Motyw „duszy rosyjskiej” w polskiej krytyce muzycznej (do 1939 roku)
The Motif of ‘the Russian Soul’ in Polish Music Criticism (before 1939)

Summary/Abstract: Resistance to Russian culture, viewed as the culture of the enemy, was a characteristic element of Polish culture in the nineteenth century and between the two world wars. Both under the Partitions and after Poland regained its independence (1918), there was a strong demand for manifestations of hostility towards Poland’s eastern neighbour in political thought, journalism and literature. Authors commonly drew on the myth of the ‘Russian soul’, originating among Russian Slavophiles, which brought together and emphasised distinctive Russian qualities rooted in the Orthodox religion and tsarist despotism. This myth also found its way into Polish music criticism. Under the Partitions it was sometimes used as a camouflaged form of opposition to the nation’s enslavement, later underpinning the contestation of Soviet reality, and it was also mechanically invoked as a template facilitating interpretation of Russian compositions. The ‘motif of hatred’ was an evident form of the journalistic reception of Russian music in Poland, but it coexisted with a fascination which led to the strong presence of that music in concert halls and opera houses throughout the interwar period.

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