Interview with III Droga

The sentiment behind the Mosdorf quote you have used in your Foundational Declaration to substantiate your mindset and commitment is both honourable and highly respectable. This willingness to dedicate oneself to something greater and beyond oneself is something that the majority of individuals struggle to fathom in this era. How do your men navigate hostile social and political climates whilst maintaining an objective rather than subjective mindset? Is there a separation between the personal and political in Poland?

This quote is “We are fanatics, because only fanatics can do great things”. These words are known to every Polish nationalist and are a kind of motto for us.

Fanaticism and fervent belief in ideas has never been something universally fashionable and has always been associated with various problems. Our activists are well aware of this, but they know that our struggle is necessary. Even though we face harassment in our private lives as well as in our places of study or work, we do not give up. In this struggle, we stick together and show support for each other, even in non-political spheres. Community is what allows us to oppose the dominant currents of today, and it is such a community that we strive to create, so that our activists can grow and fully realise themselves.

In times of liquid postmodernity, every action is political. Lifestyle, vocabulary, interests, the environment in which one lives, today all areas have a political dimension and in a sense are a declaration of political affiliation. The views of our activists do not end only in the sphere of activism, but translate into their lives and life choices. Of course, we often have to wear masks in order to function in spaces dominated by liberals (this is the case at universities, for example), but we try to put our ideas into practice wherever we find ourselves.

It would be interesting to hear you speak about the relationship between the Church and the State in Poland. New Zealand, whose population is most often secular, has a history among the Christian faith from Protestant to Anglican and Catholic. There is still an active Catholic church across the road from my house, for example, despite an insubstantial proportion of the population attending services there. Could you go into detail about the situation in Poland and how you maintain and express your faith in an often-secular culture and state?

In Poland, the Catholic Church still holds a strong position, both in political and social life, and influences many ordinary people, especially in the south and east of the country and in the provinces. It is estimated that more than 32% of Poles attend religious services every week, which indicates that we are still a strongly believing nation. Unfortunately, the number of believers is decreasing year by year, which is in line with a broader trend taking place in the Western world. The Catholic Church has a concordat agreement with the Polish state, on the basis of which it is possible to get married in the church and it has the right to teach religion in schools. For centuries the Catholic Church has been the moral compass of our Nation, unfortunately in recent years a particularly strong growth of hatred towards it can be observed. In our opinion, this is related to the fact that it opposes trends that deconstruct reality, the postmodern vision of stripping man of his identity. This draws the ire of liberals and feminists who call for his removal from public life. We oppose this, seeing that the Catholic Church has a special role in the social and spiritual life of our country.

We believe that a healthy nation with long-term goals must harden its spirit. Matter is too fragile to survive above adversity. We can see this well in our country, where a departure from God correlates with anti-national attitudes, focused on consumption and materialism. Deprived of that which is invisible, namely history, culture and the ethical determinant, the nation will be lost to the prevailing trends resulting from globalisation. In turn, building an ideological narrative only on the ancestors who settled our lands reduces the entire history of the country to historicism, leaving out the entire evolution and ultimate shape of the nation and its culture.

“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. ” (Mt, 10, 32-33) We try to live according to the words of our Saviour. In the face of the phenomena of secularisation, we must admit our faith particularly strongly and encourage others to do so, pointing to the need to rebel against the modern world. In Poland we still have many opportunities to show what our faith is. We can show it both by participating in public celebrations of our holidays (for example in the Corpus Christi procession), or by taking part in public prayers, as well as by defending our temples during anticlerical protests. We also get involved in events taking place in our local churches, which in many places are centres of the local community.

What are some historical figures from your own nation that you venerate as a nationalist movement?

Polish history abounds in many figures who can be set as role models for whole generations of patriots. Our history spans over a thousand years of continuous struggle for our independence and freedom! The Polish land has produced many brave sons, such as Tadeusz Kościuszko, who is also a hero in the United States. Having learned from his experiences fighting overseas, he returned to Poland, where, in 1794, he led an uprising in which he united the Polish peasants (who had previously been treated as objects), townspeople and nobility to fight the Russian occupiers. Through his republican and nationalist views, he was able to stand above the particular interests of individual strata to unite the whole nation in a common struggle. This uprising, known as the Kościuszko Uprising, is only one of many Polish uprisings against a foreign occupier. There were many more such events in our history, such as the November Uprising in 1830, the Springtime Uprising or the January Uprising in the form of guerrilla warfare in 1863.

Also in our recent history we can find heroes worthy of attention. It is worth mentioning the Polish partisans who fought against the communist regime imposed on Poland by the Soviet Union after the end of the Second World War. Many brave men did not lay down their arms, but fled into the forests to fight for a real sovereign Poland, not one that would be a puppet of the Communists from the Kremlin. They fought largely until the late 1940s, but the last partisan was killed in combat in 1963! Today, thanks to the actions of nationalists in Poland, people have learned the truth about the resistance of these heroes, because for many years the communist and post-communist regime called them bandits and banned their cult.

