Partition Of Poland Research Articles

Architecture of Jesuit Churches in the Former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1564–1773

The article presents the history and accomplishments of Jesuit architecture in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the late sixteenth to the late eighteenth century. The author sees Jesuit architecture as a distinct and homogeneous element within Polish architecture. The paper starts with a brief presentation of the existing research in the subject. It moves on to enumerate the activities of the Society in the field of construction, divided into three major booms: the first roughly between 1575 and 1650, the second between 1670 and 1700, and the third from 1740 to 1770, divided by periods of relative decline caused by a succession of devastating wars. The paper identifies the most important architects involved in the construction of Jesuit churches, as well as their most notable works. The paper ends with a brief note concerning the fate of the Jesuit churches after the suppression of the Society and the partitions of Poland.

Idea bankowości centralnej w ostatnich latach I Rzeczypospolitej

On the need to establish a national bank in the Republic, in 1763, Fr. Stanislaw Konarski in his work On Effective Radical Method . The necessity of hedging the issue of Polish money has grown in strength as a result of the crisis caused by the flooding of the domestic market by Polish coins counterfeited in Prussia. The mercantilists joined the discussion, who saw the possibility of maintaining good Polish currency in circulation by using dead capital in “deposit boxes”. However, only the Sejm could appoint a central bank. The first projects saw daylight during the Four Year Sejm (1788-1792). Of particular note is the project of the well-known Warsaw banker Jedrzej Kapostas, who in 1789 published a work entitled About the National Bank in Poland to establish itself , in the following year Planta’s National Bank project . Paper money in Poland appeared in circulation during the Kościuszko insurrection. For this purpose, the Taxi Ticketing Directorate was established. vouchers. They survived until the uprising collapsed. With the third partition of Poland, the discussion on the establishment of the central bank also disappeared.

Translokacja eskadronu majora von Granera (4. pułk huzarów ks. Eugena von Württemberg) z Bolesławca do Radomska (1804)

W początkach 1793 r. wojska pruskie wkroczyły do Wielkopolski, II rozbiór Rzeczypospolitej stał się faktem. Z zajętych ziem utworzono niezwłocznie nową prowincję – Prusy Południowe (Südpreussen). Jednym z elementów nowej rzeczywistości była widoczna obecność wojska w przestrzeni społeczno-gospodarczej prowincji. Wiele miast i miasteczek, rzecz niespotykana w okresie przedrozbiorowym, stało się siedzibami garnizonów. Wielokrotnie też oddziały zmieniały miejsca swego postoju. Na terenie departamentu kamery kaliskiej stacjonowały szwadrony 4. pułku huzarów. Jeden z nich, dowodzony przez majora Granera, otrzymał rozkaz translokacji z Bolesławca nad Prosną do Radomska (wrzesień 1804). Przemieszczenie oddziału następowało na podstawie zatwierdzonego przez zwierzchników dokumentu z opisem trasy (Marsch Route).

