“Colonies are a necessity for Poland”: colonial discourse in the publishing of Stanislaw Pawlowski

Abstract.  The article examines some features of Polish colonial discourse of the 1930s. using the example of the journalism of one of its leading representatives, Professor
Stanislaw Pawlowsky. This issue has not yet found adequate coverage in domestic historiography, although the above discourse occupied a prominent place in the socio
political life of interwar Poland. It could be both popular and elitist in nature, implemented in the spheres of popular and formal geopolitics. Both of these levels are presented quite fully in a number of articles by S. Pawlowsky, in which the vital necessity of colonial possessions was substantiated for the Polish state to solve the socio-economic problems it faced, the main promising directions of overseas expansion were indicated and possible ways of acquiring colonial possessions were characterized. Practical recommendations for Poland’s implementation of its colonial policy deserve special attention. At the same time, all the main theoretical constructs of the Polish professor were largely divorced from reality. Analyzing them, we can conclude that the Polish colonial discourse was outdated and unrealistic, which was generally characteristic of the overseas aspirations of the then Poland and largely determined the failure of all its attempts to realize colonial claims.

Keywords: Poland, colonialism, colonial discourse, formal and popular geopolitics, Maritime and Colonial League, Stanislaw Pawlowsky, interwar period.