Usurpation of Aristocratic Privilege and the Social Identity of the Polish Noble Elite in the Period of the Partitions

The aristocratic titles, which the partitioning monarchies granted to some of their Polish noble subjects in the long nineteenth century, did not play a decisive role in the development and formation of the modern Polish noble elite. The foreign titles could only sanction the internal noble hierarchy, which was apparently much more determined by specific noble traditions and the cult of the pre-partition past. This argument is evidenced by the cases of families which did not need formal title grants to be recognized as truly aristocratic in that period

Inwentaryzacja polskich strat wojennych w zakresie zabytków architektury (1940–1950)

W artykule autor skupia się na wojennych i tużpowojennych działaniach inwentaryzacyjnych polskich władz (emigracyjnych i komunistycznych) w zakresie strat architektury zabytkowej w okresie II wojny światowej. Wiedza o stratach w zabytkach architektury była nie tylko istotnym zasobem informacji z punktu widzenia polityki ochrony materialnego dziedzictwa kulturowego. Służyła bowiem również celom propagandowym i ekonomicznym państwa. W moich badaniach nad działaniami inwentaryzacyjnymi kluczowym zagadnieniem jest samo pojęcie straty w odniesieniu do architektury zabytkowej. Analiza dostępnego materiału poświadcza, że obejmowało ono różne przypadki naruszenia materialnej integralności obiektu. Metodologia prac inwentaryzacyjnych miała potem bezpośrednie przełożenie na ogólny obraz (w tym skalę) strat. Odzwierciedlała również ówczesne przekonania na temat wartościowania zabytków, jak i zarazem ambiwalencję samego rozumienia zabytkowości. Głównym przedmiotem niniejszego artykułu nie są więc straty jako takie, lecz sposób ich urzędowej rejestracji i zarazem efekty tego działania

Nobilitacje i nobilitowani w Królestwie Polskim w latach 1816–1830 — próba charakterystyki

Ennoblement and the new nobility in the Kingdom of Poland 1815–1830:An attempt at a portrayal The author discusses ennoblement law in the Kingdom of Poland, issues concerned with ennoblement procedure, and endeavours to describe the new nobility as a social group. As M. Getka–Kenig points out, the ennoblement law issued in 1817 was a compromise between the views of a large part of the political elite of the Kingdom, who were convinced that the wider the access to noble privilege is open to the public the better, and the intentions of the monarch, who tended to retain the elitist i.e. narrow character of the noble class. In result the decreed law contained inaccurate statements concerning the merits necessary to apply for noble status. Other problems arose from the overlapping of Polish and Russian customs with respect to noble privilege personal nobility, documentation of noble descent — both unknown to the Polish tradition in various legal acts Statute of the University of Warsaw; Statute of the Order of St. Stanislaus issued in January 1830; the decree of the Grand Duke Constantine obliging the military personnel of the Polish Army to document their noble descent. The ennoblement procedure according to the 1817 law was not free from difficulties too. The relatively high costs involved 3,000 zlotys proved a significant determent, although many of the candidates including persons considerably wealthy were granted exemption from payments. The author argues that these releases from costs, apart from the obvious practical aspect, were of prestigious value to the recipients who considered themselves personally distinguished by the monarch’s favour.Getka–Kenig argues that ennoblement was predominantly sought by burghers, although among this group one also finds persons or descendents of persons who acquired noble status during the time of the annihilation of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth or during the Duchy of Warsaw period, and who for various reasons failed to obtain legal confirmation of their privilege. Among the ennobled there prevailed the professional element physicists, lawyers, landowners, state adminis- tration officials, and officers; one barely finds representatives of the industrialist class, merchants and financiers. The author explains this by pointing out that during the period in question these social groups encompassed primarily immigrants, for whom noble status was less important than for the Poles.Ennoblement and the new nobility in the Kingdom of Poland 1815–1830:An attempt at a portrayal The author discusses ennoblement law in the Kingdom of Poland, issues concerned with ennoblement procedure, and endeavours to describe the new nobility as a social group. As M. Getka–Kenig points out, the ennoblement law issued in 1817 was a compromise between the views of a large part of the political elite of the Kingdom, who were convinced that the wider the access to noble privilege is open to the public the better, and the intentions of the monarch, who tended to retain the elitist i.e. narrow character of the noble class. In result the decreed law contained inaccurate statements concerning the merits necessary to apply for noble status. Other problems arose from the overlapping of Polish and Russian customs with respect to noble privilege personal nobility, documentation of noble descent — both unknown to the Polish tradition in various legal acts Statute of the University of Warsaw; Statute of the Order of St. Stanislaus issued in January 1830; the decree of the Grand Duke Constantine obliging the military personnel of the Polish Army to document their noble descent. The ennoblement procedure according to the 1817 law was not free from difficulties too. The relatively high costs involved 3,000 zlotys proved a significant determent, although many of the candidates including persons considerably wealthy were granted exemption from payments. The author argues that these releases from costs, apart from the obvious practical aspect, were of prestigious value to the recipients who considered themselves personally distinguished by the monarch’s favour.Getka–Kenig argues that ennoblement was predominantly sought by burghers, although among this group one also finds persons or descendents of persons who acquired noble status during the time of the annihilation of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth or during the Duchy of Warsaw period, and who for various reasons failed to obtain legal confirmation of their privilege. Among the ennobled there prevailed the professional element physicists, lawyers, landowners, state adminis- tration officials, and officers; one barely finds representatives of the industrialist class, merchants and financiers. The author explains this by pointing out that during the period in question these social groups encompassed primarily immigrants, for whom noble status was less important than for the Poles

