Nationality Polish Education University of Zurich Role Polit. | Name Zygmunt Balicki Religion Roman Catholicism | |
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Born December 30, 1858 ( 1858-12-30 ) Lublin, Congress Poland Occupation Sociologist, politician, writer Died September 12, 1916, Saint Petersburg, Russia | ||
Zygmunt Balicki (30 December 1858, Lublin - 12 September 1916, Saint Petersburg) was a Polish sociologist, publicist and one of the first leading thinkers of the modern Polish nationalism in the late 19th century under the foreign Partitions of Poland. Balicki developed his original political thought inspired by the ideals of Aleksander Świętochowski from the movement of Positivism which was marked by the attempts at trying to stop the wholesale Russification and Germanization of the Poles ever since the Polish language was banned in reprisal for the January Uprising.
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Life
Balicki was born into a noble Polish szlachta family of Seweryn and Karolina née Pruszyńska in Lublin under the Russian Partition. He studied social sciences at universities in Saint Petersburg, Zürich and Geneva. He held a doctorate from the University of Geneva.
His book Egoizm narodowy wobec etyki (National Egoism and Ethics) published first in 1903 was one of the central texts of nascent National Democratic movement. Balicki argued that the individual should fuse spiritually with his society and adopt its desires and goals as his own. He rejected altruism, ideals and ethics of the romantic literature as "abstract" and "naive". Together with Roman Dmowski he founded National League and National-Democratic Party.