Strategie władz carskich wobec łódzkiej prasy codziennej do 1914 roku

Abstract

Strategies of tsarist authorities for the daily press in Łódź before 1914

Łódź is an example of place where tsarist authorities and censorship had a significant impact on the existence of daily newspapers. Especially Polish press, represented by titles like “Dziennik Łódzki”, “Rozwój”, “Goniec Łódzki”, “Kurier Łódzki” and others, were subjected to repressions. The article describes authorities’ strategies, which was used to control social and political activity of the newspapers. First of them was a strategy of isolation of particular ethnic groups living in the city. Russian administration considered the process of polonization of the city, dominated traditionally by Germans, as dangerous. In their point of view, conflicts between Poles, Germans and Jews strengthened the Russian rule in that part of partitioned Poland. The second strategy was an isolation of social classes, especially intelligentsia and workers. The authorities were afraid of strikes and
workers’ riots as a potential causes of a revolution. Elimination of far-reaching social ideas from the newspapers was a important task of the Łódź’s censor, whose office was established in 1897. It should be considered, that the authorities was succeedin realization of its press policy in Łódź. After the Revolution of 1905, when a political and legal order in Russia was changed, the Polish daily press published
in Łódź was still a victim of repressions, including closures of titles, trials and imprisonment for journalists and editors. As a result, the progressive, social sensitive press represented by “Goniec Łódzki”, “Kurier Łódzki” and “Nowy Kurier Łódzki” was treated much harsher than nationalistic and anti-Semitic “Rozwój”.