Cover Osteuropa 4/2016

In Osteuropa 4/2016

Terrorism in Russian Poland
Social-revolutionary in Form, National in Content

Anke Hilbrenner


Deutsche Fassung

Abstract

During the Revolution of 1905/1907, a terrorist “epidemic” broke out in the Russian Empire. Russian Poland was one of the main centres. A disproportionate number of attacks and assassinations took place in Warsaw, Łódź, and other cities within the once autonomous kingdom. This massive wave of terrorist violence did not have socioeconomic causes, but rather fed on resurgent Polish nationalism. That the imperial centre perceived the Polish periphery as essentially unreliable and, accordingly, pursued a repressive policy, contributed to the escalation. Broad swathes of the Polish population perceived themselves as humiliated.

(Osteuropa 4/2016, pp. 7–18)