Ignacy Daszyński’s Attitude Towards Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
The aim of the presentation will be to show the evolution of Ignacy Daszyński’s attitude – one of the most important Polish socialist politicians – to the Habsburg monarchy. In the course of his parliamentary activity, Daszyński, as an outstanding speaker, repeatedly criticized the political and legal practices prevailing in Austria-Hungary, not only in relation to workers. However, he appreciated the conditions for the development of Polishness, which were created thanks to the autonomy granted to Galicia as part of a dualistic monarchy, especially in the context of the conditions in which Poles had to function in the Russian partition. Before the prospect of creating an independent Polish state opened up, he opted for the creation of an Austro-Hungarian-Polish monarchy. Since Daszyński, as a politician, was shaped in the Austro-Hungarian parliamentary culture, the experience gained in it accompanied him, of course, in his political work carried out in the Second Polish Republic. He necessarily made comparisons between the reality of the Habsburg monarchy and the reality of Poland rebuilt from the three partitions. In my presentation, I am tempted to capture those features of the Austro-Hungarian legal and political culture which, in his opinion, were valuable and worthy of implanting in Poland, and those that he criticized. Thus, we obtain an image of the dualistic Habsburg monarchy seen through the eyes of an outstanding Polish politician.
