Krzysztof K. Daszyk

Homage to the Shadows of the Prophet of the Skarga Stature, that is the Krakow Celebrations of the Centenary of Zygmunt Krasiński’s Birthday
The year 1912 – that is a time when dreams of regaining national sovereignty and launching new irredentist activities began to be reborn in the Polish society (in connection with the political turmoil in Europe auguring an imminent outbreak of the “great war”), was associated with a few important historical anniversaries, namely: the 300^th anniversary of the death of Rev. Piotr Skarga, the 100^th anniversary of the death of Hugo Kołłątaj, the 100^th anniversary of the birth of Zygmunt Krasiński and Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, and finally the 100th anniversary of the expedition of Napoleon’s Great Army on Moscow; it was particularly the latter event that was being associated with the hopes of ‘resurrecting’ Poland within its pre-partition borders.
The above-mentioned anniversaries created an excellent opportunity for the Poles to manifest – wherever possible – that is chiefly on the territory of autonomous Galicia and among the émigré circles – their patriotic feelings. For the individual political factions, these jubilee celebrations constituted an excellent pretext to intensify the struggle for the proverbial “rule of the souls”.
In the year 1912 in Kraków it was primarily the memory of the author of Nie-Boska komedia and Irydion (23 February), and secondly (25–27 September) that of the author of the famous Kazania sejmowe /Diet Sermons/, that were being celebrated. The latter of the two celebrations had, above all, the character of a religious holiday. Whereas in connection with the homage paid to the memory of Zygmunt Krasiński, there appeared clear accents and allusions as well as ideologicalpolitical polemics, no scholar researching the post-partition history of the Poles can pass by with indifference.
To put things in a nutshell, for the Kraków conservative-conciliatory circles which eagerly took over patronage over the organization of the celebrations associated with the 100th anniversary of the birth of the “third national poet-bard”, this holiday became an excellent opportunity to recall the warnings of the author of Nie-Boska komedia against the dire consequences of all socially radical ideologies (in the contemporary Galician realities, this meant above all, a warning against the socialists grouped around Ignacy Daszyński) and also against propagating the idea of “deed-work” rather than “deed-struggle” (as all irredentists who were then setting up unions and Polish Rifle Squads seemed to require).

An Irredentist Vademecum. On Zygmunt Miłkowski’s On The Active Defense And National Treasure

A very important role in the political education of the “bold generation”, who entered the public scene at the turn of the 1880s and 1890s, was played by Zygmunt Miłkowski’s brochure On the Active Defense and National Treasure published in Paris in 1887. This article presents the content of this brochure as well as the impressions and emotions that accompanied reading this publication by its contemporaries (e.g. the young Stefan Żeromski).


 

Michał Bobrzyński vs. Roman Dmowski: A historiographical-political duet on the resurrection of the Polish state

Just as the year 1795 was traumatic – the year of removal of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic from the political map of Europe – and it rekindled a passionate dispute on the reasons of the fall of the previously spacious and powerful monarchy, so was the year 1918 happy for the Poles – the year of regaining independence, which marked the beginning of another great, and no less passionate, dispute upon the merits in the task of the resurrection of the Polish state. That dispute went beyond the frame of historical debates or schoolbooks, evoking unflagging political emotions during the two decades of the Second Republic’s existence. It was a kind of a settlement of accounts with the recent (for the people of the time) national past, while the question on merits in the task of reviving the state was, at the same time, a question on the moral right to rule the state and control its fate. Two voluminous publications issued shortly after Poland regained independence played a particularly important role in the aforementioned dispute: a two-volume “historical essay” Wskrzeszenie państwa polskiego (Resurrection of the Polish state), published anonymously by Michał Bobrzyński in the period 1920–1925, and a piece by Roman Dmowski entitled Polityka polska i odbudowanie państwa (Polish politics and rebuilding of the state), published in 1925 and followed by two more editions within the author’s lifetime: the second edition in 1926 and the third one in 1937. This text analyses both works in the context of the above-mentioned historiographical-political dispute upon merits in the restoration of the Polish state.

* Niniejszy tekst jest rozszerzoną wersją referatu wygłoszonego podczas pierwszego dnia obrad III Konferencji Naukowej Polsko-Litewskiej „Unia, federacja, niepodległość? Polski i Litwy drogi do niepodległości”, zorganizowanej przez Polską Akademię Umiejętności oraz Instytut Historii Litwy (Wilno) w Krakowie, w gmachu PAU przy ul. Sławkowskiej, w dniach 18–19 X 2018 r.

Between a Tribute of Adoration and Ideological Distance. On the Kraków Celebrations of the 100thAnniversary of Juliusz Słowacki’s Birthday 

Juliusz Słowacki was a poet who remained until the day of his death in the shadow of the Great Foremost One, as Adam Mickiewicz was called. It was not until the following generations started to know and understand him better that he was elevated to the rank of the nation’s „forerunner”. This advancement took place at the beginning of the 20thcentury upon the initiative of neoromantic artistic milieus (Young Poland movement) fascinated by the extraordinary breadth of vision and the power of imagery present in Słowacki’s poetry. The other group who placed him on the pedestal were young people calling for liberation of Poland. They reacted arduously to Słowacki’s cry for going „one by one to death, / As stones thrown by God at the rampart!…” in the name of freedom for their motherland (the quoted passage comes from the poem „My Testament”).
In 1909, the year of the 100thanniversary of Słowacki’s birthday, both groups mentioned above took the opportunity to pay tribute to the poetic genius as well as to demonstrate patriotic feelings and striving for liberation. More than one thousand various anniversary celebrations were organized in 550 places within the former borders of Poland and in other countries.
This article discusses the Kraków celebrations of the 100thanniversary of the „second bard’s” birthday The author is less interested in the particular events themselves and more in the ideological atmosphere pervading these celebrations, since, as it has been revealed, „the spirit of Juliusz Słowacki” in 1909 was more a spirit of discord than of concord…
The reason for such a state of affairs was that many readers at that time considered the author of Kordian to be an „emblem” of certain ideological and political values, including the independence of Poland, for whom one should always fi ght until the last drop of blood, republicanism, democracy, in a word, progress in political and social life. Those values were unacceptable at Kraków’s aristocratic palaces, bourgeois salons and the Dual Monarchy institutions loyal to Vienne. In consequence, the members of those infl uential Cracovian circles ideologically distanced themselves from „the most romantic one among the romantics”.