Greek deadline phobos – Fear, enmity, in the literature of the subject is most frequently misidentified with prejudices based on stereotypes and incorporated into the structure of this phenomenon.
It should be thought that phobia is born on the basis of a peculiar cultural model and is due to ignorance, misunderstanding and disapproval of another unknown culture. Cultural models presume that society retains cognition of itself and on this basis evaluates another national and social groups representing different cultural models. The stereotype is, on the another hand, a strategy of superficial observations, generalized beliefs and is simply a collection of unconfirmed information. It is sometimes called a cultural stereotype that imitates social knowledge. This stereotype is utilized by politics, media, propaganda. It's not just those who know the alien and their culture. The stereotype is of course related to the ignorance of abroad culture, but it does not have as crucial a function in global relations as phobia.
The problem of Russian image in the Polish message has rich literature, both Polish and Russian. A common feature of these studies is the historical criterion. The focus is on the estimated characteristics: the Russian state, the social system, the power system, customs, characteristics of national character, religion. The origin of the investigation is Polish literature, literature, philosophical thought and magazines, ranging from late mediate Ages to modern times. specified investigation is limited to reporting on Polish observations on Russia, on the basis of which observers supply assessments based on criteria codified on the basis of Polish culture. Apart from historical conditions accompanying the courts (wars of the XI-XVII century, threats of the 18th century, partitions, interwar period, planet War II and times of the Polish People's Republic, III of Poland), Polish history, literature, doctrine created a caricature of Russia.
Often researchers usage political criteria. Recalling historical events, they show that they were conducive to the emergence of a strategy of rusophobic beliefs based on which ideology was built.
Examples of publications Oleg Niemienski, an worker of the Institute of Slavic Studies of the RAN, who claims that Polish rusophobia occurs in the form of a coherent ideology: "A peculiar set of ideas and concepts, which has its own structure, past of improvement and its typical manifestations". Niemienskiej focuses on the geopolitical problem of Poland's impact on Ukraine and Belarus (the Gidroyca-Mieroszewski project).
It besides uses the modern nomenclature present in Russian and Western political discourse, specified as memory policy or historical policy. However, he does not announcement that behind the utilized terms he hides, not known by Poles, a negative assessment of a abroad incomprehensible culture. In our opinion, Polish rusophobia has nothing to do with ideology. The diagnosis of Niemienski falls within the concept of state doctrine, is of a polytological nature, refers to events of political nature. However, it is known that political problems can be solved and Polish rusophobia is permanent. That is why the other thesis must be put forward: it was not past and politics that spawned Polish rusophobia, but it was rusophobia that influenced historical and political decisions and ideas, and it besides fostered stereotypes.. An example of equally complex political relations between Poland and the Czech Republic or Prussia/Germans and Austria, for which no specified thorough phobia was created, can be shown.
Most of the work on Polish rusophobia is based on investigation of symptoms and not the causes of this phenomenon. Descriptions of the image of Russia in Polish literature and thoughts do not exhaust the issue, but can service as a kind of information field for methodologically correct survey of the problem. An effort to diagnose should be based not on events or statements (their actuality and historical context are rapidly changing), but effort to show them as an example that there are deep differences in the cultural tradition. These differences concern the knowing of who man is, the function he plays in the world, how he builds social ties, what the state is to him, in what categories the planet perceives – spatial or temporal. The cultural model based on these criteria evolves over time, matures, crystallizes.
As this crystallisation is contrasted more clearly with another cultural models. We see the difference in the way Rusi described between chronicles: Kadłubka, Długosz, Stryjkowski or diaries of the 16th and 17th centuries, which is analysed by Jerzy Waszkiewicz and romanticist literature. The chronicles are focused on the praise of the Polish weapon, from this position they depreciate the heroism of the Russians. In Długosz, the first signs of prejudice to Orthodoxy and strong conviction about the right of Poland to have western Russian lands appear. Diaries perpetuate Moscow’s image as a despotic state and its hereditaryly enslaved inhabitants. Romanticism builds visions of victim and torturer. We besides find in them a powerfully negative image of the Church and Orthodox rites, which is perpetuated in the literature of the late 18th century and acquires the mesianistic qualities in the 19th century. (Z. Felinski, B. Limanowski, A. Czartoryski). The transition to Islam during the period of alliance with Turkey during the Crimean war was received by Polish society with resignation, but not with condemnation as in the case of conversion to Orthodoxy.
