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Constructing a Polish Landscape: The Example of the Carpathian Frontier

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2009

Patrice M. Dabrowski
Patrice M. Dabrowski
Affiliation:
Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
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Extract

In the age of modern nationalisms, the first attempt that Poles made to construct a national landscape came in the last third of the nineteenth century. The stateless Poles, subjects of three different imperial powers, somehow managed to transform a remote mountain borderland along the internal Austro-Hungarian frontier into a recognizable and important national icon. While many attempts have been made to transform the natural environment into a national environment since then, this accomplishment helped to make the Carpathian Mountains, and in particular a section of them known as the Tatra Mountains, one of the most recognizable parts of “Poland,” however it is defined.

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Austrian History Yearbook , Volume 39 , April 2008 , pp. 45 - 65
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Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 2008

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References

1 Hebe Clementi, “National Identity and the Frontier,” in Where Cultures Meet: Frontiers in Latin American History, ed. David J. Weber and Jane M. Rausch, Jaguar Books on Latin America 6 (Wilmington, 1994), 143.

2 Jeremy Adelman and Stephen Aron, “From Borderlands to Borders: Empires, Nation-States, and the Peoples in Between in North American History,” American Historical Review 104, no. 3 (1999): 815.

3 In a sense, this is a slightly different usage from more traditional definitions of the frontier as the “outer limits,” in a Turnerian sense of the word, and closer to Mary Louise Pratt's “transcultural zones.” See Mary Louise Pratt, Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation (London and New York, 1992). For a stimulating discussion of this subject, see the Guided Discussion Forum initiated by Eva-Marie Stolberg on H-Russia: “Frontier and Space in Russian History: Is Turner's ‘Frontier’ Useful for Russia's Empire-Building?” (begun July 4, 2002).

4 Clementi, introduction to Where Cultures Meet, xiv.

5 Peter Sahlins, Boundaries: The Making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees (Berkeley, 1989), 271.

6 A recent work that deals expertly with this region is Timothy Snyder, The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569–1999 (New Haven, CT, 2003).

7 See Patrice M. Dabrowski, Commemorations and the Shaping of Modern Poland (Bloomington, IN, 2004); Patrice M. Dabrowski, “Folk, Faith, and Fatherland: Defining the Polish Nation in 1883,” Nationalities Papers 28, no. 3 (September 2000): 397–416; Patrice M. Dabrowski, “What Kind of Modernity Did Poles Need? A Look at Nineteenth-Century Nation-Making” (book review article), Nationalities Papers 29, no. 3 (September 2001): 509–23.

8 Witold Piksa, Spojrzenie na Tatry poprzez wieki: Od pierwszych wzmianek do oświecenia [A look at the Tatras through the ages: from the first references to the Enlightenment] (Cracow, 1995), 101 and elsewhere; “Górale” [Highlanders] and “Historia” [History], Wielka Encyklopedia Tatrzańska [The great Tatra encyclopedia], ed. Zofia Radwańska-Paryska and Witold H. Paryski (Poronin, 1995), 356–57, 409–13.

9 “Staszic Stanisław,” Wielka Encyklopedia Tatrzańska, 1143–45.

10 Staszic, cited in Piksa, Spojrzenie na Tatry poprzez wieki, 103.

11 “Łomnica, szczyt” [Łomnica, mountain] in Wielka Encyklopedia Tatrzańska, 690–91.

12 See, for example, Stanisław Witkiewicz, Na przełęczy: Wra΀enia i obrazy z Tatr [On the col: impressions and images from the Tatras] (Warsaw, 1891), 38, 122. The second citation on Chałubiński's contribution reads: “Jest to człowiek, który dla nas odkrył Tatry.” (He is the person who discovered the Tatras for us.)

13 How different regions—often territories we would think of as borderlands or frontiers—become the object of intense scrutiny of various national communities is a fascinating and telling story. It is one I explore in much greater depth for several regions of the Carpathian Mountains in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in my latest book-length project, tentatively entitled “‘Discovering’ The Carpathians: Episodes in Imagining and Reshaping Alpine Borderland Regions.”

