Ein „Vorbild zur Nachahmung“. Der Beitrag des Landadels in den nordwestlichen Provinzen des Russischen Kaiserreichs zum polnischen Nationalisierungsprozess (1863-1914)
A “Model for Imitation”. How the Gentry in the Northwestern Provinces of the Russian Empire Contributed to the Polish Nationalization Process (1863-1914)

Summary/Abstract: Modernization and nationalization processes in the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th century had a significant influence on the self-image of the Polish gentry in the western parts of the Empire. Starting from the perspective of transpolonism, the paper asks how the landed Polish gentry dealt with this change, both as actors and objects, addressing issues that go beyond that of the nation. Two generations of landed gentry spanning the period from the Polish uprising until the interwar period – represented in the persons of Jakub Gieysztor (1827-1897) and Hipolit Korwin-Milewski (1848-1932) – are focused upon to thus reveal the changes their self-image experienced and the consequent political conceptions that emerged in the period to the First World War. The paper shows that in particular, the last generation of landed Polish gentry living in the Empire Polish adopted ideas of Polish nationalists under the guise of a regional conservatism. Actors on the Imperial level, like Korwin-Milewski and Gieysztor – both multilingual and interculturally educated with personal networks that extended across the nation and the Empire – developed concepts on how to deal with ethnocentric and nationalistic attitudes. The paper shows that the political thinking of representatives of the Polish gentry cannot be described alone on the basis of categories of national vs. transnational. The compensatory-imperial thinking of Korwin-Milewski especially is an ideal example of the complexity of political thought among the Polish gentry in the Empire and the period thereafter.

• Details
• Contents