Towarzystwa przyjaźni międzynarodowej – przeszłość i teraźniejszość w III RP

Abstract

The article describes the shifting role of the international friendship associations – from the interwar times to the PPR, to the time of the Polish Third Republic. The main areas of activity of the associations in terms of double-sided attitudes with social contribution have historically covered building close political, economic and cultural relations, development of interpersonal relations, scientific cooperation, organization of artistic events and exchange of youth. First significant political achievements of the international friendship associations were noted in the times of the Second Polish Republic, when such associations started their work, e.g. the Poland-Czechoslovakia, Poland-Brazil, Poland, Romania and Poland-French associations. In the times of the PPR, despite attempts made to return to the directions of social double-sided cooperation of the interwar period, the activity of the friendship associations has been dominated by the associative dimension of popularising the idea of the Poland-Soviet friendship. The times of the Polish Third Republic brought the return of the bottom-up initiatives on the development of international contacts based on the associations. Using the freedom of activity, the friendship associations became one of the many forms of extragovernmental international influence on the social plane, the importance and range of which remained little in comparison to the power of the institutions of public and cultural diplomacy, supported by the national resources.