Projekcje Rzeczypospolitej: „kwestia litewska” w publicystyce Zygmunta Glogera z lat 1867–1904

Abstract

The article presents the image of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the publicist works of the outstanding Polish writer, ethnographer, archaeologist, and collector Zygmunt Gloger (1845–1910), based on his writings from the years 1865 – 1904.Gloger grew up and wrote in the Jeżewo estate in Podlasie, on the border between the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. After the January Uprising of 1863/1864 he intensified his eff orts in working on the idea of the Polish-Lithuanian union, describing its historical transformations in terms of the social life practice. Gloger and other numerous representatives of Polish intellectual elite were convinced (contrary to the claims of historians) that the Uprising not only had not put an end to the idea of the Republic of Poland but that it would become a new impulse for social transformations (such as the education of masses) that will accelerate the shaping of the new project of the future Republic. These views were shared openly or secretly by a vast majority of the inhabitants of the territory of the former First Republic of Poland. At the same time, the writer participated in a dispute with representatives of the Lithuanian and Ruthenian nations who openly expressed the idea of national emancipation. This dispute emerged as late as in 1905, and Gloger expressed his position very clearly.