Michała Römera uwagi o polityce władz rosyjskich wobec Kościoła katolickiego w Kraju Północno-Zachodnim

ENThe territories forming the Northwestern Krai in the late 19th century and at the beginning of 20th century were in the way of the intense social and political changes which led to the development of a stable state structure. The efforts of the tsar’s officials carrying out the Russification focused mainly on the inhabitants of the Northwestern Krai, who were culturally and ethnically distinct from the inhabitants of the continental part of the Russian Empire. The Catholic population was considered to be a particularly dangerous group of the inhabitants of the Northwestern Krai by the Tsar administration. According to Michał Römer (Mykolas Romeris), one of the main representatives of the so-called Krajowcy (“Fellow Countrymen”) movement, the fight against Polish culture, conducted by by the Russian authorities in a consistent manner, did not weaken the ties of population of the Northwestern Krai with the Western culture, but, contrarily, they caused the intensification of the nation-building efforts, as in the case of Lithuanians in the era of their greatest persecution on the cultural, educational and ethnic ground. The lack of internal uniformity and, above all, the complete failure of the policy of Russification in the western territories of Russia were the announcement of significant changes in the structure of the Russian state. The enhancement of the nation-building processes, especially in the Northwestern Krai, became an actor contributing to the deepening of the social, political and cultural differences between the western parts of the Empire and the Russian hinterland.