Wiktor Choriew in memoriam

Abstract

The present volume gathers the papers presented at the International Conference „Borderlands, the East and the Ideas of Europe” in Białystok, 12-14 May 2011, theevent which was accompanied by the first International Convention of the Inhabitants of Białystok. The event was organized by the following institutions: the University of Białystok,Chair in Philological Studies „East – West” (at the time functioning as Chair in Interdisciplinaryand Comparative Studies „East – West”) at Institute of Polish Studies (the University of Białystok), the International Association of the Inhabitants of Białystok, Książnica Podlaska (library) in Białystok, High School of Public Administration in Białystok, Chair in Intercultural Education (the University of Białystok), Chair in theLate 19th and Early 20th Century Polish Literature (the University of Białystok), the Municipal Council of Białystok, the Adam Mickiewicz Literary Society, Faculty ofLaw (the University of Białystok), Aleksander Węgierko Theater in Białystok, the„Trans Humana” Association, the Association for Developing Intercultural Education, Jerzy Giedroyc University Library, Polish Radio „Białystok”, the Medical University of Białystok, the Literary Studies Committee at the Polish Academy of Sciences, thePodlaskie Museum in Białystok, the Museum of Militaria in Białystok. The Conference „Borderlands, the East and the Ideas of Europe” was a largescale project which was meant to trigger research of the unique part of Europe: the Eastern borderlands, the remote Marches, the meeting of the cultures of the East and the West. Białystok is an ideal venue for such an undertaking, but the Conference debates and discussions were by no means limited to this particular point on a map. The Conference organizers wanted to examine as much as can be perceived from the vantage point of Białystok: the inhabitants of the borderlands, their culture, tradition, memory and identity; the legacy of Grand Duchy of Lithuania; the phenomenon of „life in the Marches”; the cultural uniqueness of the Orient; the legacy of Byzantium; roots of the Eastern religious thought; and other related issues. The rationale behind all the debates was to build up a certain space of communication, and to hammer out a model of multicultural Europe, within which the two stems of European culture – the East and the West – would intertwine to form a unity, but – at the same time – would retain its uniqueness and variety. One of the most fundamental issues debated during the Conference was the question whether the history of the Eastern borderlands brings any meaningful picture of common Europe. In order to achieve the Conference’s goals, the organizers invited Polish and foreign scholars representing different fields of humanities: the East and the West studies, Byzantium and Ancient Rome studies, literature, philology, modern languages, history, art history, cultural studies, philosophy, theology, sociology, and other disciplines – this multiplicity of perspectives is elaborated on by Jarosław Ławski in the first text of the present volume („The Research Project: Borderlands, the East and theIdeas of Europe”). It needs to be emphasized that such a large-scale project was by no means limited to a single meeting session – it was, in fact, a starting point for a series of conferences, and it initiated a series of publications under the title COLLOQUIA ORIENTALIA BIALOSTOCENSIA, which includes: Teodor Bujnicki. The Last Bardof Grand Duchy of Lithuania (various authors), Jews of Eastern Poland. Culture – Tradition – Writings (various authors). It is our pleasure to offer another publication of theseries – a very important one as it collects the papers presented at the conference that initiated the whole project. The present volume (the second part of Borderlands, the East and the Ideas of Europe) is dedicated to Professor Wiktor Choriew, a pre-eminent Slavicist who acted as a tutor to a number of Russian scholars specializing in Polish studies. Professor Choriew died on 26 May 2012, a day after he was awarded a degree honoris causa at Janka Kupała University in Grodno. It was during the ceremony that the editors of the present volume had a great honour to meet Professor. Two texts, by Swietłana Musijenko and by Jarosław Ławski, sketch a profile of Wiktor Choriew and outline his academic achievements. The volume opens with Jarosław Ławski’s meditation upon the key words that constitute its title: Borderlands, the East and the Ideas of Europe. The author enumerates their different meanings and connotations, focusing primarily on the mythical function of such phenomena as the representation of the Marches in Polish culture. Chapter I, PEOPLE OF DIALOGUE, DIALOGUE OF PEOPLE, touches upon the mutual penetration between two civilizations and cultures: the Catholic and Protestant West and the Orthodox East. This cultural exchange is seen in the context of intellectual work done by specific people, e.g. Wiktor Choriew, an outstanding Russian scholar specializing in Polish studies (Swietłana Musijenko and Jarosław Ławski).On the one hand, Chapter I presents the perception of the East by Europeans: Poles (Grażyna Pawlak and Elżbieta Mikiciuk), Hungarians (Jerzy Snopek and Marek Szladowski), and other nations and ethnic groups, e.g. Romani (Anna Sobieska); on the other hand, it