By stating that Polish rusophobia has a origin in ignorance of a different culture, we will effort to prove that it is, to a tiny extent, dependent on geopolitical criteria, purely historical or characteristic of neighbours idiosyncratic.
Time/space
"Poles irritate Moscow's reluctance to recognise Poland as an equal political partner in the region", writes Niemienski5. This message may constitute an asumpt to consider the spatial and temporal relation to reality. Russian investigator believes that Poles, like Russians, are fighting for the space of Ukraine and Belarus. But for Poles, it is crucial that they devote time to confounding (adaptation to Latin culture) these societies. For Russians, however, past has a spatial value.
Also Russian imperialism, from the essence of its spatial nature, Poles treat in temporal terms. The Polish Kingdom after 1815 was a separate state. Alexander I was the king of Poland, like August II Sas or Zygmunt II Vasa. However, only the power of Alexander I in the sense of Polish historiography is understood as a period of captivity. It is crucial that the ruler is simply a typical of another culture and this period in Polish past already has a different designation. This is besides illustrated by the situation in which Poland rapidly passed from the east bloc after 1989, which Poles perceived as slavery, to the Western, where freedom is besides limited, although this regulation has a different dimension. misunderstandings against this background besides concern the russian invasion on 17 September 1939. For Russians the spatial aspect is important, for Poles historical-moral.
The President’s words attest to the temporal way Poles realize past Bronisław Komorowski“As a Pole, historian and politician, I say that we request fact and justice, that is simply a necessity and a moral and political work not only to ourselves, but besides to average Russians... Then we will feel the wind that fills the sails of our most ambitious east policy plan." This quote shows that Poles want to have power over historical time, not over space. This is about changes in historical times, the request to modernise Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. It is impossible to master Russian space, but modernization is another issue.
A spatial position was inherited by Russian culture from Greko-Byzantium. "In the East Christianity has acquired the typical features of the religion of the east planet with its absoluteization of the spatial unity of the world, hence its apparent static, ideological and organization invariability, mediocre adaptability to historical dynamics" - emphasises Elena Yakovlevawhich explored the category of time and space in Russian. Igor Kondakov He writes: “Russian past of culture is frequently perceived as a comparatively unchanging, ‘freezing’ structure, as a topology that is organized not so much in time but in value-semantic space.”
The European civilization, to which Poland belongs, does not mention solely to the historically "pure" series of (local) civilizations, nor to the Christian Universe. It is simply a process and the consequence of removing contradictions between Christian universalism and civilizational localism, is simply a historical compromise between them. This contradiction was enshrined in the alleged "European civilization", giving it dynamism. Since the 17th century, in Western culture, rationalism has driven history, expecting it to realize the thought of advancement and change in human needs and ideals. Poles formally profess this ideal, although they do not full adhere to it. From our point of view, however, it is crucial to say that from the position of this perfect they measure Russian cultural space.
Human
In the article “Rusophobia as an ideology”, Oleg Niemenski notes that rusophobia is simply a Western ideology in which: “The Russian people have any unique properties. The Russians seem incapable to do anything that constitutes human dignity among another nations." Here we see the right intuition and the incorrect conclusion. Intuition concerns the western origin of rusophobia and remarks about the "exceptional properties" of the nation, and the mistake is that the thesis of this investigator closes in the concept of ideology, which he interchangeably calls myth.
The definition of human being in culture is closely related to worldview. Ontology in the sense of man remained a feature common to ancient and Christian Greeks. In Orthodoxy to this day the essence of humanity is understood as an inheritance of the ontological position of man, not his evolution in time. The ancient Greeks understood man as part of the universe, so it was essential to study/understand this universe (padea). Unlike the Greeks, the Romans saw themselves as renovators of the surrounding world, active creators of the past of Rome—the center of the world, missionaries of civilization among primitive cultural groups.
In Russian culture, human knowing was based on the practice of monastic and pastatic experience. Hesychism and predominance are the basis of Orthodox anthropology. Later, a critical approach to Western philosophical and theological thought besides played an crucial role. This has contributed to the perception of anthropological issues not only from an eschatological, but besides cultural, social and political perspective.
