Wincenty Lutosławski w Europie Wschodniej. Aspekt kulturowy

Abstract

This sketch presents the reception of the work of the eminent Polish philosopher Wincenty Lutosławski (1863-1954) in Russia and Ukraine (more broadly: in the Russian-speaking world). Lutosławski spent four years deep in Russia (1889–1893) as a lecturer in philosophy at the Universities of Moscow (1 year) and Kazan (3 years). He assessed this stay in 1948, at the end of his life, as a “depressing era” in his career. The Polish philosopher struggled with the problem of language. As a graduate of the “German” university in Dorpat, he had a rather poor command of Russian, in which he had to lecture. Nevertheless, Russian and Ukrainian sources past and present marginally treat Lutosławski as a ‘Polish messianist’, omitting his study of Plato. The author of the paper makes a research postulate. It is necessary to examine Lutosławski’s Russian period not only on the basis of his own statements in his autobiography, One Easy Life (1934), but also by studying sources, archives, and Russian testimonies.