Millions of hungry Poles counted on this law. Inhabitants of the invaders ruined
Poland emerged from the First World War as a ruined agricultural country where - according to Karol Chylak - two thirds of the population earned their living by working on farms. From a demographic point of view, there were far too many of these people.
The cultivation of the land in the vast majority of farms was low, so the field efficiency was poor. Also, their size did not give much hope for an improvement in the situation. 65% of farms had no more than 5 hectares, occupying a total of only 15% of agricultural land in Poland.
The rest was covered by huge latifundia. Many remains of archaic devices from the times of the partitions have survived in various areas. Overcrowded farms, fragmented and inefficiently distributed fields, where outdated methods were used, fed the farmer and his family with difficulty. Fueling the economy seemed like a pipe dream in their context. Simply put, if the country was to recover, it was necessary to act.
Give us land!
The first voices on the land reform were still raised during the First World War. Work on it began in 1917. The Provisional People's Government of Ignacy Daszyński, established in Lublin on November 7, 1918, also took up this issue.
Maria Moczydłowska (photo:public domain)
It was then announced that large and medium-sized latifundists would be expropriated in order to parcel the land and hand it over, under the control of the government, to the poorest. The final decision on the shape of the land reform was to be made during the session of the Legislative Seym.
This act, extremely important from the point of view of ordinary Poles, quickly became the subject of fairs and political games. Individual parties tried to force their visions of what the Polish countryside should look like in the future, what agrarian structure it should adopt and what size farms should be built (small, medium or large?).
Peasant parties, which had significant power in the Legislative Sejm to satisfy their voters, pressed for the fastest possible reform. Finally, on July 10, 1919, a vote on the matter was to take place. Parties expected their representatives to opt for their preferred option.
Maria Moczydłowska, a member of the National People's Union, did not agree with her party's position and her conscience told her that she could not vote in accordance with it. As Olga Wiechnik reminds us in the book “Posełki. The first eight women ” , her party was connected with the interests of the landed gentry, who did not agree to limit their property areas, and after all, there was an incredible hunger for land in Poland. Instead of giving in to the views imposed, she decided to beat her fellow Members with their own weapons.
Air!
From the very beginning, men disregarded their friends, who found themselves on the parliamentary seats after the elections. They were convinced that the deputies would put away the woman's sulks, and one of the priest-deputies wrote directly that the ladies are only suitable for pots and work in the Seym deprives them of their strength for ... alkaline duties.
A woman from the Sarna County next to her dilapidated house. Although we do not want to remember this today, huge numbers of the population lived in extreme poverty.
If men were of the opinion that women were too weak to hold office, it was enough to use their view against them. Maria Moczydłowska played the scene of fainting in the meeting room just when the law was to be voted, which she would prefer to support against club discipline. Oblivious people led her out into the air and she didn't have to vote.
This gambit paid off perfectly for her. It turned out that the land reform law passed with one vote! Just the one that Moczydłowska did not give up. Two years later, he will repeat a similar maneuver. When her club is against the adoption of the March constitution (1921), which she supports, she will make an "urgent" call while voting on her.
As for the agricultural law - although it was never implemented in the adopted form, it was to a large extent convinced the peasants to defend Poland against the Bolshevik invasion. And she saved the country in August 1920.