Gminy karaimskie XIX wieku jako dziedzictwo Rzeczpospolitej Obojga Narodów

W ciągu ostatnich dwóch dekad badania karaimoznawcze nabrały wyraźnego rozmachu. Zaczęły ukazywać się wyspecjalizowane czasopisma naukowe pt. Karaite Archives oraz Almanach Karaimski, zostały wydane niektóre dokumenty karaimskie, ukazały się również ważne monografie, jak np. publikacja Stefana Gąsiorowskiego pt. Karaimi w Koronie i na Litwie w XV−XVIII wieku (Kraków - Budapeszt 2008). Ponadto regularnie ukazuje się kwartalnik karaimski Awazymyz, na którego łamach zamieszczane są artykuły poświęcone historii. Znaczna część prac zajmuje się XIX wiekiem, kiedy to w społeczności karaimskiej doszło do istotnych zmian. Ważny był w owym okresie np. fakt, iż gminy karaimskie na Litwie (z których najliczniejsza znajdowała się Trokach) oraz na Wołyniu (główną była ta w Łucku), wraz z wejściem w skład zaboru rosyjskiego, mogły nawiązać intensywniejsze kontakty z tradycyjnymi gminami karaimskimi na Krymie i w innych częściach Rosji. Odwrotnie zaś karaimska społeczność w Haliczu), po przyłączeniu do Austrii, została odizolowana od swych współplemieńców. W karaimskich gminach w zaborze rosyjskim nastąpiło również stosunkowo szybkie połączenie tożsamości wspólnoty religijnej wyznającej karaimizm z identyfikacją grupy etnicznej, którą obecnie nazywamy Karaimami. W gminie w Haliczu natomiast, dzięki wspomnianej izolacji, karaimska tożsamość religijna została na długo zachowana przy jednoczesnym przyjmowaniu polskiej tożsamości narodowej. Wspomnienia dawnych swobód Rzeczpospolitej Obojga Narodów pozostały potem przez długi czas w pamięci ludności karaimskiej. W zaborze rosyjskim jeszcze długo wielu Karaimów używało także języka polskiego, dopiero w połowie XIX wieku częściej używano języka rosyjskiego. W Galicji przeciwnie, w drugiej połowie tego stulecia język polski się jeszcze upowszechnił. Kolejną istotną zmianą tożsamości karaimskiej w XIX wieku było jeszcze wyraźniejsze oddalanie od judaizmu, a zbliżenie do tożsamości tureckiej. Na zmiany te wpływ miała działalność kilku znanych postaci karaimskiego pochodzenia, z których jedną z najważniejszych był Abraham Firkowicz.

Po głównej ulicy Grodna – miasta ostatniego sejmu Rzeczypospolitej (rekonstrukcja zabudowy ulicznej z końca XVIII wieku)

This article is an attempt to reconstruct the main street of Grodno – a city of the last Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth – in order to portray what could be seen by the residents and deputies to the Sejm which ratified the Second Partition of Poland. The author describes the buildings of the contemporary streets: E. Orzeszkowa Street, Soviet Street, Zamkovaya Street and Soviet Square. Reconstruction of the main (central) streets of Grodno’s historical centre shows that at the end of the 18th century the city was in a state of development, starting from its historical heart: Castle-Marketplace expanded its territory at the expense of the Horodnica and its surroundings. The first in the streets were the temples, magnate palaces, tenements of entrepreneurs and public buildings. Many of them or their owners were featured in the interesting novel by W. Reymont The Last Sejm of the Republic.

A Study on the Partitions of Poland(1772~1795)

A Study on the Partitions of Poland(1772~1795)

"Dividing up the [Chinese] Melon, guafen 瓜分": The Fate of a Transcultural Metaphor in the Formation of National Myth

This study sets out to join a discussion which tests a number of assumptions current in the study of conceptual history. These assumptions are: Conceptual history can only be studied within a given language; concepts are articulated in abstract words, and other forms such as metaphors only serve to explain, but have no standing of their own; the sources for conceptual history are core texts with great authority often written by authors of great intellectual consequence; concepts are part of an environment of other concepts, but their reality fit and their institutional connection (promotion, ban) are not part of conceptual history. The test case is the use of the Chinese term melon-division, guafen , for the partition of a state. The study traces the early uses of guafen as a term for “partition;” its stabilization in this function; its negative valuation through association with the partition of Poland, and its systemic use in international law. It then follows the history of the new guafen notion in China since the 1830s as a concept and a historical prospect. None of the narratives of China’s guafen ever gained discursive hegemony, in part because the country’s partition did not materialize. Unwilling to let go of the powerful guafen narrative, however, the reformers, who used the term according to their changing local agendas, adjusted their story: division did not materialize even in 1900 when China’s standing was lowest and foreign troops had occupied the capital. Instead, an invisible partition into zones of influence was taking place. The reformers used new media, including the cartoon, to “translate” the Western image of a Chinese cake being divided into a literal rendering of a melon being cut up, although the image was now badly suited. The poor fit notwithstanding, guafen was also taken up by the early Communists. It eventually became the PRC master narrative of China’s relations with the Powers (Russia, Great Britain, Japan, and the United States), a narrative only occasionally and indirectly challenged by artists such as Zeng Fanzhi. The result is that none of the traditional assumptions about conceptual history can stand the test. The study provides evidence advancing the notion that concepts in the form of words, metaphors, and images cross cultural and language borders through “translation.” The result is the formation of a transcultural and translingual vernacular for words, metaphors, and images that is largely invisible on the surface but retains strong links over time among the connected items.