What is the history and origin of your group?

Third Way are true rebels. Our story began in 2014, when a group of young activists and some veterans of the Polish national movement left one of the nationalist organisations that had existed for many years, which was consumed by structural problems, internal conflicts and conformism. We decided to create an organisation that would constitute a new quality on the Polish nationalist scene. Initially, our activity was limited to just a few cities in the south of Poland, but with time our ranks grew and the number of cities in which we operate increased. While many nationalist groups were struggling with problems, we slowly grew stronger and stronger.

We created many successful initiatives, such as our graphic team Resistance Arts, which is now the most recognisable graphic collective among Polish nationalists and has many fans all over the world. We have also created the #AkcjaMobilizacja initiative, which consists in sending out sets of our street activism materials, stickers and posters to willing individuals for only the cost of postage. Our #TelegramNR initiative, which involved creating a safe space for nationalists on the Telegram platform where we can express our views without fear of censorship and discuss key issues together, was also successful. Our organisation is constantly developing, building relations with other groups in our country and abroad, and creating a new quality on the Polish nationalist scene.

What is your opinion on other neighboring states such as Ukraine. Are there still tensions between you and other nationalists based on old wounds?

We believe that Ukraine is a European country and a key ally of Poland. We are linked not only by history and blood ties, but also by geography, with all the dangers that this entails. Today we are witnessing the Russian Federation’s aggression against our neighbour. This aggression could also be directed against other European countries, the Baltic States, Romania or even Poland. Moscow’s imperialism and the global changes introduced by the globalists are a threat both to our homeland and to Ukraine. This situation forces us to forgive past hatreds and fight together in the interests of our nations. Polish nationalists wholeheartedly support Ukraine, and many of our nationalist friends are fighting in the ranks of Ukrainian nationalist volunteer battalions. Ukrainians too recognise the need for cooperation, and see that Poland and the Poles are their key ally. This is seen both by Ukrainian nationalists and ordinary people, who in many surveys indicate that Poles are a nation they like and trust very much.

The wrongs that our nations inflicted on each other in the past must be forgiven and we must open a new chapter in the history of our nations. We must look realistically, the hatred resulting from past wrongs blinds us to reality, which can lead us. What is also interesting is that a large part of the circles which today raise the issue of the Ukrainian genocide against the Poles which took place in 1943 are openly linked to Russia and by their actions try to arouse resentment against the Ukrainians in the Poles. It is shameful that those who speak of the murder of civilians are today using this history to support Russian imperialism and to bomb hospitals and residential buildings.

What are your plans for the future of your organisation?

We plan to develop further in all fields. We want to cover every region of Poland with our activities. We also want to develop our project “Barykada”, which brings together Poles living outside our homeland and activates them to action. Along with the growth of our organisation we will strive to increase our presence in the public sphere, create an even bigger nationalist bloc during the Independence March organised in Warsaw every year on the 11th of November, and increase our street activity. We also want to devote the next years to further building the community and forming our activists, so that we can act together more effectively and form one fist.

We are also planning to publish our first book, an anthology of texts on modern nationalism. It will include texts by our publicists and our friends from other countries. We will also intensify our contacts with other nationalist groups from all over the world, so that together we can wage coordinated resistance against liberal hegemony. In particular, we are involved and plan to continue to be involved in projects developed in the environment associated with Gabriele Adinolfi.

What is your opinion on religion. Do you embrace a kinship with fellow Christians or put Catholicism before all as the one true faith? Opinions on the papacy?

Religion, in our opinion, is something central to man, who is by nature a spiritual being. It is what distinguishes us from animals. Faith is something particularly revolutionary in times of the domination of consumerism, cosmopolitanism and degeneration of man that we see today. Religion also gives man a moral system that allows him to live well and in accordance with his nature, today we can see what happens to man when he rejects God.

As Polish nationalists, we are overwhelmingly Catholic. The history of our state begins with the adoption of Catholicism by Prince Mieszko I in 966. From the very beginning, our history was linked to the Catholic Church, and other Christian denominations were of little importance, being in the minority, professed only in certain regions of the country. Polish nationalist thought itself was connected with Catholicism, because it is one of the foundations of the Polish national character and cannot be ignored. Blessed Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, a man who could be called a nationalist and an anti-communist, said: ‘If they come to destroy this Nation, they will start with the Church, because the Church is the strength of this Nation’. These words are still true today, the first object of attack by liberals and cosmopolitans is the faith and religious principles of the Polish people.

Of course, we recognise the link with all Christians throughout the world, regardless of which denomination they belong to, but we believe that the Catholic Church is the only true church founded by Jesus Christ, and the others are man-made. All Christians share a belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and we never deny this.

