Roman Dmowski (b. August 9, 1864, Warsaw - d. January 2, 1939, Drozdow , Poland) was a Polish right-wing politician and statesman, and chief ideologue and co-founder of the National Democratic Party (Endecja).

As a student, he became active in the "Zet" Polish Youth Association (Zwiazek Mlodziezy Polskiej "Zet" ). He organized a student street demonstration on the 100th anniversary of the Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791. For this he was imprisoned by the Russian Tsarist authorities for half a year at the Warsaw Citadel. Later he headed the National League (Liga Narodowa ). In 1895 he settled in Lwow, and in 1897 co-founded the National-Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Narodowo-Demokratyczne). In 1898-1900 he resided in France and England. In the face of a growing threat from Germany, he declared for tactical Polish cooperation with Tsarist Russia and brought about a similar reorientation in the whole organization (the faction opposed to the new policy split away). In 1901 he returned to Poland, taking up residence in Krakow.

Upon the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5) Dmowski traveled to Japan in a successful effort to prevent that country from providing Jozef Pilsudski with assistance for an insurrection in Poland.

In 1905 Dmowski moved to Warsaw. He was a deputy to the Second and Third Russian Dumas and president of the Polish club. In 1915 he went abroad to open a campaign on behalf of Poland in the capitals of the western Allies. In 1917, in Paris, he created a Polish National Committee aimed at rebuilding a Polish state. He was a Polish delegate at the Paris Peace Conference and a signer of the Versailles Treaty. He had a substantial influence on the Treaty's favorable decisions regarding Poland.

Dmowski was a political opponent of Jozef Pilsudski. He favored a national state, most of whose citizens would speak Polish and be of the Catholic faith. He was accused of antisemitism, though he is quoted as saying that "A Poland without Jews would be like a soup without pepper: tasteless." If Pilsudski's vision of Poland was the Jagiellonian one of a multinational federation, Dmowski's vision was the earlier Piast one of an ethnically rather homogeneous state.

Dmowski was a deputy to the 1919 Sejm and minister of foreign affairs from October to December 1923.

In 1926 he founded the Camp of Great Poland (Oboz Wielkiej Polski ), and in 1928 the National Party (Stronnictwo Narodowe ).

Dmowski died at Drozdow, near Lomza, where he had spent the last several years of his life. He never married.

Chief writings

• Mysli nowoczesnego Polaka (Thoughts of a Modern Pole), 1902.
• Niemcy, Rosja a sprawa polska (Germany, Russia and the Polish Cause), 1908.
• Upadek mysli konserwatywnej w Polsce (The Decline of Conservative Thought in Poland), 1914.
• Polityka polska i odbudowanie panstwa (Polish Politics and the Rebuilding of the State), 1925.

See also