„Ludzie pozamieniali się w dzikie zwierzęta”. Zapomniany poemat, rewolucja 1905 roku i początki nowoczesnej polityki masowej
"People Have Turned Into Animals Wild": A Forgotten Poem, the Revolution of 1905, and the Beginnings of Mass Politics

Author(s): Kamil Piskała
Subject(s): Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Political history
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: Revolution of 1905; Łódź; Mass Politics; Polish Socialist Party; Political Violence
Summary/Abstract: The following essay is focused on the forgotten epic poem Włókniarze (Weavers) by Józef Jatczyk, self-taught writer and former activist of the National Workers’ Union. His poem is one of the unique literary records of the 1905 Revolution in the Kingdom of Poland and, at the same time, an attempt at working through the trauma brought on by the confrontation with the most violent and excessive manifestations of modern mass politics. In the poem a rather schematic romance serves foremost as a pretext for facing the experience of the “fratricidal conflict” in Łódź during the revolutionary period. It was a time when successive waves of strikes rolled through the city, hundreds of rallies were organized, and heated political disputes proceeded in factories and working-class homes. In 1906, when their temperature reached its zenith, paroxysm of political violence shook the city. Thus I argue that modern mass politics brought with it opportunities, but was also burdened with serious risks. On the one hand, it has created conditions for the actual political empowerment of the plebeian strata. However, it has resulted in an exacerbation of social divisions, the politicization of everyday life, and the threat of fueling resentments in the name of political mobilization. In Łódź modern forms of mass politics manifested themselves suddenly, in conditions of revolutionary crisis. I argue that Jatczyk’s poem is a study of the potential hazards posed by modern politics based on mass mobilization and driven by symbols, emotions, and an ideologized vocabulary. The dangers presented in Włókniarze are exaggerated, thus obscuring the emancipatory dimension of the revolutionary experience, however, they were certainly not imagined.

• Details
• Contents