Prawosławie i prawosławni w „Ogniem i mieczem” Henryka Sienkiewicza

Abstract

The article discusses the Orthodox themes in Henry Sienkiewicz’s With Sword and Fire. Even if the theme is of secondary importance in the novel, the Polish novelist managed to demonstrate how religion was subject to political manipulation in the 17th century. Part of the analysis draws an analogy between the events depicted in the novel and the contemporary social and political situation in the Russian Partition at the time Sienkiewicz worked on the novel: intensive russification, political radicalism of labor force, ethnic disquiets, and the birth of new national identities.