Latin anthropology developed under the influence of Blessed Augustine and his Confessions. Augustine's experience has nothing to do with teaching the Fathers of the Church of the East about man's poverty. Man, according to Augustine, "the powder of the earth" remains man. “Man is only his self, a individual with being, cognition and will.” Augustine was the first Latin theologian to draw attention to the historical importance of man. Later, Thomas of Aquinas wrote “Persona est relatio” (personality is simply a relation). Personality with specified representation has evolved into an individual "physical person". The second foundation of Western anthropology is rationalism, which abolishes the balance between 2 levels of human nature: metaphysical and empirical.
The Orthodox discipline of deification was paradoxically utilized in a primitive way by the communist ideology, which spoke of the transformation of man and the world. Human Communism logos It rooted in an ideology that utilized the orthodox thought of hypostasis to overcome individualist selfishness and directed it towards the implementation of these plans. Communism was comparatively easy to make a peculiar “eschatology” that seduced the position of planet change. There was a kind of kenotic assurance in an ideology that even spawned martyrdom, where victims were offered in the name of future benefits. Russian sociologist Ksenia Cassianova stresses that the attitude of sacrifice is characteristic of the character of the Russians. This frequently has tragic consequences, but besides evoking a cultural archetype.
Country/sociality
Due to the presence of negative descriptions of Moscow in the Polish literature of the 16th century, this time was accepted as the beginning of Polish rusophobia. The literature of this period actually contains many descriptions of Moscow. However, we must remember that this is simply a period of many wars between the Republic and Moscow. The war offensives in 16th century Europe were on the agenda. Of course, they may have been accompanied by propaganda that causes hatred of the enemy, but russophobia is simply a more complex phenomenon. The origin for analysis are Polish chronicles, printed reports and diaries of Poles from war expeditions against Moscow. It seems that specified sources can only service as material to recreate the image of Moscow or later Russia in the Polish literature of a given period. And this investigation goal has been set by many authors. (D. Karnauchov, Agnieszka Rabbit).
We will find here both the "black myth" of Ivan the Terrible and the "concept of Russia as a criminal state on inhuman soil", the "symbol of slavery and tyranny" and the "major enemy of freedom in Europe". However, all these courts can be attributed to russophobia, built on ignorance of the principles of Russian culture. Under these terms there is an crucial object of reason. It concerns differences in knowing the importance of state and freedom in Orthodox and Latin cultures.
Blimey. Augustine posed a number of questions that formed the basis for Roman knowing of the state. Continuing with the ancient thought of the rule of natural law, he adapted it to Christian teaching. God is the origin of his legal rule. In his writings, Blessed Augustine outlined the main provisions of the Theocratic Doctrine, which had a profound and lasting influence on the political and legal teachings of the Church. The specificity of Augustine's reasoning about the state involves the belief that without the fall of the first man the state would not have been created due to the fact that there would be no request for it. People are sinful, and this affects the structure of the state. This creates the dynamics of the Catholic Church's views on the state and the law, their relation with the historical and political situation in the world, the relation between the Church and the state. The law that governs everything comes first.
The characteristic feature of the Augustian trend was the historical position of reasoning and the deficiency of eschatological perspective. Theocracy in Civitas Dei It is understood as the law and content of spiritual life of individuals and societies. The incarnation of God is not an absolute purpose, but only a way to reconstruct the law broken by man's sin. God has established only the regulation of state, but the creation and functioning of certain states depends on the people whom God has given free will.
In the encyclical of 20 June 1888. Libertas praestantissimum (About Human Freedom) Leon XIII saw affirmative aspects of non-religious liberalism, human right to freedom and parliamentary democracy. As a result, it is worth noting that from the mediate of the 20th century the Vatican has been increasingly addressing the problem of democracy. We observe a sense of advancement towards the state in teaching the Church. Russian state doctrine is simply a Byzantine heritage. It arose for centuries under the influence of Christian dogmas, beginning with the time of Constantine. The continuation was the thought of Moscow III of Rome.
The state, like the full created world, is saturated with the energies of God and is seen from an eschatological position as a space of salvation. present they are mainstreaming specified views: Alexander Solzhenitsin (Russia collapse), Metropolitan Joann (Snychev)) (Russian symphony. Russian Historiosophy essays), Vladimir Bolshakov (Aspects of Russian Civilization), Mikhail Nazarov (Russia's Mystery), Alexander Panarin (Orthodox Civilization in a Global World), multi-author books: The Spores of Putin era, Russia and Europe. Experience of cathedral analysis, Russian Doctrine and Russian Project. These authors build a homogenous position of the past and measure historical events on the basis of this position.
