The National-Democratic Party (, SDN) was a secret political party created in 1897 in the

Russian Partition The Russian Partition (), sometimes called Russian Poland, constituted the former territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that were annexed by the Russian Empire in the course of late-18th-century Partitions of Poland. The Russian ac ...

of Poland by the

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

(''Liga Narodowa''), a conspirational Polish organization active in all three partitions. SND rejected the idea of armed struggle for Poland's sovereignty similar to Polish Positivists. Instead, SDN focused on non-violent opposition and legislative attempts at trying to stop the wholesale

Russification Russification (), Russianisation or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians adopt Russian culture and Russian language either voluntarily or as a result of a deliberate state policy. Russification was at times ...

and

Germanization Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, German people, people, and German culture, culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nati ...

of the Poles ever since the Polish language was banned in the Russian partition in reprisal for the

January Uprising The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...

. This however meant also rejecting cooperation with the linguistic and ethnic minorities living in the Empire such as Jews and Ukrainians who did not reciprocate the same sentiment. SDN was founded by Roman Dmowski, Jan Ludwik Popławski, and Zygmunt Balicki, to represent the

National Democracy National Democracy may refer to: * National democratic state, a state formation conceived by the Soviet concept of national democracy * National Democracy (Czech Republic) * National Democracy (Italy) * National Democracy (Philippines) * National De ...

movement at elections. It was a political opponent of the

Polish Socialist Party The Polish Socialist Party (, PPS) is a democratic socialist political party in Poland. It was one of the most significant parties in Poland from its founding in 1892 until its forced merger with the communist Polish Workers' Party to form ...

advocating armed resistance. In 1919, when Poland regained independence, the National-Democratic Party was transformed into the

Popular National Union Związek Ludowo-Narodowy (ZLN; ) was a Polish political party aligned with the National Democracy political movement during the Second Polish Republic, gathering together right-wing politicians with conservative and nationalist opinions. Between ...

. The latter, in turn, was in 1928 renamed ''Stronnictwo Narodowe'' (the National Party). Ideologically it promoted the Piast Concept, calling for a Polish-speaking Catholic Poland with little role for minorities. In the

German Reich German ''Reich'' (, from ) was the constitutional name for the German nation state that existed from 1871 to 1945. The ''Reich'' became understood as deriving its authority and sovereignty entirely from a continuing unitary German ''Volk'' ("na ...

, the majority of Poles were represented by the legal Polish Party ("Polenpartei"). It participated in elections and regularly returned members to the Reichstag. Its best showing was in the 1907 German federal election, when it took 4% of the vote and 20 seats.

Notes

1897 establishments in Poland 1897 establishments in the Russian Empire 1919 disestablishments in Poland Defunct political parties in Poland National Democracy Nationalist parties in Poland Polish nationalist parties Political parties disestablished in 1919 Political parties established in 1897 Republican parties {{Poland-party-stub