Association

The Association for Tradition and Culture „Niklot" is a contemporary form of the Zadruga movement. We continue and seek to develop the intellectual legacy of the Zadruga circle, led by Jan Stachniuk „Stoigniew" (1905–1963).

We are convinced that the success or failure of any national community is determined by its character — the quality of the human material from which it is composed. That quality is created above all by the nation's culture, the values and personal models flowing from it, transmitted to subsequent generations through the ideomatrix — the totality of formative institutions. Other factors, such as biological heritage and geographical setting, are of secondary importance.

A special place within culture is occupied by religion, which defines the community's relationship to its supreme goods and the ethics of that community („Ordo hominis ad summum bonum") and which embraces — at least in principle — its whole. In this sense, there is no apolitical religion.

We hold that the shape of Polish culture that emerged after the Counter-Reformation (the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries) is a factor hindering the survival and historical success of the Polish nation. No alternative to this pattern has yet been created — the Enlightenment variant of civilization developed in Poland is not, in essence, an alternative, since it continues the principal ideas of Christianity in a secular guise.

Our task is to continue work on a new pattern of Polish culture and national character; we believe that this requires reaching back to the Slavic and Indo-European sources of culture.

Place and time of founding

The Association was founded on 11 September 1998, registered by decision of the Regional Court in Warsaw. On 15 November 1998 a board, an audit committee, and a peer court were elected. The first chairman was Tomasz „Barnim" Szczepański.

The name

The name Association for Tradition and Culture „Niklot" expresses both the statutory aims of its activity and its ideological-political orientation. The Obodrite duke Niklot — the Obodrites were a Slavic people inhabiting the western part of present-day Mecklenburg, whose final Germanization occurred only at the end of the 19th century — fought all his life against the Germans and the Danes for the freedom of his people. He was the only Slavic ruler to defeat a crusade and to halt a forced German Christianization campaign. He died a hero's death in the Battle of Orle (today Wurle) in 1160.

Emblem

The White Eagle is the symbol of Perun, the god of all Slavs. So as not to trivialize this religious and national symbol, the Association has adopted the Toporzeł (Axe-Eagle) according to the design by S. Szukalski.

Area of activity

The whole of Poland and the Polish diaspora.

Purpose

To preserve and develop the ethnic, Slavic identity and cultural distinctiveness of Poland. We also intend to assist in restoring the identity of other Slavic states and nations. To this end, we seek to strengthen ties with all Slavic states and organizations. We also intend actively to create cultural patterns rooted in our native tradition. We oppose the negative influence of the European Union and globalization on our country and our civilizational circle.

Tradition in the name of the Association is meant to symbolize the continuity of the Indo-European and Slavic heritage, on which we wish to build a new civilization.

Culture is the product of a particular ethnos, its centuries-long achievement, to which, as Poles, we too wish to contribute. We believe that any actions bearing the marks of political and social revolution must be preceded by a cultural revolution reaching deep into human souls. Hence culture occupies a prominent place in the decisive battle for our survival and growth.

Creativity (Tworzycielstwo)

We live, learn, and work so that our culture and civilization become a model worth emulating and an object of envy. It is Polish culture and learning that should blaze new paths and shape the world. Our aim is cultural expansiveness, for otherwise we shall ourselves become victims of foreign cultural expansion. This expansiveness is also to embrace those Poles (and other Slavs) who follow the maxim "we praise foreign things and do not know our own" — particularly in religious, economic, cultural, and linguistic matters. The members of „Niklot" have had enough of being perpetual parrots of foreignness. We intend to proceed in accordance with the principles of the culturalism of Jan Stoigniew Stachniuk.

Our models

We intend to re-Slavicize all culturally and linguistically foreign patterns. Otherwise our language (today already called „Europolish" because of the large number of expressions borrowed from English or German) will perish, just as our compound, meaningful Slavic given names have almost disappeared. We also intend to seek models in Polish history — especially in the periods of its victories and successes. We reject messianism and the deeply rooted cult of defeat in the Polish mentality. Through history as a discipline, we wish to read the sources of the collapse of the First Polish Commonwealth as a warning to ourselves.