introduces opinions about Europe and Western civilization expressed by people from the East: the first Westernizers (Adam Bezwiński on Piotr Czaadajew), and Russian Romantics travelling across Europe (Danuta Piwowarska). Chapter II, BYZATIUM, RUS, ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY, concerns the role of Orthodox Christianity and Byzantine legacy in the development of various culture sand nations of Eastern and Central Europe. The texts from this part of the volume discuss the cultural significance of the Byzantine Church (Antoni Mironowicz), the influence of Russian preaching on the identity and attitudes of the inhabitants of cultural and religious borderlands (Marzanna Kuczyńska), and the consequences of Union of Brest on people’s identities and their cultures (Piotr Chomik, Witold Kołbuk). Additionally, the chapter gives an account of individual viewpoints on Orthodox Christianity and, more broadly, on Christianity as such (Dawid Szymczak on Piotr Skarga, and Monika Grygiel on Vladimir Nabokov). Chapter III, ROMANTICISM – RECOGNITIONS AND REVOLTS, outlines encounters of the Polish (mainly but not only) Romantics with the culture and civilization of the East: Antoni Malczewski’s fascination with Ukraine (Urszula Makowska, Marta Białobrzeska); Adam Mickiewicz’s embrace of Pan-Slavism and Slavophilia (Michał Kuziak); Juliusz Słowacki’s tendency to mythologize Ukraine, the land of hisbirth (Leszek Zawierzyński); Leszek Dunin Borkowski’s studies of Sanskrit (Tadeusz Półchłopek); and pilgrimages and travels to the Holy Land (Dorota Kulczycka). The presentations are by no means restricted to Polish Romanticism (Joanna Pietrzak - The baulton Niccolò Tommaseo), and take a critical view of the Romantic belief in an exceptional role of Poles in Eastern Europe (Henryk Słoczyński on Józef Szujski). Chapter IV, THE EAST, BIAŁYSTOK, ART, sketches the specific character of Northeastern Poland in general, and historical and contemporary Podlasie in particular. The authors’ deliberations range from literary representations of the region as a unique place on the world’s map (Wojciech Piotrowski writes about the literary geography of old Rzeczpospolita) to – notable for its sacred buildings – architecture of the region (Krzysztof Woźniak) to profiles of writers whose works depict „locality” as the source of universal values (Joanna Tomalska, Beata Mróz, Bożena Chodźko, Marek Kochanowski).The chapter also brings two articles on Jewish communities in the region: in Białystok (Joanna Tomalska) and in Vilnius (Jolanta Kowal). Chapter V, LITHUANIA’S BO(A)RDERLAND GAMES, is dedicated to Lithuania, her relations with Poland and other nations or cultures. The articles from this part of the book outline the history of the co-existence of nations and cultures in Vilnius (Tadeusz Bujnicki, Halina Turkiewicz), the complexity of mutual relations between Poles and Lithuanians in the historical perspective (Andrzej Baranow), the literary representation of the Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian borderlands (Anna Wydrycka, Inesa Szulska), a „borderland daily life” as emerging from memoirs (Maria Jolanta Olszewska),and the unique folklore of the Polish-Lithuanian borderland (Anna Józefowicz, Jolanta Sawicka-Kurek). Chapter VI, A JOINT FIELD: POLAND, GERMANY, EUROPE, takes the reader from the Eastern Marches to the German borderland, demonstrating yet another set of influences on Polish culture. Among the issues discussed by the authors are: Western culture as perceived by Poles (Agnieszka Czajkowska), Polish issues and Eastern issue sunder the Western eyes (Barbara Sawicka-Lewczuk), the relations between Poland and the EU countries (Joanna Pawłowska), a special status and cultural uniqueness of the Polish regions heavily influenced by German culture: Silesia (Mariusz Jochemczyk, Katarzyna Tałuć), Lower Silesia (Kamila Gieba), Warmia and Masuria (Iwona Drażba). Chapter VII, FACES OF THE INTERBELLUM: MIŁOSZ, groups and juxtaposes the opinions of the Polish poet on the culture and history of the Marches (Anna Szóstak) and on the Far East spirituality (Zofia Zarębianka); recalls literary representations of the Lithuanian Samogitia-Aukštaitija borderland, Miłosz’s homeland (Michał Siedlecki); and presents Miłosz’s opinions on the darkest episodes in this land’s history: his doom-laden thoughts on the eve of the outbreak of WW II (Jan Miklas-Frankowski) and the complexity of Polish-Jewish relations as described in the poet’s writings on pre-war Poland (Marek Biernacki). Chapter VIII, LOOKING SOUTHWARDS, LOOKING EASTWARDS, overviews the whole Slavic culture in the context of its major ideas and its ethos (Zbigniew Kazimierczak on Slavic cosmogony, Marian Śliwiński on Jan Paweł Woronicz’s Slavophilia), and its confrontations with the culture of the Far East (Daniel Kalinowski) and other cultures. This overview in macro-scale is accompanied by a detailed study of the activities of people such as Abgar Sołtan, a writer and a great mufti of Polish Muslims (Marta Ruszczyńska); Jakub Szynkiewicz (Grzegorz Czerwiński); Ignacy Paderewski, one of the Prime Ministers of the interwar period (Jan Konopka);or great Polish female writers whose oeuvre is deeply rooted in the Polish-Lithuanian, Polish-Belarusian, and Polish-Ukrainian borderlands: Gabriela Zapolska (Anna Janicka) and Zofia Nałkowska (Swietłana Musijenko).