Language: Language played a very important role. After the Russian occupation, the Polish language was forced out of schools, and the Russian language was imposed everywhere. The Clergy in Poland began using language as a weapon of national resistance. Polish was used for Church gatherings and all religious instructions. The use of Polish came to be seen as a symbol of struggle against Russian dominance.

Romanticism: It was a cultural movement which sought to develop a particular form of nationalist sentiment. Romantic artists and poets generally criticised the glorification of reason and science and focussed instead on emotions, intuition and mystic feelings. They tried to portray a common cultural past as the basis of a nation.

Folk poetry, folk dance, folk songs: The true spirit of the nation was popularised through the above means. So collecting and recording these forms of folk culture was an essential part of nation-building.