Poland and Lithuania, 1385–1569

Research Article| October 01 2017 Poland and Lithuania, 1385–1569 Robert Frost, The Oxford History of Poland-Lithuania. Volume I: The Making of the Polish-Lithuanian Union, 1385–1569, (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2015), 528 pp. ISBN 978-0198208693. Barbara Skinner Barbara Skinner Indiana State University Barbara Skinner is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Indiana State University. Her monograph, The Western Front of the Eastern Church: Uniate and Orthodox Conflict in Eighteenth-Century Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia (Northern Illinois University Press, 2009), investigates the religious dynamics and tensions in Ukrainians and Belarus over the eighteenth century and during the partitions of Poland, with an eye on shifting cultural and political influences. She is currently working on the sequel to that work, taking the narrative through 1855, and she continues to publish related articles on confessional history in Russia and the lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, including in Slavic Review, Russian Review, and Kyiv’ska Akademiia. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google The Polish Review (2017) 62 (3): 91–98. https://doi.org/10.5406/polishreview.62.3.0091 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Barbara Skinner; Poland and Lithuania, 1385–1569. The Polish Review 1 October 2017; 62 (3): 91–98. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/polishreview.62.3.0091 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveUniversity of Illinois PressThe Polish Review Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2017 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois2017 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Rozwój greckokatolickiej sieci parafialnej dekanatu kalnickiego w XVIII wieku

Basing on the materials collected during canonical visitations, an attempt was made to reconstruct the process of changing the borders of the Kalnik deanery since the moment of its establishment at the beginning of the 18th century till it was incorporated into the structures of the Eastern Orthodox Church after the partition of the Second Republic of Poland. A dynamic development of the network of parishes, especially in the first half of the century, was caused by the growth of settlement and the care that the Orthodox Church took about the access of the faithful to the sacraments. Together with an increasing number of Orthodox churches the deanery was re-reorganized a few times and the parishes were incorporated into the new units of the church administration. Th e population growth additionally led to a greater number of Orthodox churches in the towns and to the divisions inside the existing parishes as well as to the foundation of new ones in their territory. Therefore, the territorial structure of deanery was subject to changes. Within 60 years (1731– 1793) the parishes belonging to the Kalnik deanery were included in the structures of seven other deaneries, and the area of the deanery itself decreased from seven regions of today’s Vinnytsia Oblast to two. Before the partitions of Poland, an optimum number of Orthodox churches was reached for that area and for the demographic structure of the population while the deanery’s borders got stabilized.

Przestrzenne zróżnicowanie dynamiki rozwoju lokalnego w Małopolsce na podstawie wybranych cech społeczno-gospodarczych

