Poland Pursuing Policies that Recall Pre-World War II Prometheanism, Russian Telegram Channel Suggests

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Nov. 4 – The Polish government is not only becoming ever more active in the non-Russian countries of the former Soviet space but is promoting policies that encourage those countries to adopt an ever-more negative attitude toward Moscow, according to the Russian nationalist Rybar telegram channel.
    And while Rybar does not mention the term Prometheanism in its article, it seems clear that the authors of this article view what Warsaw is doing now as a direct continuation of what Poland did with regard to the non-Russian republics in the 1920s and 1930s under its policy of Prometheanism (eurasiatoday.ru/polsha-gotovitsya-zajti-v-srednyuyu-aziyu/).
    That policy sought to promote national identities and separatism among the non-Russian republics; and it is becoming mentioned ever more often by nationalists in these countries and by Russian commentators (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/12/revival-of-prometheanism-outrages.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/02/promethean-ideas-can-prevent.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/04/prometheanism-showed-that-joint.html).
    The Rybar telegram channel focuses on three aspects of what it sees as Poland’s role in promoting the revival of Promethean-type ideas: its recent flurry of diplomatic activity in Central Asia, its moves to treat Central Asia and indeed all non-Russian countries as a group rather than as separate cases, and especially a conference Warsaw held last summer.
    On June 6, the Polish Academy of Sciences hosted representatives from eight former non-Russian republics on Stalin’s deportations of nationalities, an action that organizers said has not received adequate attention and is generally viewed “through the prism of individual national martyrdoms, leading to a kind of rivalry of suffering” rather than a common sense of grievance (https://mieroszewski.pl/aktualnosci/deportacje-w-zwiazku-sowieckim).   
    And the conference organizers argued that this meeting provided “a unique opportunity to take a broader look at the issue of deportation,” something that is acquiring ever greater importance because of Moscow’s ongoing efforts to whitewash Stalinist crimes.