History of Russia in the Polish literature during the Times of King Stanisław. Part I: To the First Partition (1772)

Abstrakt

The author undertakes to characterise the image of Russia in the Polish literaturę of the era of King Stanisław Poniatowski (including editorial projects, which actually never came to fruition). The article brings the story to the First Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1772).

Interest in the history of the mighty neighbour, who markedly infl uenced the course of political events in the Commonwealth, can be noticed as early as during the reign of King Augustus III. It accompanied the tendency to widen the scope of the view of the surrounding world brought in by the erudite historiography in the editorial programme of the Załuski Library (opened to the public in 1747).

This in turn explains the interest in primary sources, bibliography, chronology, and the history of Russia itself. However, the results of these interests seem modest. The majority of the works that appeared were based on popular French literature. The Polish authors made little effort to use their superior knowledge of the Ruthenian world amalgamated with the fabric of the Commonwealth (language, Eastern Christianity, customs). Instead, they preferred to keep to the French compilations, copy or adapt their views, patterns, and evaluations, even if they were conscious of the structural fallacies of such historiography.

The other thing evident in the analysed writings is the presence of the negative stereotype of the “Muscovite”. This stereotype appeared in the Commonwealth not later than during the XVII century.