Utworzona w wyniku rozbioru I Rzeczypospolitej Galicja funkcjonowała w oderwaniu od pozostałej części ziem polskich przez prawie 150 lat. Duża autonomia największej terytorialnie prowincji monarchii austro-węgierskiej od drugiej połowy XIX w. wpłynęła na ukształtowanie się trwałych struktur społeczno-gospodarczych tej prowincji. Szczególny wpływ na wykrystalizowanie się stabilnych układów przestrzennych w Galicji wywarł fakt, że to właśnie pod koniec XIX wieku nastąpiły doniosłe zmiany w rozwoju społeczno-ekonomicznym tych ziem. W artykule dokonano analizy przestrzennego zróżnicowania dynamiki rozwoju lokalnego w Małopolsce w odniesieniu do teorii długiego trwania. W oparciu o wybrane cechy społeczno-gospodarcze skonstruowano syntetyczny wskaźnik rozwoju, na podstawie którego porównano hierarchię struktury rozwoju Małopolski w 1900 i 2002 roku. Analiza została przeprowadzona w oparciu o dane statystyczne oraz narzędzia GIS. Odnotowane zróżnicowanie rozwoju wynika głównie z globalnych przemian politycznych i gospodarczych, jednakże zostało one odmienione poprzez lokalne uwarunkowania instytucjonalne. Stwierdzono stabilność struktury osadniczej Małopolski, przy równoczesnym obniżeniu rangi niektórych ośrodków – zwłaszcza we wschodniej części analizowanego regionu oraz w przypadku miast powiązanych z przemysłem górniczym. Natomiast największy wzrost odnotował Kraków wraz z obszarami wchodzącymi w skład jego aglomeracji oraz regiony o funkcjach turystycznych.

Kraj znany a państwo jeszcze nie. Rozważania o geografii wolnej Polski na łamach periodyków geograficznych II RP

Despite the partitions of Poland, the geography of the Polish territories was the object of studies carried out by Polish geographers, particularly in the latter half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. When in the years 1918-1923 the Polish state was rebuilt and its internationally recognised borders were formed, and physical geography of these lands had already been worked out in a rather thorough and up-to-date way. Th e geographers, historians, politicians and the administrative elite were confronted with the need to define the role of the Polish state and its place as a real political being and entity which its inhabitants would be conscious of. In response to this need a lively discussion was conducted in Polish geographical magazines of the interwar period. It was even more important since Polish authorities as well as the scholarly and intelectual elite had to solve the problem of unifying the lands and their inhabitants within one political organism. And yet, after above one hundred years of non-existance as a state, there were numerous differences between the particular previously annexed territories and their inhabitants. At the same time, the Polish nationality was common for about 70% of the population in this multinational country. A successful and definite solution of the issue of the state-awareness among the inhabitants of Poland, which was considered to be an object of geography and geographers’ practice, was not easy to be found because of fierce political disputes. In terms of quality, a new situation was created by the political consequences of the coup d’etat by Jozef Pilsudski in 1926. Th e winning party, which ruled with a heavey hand, continuously needed to take into account the power of their political opponents. Discussions and disputes, propositions and manifestos published in the interwar period indicated that the contemporary political and scholarly elite, regardless of the ideological matters, was aware of the necessity to consolidate the social conviction of the existance of the independant Polish state.

Mapa józefińska Galicji (1779–1783) w przededniu edycji. Przedmiot i założenia programu wydawniczego

As a result of the first partition of Poland (1772) Austria occupied two big districts, namely the southern part of Lesser Poland and Red Ruthenia. Th e newly incorporated crownland, called the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, was mapped within Josephine survey already a few years after annexation. The name of Josephine survey (or the first military survey) refers to a series of topographic maps made in the years 1763–1787, which covered the successive territories under the rule of the Habsburg dynasty (fi g. 1). In the case of the map of Galicia, the same principles were adopted as those for the whole Josephine survey. Th e map was prepared in a 1:28 800 scale model on the basis of field measurements but also using the „a la vue” method, with a plane table and other instruments. Th e Josephine map of Galicia, initially made secret due to its military importance, was never published and remains in a manuscript till now, kept in the War Archives in Vienna. It consists of 413 sheets in the format of 24 × 16 inches (63.2 × 42.1 cm) and additional sheets of varying formats. Its total surface is about 115 m2. Two sets of hand-written copies (fi g. 3) have been preserved besides the original (an example in fi g. 2). Th e map is accompanied by six bulky volumes including descriptions of the mapped area (one of the sheets is presented in fi g. 4). Due to the value of the map as a source and its usefulness for historical as well as geographical studies and studies conducted within other disciplines, postulates were put forward for this relic to be made available in print. Those intentions were made specific in 2008, when work was begun on preparing a full edition of Galicia’s map which would include both the cartographic material and the text (topographic descriptions). Four editorial groups are concerned with this and they are headed by Waldemar Bukowski (Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Cracow), Zdzislaw Noga (Institute of History, Pedagogical University of Cracow), Andrzej Janeczek (Institute of Archeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw) and Zdzislaw Budzynski (Institute of History of the University of Rzeszow). Th e material was divided into fifteen volumes of a similar size (fi g. 5). Each volume will be composed of two volumes. One will include facsimiles of the sheets of the map, from 20 to 46. Th e other volume will contain texts of descriptions in German with a parallel translation into Polish, commentaries to the descriptions, an inventory of names included in the map, a joint index of maps and descriptions and, finally, explanations to the symbols and the map captions. Further plans provide for a digital version on the basis of the prepared material of the printed version.

