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Czartoryski as a Polish Statesman

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Charles Morley
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Extract

When one thinks of Poland in the nineteenth century, the revolutions of 1830 and 1863 come immediately to mind. Yet not all Poles believed that the problem of the relations between Poland and Russia could be resolved only by revolution. There were many who preferred reconciliation. The number in the one camp as against the other at any particular time was a direct reflection of the political atmosphere in Russia. Whenever conditions gave rise to hopes for liberalization and reform among the Russians themselves, the policy of reconciliation would gain adherents among the Poles. This was the case under Alexander I, at the beginning of Alexander IPs reign, and following the revolution of 1905.

Type
Notes and Comment
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , September 1971 , pp. 606 - 614
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1971

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References

1. The only full-length biography in English is Kukiel, Marian's Czartoryski and European Unity, 1770-1861 (Princeton, 1955)Google Scholar. In Polish the outstanding work is the posthumous biography by Marceli, Handelsman, Adam Czartoryski, 3 vols, in 4 (Warsaw, 1948-50 Google Scholar, prepared for publication by Stefan Kieniewicz). Professor of European history at the University of Warsaw, Handelsman began at the outbreak of World War II to set down in writing the results of twenty-five years of research. In the first bombardment of Warsaw he lost some of his notes and several volumes of Czartoryski's correspondence borrowed from the Czartoryski Library of the National Museum in Cracow. Because he was Jewish he constantly had to hide from the Nazis. He found he could not write during the invasion and fall of France. But he returned to his task later that summer and even learned to type (he was almost sixty) to expedite his writing. Just before his arrest in the summer of 1944 he completed his manuscript, had it microfilmed, and buried the manuscript in his garden. Handelsman died in the Nazi concentration camp at Nordhausen on March 20, 1945, but both manuscript and microfilm survived the war.

2. To disrupt the close relations that had developed between Czartoryski and the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, Paul appointed the handsome Polish prince as minister to the king of Sardinia. According to Handelsman, Elizabeth was for Czartoryski “la seule grande passion de sa vie.” See Handelsman, , Csartoryski, 1: 33 Google Scholar; also Melgunov, Sergei P., Dela i liudi aleksandrovskogo vremeni (Berlin, 1923), pp. 103–4 Google Scholar.

3. Mazade, Charles de, ed., Memoires du prince Adam Czartoryski et sa correspondance avec I'empereur Alexandre I”, 2 vols. (Paris, 1887), 1: 288 Google Scholar.

4. Handelsman, , Csartoryski, 1: 58–Google Scholar.

5. Mimoires de Csartoryski, 1: 326.

6. Szymon, Askenazy, Lukasinski, 2 vols. (Warsaw, 1908), 2: 180 Google Scholar.

7. Czartoryski claimed that his appointment to the Foreign Ministry was the result of “one of those whims of which he [Alexander] had so many. He would not rest until it was satisfied” (Memoires de Czartoryski, 1: 360). When Czartoryski reminded the tsar that their views on foreign policy might differ, especially with regard to Poland, Alexander replied that on Poland their views were in complete agreement and that if they should ever be in conflict, Czartoryski would be free to resign.

8. Memoires de Czartoryski, 1: 398.

9. For the details of what is sometimes called Czartoryski's Mordplan gegen Preussen and the reasons for its failure see Charles Morley, “Alexander I and Czartoryski: The Polish Question from 1801 to 1813,” Slavonic and East European Review, 25 (April 1947): 407-11; also Kukiel, Czartoryski and European Unity, chap. S.

10. Handelsman, , Czartoryski, 1: 80 Google Scholar.

11. Letter of June 3, 1812. See Handelsman, , Czartoryski, 1: 43–Google Scholar. Translation never quite conveys the sentiment of the original: “Jestem w Polsce, jestem Polak, zyje Polska, mamy Ojczyzne;.“

12. Letter of July 4, 1812. See Memoires de Czartoryski, 2: 288. That same day Czartoryski wrote a letter of farewell to his close friend, Count Paul Stroganov, for whom he professed continued friendship and which contained this perceptive observation: “You will be determined to destroy us. Hatred will mount on both sides to the highest degree and will not subside, perhaps, until one day, after much blood has been spilled, it will at last be realized that the happiness and glory of one of our two nations are not necessarily dependent on the enslavement and unhappiness of the other.” See Mikhailovich, Grand Duke Nikolai, Le Comte Paul Stroganov, 3 vols. (Paris, 1905), 2: 270 Google Scholar.

13. The first letter written by Alexander to Czartoryski since the outbreak of hostilities was dated January 13, 1813. In this long epistle, which took two days to compose, Alexander reassured Czartoryski of his continued personal friendship and of his beneficent intentions toward Poland and the Poles. The reader will be interested in the following excerpts from this letter: “Success … has in no way altered my sentiments nor my intentions toward Poland… . Vengeance is a sentiment unknown to me and my greatest pleasure is to repay evil with good… . All the Russian generals have received orders to treat the Poles as friends and brothers… . I place complete confidence in you and my sentiments of attachment are pledged irrevocably to you.” For the complete text of this letter see Memoires de Czartoryski, 2: 302-8.

