At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Polish Kingdom — formally part of the Russian Empire — was under strong force from the Tsarist authorities, which gradually tightened the policy of rusification. It is adequate to mention that, since the 1980s, all elements of public education have been controlled by curators, textbooks were mandatoryly printed in Russian, and teachers' salaries depended on faithful execution of administrative orders. As a result, agrarian layers of the population practically lost access to Polish education and culture, and local reading centres (magnets, books) were systematically liquidated or confiscated.
In consequence to this situation in 1893. The National League — the most crucial strength of the national-democratic camp — made its first attempts to organize secret educational structures in the countryside. First the Association of Polish Youth “Zet” (1888–1890), promoting national ideas among young people learning, and then the Polish Association “Connection” (1894–1898), which included (although the Tsarist police had liquidated) respective twelve secret circles throughout the Kingdom. Both organizations have shown that education can be combined with maintaining national identity and that the village is prepared to accept specified initiatives — provided discretion and real material support.
However, the “Connectivity” and “Zet” activities had limited scope: deficiency of central coordination, insufficient financial resources and frequent arrests led to interrupted courses or wheel closures. Only in the autumn of 1898, on the occasion of the unveiling of the Adam Mickiewicz monument in Warsaw, the National League leadership organised a series of confidential talks with representatives of peasants, teachers, intelligence and clergy from the Kingdom of Poland, Lithuania and Galicia. The participants, afraid about the increasing russification of their communities, agreed on the request for a renewal of educational activities throughout the full occupation.
The decisions and large engagement of the interviewors then made it possible to establish a fresh secret association in January 1899: the Society of National Education (TON). As early as February 1899, the first founding convention was held in Warsaw, attended by about 30 delegates from various provinces, including representatives of Lithuanian and Podolskie lands. The speech was given a strictly political character straight subordinate to the National League Education Department, which provided it with clear operational and organisational powers.
Unlike erstwhile TON initiatives, it was to operate on an extensive, multi-level structure: from the Main ellipse in Warsaw, through the territory Circles, to the municipal and agrarian "area sections". The main nonsubjective was to combine organic work — education, promotion of Polish culture and tradition and support local economical self-help — with the awakening of national awareness and preparing peasants for active participation in public life. With this comprehensive strategy, TON has already won respective 100 members since its first year and has rapidly grown to over 3,000 activists.
Organisational structure and population development
The Society of National Education has been designed from the very beginning as a multi-level organization, capable of operating in the immense agrarian area of the Kingdom of Poland. There were 4 levels at the base:
- The Main ellipse (Warsaw) is simply a twenty-member board, coordinating the full work of TON, corresponding in substance and financially before the National League Education Department.
- Regional Circles – in 1899–1900 eleven districts were created (e.g. Łomżyński, Piotrkowsko-kaliski, Płocki, Sadiecki, Warsaw) which gathered respective – respective districts; each managed by 3–4 representatives of the Main Circle.
- Regional circles – working closely with districts, were liable for logistics and supervision of activities in a given district; they organized courses, provided materials, reported results.
- The Municipal and agrarian Circles (the ‘area sections’) – a primary cell operating straight among peasants; it maintained contacts with respective twelve families, conducted readings, library and recruitment of fresh members.
This arrangement allowed precise distribution of tasks: The Main ellipse developed programs and printed brochures, districts explained them to local conditions, districts estimated needs and distributed grants, and agrarian sections carried out courses and held meetings.
To defend itself from the Tsarist police, TON introduced a simple but effective reporting system:
- Training materials – a set of brochures, textbooks and instructions (agriculture, geography, past of Poland) with mention numbers were sent to each field unit; direct reproduction was prohibited.
- Quarterly reports – agrarian circles passed a numerical study through the territory all 3 months and a description of lessons and readings carried out; the territory summed up the data and transmitted them to the district.
- Passwords and registers – Members received codes (e.g. "100 12") erstwhile entering the reading, and each fresh wheel reported the composition of the staff and the work plan, thus maintaining consistency of actions, and minimising the hazard of infiltration.
The secrecy of the structure was based on a strict hierarchy of trust: information was transmitted “by chain” (Warsaw → territory → territory → village) and never announced the location of the Main ellipse or the printing facilities.
With the mechanisms developed and real support for activists (financial assistance, access to literature, legal support), the TON population grew rapidly:
- 1899 – about 300 members, mostly teachers and local activists.
- 1900 – an increase of up to 3,800 people, of which almost half were peasants (about 1,900), active in farm circles and libraries.
- 1901 – highest growth to 6,800 members; penetration reached almost all Kingdom districts.
- 1902 – a tiny decrease to 6 500 (effect of police repression and financial difficulties).
- 1904 – re-reflection to 6,600 people, including over 500 educated activists (rural intelligence).
Three factors were liable for the growth: an attractive educational programme (secret schools and libraries), real economical support (loans, cooperatives) and an efficient hierarchical organization. The expanded, secret structure of TON combined military organizational discipline with the flexibility of field action. The precise division of tasks and levels enabled the fast scaling of the initiative and coordinated defence against the Tsarist repressions – which consequently contributed to the consolidation of Polish awareness in villages and the preparation of substrates for further improvement of the folk-education movement.
Educational, cultural and economical activities
Already in the first year of TON existence, the creation of secret schools and courses available to adults and agrarian children became a priority. By 1900, dozens of specified facilities were created throughout the Kingdom of Poland, including:
- Learning to read and compose in Polish – the basic condition for participation in public life.