Powstanie i działalność pierwszego nowoczesnego więzienia w okresie I Rzeczypospolitej (1767-1795)

<p>Nowożytne więziennictwo zaczęło się kształtować pod względem organizacyjnym wraz z ustanowieniem w Warszawie stolicy Polski i rozwojem sądownictwa (w szczególności marszałkowskiego). Reformy zostały przedsięwzięte w 1766 roku po objęciu urzędu marszałka wielkiego koronnego przez księcia Stanisława Lubomirskiego, z inicjatywy którego rozpoczęło działalność pierwsze więzienie zwane z powodu wcześniejszego przeznaczenia obiektu „Prochownią”. W artykule przedstawiono bardzo postępowy w stosunku do innych więzień działających dawniej i ówcześnie system odbywania kary. Omówiono m.in. przeznaczenie więzienia, źródła finansowania jego działalności oraz ustalony porządek dnia. Ponadto dokonano charakterystyki zmian w sposobie traktowania więźniów, wprowadzenia szerokiego systemu zatrudniania osadzonych, odpowiedzialności dyscyplinarnej oraz pomocy udzielanej więźniom zwalnianym. Rozwój systemu penitencjarnego I Rzeczypospolitej zakończył trzeci rozbiór Polski.</p>

Od ryczałtu odszkodowania do miarkowania – kompensacyjny charakter kary umownej w prawie polskim na tle rozwiązań przyjętych w dziewiętnastowiecznym prawie cywilnym

The present paper addresses the institution of the contractual penalty and its normative reflection in the Polish 20 th -century civil law, presented on its 19 th -century background. Within the scope of presented institution, the considerations included civil law which was in force during the partitions of Poland (Napoleonic Code, ABGB, BGB, Code of Laws of the Russian Empire – volume 10) and then obligations code and current civil code. It has enabled to show that the juridical construction of the contractual penalty in the contemporary civil law is based on the 19 th -century normative solutions.

From the Royal Castle to school. King Stanisław August’s legacy and the Volhynian Gymnasium collections

The library and the cabinet collections of King of Poland Stanisław August Poniatowski reflect the trends of the Enlightement as well as the monarch’s interests. Their acquisition by one of the most important Polish schools, the Volhynian Gymnasium in Kremenets, saved them from dismemberment and gave rise to school collections. The acquisition was possible owing to history (the Partition of Poland, and the emergence of the Vilna Educational District) and a unique man – Tadeusz Czacki.The collections at the Volhynian Gymnasium in Kremenets was open to the public on a daily basis. In this way, the Polish King’s Stanisław August wish to have the collection available for masses came true, after his death regrettably. School collections were very valuable. Having originated from the royal collection of the last Polish King, they became a reminiscence of the national potential of a country that disappeared from the map of Europe in 1795.This article is a part of a future book and an attempt of documenting the transition of respective collections from the royal residence in Warsaw to Kremenets. The analysis of Polish, Lithuanian and Ukrainian archives enables to reconstruct the history of the royal collections and to show their quality and didactic utility.

