“Slavic club in Krakow”: Scientific-educational work in 1901–1912

Abstract

The article aims to study Slavic cultures as well as their breakthroughs and focuses on the analysis of the work of the “Slavic club” intellectual community created on the territory of Austro-Hungarian Empire. The club consisted of 45 members who held positions as university professors, grammar school teachers and were scholars in liberal arts and humanities, as well as cultural and art figures. The founders of the club saw their goal as creating a strong community of Slavic culture experts who would be free of any political commitment. The political indifference of the club was stated on the pages of its print media, the monthly journal “Slavic World”, published in Krakow and sponsored by Polish philanthropists. The article highlights the work of the club’s chairman, philosopher, linguist and cultural theoretician M. Zdziechowski and mentions the most significant works of competent journal correspondents, such as professor J. Baudouin de Courtenay, sociologist L. Gumplowicz, and writer A. Grzymała-Siedlecki. The journal kept Polish academic readers informed about the latest developments and phenomena of social life in the Slavic world and provided them with high-level expertise and evaluation. The scientific-educational activities of the journal are thoroughly demonstrated in the paper. The wide range of interests and topics discussed in the journal is illustrated. Authors of the journal analysed works by L. Tolstoy, B. Chicherin, M. Bakunin, ideas of S. Sharapov, as well as works of Russian Slavophiles. The whole period of the club’s activity until it was renamed as the “Slavic community” in 1912 is widely covered in the article. The article shows the importance of this international project for the consolidation of Slavic peoples.