14 “W góry! W góry, miły bracie!—Tam swoboda czeka na cię.” [To the mountains! To the mountains, dear brother!— There freedom awaits you.], Wincenty Pol, Pieśń o Ziemi Naszej [Songs of our land], 8th ed. (Cracow, 1896), 45, cited in Jerzy M. Roszkowski, “Towarzystwo Tatrzańskie wobec sporu o Morskie Oko w latach 1873–1902” [The Tatra Society in the face of the dispute over the over Morskie Oko, 1873–1902], in Spór o Morskie Oko: Materiały z sesji naukowej poświęconej 90 rocznicy procesu w Grazu, Zakopane 12–13 września 1992 r. [The dispute over Morskie Oko: Material from the symposium dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the proceedings in Graz, Zakopane 12–13 September 1992], ed. Jerzy M. Roszkowski (Zakopane, 1993), 27. This poem was cited, without attribution, by the first president of the Tatra Society, Count Mieczysław Rey, in his opening speech to the gathered members (“Zagajenie pierwszego walnego zgromadzenia Towarzystwa Tatrzańskiego przez Prezesa Mieczysława hr. Reya” [Opening address of the first general meeting of the Tatra Society by Chairman Mieczysław Count Rey], Pamiętnik Towarzystwa Tatrzańskiego [Journal of the Tatra Society] 1 [1876]: 8).

15 Descriptions of these trips can be found in Ferdynand Hoesick, Tatry i Zakopane [The Tatras and Zakopane] (Poznań, 1900); Stanisław Witkiewicz, Na przełęczy; and many other works.

16 Walery Eljasz, “Kilka wra΀eń z Tatr” [Several impressions from the Tatras] Pamiętnik Towarzystwa Tatrzańskiego 4–6 (1879–81), 76.

17 Władysław Szajnocha, “Pogląd na czterdziestoletnią działalność Towarzystwa Tatrzańskiego” [A view of the forty years of activity of the Tatra Society], Czterdzieści lat istnienia Towarzystwa Tatrzańskiego w Krakowie: 1873–1913 [Forty years of the life of the Tatra Society in Cracow: 1873–1913] (Cracow, 1913), 34.

18 Mieczysław Rokosz, “Zakopane—stolica polskiej irredenty” [Zakopane—capital of Polish irredentism], Rocznik Podhalański [Podhale yearbook] 5 (1992): 128.

19 For more on the Krynica phenomenon, see, for example, Marek Czapliński and Teresa Kulak, “Zakopane i Krynica—΀ycie kulturalne dwu polskich stacji klimatycznych na przełomie wieków: Próba porównania” [Zakopane and Krynica—the cultural life of two Polish climatic stations at the turn of the century: A comparative study], Sobótka [Midsummer] 47, no. 1–2 (1992): 279–89; Stanisław Pagaczewski, Spotkamy się u wód [We will meet at the waters] (Cracow, 1972).

20 Irena Homola, “Od wsi do uzdrowiska: Zakopane w okresie autonomii galicyjskiej 1867–1914” [From village to spa resort: Zakopane at the time of Galician autonomy], Zakopane: Czterysta lat dziejów [Zakopane: Four hundred years of history], 2 vols., ed. Renata Dutkowa (Cracow, 1991), 1:182.

21 Stanisław Witkiewicz, “Bagno” [Bog], Przegląd Zakopiański [Zakopane review] no. 32 (1902): 292–3, cited in Rokosz, “Zakopane—stolica polskiej irredenty,” 125.

22 Świętochowski traveled to the Tatras in 1883 and was very impressed by Chałubiński ‘s efforts there. See his “Z gór” [From the mountains] of that same year, republished in his memoirs (Wspomnienia [Wrocław, 1966]). Prus visited the Tatras three times but, as he suffered from agoraphobia, his acquaintance with the region was limited to easier outings in the vicinity. See “Prus Bolesław,” in Wielka Encyklopedia Tatrzańska, 972.

23 Here I agree fully with David Crowley, who has noted the connection between the Warsaw positivists and Zakopane, as well as the connection between the local and the national, in his stimulating and insightful article, “Finding Poland in the Margins: The Case of the Zakopane Style,” Journal of Design History 14, no. 2 (2001): 105–16.

