok as an example, is intended to introduce the issues of official state propaganda, carried out between 1936–1939 by administrative bodies, the mass media, as well as social associations and organizations. This activity, as one of the tools of war, was intended to prepare the country’s society for the hardships and challenges of a possible armed conflict. In addition, it served to consolidate the nation, build unity and community, create the myth of Marshal Edward Smigly-Rydz, and was also intended to bind the Polish civilian population to the army. Above all, however, in the assumption of the state centres of power, Polish propaganda of the second half of the 1930s was to serve the purpose of educating citizens by creating attitudes appropriate from its point of view, which in the face of the expected armed confrontation were to increase the involvement of the civilian population in the defence of the country. The text presented here, based mainly on information taken from the local press, summarizes the issues described above from the perspective Bialystok – a multinational provincial centre in the east of the country.

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