Polityka wschodnia w koncepcjach Konfederacji Polski Niepodległej
The Confederation of Independent Poland and Their Views on Policy towards the East

Summary/Abstract: In this article, the author analyses the views of the Confederation of Independent Poland (KPN) on policy towards the East. The Confederation was a political party that was founded in September 1979 by a group of activists from the Movement for the Defence of Human and Civil Rights. The creation of KPN and its radical political programme was met with suspicion from the anti-communist opposition (e.g., the Committee for Social Self-Defence “KOR”). After 1989, KPN retained its identity and was involved in political life under its own name: it did not win any parliamentary seats in the elections of 1989, but it was elected to the Sejm and the Senate in 1991, becoming the third force in the Polish parliament. Despite its strong showing in the Polish political scene, it did not participate in the formation of governments from among the patriotic and pro-independence parties (despite being one of them).The views of the Confederation on policy towards the East were anti-Soviet and anti-communist until 1991. Their anti-Soviet and anti-Russian approach concerned the government and the Soviet (Russian) system rather than the Russian nation. The political thought of KPN assumed that peoples enslaved by the Soviet Union, such as the Georgians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians and other nations, had the right to independence. They recognized the need for independence movement activities in the territory of the USSR. They believed that the issues of borders between the countries should be discussed by free nations, without Soviet domination. The Confederation also alluded to the idea of Intermarium (they were evidently inspired by Marshal Józef Piłsudski), which involved the creation of a federation of states in Central and Eastern Europe, covering the area between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. Intermarium would be an equal partner in dealing with Russia and Germany. Poland was to play a major role in the formation of the federation as a leader of the region of Central and Eastern Europe. In political terms, Intermarium was a term of geographical, political and cultural importance. In this sense, KPN perceived the borders between Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia as boundaries that separated two civilizations.

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