Poland’s Eastern Policy: Promethean Traditions and Contemporary Challenges within the Visegrad Group

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the main assumptions and concepts of Poland’s eastern policy, as well as their evolution over the course of the 20th and early 21st centuries, taking into account the impact of the establishment of the Visegrad Group. The author shows the geopolitical determinants of the formation of eastern policy after 1918 in the Second Republic and analyses how this policy was influenced by the internal political situation in the country and the changes in the life of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. She emphasizes the great role of Józef Piłsudski and the Promethean movement inspired by the Marshal in this process, as well as that of other activists of this movement, including Włodzimierz Bączkowski, Jerzy Gedroyc. The text shows the changes in the assumptions of the Promethean movement and Poland’s eastern policy which occurred under the influence of the geopolitical transformation of Europe caused by the effects of World War II. It also presents the contemporary stage of the formation of Polish eastern policy, the impact on this process of the formation of the Visegrad Group and the Eastern Partnership project. The article emphasizes the great role of such Polish periodicals, such as the “Polish-Ukrainian Bulletin” and “Kultura”, their editors and columnists, in spreading the fundamental ideas of dialogue and cooperation between neighboring nations, the growing relevance of the idea of Polish Prometheism in the context of Russia’s contemporary aggression against Ukraine and the threat of another world war.