24 See, for example, chapters by Jacek Woźniakowski and Jan Majda in Zakopane: Czterysta lat dziejów, vol. 2; Jan Majda, Góralszczyzna i Tatry w twórczości Stanisława Witkiewicza [The highlander essence and the Tatras in the work of Stanisław Witkiewicz] (Cracow, 1998); Jan Majda, Tatrzańskim szlakiem literatury [On the Tatra trail of literature] (Cracow, 1982).

25 Brian Porter, When Nationalism Began to Hate: Imagining Modern Politics in Nineteenth-Century Poland (New York, 2000), 44.

26 Ibid., 50.

27 Ibid.

28 Aleksander Świętochowski, “Polityka wlasna” [A politics of one's own], Przegląd Tygodniowy [The weekly review] 11 (1876), cited in Porter, When Nationalism Learned to Hate, 51.

29 Aleksander Świętochowski, “Opinia publiczna” [Public opinion], Przegląd Tygodniowy 7 (1872), cited in Porter, When Nationalism Began to Hate, 49.

30 Eljasz, “Kilka wra΀eń z Tatr,” 76.

31 Ibid.

32 Stanisław Witkiewicz, Bagno (Lwów, 1903), 6, cited in Anna Sidorek, “Środowisko taternickie w latach 1873–1913” [The Tatra community 1873–1913], Kultura i Społeczeństwo [Culture and society] 22, nos. 1–2 (1978): 255.

33 For more on ethnographic developments at this time, see, for example, Edward Manouelian, “Invented Traditions: Primitivist Narrative and Design in the Polish Fin de Siècle,” Slavic Review 59, no. 2 (2000): 391–405.

34 A thorough and recent English-language survey of the study of highland music is found in chapter 3 of Timothy J. Cooley, Making Music in the Polish Tatras: Tourists, Ethnographers, and Mountain Musicians (Bloomington, IN, 2005).

35 Cited in Manouelian, “Invented Traditions,” 394.

36 This was Sabałowa bajka [Sabała's tale], a highlander's tale, which was published in the newspaper Czas [Time] in 1889.

37 Clementi, “National Identity and the Frontier,” 141.

38 The acknowledgment of the Warsaw positivists' new pragmatic focus on the peasantry is one of the strengths of Crowley's article, cited above, although it is worth underscoring that their desire to find a way to integrate peasants into the nation had been part of the program of Polish democrats before them. That the peasant was elevated in this way by non-Galicians is no accident. Galician Poles were still traumatized by what Norman Davies has termed “the most sensational event in Galicia's history”: the peasant jacquerie of 1846, in which an attempt at insurrection on the part of Polish nobles (paradoxically seeking to engage the peasants in this effort) was transformed into a wholesale massacre of Galician nobles. See Norman Davies, God's Playground: A History of Poland, 2 vols. (New York, 1982), 2:147.

39 This new approach to nation building can be seen in Dabrowski, Commemorations and the Shaping of Modern Poland.

40 Stanisław Witkiewicz, cited in Zbigniew Moździerz, ed., Stanisław Witkiewicz: Człowiek—artysta—myśliciel [Stanisław Witkiewicz: Man—artist—thinker] (Zakopane, 1997), 310, cited in Manouelian, “Invented Traditions,” 393.

41 Witkiewicz, Styl zakopiański [Zakopane style], 1904 or 1911, cited by Stefan ͹ychoń, “Rozwój przestrzenny i budownictwo” [Spatial development and architecture], Zakopane: Czterysta lat dziejów, 1:445. Being familiar with neither old Polish architecture nor the extensive literature on this subject, I have chosen to report Witkiewicz's views without commenting on whether they reflect the historical reality, as they reflect the elite views of the mountains and mountaineers that are the focus of this essay.

42 Ibid.

43 Zbigniew Moździerz, “Z dziejów ‘Koliby’, pierwszej willi w stylu zakopiańskim” [From the history of “Koliba,” the first villa in the Zakopane style], Wierchy [Peaks] 59 (1993): 166.

