Prometheism
Prometheism ( Polish Prometeizm ) was a political movement in Poland and the Ukraine , which was directed against the geopolitical influence of the Soviet Union . Its name is derived from the ancient titan Prometheus .
history
Prometheism was initiated mainly by the Polish marshal Józef Piłsudski during the First World War . By supporting separatist movements in the territory of the Soviet Union , the dismantling of the multi-ethnic state, which from 1918 onwards extended over several East-Central and Eastern European countries, was to be promoted.
Poles especially supported nationalists in the Ukraine, Belarus , Karelia , the Baltic States , the Caucasus and Central Asia . In addition to the conception of Prometheism, there was a project of a mainly Polish-led confederation in Central and Eastern Europe called Intermarum .
Prometheism arose, among other things, from the pursuit of complete state independence for all Slavic peoples and the resistance to the expansion of the Soviet Union's sphere of influence in the West. Furthermore, it was considered to be one of the guidelines for Polish foreign policy between 1918 and 1939.
In 1934 the Paris- based organization Prometeusz was founded, whose activity consisted in the active financial and technical support of separatist organizations in the territory of the Soviet Union. The two established Sovietological institutes Instytut Wschodni in Warsaw and Instytut Naukowo-Badawczy Europy Wschodniej in Vilnius also helped to coordinate the activities . Offshoots were also in Berlin , Harbin , Helsinki and Tehran .
After 1944, the followers of Prometheism, who belonged to the most diverse political ideologies, were victims of numerous repression. In 1951, information on leaders of the movement began to be collected and sent to Moscow , but in 1965 all surveillance operations were suspended.
Eminent Prometheans
- Karlo Cheïdze , President of the Georgian National Assembly in 1918
- Ayaz İshaki , Tatar-Turkish publicist and agitator
- Symon Petliura , Ukrainian President between 1919 and 1920
- Vyacheslav Prokopovych , Ukrainian Prime Minister 1920
- Noe Ramishvili , Georgian Prime Minister 1918
- Pavlo Shandruk , Polish-Ukrainian military and historian
- Władysław Sikorski , Polish Prime Minister between 1922 and 1923 and 1939 to 1943
- Pavlo Skoropadskyj , Ukrainian President between 1918 and 1919
- Walery Sławek , Polish Prime Minister between 1930 and 1935
- Noe Zhordania , Georgian Prime Minister between 1918 and 1921
See also
literature
- David X. Noack: The Polish Movement of Prometheism in the Global Historical Context 1918-1939 , in: Österreichische Militärische Zeitschrift , Vol. 52, H. 2 (2014), pp. 187–192.
Individual evidence
- ^ Marek Kornat: The rebirth of Poland as a multinational state in the conceptions of Józef Piłsudski , in: Forum for Eastern European Ideas and Contemporary History, 1/2011.