The Policy of the Camp of National Unity towards Villages and Peasants between 1937 and 1939

Abstract

The Discussion about the role of villages and peasants in the structure of the state between 1937 and 1939 has a few dimensions. The first and the most important refers to the participation of countryside in the political life of the state under the banner of the Camp of National Unity. The second refers to the peasants, their place and role in the state. The third mentions the possibility of social advancement through education and the development of widely-understood culture.  
Undoubtedly the Camp allowed the lower classes for the active participation in the life of the state, a fact that was emphasised by its propagandistic apparatus claiming that particularly the peasants were deprived of such opportunity before, since the existing political parties did not take the peasants’ needs into consideration, but focused on their own privileges instead. It is characteristic that in a way the Camp of National Unity was also distancing itself from the Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government (Bezpartyjny Blok Współpracy z Rządem) which cannot be surprising if we state that the two political structures varied from each other in a significant manner. The changing from the Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government to the Camp of National Unity was also not automatic, which does not mean that many activists would not follow this path. However, in the case of the peasants, the process was quite new since it was only the CNU which gave them the opportunity for an actual participation in the co-governing in Poland.