The authors present opinions of Roman Dmowski - the leader of National Democrats - about character traits of his contemporary Poles and about the level of civilizational advancement of Poland during his lifetime. The authors highlight the development of his opinions, starting from the end of the 19th/beginning of the 20th century, when Dmowski criticised the Poles' unrealistic political stances and the lack of character traits required to resist the occupants. In the next period the National Democrats entered the process of "merging nationalism with Catholicism into a single ideological entity", which resulted in a shift in Dmowski's perception of his compatriots. Dmowski started to notice more of their positive traits. He noted their idealism and religiousness, which were to be lacking among many Western societies. At the same time, discussing the political system, Dmowski criticised certain maladjustment of Polish masses to parliamentary democracy, leaning towards a vision of a system of elitist character. This quickly created the need, in Dmowski's opinion, to identify "leadership", which he described as "nation in the moral sense" or "national elite" and to entrust the real power to them.