44 For a more detailed discussion, in English, of the “Zakopane style,” see Crowley, “Finding Poland in the Margins.” Examples of this architectural style eventually were constructed as far away as Lithuania. See Moździerz, “Z dziejów ‘Koliby’,” 166.

45 Manouelian, “Invented Traditions,” 394–95.

46 Chałubiński happened to be present at the meeting when the idea for the organization emerged. In giving all the credit for the formation of the Tatra Society to Chałubiński and the Warsaw positivists, however, Crowley oversimplifies what—as shall be seen—was a much more complicated (and, indeed, fascinating) development. See Crowley, “Finding Poland in the Margins,” 108. For a demythicization of Chałubiński's contribution, see A. Siemionow, “Bronisław Gustawicz o Chałubińskim” [Bronisław Gustawicz on Chałubiński], Wierchy 44 (1975): 278–83, and—regarding his role in the establishment of the Tatra Society—the important article by Wiesław A. Wójcik, “Tytus Chałubiński a Towarzystwo Tatrzańskie” [Tytus Chałubiński and the Tatra society], Wierchy 57 (1988–92): 181–89.

47 Homola, “Od wsi do uzdrowiska,” 208; “Polskie Towarzystwo Tatrzańskie,” in Wielka Encyklopedia Tatrzańska, 948; “Statut Towarzystwa Tatrzańskiego z siedzibą w Krakowie” [Statute of the Tatra Society with the seat in Cracow], Pamiętnik Towarzystwa Tatrzańskiego 1 (1876), 9–19. Here I am omitting some of the convolutions of the arrangements; those interested in greater detail may consult Witold H. Paryski, “Początki Towarzystwa Tatrzańskiego i Zakopane” [The beginnings of the Tatra Society and Zakopane], Wierchy 47 (1978): 20–32. A recent work in English that also mentions the work of the Tatra Society is Timothy J. Cooley, Making Music in the Polish Tatras: Tourists, Ethnographers, and Mountain Musicians (Bloomington, IN, 2005).

48 Leopold Świerz, “Zarys działalności Towarzystwa Tatrzańskiego w pierwszem jego dziesięcioleciu (od roku 1874 do r. 1883)” [An outline of the activites of the Tatra Society in its first decade (from 1874 to 1883)], Pamiętnik Towarzystwa Tatrzańskiego 10 (1885): 94.

49 For more on the activities of the Tatra Society in Eastern Galicia, see Patrice M. Dabrowski, “‘Discovering’ the Galician Borderlands: The Case of the Eastern Carpathians,” Slavic Review 64, no. 2 (2005): 380–402.

50 There is an interesting—if somewhat paradoxical—connection between the woodworking school and the development of the “Zakopane style.” At the outset, the school used German textbooks and propagated Tirolean styles, which Witkiewicz saw as adversely affecting the native character of the highlanders' work. This prompted him to develop the style discussed earlier. See, for example, Juliusz Zborowski, “Styl zakopiański [Szkic do referatu]” [The Zakopane style (A draft report)], in Rocznik Podhalański 5, 33–52.

51 See, for example, Świerz, “Zarys działalności Towarzystwa Tatrzańskiego w pierwszem jego dziesięcioleciu (od roku 1874 do r. 1883)”; Zofia Nowak, “Władysław hr. Zamoyski a spór o Morskie Oko” [Władysław Count Zamoyski and the dispute over Morskie Oko], in Spór o Morskie Oko.

52 “Zagajenie pierwszego walnego zgromadzenia Towarzystwa Tatrzańskiego przez Prezesa Mieczysława hr. Reya,” Pamiętnik Towarzystwa Tatrzańskiego 1 (1876): 7.

53 Świerz, “Zarys działalności Towarzystwa Tatrzańskiego w pierwszem jego dziesięcioleciu,” 93.

54 With 110 shares in the sanatorium amounting to a total of 110,000 crowns—over one-fifth of the sanatorium's initial capital—Paderewski was by far the largest shareholder (as of 31 December 1902, as seen in the list of shareholders in the Central State Historical Archive of L'viv [TsDIAL], 146/58/2501: 22–23).