We respect the institution of the papacy, which has continued uninterrupted since the time of St Peter the Apostle. Regardless of who the Pope is, as Catholics we owe him obedience and respect. The current pope, Pope Francis, despite his many controversial statements and image, continues to uphold the unchanging teaching of the Church and lead it through difficult times.

What is the immigration situation like in your country?

Fortunately, immigration from Asia or Africa is a marginal phenomenon in our country. It is rare to see a woman in a hijab or a black person on the street. Unfortunately, in the cities, some greedy entrepreneurs bring in temporary workers from South Asia to do undemanding jobs for very low wages.

Immigration from Ukraine, however, is on a large scale. Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there were around 1.5 million Ukrainian immigrants working in Poland. Today, Poland has also received 1.5 million war refugees from that country, but these are women, children and the elderly, who do indeed require assistance and will probably return to their homeland once the war is over. Hundreds of thousands of refugees from Ukraine have also reached other European countries, Hungary, Romania and Moldova. There is also a much smaller group of immigrants from Belarus or the Caucasus in Poland.

Immigrants in our country largely do undemanding work, in factories, on construction sites or in shops. However, this often has a negative impact on the wages of Polish workers and lowers the standard of work and customer service. It is also worth mentioning that a large part of the money they earn is sent to their countries of origin, rather than spent in Poland.

Give us an overview of your ideal

Our nationalism is the Third Position. We stand for a system that will serve the Nation without serving it, not just a narrow layer of the rich and foreign capital. We oppose any imperialism, whether it comes from Washington or from Moscow. We want the unity of the European nations, the rejection of chauvinism and the building of a common European geopolitical bloc that can challenge the powers from the West and the powers from the East. We oppose immigration from Africa and the Middle East to Europe, and we want to preserve the ethnic cohesion of our peoples. We support the defence of the family and marriage against the perverts flying the rainbow flag. We stand in defence of unborn life, and we oppose abortion and the murder of Polish children.

We want a system that will allow our people to flourish, that will allow them to take an active part in social life, and we therefore reject liberal democracy, which looks after the interests of a narrow elite and the wealthiest. We want real democracy, participatory and organic democracy, beginning at the lowest levels of the community.

To achieve this we advocate revolutionary struggle on all fronts, through self-organisation, activism and building social movements that can change the current state of affairs and create the Poland of our dreams.

We’re interested to hear about your thoughts on the NSDAP given the historical events that lead to the present situation in your part of Europe. What would you say is to be taken from the conflict between Poland and Germany? Additionally, given your current ideological formulaton, would you say the NSDAP’s character and value system resonate with you as you exist today?

Our nationalism unequivocally dissociates itself from the NSDAP and the ideas it represented. It was an idea that led to the death of millions of white Europeans and ravaged our continent. Poles were murdered en masse by the Nazis, simply because in their pseudo-scientific theories they considered our people to be inferior and our lands to be theirs. We cannot accept this. Also, the pagan exaltation of race, above everything else, is incompatible with our world view; we place our faith and our Nation above it.

The German aggression against Poland on 1 September 1939 shows us what chauvinism and war between European nations can lead to. Thousands died because of Germany’s imperial actions and the ideology of the NSDAP. This should be a lesson to European nationalists to never let this happen again.

The NSDAP is no inspiration for us.

How did Poland being occupied by many would powers from the 18th century to the late 20th century effect the mindset of average pols. Does this make the polish people more likely to be resist to liberal force currently involved in Poland such as NATO and the EU?

The years of partition by three powers are still visible today in the mentality of Poles from different parts of Poland, and these differences can also be seen in economic or social terms. The times of partition were very difficult, Poles faced bloody repressions and had to fight to preserve their identity. The most noticeable influence today is that of the times when Poland was a socialist republic subject to the USSR. This translates today into anti-Russian and, unfortunately, proAmerican sentiments among a large proportion of Poles.

Unfortunately, I have the impression that this difficult history has taught us nothing, and that we are continuing to allow our leaders to sell us out to foreign powers, regardless of our future. People continue to sit in parliaments who vote against Poland, sometimes even as clearly as the liberal Members of the European Parliament, who themselves are calling for Poland to be punished simply because it does not adopt liberal legal standards. I guess it is only when things are going badly that our nation is able to unite and take action, as quiet times weaken us and make us mindlessly dull.

Unfortunately, the Poles believed in the myth of the end of history created by Fukuyama. They believed that liberal democracy and all that it entails is the highest form of human civilisation, and that no other threat threatens us. This diagnosis was wrong, our soldiers died in vain in American operations in the Middle East, and today there is a war going on in the country where we border, and we are becoming a NATO front line state.

Answered by Gabriel Malczewski, editor-in-chief of 3droga.pl