Guiding idea: Struggle + Work + Knowledge = ZADRUGA

1. 1. Work (the subject): Work is what matters most to us Slavs, for it is the source of strength. It is the foundation of individual and collective independence and lets us break the chains of capitalist or socialist slavery. Through work we can learn and fight. Through work we live, look our best, and provide for our families. We do not let ourselves be told that anything can be obtained free of charge or as a gift. Nothing is free; everything must be earned by work. We bear in mind, however, that the unending pursuit of wealth leads to „death", for in chasing money we may too easily treat wealth as an end in itself, rather than as a means of material subsistence and of paving the way in the world for our offspring.
2. 2. Struggle: Our struggle is resistance — against the wspakultura (in the sense of restoring the healthy root of the nation) and against our enemies. No one will fight for our freedom in our place.
3. 3. Knowledge: It is knowledge that creates wealth — spiritual, intellectual, and material. We learn in order to be aware of our existence and of the place of the Slavs in the world. We learn as much as we can, throughout our lives, so that we may know how to shape our world. We also draw on the scholarly achievements of other nations, which we strive to enrich.

Areas of particular concern: Home + Children + Army = CONTINUITY OF EXISTENCE

1. 1. Home (the country): Our common home is Poland. We should care for it so that it is as beautiful as possible, for it is the only thing we truly possess.
2. 2. Children: Children are the future of the nation. Without them, nations die. We intend to promote a pro-family system of values, a positive birth balance, and care for orphans, half-orphans, and large families. We will see to it that our children do not become materialists and cosmopolitans — a patriotic system of education, after which young people will not flee to „the West" to live as parasites on the achievements of other nations.
3. 3. Army: A large and strong army based on a domestic arms industry is the foundation of independence. Every Pole should undergo (even a short, basic) course of defence training, so that all citizens can fight if the country is threatened. We are also aware that the military is a driver of progress („necessity is the mother of invention"). War need not be waged, however; it is enough to threaten it — was it not the „cold war" that produced such an enormous civilizational leap in the 20th century?

Our attitude towards…

Europe. We intend to live and coexist peacefully with the other states of this continent, on the common-sense principle that each is master in his own house. We are aware of being between South and North, and between East and West. This gives us the possibility of helping decide the fate of the continent. We do not reject the achievements of other European states, since cultural exchange is the basis for the development of dynamic social structures.

The global village. We are sceptical of multiculturalism, of liberalism, and of the Americanization of the Old Continent. We advocate a relatively ethnically homogeneous society, in keeping with the spirit of ethnopluralism („separate but equal"). It is the differences among peoples, nations, and cultures that make the world beautiful. For this reason we are opposed to all totalitarian and homogenizing ideologies. We hold local tradition above any doctrine.

Death. Members of the „Niklot" Association do not die. They depart. Whoever, through their life's work, has made an outstanding contribution to building the edifice of national creativity is always present in the lives of their descendants.

Revenge. Vengeance is a fundamental human right. We remember, however, not to take revenge among our own. We use our wrażda (a kindred-based Slavic vengeance) against invaders. The public carrying-out of the death penalty we regard as the meting-out of justice in the name of the entire nation for wrongs done to any of us.

Truth. Our truth is our life embodied in work and creative action. We know that what we believe in is the truth.

Our faith

We honour our ancestors and their rites.
We honour the memory of our gods and their festivals.
We honour the memory of our heroes and their struggle.
We honour what enables us to live and to create:

Earth — my body,
Water — my blood,
Air — my breath,
Fire — my strength!

Thank you for my life;
I love, I eat, and I sleep.
Earth above all —
this I know well!

Other faiths

We respect religions which strengthen the creative element in human beings and bind them positively to community. We do not support religious systems whose rites only calm people — letting them briefly forget their daily cares and giving them an illusion of participating in something great, wise, immortal, and infinitely good. We regard any religious universalism as contrary to Nature, but we respect the ethnic faiths of other peoples. We will restore the „old order".

Hail to the gods!
Glory to the ancestors!
Glory to Great Poland!