 In the prewar years, the history of Poland was contested terrain as different ideological forces pulled Polish nationalists in opposite directions, represented by Dmowski and Piłsudski. Throughout his career, Dmowski deeply disliked Piłsudski and much of what he stood for. Dmowski came from an impoverished urban background and had little fondness for Poland's traditional elitist social structure. Instead, Dmowski favored a modernizing program and felt Poles should stop looking back nostalgically at the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which Dmowski held in deep contempt and should instead embrace the "modern world". In particular, Dmowski despised the old Commonwealth for its multi-national structure and religious tolerance. He saw the ethnic minorities in Poland as a direct threat to the cultural identity, integrity and ethnic cohesion of Poland, directly in competition with the Polish petit bourgeoisie with which he identified. Dmowski argued that good citizens should only have one allegiance to the nation, and there is no middle ground. In his ideal Poland there would be no ethnic minorities, they would either be polonized or forced to emigrate. The success of his nationalistic ideas, also adopted and propagated by nationalists in other countries (such as Lithuania and Ukraine) contributed to the disappearance of the tolerant, multicultural Polish-Lithuanian identity.
