Horodło from the perspective of the 20th and 21st century: memory of modernization, memory of the republic, memory of the empire
For the author of the present article the basis for the analysis of the contemporary understanding of collective identity and the condition of historical memory, is a confrontation of the ways of shaping the memory of the Union of Horodło in the 19th and 20th c. The issue of identity, both Polish and Lithuanian one, as well as of common memory is closely associated with the legacy of the Union of Horodło.
At the same time, the author is looking for ways of remedying the situation in which one deals with a loss of positive identification with the cultural and political legacy of one’s own community – a phenomenon which is currently observed in Poland. A suitable foundation for this kind of remedy is perceived by him in Poland’s past, and since the time of the Union of Horodło – also in Lithuania’s past, and in referring to the idea of the Commonwealth of Both Nations, to the notion of citizenship which co-creates it, to the specific vision of positive freedom which founds it. In the foreground of this collective memory, one finds the voice of the local council, Seym, of common parliamentary sessions devoted to the common good, the difficult process of forming opinions and shaping the foundations of political freedom, and of transformation of subjects into citizens. From this republican perspective, the Union of Horodło looms as an important experience and symbol.
