Social Life as a Form of National Resistance (from the History of Protest Behaviour of Poles in the Constitutional Kingdom of Poland)

Abstract

The article deals with one of the forms of protest behaviour of Poles against Russians and Russian policies in the constitutional Kingdom of Poland (1815–1830), and is connected with the sphere of aristocratic life. It focuses on boycotts of secular events and demonstrative mourning during the investigation of members of the Patriotic Society and the Sejm trial (1827–1828) against them. This theme is explored in the context of the history of the Russian colony in Warsaw and the interaction between Russians and Poles from educated society. The sources are Polish and Russian documents of personal origin such as memoirs and epistolary heritage, as well as Polish periodicals and literature including pamphlets against Poles dancing with Russians and scenes from A. Mickiewicz’s poem Dziady. The novelty of the work lies in the treatment of secular life as one of the forms of national identity expression in Polish material. This problem is explored in the context of an understudied topic, namely the history of the Russian colony in Warsaw and the interaction between Russians and Poles from educated society on a daily level. One of the most important tasks of the article is to create a historical picture, free from subsequent historiographical and literary layers, from the influence of Romanticism on Polish historical memory. This is done by comparing sources of various types: ego-documents, literary texts of the era, and fiction created after the Polish National Liberation Uprising of 1830–1831.