# Russian-French Friendship and the Polish Dead End

- URL: https://syn.by/en/history/archives/russian-french-friendship-and-the-polish-dead-end/
- Published: 1924-06-08T19:55:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-22T21:02:23+00:00
- Section: Archives
- Language: en
- BE edition: https://syn.by/historya/arkhivy/rasiejska-francuzskaja-druzhba-i-polski-tupik.md
- RU edition: https://syn.by/ru/istoriya/arhivy/russko-frantsuzskaya-druzhba-i-polskiy-tupik.md

> The Poles have set about interpreting in their own way the founding in Paris of a society of French-Russian friendship. The author sees in the victory of the Left in France a change in the whole of European politics, from which the Belarusian movement, too, stands to gain.

![](https://syn.by/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/illustration-1067-1024x585.webp)

The Polish newspapers have printed a short telegram from Paris saying that a Society of French-Russian Friendship has been founded there. The aims of this Society are recognition of the Soviet Union, restoration of the former Russian-French friendship and alliance, working out the conditions for political, economic and cultural rapprochement, and, finally, propaganda of this idea throughout France.

There seems to be nothing strange in the fact that such a society has been founded in Paris. But if one looks at the matter from the political side, if one takes into account that the initiators of this society were the most prominent French politicians, such as Herriot, who will be head of the French government and minister of foreign affairs, and Painlevé, who will become either the speaker of the French parliament or even President of France — if, I say, one takes this into account, then the question arises of itself: what does all this mean?..

The Polish press, beginning with the most right-wing, beastly Black Hundred and nationalist, and ending with the most "left" newspapers, writes very reluctantly in general about the results of the French elections and their significance for the political life of Europe. The Polish press, and with it all the Polish parties, never expected that French nationalism would break its neck, or that a crisis might come for reaction. Short-sighted as they are, the Polish parties conducted a policy in step with Poincaré and did not think at all, nor prepare, for what has now arrived and is becoming a fact.

For this reason not one of the Polish parties can yet understand and correctly assess, or find its bearings in, the new situation, in which one has to think with one's own head and not with Poincaré's head.

We say nothing of the endeks, who have lost the ground under their feet altogether. The so-called "Left" likewise does not know what to say. Like some childish babble sound the speeches of Dąbski, Niedziałkowski and others, who are now demanding the resignation of the minister of foreign affairs Count Zamoyski and of the other right-wing ministers, and think thereby to get out of the dead end in which the whole Polish Right and "Left" policy has found itself.

And the situation is this: with the fall of Poincaré, that evil genius, that servant of international reaction, a new wind has blown over the European expanses. The elections of 11 May in France proved to be not only a turning point in France's internal policy, as was expected in Poland.

The elections of 11 May were a turning point — and chiefly so — in the international situation and international politics, and the founding of the French-Russian society speaks of this better than anything.

What does the renewal of the old alliance with Russia mean, the political, economic and cultural rapprochement that Herriot proclaims?

It means that the Great French Revolution — the heirs of Robespierre — is extending a hand to the Great Russian Revolution, the heirs of Lenin.

It means that with the fall of Poincaré not only French nationalism and French reaction have been left headless, but that nationalism, chauvinism and reaction in general are beginning to lose the ground under their feet, especially in those states that were under the influence of reactionary France.

In the first place this collapse of reaction is felt in the ranks of the present masters of Poland as well. We do not know what even the most extreme "Left" of Poland will do now.

It is good to be a state like France. It can turn left about, and it may even gain from that turn.

But what can the Polish politicians do now?.. Their position is quite unenviable, for in five years of their dull-witted rule they have brought their state to the point where no one can any longer believe in the sincerity of any promises whatever, and no one will give moral support to those who have squandered in vain the great legacy of the Polish insurgents.

If the Polish politicians were now to follow the French, as the "Wyzwolenie" people and the "P.P.S." want to do, they too would have to pay compliments to Bolshevism, as Herriot does.

But this will never happen, because in its very essence present-day Poland is hostile to the U.S.S.R., and vice versa.

In a word, 11 May, the day of the elections in France, when the Left bloc gained the upper hand over the French reactionary-nationalist bloc, will be a historic turning point for the whole of Europe.

On that day the strongest pillar of post-war reaction collapsed. In its significance the fall of Poincaré can be compared with the fall of Muscovite tsarism in February 1917.

Perhaps not so quickly, not today and not tomorrow, but inevitably, after the fall of Poincaré, German nationalism, Polish nationalism and Italian fascism will fall. One thing is certain: black days will soon come for black reaction in Europe.

For the Belarusian revival and for the Belarusian movement generally, which began under the influence of the Great French Revolution at the beginning of the 19th century, and which deepened and spread among the masses under the influence of the Great Russian Revolution at the beginning of the 20th century, the reconciliation between these two revolutions brings not a dead end but an exit onto a broad road, and brings still greater faith and hope that the time of a complete change in the position of our people is drawing near.