Ugoda polsko-rosyjska a kwestia zachowania tożsamości zniewolonego narodu w poglądach Zygmunta Wielopolskiego (sprawa listu otwartego do poznańskiego „Orędownika” w 1880 r.)

The article describes the attitude of Zygmunt Wielopolski, leader of the supporters of the Polish-Russian settlement, towards national traditions and identity. In 1880 Zygmunt Wielopolski sent an open letter to the journal “Oredownik” [The Advocate] published in Poznan. The author presented there his political credo and defended the Polish national interest constrained by intense Russification of the Kingdom of Poland following the failure of the January Uprising. Wielopolski appealed to compatriots and requested them to keep the Polish language and cling on to the Catholic religion of their fathers , perceiving these as the most important things during the partition of Poland. Wielopolski’s open defense of the Polish identity was aimed at neutralising the common accusations of the national apostasy of the supporters of the Polish-Russian settlement. The letter to “Oredownik” was to break the isolation of Zygmunt Wielopolski after the fall of the January Uprising and contribute to gaining broader support from the bourgeois and intellectual circles.

Polacy galicyjscy, czy Polacy w Galicji – refleksje na temat przeobrażeń tożsamości polskiej w zaborze austriackim

The identity of Poles in Austrian Galicia has often been the subject of discussion and probably will yet be addressed repeatedly. It is the theme not only important for understanding the Polish history, but also fascinating because of its context, which is the richness of identities that existed in Galicia. Most studies of this issue are focused not so much on Polishness in Galicia as on the Galician identity of the local Poles. Such an approach does not seem to be accurate, because it suggests an organic compound of the identity formation processes in Galicia and national transformations in Austria, of which Galicia was a political part. Meanwhile, although such relationship existed – economy, political system and culture were the pan-Austrian framework for these processes – but it was a minor circumstance. Poles, Ruthenians, Jews and Armenians, the four linguistic and religious communities, which Austria found in her partition of Poland in 1772, which she had an ambition to direct and whose identities she wished to transform, shaped themselves first of all in relation to each other, that is, within Galicia; then in relation to the heritage of four centuries of common exis­tence in pre-partitioned Poland; and finally, in the third place, in relation to some external factors. The ethnic policy of Austria was just one of these factors. If that policy had been consistent, and if Austria had had the power to effectively lead the work of building a common nation across historical boundaries, we could talk not only about the existence of Galician but even Austrian Poles. But Austria, alternately manipulating and arriving at compromises with respect to the national processes within her territory, failed to master the ethnic history of the lands which she owned in the political sense. For various reasons, she failed to take advantage of the modern framework in which these processes took place, and that could have led to her eventual nation-building ambitions. As a result, the Polish culture in Galicia became the leading model and a reference point for the majority of local ethnicities. There were no significant cultural and political differences between the Polish residents of Galicia and the Poles from other partitions. There were only regional differences in terms of mentality and customs, fading fast after 1918. There was no separate history of Poles in Galicia, only the Galician circumstances and Galician reception of national history: the same events, the same cultural, ideological and political phenomena, the same actors. There was not even the temptation to formulate a program of building the Polish independence in Galicia as a separate state in relation to Russian and Prussian Poland, as there was in the case of Galician Ukrainians. A Galician Pole is a concept illegible today, and once had the character of a cultural stereotype, which, however, has not transformed into a permanent cultural fact.