55 See, for example, “Dłuski Kazimierz,” entry in Wielka Encyklopedia Tatrzańska, 217.

56 Between 1876 and 1883 he recruited a total of 677 new members. See Świerz, “Zarys działalności Towarzystwa Tatrzańskiego w pierwszem jego dziesięcioleciu,” 108; Jan Majda, “Środowisko literackie Zakopanego” [The literary community of Zakopane], in Zakopane: Czterysta lat dziejów, 2:293. These doubtless for the most part were Poles who had never set foot in the Tatra highlands but saw fit nonetheless to support the Tatra Society's activities.

57 Wójcik, “Tytus Chałubiński,” 189.

58 “Jelínek Edvard,” in Wielka Encyklopedia Tatrzańska, 475–76. A medallion with the bust of Jelínek in relief was added two years later. There is more to the Czech connection here: the identification of the Carpathians/Tatras as the birthplace of Slavs is a recurring theme in the literature.

59 Noted, for example, by Zofia Nowak, “Zamoyski,” 49.

60 Funds for the purchase of land were to be taken from the fund that had been established to construct a monument to the Polish bard in Cracow. See “Królikowski Bogusław,” in Wielka Encyklopedia Tatrzańska, 602; X. Wielkopolanin, “Tatry Polskie pomnikiem dla Mickiewicza” [The Polish Tatras—a monument for Mickiewicz], Pamiętnik Towarzystwa Tatrzańskiego 12 (1888): 1–8. While Poles had to wait until after World War II for their national park in the Tatras, Mickiewicz was honored by the naming of three waterfalls of the Roztoka Stream after him in 1891, the year after his remains were buried in the Wawel crypts in Cracow.

61 Roszkowski, “Towarzystwo Tatrzańskie,” 26. That the member of the Homolacs family to make this arrangement was Lady Klementyna nèe Sławińska Homolacs, who had compelled her future (Hungarian) husband to join the Polish insurgents in the 1830 November Uprising, reminds us of how hard it is to determine what precisely constituted patriotism during this period. See “Homolacsowa Klementyna,” in Wielka Encyklopedia Tatrzańska, 419, as well as Feliks Jelonek, “Rola rodziny Homolacsów w poznaniu Tatr” [The role of the Homolacs family in the coming to know of the Tatras], Wierchy 43 (1974): 151.

62 Roszkowski, “Towarzystwo Tatrzańskie,” 26. Those familiar with the story will realize that I am providing the barest of outlines here.

63 Ibid., 28–30.

64 See in particular Spór o Morskie Oko.

65 As a foreigner (Zamoyski held French citizenship), he had been forced to leave his hereditary holdings in Kórnik (under German rule) by the Prussian authorities in 1886, after which he settled in Galicia. See Władysław Bieńkowski, “Spór o Morskie Oko—wspomnienia” [The dispute over Morskie Oko—recollections], Studia Historyczne 30, no. 3 (1987): 453; Walery Goetel, Wspomnienie pośmiertne o Władysławie Zamoyskim [A posthumous recollection of Władysław Zamoyski] (Lwów, 1925), also published in Wierchy 3 (1925).

66 See his brochure Projekt do wniosku J. Ex. Pana Marszałka krajowego hr. Tarnowskiego, celem uczczenia 40-letniej rocznicy panowania Cesarza Franciszka Józefa [Project for the motion of His Excellency the Provincial Marshal Count Tarnowski, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the reign of Emperor Francis Joseph] (Lwów, 1888), mentioned in “Pławicki Feliks,” in Wielka Encyklopedia Tatrzańska, 925–26.

67 Sienkiewicz, under the pseudonym K. Dobrzyński, published an article about this entitled “Kto da więcej?” [Who will give more?], Słowo Polskie [The Polish word], 22 May 1889.