From Staszic to Grochulska – research on the biography of Stanisław Kostka Potocki

The life of Stanisław Kostka Potocki (1755-1821), one of the luminaries of the Polish Enlightenment, a long-time politician and public official, as well as a scholar and patron of the arts, has attracted the attention of many scholars. The first biographical essays on Potocki were provided by Stanisław Staszic and Franciszek Maksymilian Sobieszczański still in the nineteenth century, followed by Stanisław Krzemiński in the 1900s. These texts focused especially on Potocki's contribution to the enlightened reform of Polish education during the Duchy of Warsaw and Congress Poland. However, it was only after the Second World War that Potocki's life became the focus of more wide-ranging and intense research, spearheaded by such scholars as Emil Kipa or Juliusz Starzyński and Stanisław Lorentz. Paradoxically, it was the communist fascination with the Enlightenment that fostered the growing academic interest in Potocki's manifold contributions to art, archaeology, literature, as well as the state administration of religion. Nowadays, the bibliography of his life is quite rich and clearly dominated by art-historical and literary studies, in recent years promoted by the Museum of King Jan III's Palace at Wilanów. However, there is still no book-size biography presenting an analysis that would go beyond mere biographical entries

Stanisław Staszic’s tombstone and the image-building policy of the Warsaw Society of Friends of Sciences

The article is devoted to the artistic setting of Stanisław Staszic’s (1755-1826) burial place, for which his main heir, the Warsaw Royal Society of the Friends of Sciences (TKWPN), was responsible. The inspiration to raise this topic was the discovery of two previously unknown Jakub Tatarkiewicz’s designs of Staszic’s unrealized neoclassical tombstone in the collections of the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw (AGAD). However, the projects were never commissioned by TKWPN but were the sculptor’s proposal. By analysing the relationship between these artistic projects and the initiatives concerning Staszic’s tomb which stemmed directly from the Society (a big raw stone as memorial), the article highlights the problem of TKWPN’s participation in creating the posthumous cult of its long-time president and most important benefactor. The TKWPN’s seemingly paradoxical reluctance to glorify Staszic by means of traditional (artistic) forms of commemoration can be interpreter as a logical action calculated to benefit the Society’s image. Therefore, focusing on this single aspect of the posthumous cult of Staszic, directly related to the TKWPN, this article refers to the image-building policy of this institution, and thus to the ways of building its social status. At the same time, it tackles the issue of the prestige of science and scientific patronage as a new (from the early 19th-century perspective) form of public merit

„Najpierwsze przy tronie dostojeństwo” – napoleoński centralizm a pojęcie elity w Księstwie Warszawskim

“Supreme Office Next to the Throne” – Napoleonic Centralism and the Concept of the Elite in the Duchy of WarsawThe article deals with the conception of political (social) life in the Duchy of Warsaw (1807–1813/1815) at a time of revolutionary changes of the heretofore character of public service in the Polish state “resurrected” by Napoleon. The titular problem is illustrated by an unrealised attempt at establishing a precedence of offices, unknown in pre-partition tradition and referring to analogous French solutions. This venture was to encompass all public offices (administrative, military, court, parliamentary and self-government functions), with only a few referring (mainly via their names) to posts from the period of the Commonwealth of Two Nations. The prime object of the analysis is a collection of projects preserved at the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw. The fundamental difference comes down to establishing priority in the hierarchy of offices – the senators and chairman of the Senate or the ministers and chairman of the Council of State and Council of Ministers. Their ability to make an unambiguous decision stemmed from the different character of the offices of ministers directly dependent on the absolute monarch and representing modern centralised bureaucracy, and the independent senators closer to Old Polish anti-monarchic traditions. By locating the discussion within a wider context of socio-systemic transformations at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the author demonstrated the way in which the drastically altered political situation (preserving, however, the appearances of a return to the past) influenced the views of men of the period concerning the elite of the “resurrected” Polish state

Sebastian Sierakowski (1743–1824) i mit Krakowa w okresie napoleońskim i pokongresowym

The article deals with the contribution of Sebastian Sierakowski (Cracow prelate, academic, and politician) to the formation of the myth of Cracow as the “city-monument” to the historic glory of Poland in the era of Duchy of Warsaw and Free City of Cracow. The author discusses Sierakowski’s various undertakings of a commemorative, editorial or architectural and artistic character.Tematem artykułu jest udział Sebastiana Sierakowskiego (krakowskiego prałata, akademika i polityka) w tworzeniu mitu Krakowa jako miasta pomnika historycznej wielkości dawnej Polski w okresie Księstwa Warszawskiego i Wolnego Miasta Krakowa. Autor omawia w nim różne przedsięwzięcia Sierakowskiego o charakterze komemoracyjnym, wydawniczym bądź architektonicznym i artystycznym.