XIX-wieczny rękopis z polskich archiwów prywatnych zawierający dwa dokumenty dotyczące Karaimów trockich

This article presents the content of two handwritten documents. The first dates from 1813 and concerns the power of attorney granted by the Troki community to Joachim Łabanos, the son of the last voyt (shofet) of the Troki Karaim so that the latter may represent the community before the courts and the authorities. It may be regarded as an attempt to restore to a certain extent the position of the voyt who after the partition of Poland had been deprived of those prerogatives granted to him by the Grand Dukes of Lithuania and the Kings of Poland. However, three years later the power of attorney was revoked and the blank pages of this document were reused to draw up a lawsuit filed by Łabanos against Judith and Joseph Firkowicz, Abraham Kobiecki and Joseph Kobiecki. Łabanos demanded compensation for expenditure he had incurred on preparations for his son Elias’ aborted marriage to Abraham Kobiecki’s daughter, Judith who instead of marrying the young Łabanos had run away with Joseph Firkowicz. These documents shed some light on the position of the Łabanos family after it lost its leading role in the Troki Karaim community.

Uwarunkowania historyczne roli i statusu języka polskiego w systemie edukacji w Galicji 1. połowy XIX wieku

During the partitions of Poland in 1772, 1795 and 1815 its southern part was annexed by the Habsburg Monarchy and integrated into the Austrian Empire as the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. Till the end of World War I the inhabitants of Galicia were citizens of the Austrian Empire and their lives were influenced by the political and social ideology of the Austrian government. One of the most significant changes were connected to the language issue. Austrian or German-speaking officials came to Galicia and so did German as it became the main administrative language. This was also the case for the Austrian education system, which mainly focused on teaching German language as they wanted to integrate the multilingual and multicultural inhabitants of the Austrian Empire under the leadership of the Austrian rulers.This article deals with the issue how the Austrian education system influenced the development and understanding of national consciousness of the Polish population in Galicia in the first half of the 19th century by analysing which role the Polish language played in the primary and secondary school system. This period is important because it shows the main intentions of the Austrian educational system and also because the first important School Laws were passed, which influenced the education system in Galicia for over half the century.This article is structured in two parts. The first part contains an analysis of the most important School Laws. The aim is to show the intentions and the ideology which guided the Austrian government in creating the education system and to analyse which role the Polish language played in it. The second part deals with the actual effects of the Austrian education policy for the young Polish generations of Galicia. This will allow a more realistic interpretation of the influence the education system in Galicia had on building or suppressing the development of a Polish national consciousness. This part includes analyses of school statistics and most importantly memories from schooldays from former Galician school children which gives an inside on the role the Polish language played in the school and in their own lives.

Doświadczenia fizyczne Nayiaśnieyszemu PANU… okazywane roku 1793. W Grodnie przez JXX Dominikanów Konwentu tamecznego. Analiza tekstu

From June to November 1793 Grodno (now Belarus) was the place of the last session of Parliament of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, with the participation of king Stanisław August Poniatowski, and it was where the second partition of Poland was approved. In the days free of parliamentary debates, Grodno’s Dominicans prepared a series of physics experiments for the king. The course of the experiments and their subject matter is known from a press release (Pismo Peryodyczne Korrespondenta 2, January 9, 1794, pp. 35–42). It is a type of daily report informing about 18 meetings, each time indicating their subject matter. This report was sufficient to recreate the course and the type of the experiments. Three thematic groups presented by the Dominicans can be distinguished. The first is a presentation of the physics cabinet – the king was visited, among others, the Nooth’s apparatus to produce “carbonated water”, a geological collection and other items used in the later shows. The second series of demonstrations was devoted to issues related to electricity. The idea and nature of lightning was also demonstrated. The third series of presentations concerned the properties of gases. In addition to other demonstrations, the Dominicans prepared an experiment which presented the process of producing water from oxygen and hydrogen. The experiment lasted all day, during which the reagents were measured: the volume of gases that were used and the mass of the water obtained. The report brings a lot of important information, indicating the level of scientific knowledge and the experimental skills of the Dominicans. It is evidence of how modern physics was taught by the Dominicans with the use of appropriate instruments for this purpose. It is also a source of knowledge about school equipment in Poland. Additionally, the report is so far one of the few well-documented public demonstrations prepared for the king. It also confirms the view that the king Stanislaus August was a broad-minded intellectual interested in science.