Prometheism

Prometheism or Prometheanism (Polish: Prometeizm) was a political project initiated by Józef Piłsudski, a principal statesman of the Second Polish Republic from 1918 to 1935. Its aim was to weaken the Russian Empire and its successor states, including the Soviet Union, by supporting nationalist independence movements among the major non-Russian peoples that lived within the borders of Russia and the Soviet Union.^[1]

According to the information collected by American intelligence, "Prometheus" was created in Turkey by "various Russian and Caucasian peoples, mostly from those countries which had enjoyed independence from 1917-1923". Prometheus had to leave Turkey after Russian-Turkish treaty in 1921 and thus moved to Warsaw. French review "Promethee", published between 1927 and 1940 by Georgian journalist Giorgi Gvazava and edited by Ukrainian politician prof. Oleksander Shulhyn and his son Rostyslav, was considered to be the "mouthpiece of the Prometheus organisation in Poland". Other important member of "Prometheus" included Azerbaijan politician Mahammad Amin Rasulzade, Kazakh politician Mirjaqyp Dulatuly (Mir Yakub) and Cafer Seydamet Qırımer (member of Crimean National Government) and professor of Ukrainian Free University– Roman Smal-Stocki. ^[2]^[3]^[4]

Between the World Wars, Prometheism and Piłsudski's other concept, that of an "Intermarium federation", constituted two complementary geopolitical strategies for him and for some of his political heirs.^[5]

^ Richard Woytak, "The Promethean Movement in Interwar Poland," East European Quarterly, vol. XVIII, no. 3 (September 1984), pp. 273–78.
^ "SSU Memo 15 October 1946" (PDF). 1946-10-15. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-05-31.
^ Iagublu, Nasiman (2015). Энциклопедия Мухаммеда Эмина Расулзаде [Muhammad Emin Rasulzadeh Encyclopedia] (in Russian). ISBN 978-5-9906235-1-4.
^ "Роман Смаль-Стоцький. «Український Прометей» національно-визвольного руху народів СРСР" [Roman Smal-Stotsky. The “Ukrainian Prometheus” of the National Liberation Movement of the Peoples of the USSR] (in Ukrainian). 2021-07-13.
^ "Pilsudski hoped to build not merely a Polish nation state but a greater federation of peoples under the aegis of Poland which would replace Russia as the great power of Eastern Europe. Lithuania, Belorussia and Ukraine were all to be included. His plan called for a truncated and vastly reduced Russia, a plan which excluded negotiations prior to military victory." Richard K Debo, Survival and Consolidation: The Foreign Policy of Soviet Russia, 1918–1992, Google Print, p. 59, McGill-Queen's Press, 1992, ISBN 0-7735-0828-7.

[1] Richard Woytak, "The Promethean Movement in Interwar Poland," East European Quarterly, vol. XVIII, no. 3 (September 1984), pp. 273–78.

[2] "SSU Memo 15 October 1946" (PDF). 1946-10-15. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-05-31.

[3] Iagublu, Nasiman (2015). Энциклопедия Мухаммеда Эмина Расулзаде [Muhammad Emin Rasulzadeh Encyclopedia] (in Russian). ISBN 978-5-9906235-1-4.

[4] "Роман Смаль-Стоцький. «Український Прометей» національно-визвольного руху народів СРСР" [Roman Smal-Stotsky. The “Ukrainian Prometheus” of the National Liberation Movement of the Peoples of the USSR] (in Ukrainian). 2021-07-13.

[Debo59-5] "Pilsudski hoped to build not merely a Polish nation state but a greater federation of peoples under the aegis of Poland which would replace Russia as the great power of Eastern Europe. Lithuania, Belorussia and Ukraine were all to be included. His plan called for a truncated and vastly reduced Russia, a plan which excluded negotiations prior to military victory." Richard K Debo, Survival and Consolidation: The Foreign Policy of Soviet Russia, 1918–1992, Google Print, p. 59, McGill-Queen's Press, 1992, ISBN 0-7735-0828-7.

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