Joachim Lelewel - wileński cenzor Mickiewicza

Abstract

The article elaborates on the episode of Joachim Lelevel's censoring of the second volume of Adam Mickiewicz's Poetry (1823) and, on this example, the character of censorship in Vilnius before the Philomaths' trial. The author notices that all great Mickiewicz's professors (G.E. Groddeck, J. Lelewel and L. Borowski) were censors because, in compliance with the law in force, at that time it was an obligatory activity for the scholars from the Vilnius university. Zawadzka also formulates a thesis that the role assumed by censors was more advisory and tutorial rather than the controlling or repressive one. The concept of censorship linked with the educational (but not police) system may also be found in Lelewel's project A thought for the project of law on the freedom of print, written in 1829 [Myśl do projektu prawa o wolności druku, napisana w listopadzie 1829] and in his memoirs in which academic censorship practices in Vilnius are opposed to the ones popular in Warsaw in Szaniawski's times. The article also discusses possible literary consequences of the functioning of advisory censorship on the example of two works: Vilnius-Kaunas Forefathers' Eve [Dziady] and Grażyna.