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.