Gente Rutheni, Natione Poloni: The Ruthenians of Polish Nationality in Habsburg Galicia by Świątek Adam (review)

Abstract

SEER, 99, 2, APRIL 2021 362 in purging language of its conventional banalities, obscurantisms and falsities, purifying everyday discourse, while simultaneously redeeming the obscene and the blasphemous from degradation, and the common people from disregard and disdain. These trends have inevitably resulted in the enactment of state censorship laws and the decision of groups such as the Belarus Free Theatre to choose self-exile. The situation in Ukraine and Belarus is complicated by issues of language. The prioritization of the Russian language in countries now perceived to have been Russian ‘colonies’ in the past means that the practitioners of the New Drama are caught in a double bind between needing audiences both at home and in the former Soviet Union while, at the same time, registering the need to reclaim ownership of their own native languages at the risk of losing both a wider audience and revenue. Given the current situation whereby cultural activities tend to be funded by the state, fringe organizations need to find means of self-funding or seek financial support from abroad, as well as the kind of moral support already received from internationally renowned theatre people. This may mean that the days of New Drama are numbered. If so, their actions in clearing the ground may well have prepared the way for other, more structured and less iconoclastic dramatic forms to take root and flourish. In the meantime, this present volume serves as worthy testimony to the authenticity and vitality of a critical moment and movement in the theatrical history of all three nations. London Nick Worrall Świątek, Adam. Gente Rutheni, Natione Poloni: The Ruthenians of Polish Nationality in Habsburg Galicia. CIUS Press in cooperation with Księgarnia Akademicka, Edmonton, AL, Toronto, ON and Cracow, 2019. 633 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $39.95 (paperback). The book under review is a translation of Adam Świątek’s Polish-language monograph of 2014. Published under the auspices of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, this book deals with the duality of the so-called gente Rutheni, natione Poloni Ruthenians (Ukrainians) who felt a kinship with Polishness. Świątek looks into the transformation of the Ruthenians of Polish nationality in Habsburg Austria from the eighteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century. Starting with the Renaissance humanist and writer Stanisław Orzechowski, Świątek employs a wide array of studies by his predecessors, including Stanisław Kot, Henryk Litwin, Janusz Tazbir, David Althoen, Serhii Plohy, Natalia Yakovenko and Marin Mudry. The REVIEWS 363 chronological and geographical scope of the study, terminology and source base are discussed in the introduction to the book which comprises eight chapters, bibliography, list of illustrations, and various indices. The book opens with a preface authored by Frank E. Sysyn, who himself studied the phenomenon of gente Ruthheni, natione Poloni in the early modern period. Chapter one looks into the characteristics of the formation of gente Rutheni, natione Poloni (pp. 55–147). By referring to such terms as ‘ethnicity’, ‘nation’ and ‘identity’, Świątek offers a detailed survey of the various social layers of the Ruthenian population of Galicia and their relation to the identity type of gente Rutheni, natione Poloni: the landed gentry, the gentry, the intelligentsia, the Greek Catholic clergy and the peasants. By analysing the structure of the two-tier (dual) identity of Ruthenians of Polish nationality, Świątek places this phenomenon within time and geographical expanse (pp. 55–149). The reader learns about family, the Uniate Church, school, language of instruction, especially at institutions of higher education, conflict situations with Ruthenians of other political persuasions (pp. 132–42). Chapter two, ‘Rus’ in the Historical Consciousness of Poles’, examines the literature (Adam Mickiewicz, Józef Bohdan Zaleski, Henryk Sienkiewicz, and especially Platon Kostecki), art (Jan Matejko) and historiography (Joachim Lelewel, Henryk Schmitt) which determined the development of the identity of the gente Rutheni, natione Poloni. One must also mention the textbook for secondary schools in Galicia which, prepared by Anatol Lewicki and reprinted a dozen or so times (the very last time in 1999), propagated the free-willed union of Poland, Lithuania and Rus’ (pp. 190–93). The genesis of political demands made by Ruthenians of Polish nationality...