Rafał Lemkin i historia powszechna ludobójstw
Rafał Lemkin and the universal history of genocide

Summary/Abstract: This article discusses Rafał Lemkin’s historical statements through the prism of the category of universal history. Lemkin is the author of an unfinished book which was to present the history of mass violence on all continents from antiquity to the recent times. He also wrote numerous commentaries, scattered across various works, where he compared past and contemporary violence using the concept of genocide. These statements are connected and ordered by the concept of universal history, which refers to the esteemed tradition of practicing historiography that began to develop in the 16th century. Driven by the idea of universalism, that approach based on the belief that there was only one history shared by all humankind. That universal history includes only the phenomena that affected the present shape of the world, has a center (Europe), can judge the past, and, last but not least, is expressed in the form of a coherent comprehensive story, the sense of which is progress. The category of universal history makes it possible to ask Lemkin’s writings new questions, to supplement our knowledge about his intellectual biography and his definition of the concept of genocide by bringing up questions such as relations between Europe and non-European countries, the idea of progress, the definition of humankind, and the genesis of international law.

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