Józef Julian Sękowski’s farewell lecture The University of Saint Petersburg, 1847

The aim of this paper is to present the last period of Józef Sękowski’s/Osip Iwanowicz Sienkowski’s cooperation with the academic community of the University of St. Petersburg. His farewell lecture (O driewnosti imieni Russow) was intended as an affront to the university and was widely commented as such. The lecture was not delivered by Sękowski himself but read on his request by one of his co-workers; the text has never been published. The remembrance of this event and the accounts of its course have been preserved in memories of its witnesses. A larger fragment from the Kalejdoskop wospominanij (1874) by Józef Przecławski “Ciprinus” regarding this event, not yet translated into Polish, has been quoted in own translation by the author of the paper. Thanks to this account, containing some additional explanations, one can become familiarised with the events back then. Sękowski’s controversial lecture resonated also in fiction. Its repercussions can be found in Vieniamin Kavierin’s novel titled Skandalist, ili wieczera na Wasiliewskim Ostrowie (1928). Kavierin, who graduated from oriental studies in Petrograd (1920–1923), was very well acquainted with Sękowski’s biography, mainly as the author of a broad monograph titled Baron Brambieus. Istoria Osipa Sienkowskogo żurnalista, riedaktora “Bibliotieki dlja cztienija” (1929, 1966).

The aim of this paper is to present the last period of Józef Sękowski’s/Osip Iwanowicz Sienkowski’s cooperation with the academic community of the University of St. Petersburg. His farewell lecture (O driewnosti imieni Russow) was intended as an affront to the university and was widely commented as such. The lecture was not delivered by Sękowski himself but read on his request by one of his co-workers; the text has never been published. The remembrance of this event and the accounts of its course have been preserved in memories of its witnesses. A larger fragment from the Kalejdoskop wospominanij (1874) by Józef Przecławski “Ciprinus” regarding this event, not yet translated into Polish, has been quoted in own translation by the author of the paper. Thanks to this account, containing some additional explanations, one can become familiarised with the events back then. Sękowski’s controversial lecture resonated also in fiction. Its repercussions can be found in Vieniamin Kavierin’s novel titled Skandalist, ili wieczera na Wasiliewskim Ostrowie (1928). Kavierin, who graduated from oriental studies in Petrograd (1920–1923), was very well acquainted with Sękowski’s biography, mainly as the author of a broad monograph titled Baron Brambieus. Istoria Osipa Sienkowskogo żurnalista, riedaktora “Bibliotieki dlja cztienija” (1929, 1966).