14. The details of this agreement were incorporated into treaties signed by Russia, Austria, and Prussia on May 3, 1815, the anniversary of the Constitution of 1791 and an important Polish national holiday. Identical provisions were later embodied in the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna. Since so many historians have written on the Polish question and the peace settlement of 1815, the author has deliberately excluded any discussion of the problem. Interested English readers may wish to consult the writings of C. K. Webster and Harold Nicolson and chap. 12 of Cambridge History of Poland, vol. 2. The following works in Polish deserve to be cited: Kazimierz, Bartoszewicz, Utworsenie Krolestwa Kongresowego (Cracow, 1916)Google Scholar and Eugeniusz, Wawrzkowicz, Anglia a sprawa polska, 1813-1815 (Warsaw, 1917)Google Scholar.

15. These principles are summarized in Handelsman, , Czartoryski, 1: 112–Google Scholar.

16. Bohdan, Winiarski, Ustroj polityczny ziem polskich w XIX wieku (Poznan, 1923), pp. 95–117 Google Scholar; Szymon, Askenazy, Rosya-Polska, 1815-1830 (Lwow, 1907), pp. 68–74 Google Scholar. For the complete text of the constitution in Russian, French, and Polish see N. D. Sergeevsky, Konstitutsionnaia khartiia 1815 goda i niekotorye drugie akty byvshago Tsarstva Pol'skago, 1814-1881 (St. Petersburg, 1907), pp. 17-108. At the opening session of the Diet of 1818, Alexander expressed the hope of extending the “beneficial influence” of the liberal institutions he had granted to Poland “to all the countries which Providence has entrusted to my care.” See Shilder, N. K. (Schilder), Imperator Aleksandr Pervyi, ego zhizn’ i tsarstvovanie, 2nd ed., 4 vols. (St. Petersburg, 1904-5), 4: 86 Google Scholar.

17. Shilder, , Imperator Aleksandr Pervyi, 3: 356 Google Scholar; Handelsman, , Czartoryski, 1: 116 Google Scholar. For several valid reasons Alexander felt that the Grand Duke Constantine had to remain in Warsaw. Because of Czartoryski's great hostility toward the grand duke, Alexander could not appoint Prince Adam viceroy of the new kingdom.

18. Kukiel, , Czartoryski and European Unity, p. 135 Google Scholar; Handelsman, , Czartoryski, 1: 116–Google Scholar.

19. The meeting took place in October 1823 in Wolosowice. See Szymon, Askenazy, Szkice i portrety (Warsaw, 1937), p. 282 Google Scholar.

20. For details on the Polish Decembrists (Patriotic Society) see Askenazy, , Rosya-Polska, pp. 109–14Google Scholar, and Polska, jej dzieje i kultura (Warsaw, 1927-32), 3: 128-30; for documentary material see Stanistaw, Smolka, Korrespondencya Lubeckiego, 4 vols. (Cracow, 1909), vols. 3 and 4Google Scholar.

21. Practically no aspect of life in the kingdom was omitted from the “Remarks“ (Uwagi). They dealt with government and administration, the judicial system and law codification, the budget, the economy, education and religion, the Jewish problem, and, above all, the peasants. The “Remarks” charged that in fifteen years the government of the kingdom had failed to take a single, small step to improve the lot of the peasantry. For a summary of the “Remarks” see Handelsman, , Czartoryski, 1: 140–Google Scholar.

22. In the bitter debate in the Diet on January 25, 1831, Czartoryski advised that the dethronement resolution be sent to committee for consideration. Instead, the resolution was adopted immediately by acclamation. See Michaf, Rostworowski, Dyaryusz Sejmu s r. 1830-1831, 6 vote. (Cracow, 1907-12), 1: 243–45 Google Scholar; see also Leslie, R. F., Polish Politics and the Revolution of November 1830 (London, 1956), pp. 156–57 Google Scholar.

23. Words of General Benckendorff to a Polish delegation. See Charles, Morley, “The European Significance of the November Uprising,” Journal of Central European Affairs, 11, no. 4 (January 1952): 415 Google Scholar.

24. For details of Czartoryski's activities in 1830-31 see Walentyna Nagorska-Rudzka, “Ksigze. Adam Czartoryski w dobie powstania listopadowego,” Przeglqd Historyczny, 29 (1930-31): 210-308. The diplomacy of the period is analyzed by J6zef Dutkiewicz in Francja a Polska w 1831 r. (L6dz, 1950) and in Anglia a sprawa polska w latach 1830- 1831 (L6dz, 1967).

25. When elected president of the National Government on January 30, 1830, Czartoryski included the following statement in his acceptance speech: “It was my conviction that Poland, remaining attached to a people of like race … could with certainty regain in the end her unity, regain all of the attributes and rights of independence. All of my actions were based on and guided by this conviction.” See Rostworowski, , Dyaryusz Sejmu, 1: 386 Google Scholar.