68 Although beyond the scope of this paper, it should be noted that there was another battle being fought in the region: one against Jews. To date I have found only incidental mention of this conflict (mostly in correspondence or memoirs). For example, Witkiewicz wrote in 1891: “Mr. Zamoyski fights with the Hungarians over Morskie Oko, with Jews over control (panowanie) in Podhale—in general one must fight here with everything and with everyone.” (Zamoyski, 8 July 1891, IS PAN, sygn. 24, k.1133–1134, cited in Zdzisław Piasecki, “Zakopiańscy przyjaciele i znajomi Witkiewicza: Na podstawie nieznanych listów autora ‘Na przełęczy’” [Zakopane friends and acquaintances of Witkiewicz: On the basis of unknown letters of the author of “On the col”], Wierchy 61 [1995]: 71.) The question of a Jewish challenge to Polish rule in the alpine borderlands deserves further study; I presented some preliminary findings in “Carpathians and Nations: Nineteenth-Century Polish Encounters in the Tatra Mountains,” paper presented at the conference “Interethnic Coexistence and Violence in Europe's Eastern Borderlands: The Local Community and the State,” Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University, 14–16 May 2004.

69 Roszkowski, “Towarzystwo Tatrzańskie,” 33.

70 Nowak, “Zamoyski,” 51. Much rich detail is found in Bieńkowski, “Spór o Morskie Oko—wspomnienia,” 453–85, which suggests that the Polish side hardly remained passive in the face of these moves.

71 Roszkowski, “Towarzystwo Tatrzańskie,” 33.

72 While I have rendered the word kraj as “country” (in keeping with the reference to Polish ground [again, a focus on the concrete as well as the national]), it could also be translated—for those mindful of regional politics—as the Galician “Crownland.”

73 Roszkowski, “Towarzystwo Tatrzańskie,” 34–36; Nowak, “Zamoyski,” 54.

74 Roszkowski, “Towarzystwo Tatrzańskie,” 40.

75 Cited in, among others, Jacek Kolbuszewski, “Siedem wizji Morskiego Oka” [Seven visions of Morskie Oko] in Spór o Morskie Oko, 18. I find the second line—”wiwat ptaszę lasze”—most interesting. Long live the Polish fledgling—meaning the national symbol of the eagle—but presented in what seems to be a multicultural form. Only the bird is Polish, “wiwat” coming from the Latin and the adjective “Polish” sounding like the moniker “Lach,” often given Poles by Ruthenians or Ukrainians. Perhaps the last was used simply for the rhyme, but I would like to think that it reflected an inclusiveness still being preached at this time.

76 The remark of the president of the Tatra Society, Władysław Szajnocha, in his “Pogląd na czterdziestoletnią działalność,” 7.

77 Wacław Polakiewicz, “Doniosłość i wymiar moralny zwycięstwa w Grazu—1902” [The significance and moral dimension of the victory in Graz], in Spór o Morskie Oko, 96.

78 Ibid., 99.

79 Although a thorough discussion of literature is beyond the scope of this essay, one should note that the “discoverer” of the Tatras, Chałubiński, also had an impact on Polish literature with his account of one of his trips, “Sześć dni w Tatrach” [Six days in the Tatras], Pamiętnik Towarzystwa Tatrzańskiego 2 (1879), also published in Niwa [The field]. It marked the beginning of a tradition of Polish tourist (hiking) literature, according to Jacek Kolbuszewski. See Jacek Kolbuszewski, “W stulecie ‘Pamiętnika Towarzystwa Tatrzańskiego” [On the centenary of the “Journal of the Tatra Society”], Wierchy 46 (1977): 8–9; Wójcik, “Tytus Chałubiński.” Witkiewicz's Na przełęczy was likewise influential.

80 The panorama is discussed in Franciszek Ziejka, Panorama Racławicka [The Racławice panorama] (Cracow, 1984), 61–65.

81 Adam Czarnowski, “Dawne pocztówki tatrzańskie” [Early Zakopane postcards], Wierchy 52 (1983): 164–80. Postcard collecting was all the rage during this period—made easier by the habit of visitors to the Tatras of writing a minimum of a postcard a day to friends and family elsewhere. (Ibid., 169.)

82 Eljasz, “Kilka wra΀eń z Tatr,” 76. Kulturtreger comes from the original Polish text, although the word appears to be a misspelling of the German Kulturträger.

83 See most specifically an announcement made by Włodzimierz Tetmajer to the highlanders on 24 August 1914, calling them to join the Polish legions, cited in Rokosz, “Zakopane—stolica polskiej irredenty,” 142. Rokosz provided many other examples of this new approach to highlander patriotism in the same article.