 In 1890 only about 200 Poles lived in the town of Graudenz, but approximately 16,850 Poles in the rural district of Landkreis Graudenz (as compared to about 26,000 Germans in Landkreis Graudenz).To resist Germanisation, Polish activists started to publish the newspaper "Gazeta Grudziądzka" in 1894.It advocated the social and economic emancipation of rural society and opposed Germanization – publishing articles critical of Germany.