Ouvriers, proletarjat czy stan czwarty? Konceptualizacja klasy robotniczej w kręgach polskiej lewicy (1832-1892)
Ouvriers, Proletariat or the Fourth Estate? The Conceptualizations of the Working Class in the Circles of the Polish Left (1832-1892)

Summary/Abstract: This article tackles the conceptualisation of the working class amongst the Polish left from the period of the establishment of the Polish Democratic Society (1832) until the convention in Paris, which resulted in the creation of the Polish Socialist Party (1892). The first part of the article concerns the period between 1832-1846. It analyses the first uses of concepts such as “proletarjat” in the Polish political language. It presents a reflective way of transferring political concepts from French. The second part of the article (1846-1878) tackles the slowdown in the process of adaptation of new concepts referring to the working class and looks at generational transformations among Polish left-wing circles. The third part of the article describes the period 1878-1892. Its aim is to show that only in the last decades of the 19th century could one speak of conceptual changes resulting from common Polish experiences. Workers in this last period were pictured as victims of capitalism, yet simultaneously as a class capable of destroying the very same capitalism.

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