Liberalism historically advocated welfare activities and social policies in East‒Central Europe. Although this offers new perspectives on the history and memory of nationalism in the region, it has not yet been paid adequate attention by researchers. This article examines hygienic reform in Poland at the beginning of 20th Century, focusing on provincial doctors.

Provincial doctors were a group formed by the discursive space of the “Medical Journal” (in Polish, Czasopismo Lekarskie) published in Łódź from 1899‒1908. Through the 19th century, the textile industry developed rapidly in Łódź, which was located in the Russian empire, accommodations, educational facilities, and medical care did not keep up with the economic growth. Polish intellectuals interpreted Łódź’s situation as the result of the egoism and social pathologies that had been generated by the development of capitalism. Many medical doctors, especially graduates of the University of Warsaw, found Łódź an ideal place for their work. Łódź thus became the medical center of those parts of the province that lay outside the intellectual and cultural Polish capital of Warsaw. Their hygienic reforms were crystalized in the “Books of Hygiene for Workers” (in Polish, Robotnicza Biblioteczka Hygieniczna).

The authors of the “Books” included Władysław Szenajch (1879‒1964) and Seweryn Sterling (1864‒1932), who had a Jewish background and made large contributions to medical developments in Poland. The authors focused on different areas ‒‒ Stanisław Skalski (1870‒1937) on alcoholism, Szenajch on maternal‒child protection and venereal disease, and Sterling on tuberculosis ‒‒ but they shared the idea of “society” (in Polish, społeczeństwo), which played a significant role in all their writings. The present research reconstructs Poland’s hygiene reforms through analysis of how “society” was discussed by provincial doctors.

The argument proceeds as follows. “Society” was described as composed of various groups, defined by ethnicity, religion, political affiliation, and race, definitions which existed in tension with modern Polish nationalism. However, embedded in this “society” was suppression based on gender, and while the care of children was concentrated in women, the doctors called on women to be responsible as mothers and wives for the health of their families, regardless of their economic circumstances. “Society” thus cannot be thought of as “flat” communities or communities of equals. Moreover, the doctors who had contact with other doctors in Galicia, Austrian Poland, also absorbed the lesson from the German and Swedish monarchies that absolute monarchs or strong state powers could coexist with active social engagement. They clearly were exploring mores suitable models for the relationship between state and society in their own wok region of the Russian Empire.