Beniowskiego potyczki z cenzurą rosyjską w latach 1865-1914

Abstract

The present essay is focused on the analysis of Russian censors' approach to Juliusz Słowacki's Beniowski editions in the years 1865-1914. In the text, both Warsaw editions and the ones imported from abroad or from other Polish territories were taken into account. All in all, the work (including its shorter version of five songs only and the complete version) was published 34 times in the years 1841-1914. There were attempts to import 16 out of the 28 non-local editions - many of them in vain. In the discussed period, only 14 editions of Beniowski (six local and eight imported ones), including only one (as late as in 1914) without any censor's intrusion, were in circulation on the Polish territory annexed by Russia. The author of the article enlisted the editions which were questioned as a whole and analysed all editions allowed for circulation under the condition that selected fragments are removed (some of them were summarized, others were quoted). In the course of time, censorship questioned a decreasing number of passages (mainly those in which censors suspected direct offence against the Tsar or the Orthodox Church). In this aspect, the two particularly important caesuras turned out to be the 1905 revolution and the year 1909 (the 100. anniversary of the poet's birth).