- Elements of geography, nature and past – with emphasis on partitions, national uprisings and characters of Polish heroes.
- Accounting bases and agricultural statistic – enabling farmers to keep farm books.
The classes were conducted by the Main ellipse "Popular Teachers" or volunteer teachers–enthusiasts, frequently agrarian intelligence people who had received peculiar method courses organized by the Society of Popular Teachers. Classes were held in halls rented secretly in courthouses, parish schools or private hosts; exercise notebooks, chalk, boards and books were handed over to students.
In parallel, TON developed a network of secret agrarian libraries. By 1900, about 200 library points were launched, equipped with: agricultural textbooks (partum farm, animal husbandry, machinery); popular scholarly brochures on the geography of Poland and Europe, beautiful literature and publications ("Poland", "Polish Review"). At each library there was a farm wheel, where groups of 20–30 peasants exchanged experiences and learned about modern agrotechnical techniques. erstwhile a month, specialists (agronomists, foresters) gave lectures there – most frequently in the language of the noise, which increased the assurance of listeners.
Also utilized for propaganda were leaflets and pamphlets, printed in the Warsaw conspiracy and sent around districts. These materials contained a simple, applicable message: how to usage fertilizers, how to defend grain from pests, why it is worth saving – and how to make debt money together.
TON has since been focusing on real material support, understood as 1 of the pillars of assurance building:
- Loan-saving cash registers – by 1903, more than 70 cash registers were created, offering tiny loans to farmers to acquisition seeds and agricultural machinery, and allowing them to make savings under common protection.
- Agricultural and commercial cooperatives – between 1903 and 1904 TON helped establish more than a 100 companies (including Nadbużańska Spółka Rolna), which facilitated the acquisition of products, the joint acquisition of tools and the sale of agricultural produce at more favourable prices.
- Food shops and volunteer fire guards – they strengthened social ties and offered an additional origin of income to local activists.
Thanks to these initiatives, peasants have not only gained access to capital but besides the belief that self-help and common solidarity can defend them from economical drainage from large land and trade assets.
As TON grew, a working section was established, which in 1905 became the National Labour Union – the first national-democratic trade union in Russia. Its goal was to organize industrial workers (mainly in Łódź, Kielce and Warsaw) around national and social ideas. The section promoted:
- basic labour rights and solidarity actions
- Saving and setting up money for workers
- participation in protest actions (school strike 1905)
Although the working branch of TON was the smallest in numbers, it was an crucial component that brought together both agrarian and urban worlds, and showed that the thought of national unity was not limited to farmers' problems.
TON’s education, culture and economy activities were based on 3 parallel pillars: secret schools, libraries and agricultural circles, real financial assistance and applicable skills propaganda. specified a comprehensive strategy constantly increased support in the countryside and among workers, creating a solid social base for further activity determined by the success of the national-democratic movement in Poland.
Disclosure, transformation and heritage
The 1905 revolution and the school strike from March–May that year changed the political atmosphere in the Kingdom of Poland. The mass appearances of teachers, students, and parents led the Tsarian authorities to partially soften the course towards associations; at the end of 1905, a liberalisation of the convention regulations was announced. In this fresh situation, TON, so far acting in secret, decided to uncover and formalise its structures. In the autumn, a delegation of association leaders filed with the politician of Warsaw a statute of legal cultural and educational organization, thus beginning the way for open activities.
At the founding convention held on 8 July 1905 in Warsaw, the Society of National Education adopted a fresh name — the Polish School Macierz of the Kingdom of Poland. This change was not limited to title only: the organisation's objectives were extended to the authoritative moving of public schools and educational publications, and the existing multi-level TON structures were converted into public urban and agrarian branches operating with the support of local authorities and clergy. Legal position enabled the Matrix to collect contributions openly, and financial support from church institutions and patriotic foundations importantly increased its budget. As a result, the organization has developed its own publishing house, a regular pedagogical monthly publishing programs, methodological articles, and field reports.
The work of the Mothers was a continuation of the work of TON, but with even wider scope and transparency. By 1907, PMSz had launched over a 100 and 50 agrarian schools that combined secret and semi-disclosure models, and developed a network of libraries and reading rooms to 300 points. yearly pedagogical meetings in Warsaw and Lublin gathered hundreds of teachers, allowing to exchange experiences and introduce fresh teaching methods throughout the country. Cooperation with the Church resulted in training for catechists, during which patriotic content was combined with spiritual teaching, and many foundations for education supported the improvement of publications and courses.
The most crucial figures of the transformation period — Karol Łazarowicz, Józef Bielawski, Teresa Ciszkiewiczowa, Maria Dzierżanowska and Antoni Poniatowski — led the Matrix in the first, most hard years of its open functioning. Many of them, having regained independency in 1918, were active in the organisation of a public school network, the improvement of agricultural schools and the improvement of a modern social assistance strategy in the countryside.
Although Poland's School Macierz survived formally until 1939, its top achievements — a wide network of agrarian schools, libraries, savings and lending banks and cooperatives — were a direct extension of TON's achievements. The model of organic work, combining education, culture, self-help and political commitment, became the foundation of the universal education of the Second Republic and the inspiration for interwar agricultural companies and the folk movement. The experience of TON and PMSz has shown that even under repression, a mass organization can be built, whose methods and ideas will last generations.
Anna Suley
