Rozdroża historii. Kaukaz i Polska oczami Jakuba Gordona

Abstract

The author analyzes “The Caucasus, or Shamil’s Last Days” (Leipzig 1865), a novel by Polish prose writer Maximilian Yatovt (1823–1895), who later changed his name to Jakub Gordon. The novel tells the story of a Pole, Yusuf Boston, raised in a family of Cherkists (Lezgins) in the Caucasus. It is set in the era of the famous insurgent Shamil (1797/1798–1871), who united some Caucasus peoples against Russia and resisted the Russian invading armies for many years. Gordon only partially shows the peoples of the Caucasus (also Azeris, Georgians, Armenians) as oriental cultures. Above all, he draws an analogy between Russian-conquered Poland and the Caucasians fighting to preserve their freedom, on the side of whom stands the young Pole Yusuf Ostoja. Gordon constructs a quasi-sensational plot to construct a morality tale about freedom and the tragic resistance of enslaved Poles and Caucasians. A sympathetic, empathetic portrayal of Islam is part of the picture.