Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

Nobility Polish Very Inclusive Brandes

Poland: a Story of the Land People and LiteratureBrandes, Georg. 1903,/h3>

January 1863 Insurrection Aftermath.The Unprecedented Extent of Ennobled Poles: A Virtual Polish Middle Class

This 1903 book [review based on original edition] was published at a time when the Kingdom of Poland had become a distant memory, and there seemed little hope that Poland would ever regain her independence. While in Moscow, Brandes marveled at the many Polish cultural treasures that the Russians had sacked and put on display as curiosities. (p. 308).

JANUARY 1863 INSURRECTION AFTERMATH

In reprisal for the failed January (1863) Insurrection, the Russians deported at least 50,000 Poles to Siberia, of whom thousands remained there decades later. (p. 21). Brandes alludes to the Russian genocide of Poles, as he writes, “There is no doubt that the flower of a whole generation, the preceding Polish generation, almost all of those most distinguished for courage, intellect, and enthusiasm, died there.” (p. 98). Furthermore, “After the rebellion of 1863 all the real estate of the landed proprietors who participated in it, or who were suspected of having given it sympathy or support, was confiscated.” (p. 97). Especially after the 1863 Insurrection, the tsarist Russian authorities tried to relegate Warsaw to nothing more than an outpost of the Russian Empire: “Since the unfortunate revolution of 1863, nothing at all has been undertaken for the cleanliness or well-being of the place…” (p. 12). The Russification, even in the Polish capital, was intense: “Even more dangerous to Polish nationality is that provision of the law which requires that all instruction in the schools shall be in Russian. Even the scanty instruction in the Polish language is given in Russian.” (p. 17). The author visited Russian-ruled Warsaw in 1885, and commented: “The pressure upon Russian Poland is so great that it could not be borne for a month if many of the regulations were not chaotic and meaningless, others too trivial to be executed, others easily avoided by bribery…” (p. 7). The Poles resisted the heavy-handed pressures of their Russian enemies: “So far as education is concerned, the parents keep their little boy or girl at home and out of school as long as possible, teach them themselves, or have them taught, in order to give the first elements of knowledge in Polish and in the Polish spirit. The child sucks in with his mother’s milk contempt for the Russians, and passionate hatred for them.” (p. 67). {Such was the experience of Jozef Pilsudski, who was born a few years after the ill-fated January 1863 Insurrection.]

POLISH WOMEN DRIVE POLISH PATRIOTISM

Throughout this work, Brandes focuses on the role played by women in Polish society, notably in the nurturing of Polish patriotism. For instance, he writes: “A young girl, not twenty years old, rebuked a group of half-grown Polish schoolboys in the Saxon Park because they were speaking Russian to each other. Such little traits teach everyone who resides for any time in Russian Poland that it is the women who keep the national passion at white heat.” (p. 56).

POLES REFUSE TO BE CRUSHED BY THE PRUSSIAN BOOT

Brandes also describes how the Poles thwarted the aggressive Prussian attempt to squelch all traces of Polishness, including the Polish language: “The peasants are waking up. They teach themselves to read in their Polish prayer books. They club together and hire a teacher to give them privately all the necessary instructions in the correct writing of their forbidden tongue. Religious persecution especially rouses them and makes them conscious Poles.” (p. 101).

UNDEMONIZING THE POLISH NOBILITY

In common with many other authors, Brandes fingers the unusual nature of the Polish SZLACHTA: “But we must not forget that the SZLACHTA in its constitution was something very different from the nobility in most of the countries of Europe. It was never a separate caste. After the victorious defense of Vienna, John Sobieski ennobled all his cavalry. Even in our century, whole regimens of infantry have been ennobled. There are thus at this moment in the different parts of Poland not less than 120,000 noble families. The nobility thus corresponds here most nearly to what elsewhere in Europe is the upper middle class. It must also be noted that the titles, prince, marquis, etc., are not originally Polish, but were first conferred upon the most important families by the foreign conquerors, for which reason they are not much used in the country.” (p. 28).

EARLY UKRAINIAN IRRENDENTISM

While describing his visit to Austrian-ruled Lemberg (Lwow, Lviv) in 1899, Brandes experienced early Ruthenian (Ukrainian) anti-Polish separatism, despite to holding a neutral position on this matter. He was invited by the famous Michael Hruxhevski [Mykhailo Hrushevskyi] and Jan Franco [Ivan Franko] before being warned by Poles that these Ukrainians were mortal enemies of Poland. Indeed, Brandes reports that, as soon as Hrushevskyi had gotten his University post from the Poles, he turned against them. (p. 175). In addition, Franko distorted what Brandes had said into an attack on Poles, and when Brandes sent a correction as to what he actually had said, Franko then persistently attacked Brandes!(pp. 175-176).

ADAM MICKIEWICZ MET OTHER EUROPEAN LUMINARIES

Much of this book is on Polish poetry. The author recounts how Adam Mickiewicz had met Alexander Pushkin. (pp. 235-237). The latter had abandoned his youthful hostility towards absolutism owing to favors received from Tsar Nicholas. On another occasion, Mickiewicz met Johann Goethe, and marveled at the latter’s rejection of God. (pp. 230-231).

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