„Polskiej” Matki Boskiej przykre doświadczenia z carską cenzurą zagraniczną w latach 1865–1904
The 'Polish' Mother of God: Distressing Encounters with Tsarist Foreign Censorship in the Years 1865 to 1904

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this article is to reconstruct one of the areas of Russian imperial foreign censorship activities aimed at severing the inhabitants of the Russian partition from Polish- language religious books published in the remaining Polish territories and abroad. The main focus of the article is on the control of Marian publications. The analysis is based on a comprehensive list of such publications from 1865 to 1904, which has been arranged in the following categories: those fully prohibited, those allowed circulation after the removal of contested fragments, and those that did not raise objections from the censors, as well as all surviving records from the Warsaw Committee of Censorship from this period, housed in the Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw, which contain censors’ justifications for the prohibition of the dissemination of specific publications. The article identifies the primary categories of contested publications, which included two types of paraliturgical books: hymnals and prayer books, followed by popular works concerning the history and current state of the Church in the Polish lands, sermons, and meditations. It has been determined that the censors were particularly concerned with the phrase 'Matka Boska Królowa Polski' ['Our Lady, Queen of Poland'] and its variants, as it linked an important element of Christian religion with social and political issues in a unique way. The Russian authorities sought to prevent the formation of connections (and to weaken the ones already existing) between Polish Catholics residing in various territories, and to prevent them from seeing themselves as members of a trans-regional (cross-partition) national community.

• Details
• Contents