Modern liberal democracy and mondialism are abroad traditions of Russian culture. Modern Russian doctrine is simply a continuation of reasoning in terms of the Russian empire. It was considered essential to return to an ideological state. You can see a mention to traditional, pre-reforming Peter I, the relation between the Church and the state. specified close cooperation, even in Catholic Poland, is regarded as violating the rule of separation of the Church and the State.
Freedom
A characteristic feature of the Polish image of Russian society is the belief in hereditary deficiency of respect for freedom. Raising this problem is due to the fact that the issue of individual freedom is the main problem of Western anthropology. Sergei Awerincev The knowing of freedom in Western culture calls regulated ethics, which destroys any aspiration that could rise man above his own benefit.
Freedom in Orthodox culture is not just a choice between good and evil, it is an interior freedom from external conditions. External freedom not only does not exalt man, so above all, concern for human rights cannot be the sole objective. The basic principles of social ethics should be service and humility, not creativity and freedom. The modern planet understands freedom in a limited sense as social-political.
The Polish tradition of the notion of freedom is conditioned on the 1 hand by the Latin culture, on the another hand by the entrenched law of the freedom of nobility and Polish history. The partitions and communist period are associated with slavery. so freedom is primarily of historical and cultural importance, which has grown with the knowing of individual freedom. Roman Dmowski called The pursuit of unlimited individual freedom by the nobility is the main national disadvantage of Poles. Other faults were born during captivity: deficiency of responsibility, political inactivity, doctrinal humanitarianism, degenerative messianism.
Summary
Here is an example of the position expressed by undoubtedly Polish patriot – Adam Mickiewicz during a lecture on Slavic literature at College de France. The explanation of Polish-Russian relations is so honest that it reveals to the analysts the real face of Poles' relation to Russia: “Poland and Russia represent not only 2 territories, but 2 ideas circulating among Slavic peoples, ideas which in their implementation aim to absolute dominance and mutually exclude each other. In the changing lines of conflict that captivates, different countries and their inhabitants search to identify with 1 or the another of these ideas, and the first pagan dualism of race and language draws here a fresh component of development. There is no tribe, there is no Slavic land in which the representatives of these 2 hostile parties cannot be recognized. These 2 trends can be characterized, combined with 2 different centres, correlated with the movement of 2 opposing essences only on the basis of spiritual principles. Since this general movement takes place in completely different directions, it results in 2 religions, 2 dialects, 2 alphabets, 2 diametrically other forms of government. ”
The confrontation of Russian and Polish identity is the ground on which russophobia grew, which in Polish culture takes various forms. An example of advanced literature, at the same time representing the lofty speech of Polish patriotism – Grandpas Mickiewicza (part III) contains a hierarchical image of the problem that interests us. Polish investigator of poet’s works Bogusław Dopart, so characterized by this phenomenon:
"Mickiewicz's view of Russia in the poem is determined by the assumptions of romanticist national literature, expressing memory, bonds and rations of a certain historical, symbolic, cultural community. However, it is never adequate to emphasize that the function of the witch and guide of the nation does not place the creators of the grandfathers in the ellipse of herrolds of hostility and haters. All that belongs to the department of revenge, the blind blurring of feelings, the wicked tyranny (especially concerning Scene I, prison) becomes part of intellectual truth, at the same time subject to ethical judgement and categorical rejection" .Eclecticism frequently found in the approach to the Polish subject of rusophobia is manifested in shuffling purely literary arguments with stereotypical ideas. It is not always possible to place an equality mark between them.
Prof. Hanna Kowalski-Stus
The author is simply a cultural and literary scholar, lecturer at the Jagiellonian University and the Warsaw University of Auschwitz. In 1986, she defended her doctoral thesis at the Faculty of Philology of the Jagiellonian University. Russian cleric poem as 1 of the manifestations of the spiritual culture of the old Pomeranian age. She obtained her habilitation degree in 1998 on the basis of a trial Old Russian culture XI-XVI century. Tradition and change.
Think Poland, No. 51-52 (15-29.12.2024)
