In the era of exuberant romanticist messianism, Polish national politics were led by public literature. To consider this, we give the level to 1 of them, Zygmunt Krasiński.
In his account of listening, which was given to him by Emperor Napoleon III of France on 4 April 1857, he says: “At the appointed time I came to my aunt. She told me that, unexpectedly, a Moscow MP had let me know that he would come to his son's home and that he would come to her later. So she invited me into her bedroom and sat there with me.” erstwhile a one-hour gathering yet took place, the French ruler actually summed it up at the end of the day, saying about our situation: “... the only way to aid you would be to agree to a certain withdrawal of Moscow, any part of the Ottoman state, forbids Galicia, to join the Kingdom, to form Poland from them, in any respects self-ruled separately by a associate of the Moscow imperial family.”
Let us add that Krasiński has been hard on the bad destiny of our country. For the sake of order, let us add that these quotations come from the collection of Zygmunt Krasiński: “The Philosophical and Political Writing”, Reader 1999. Now, let us consider what lessons come from listening? First of all, let's start with his date. It is 1857, and so after the end of the Crimean War, which the West of Europe fought with Russia in defence of the Turkish state, so that this would not be an easy Tsaric spoil, which for the afraid powers would importantly undermine the desired balance of power. Since the European powers, during this war, did not play the alleged "Polish card", all the more so after the end of the war, nothing indicated that something would change in this respect. Consequently, the Emperor's proposition that Russia could accept certain concessions at the expense of Turkey is only specified a political figure without applicable meaning.
Let us proceed by examining the actual meaning of Napoleon III's words. He states that future Poland can be created decently as a hull entity, due to the fact that it is composed of Kingdom and Galicia. besides under the authority of individual from the Tsar household and surely without the anticipation of conducting a politician separate from the Russian Empire. In addition, all these considerations are made in conditional and non-specific mode. Let us besides note the circumstances and setting of this meeting. Krasiński is admitted as a associate of the large household of European aristocracy. To defend a individual without political significance, waiting in the bedroom of this old lady. And the Russian ambassador is ahead of him. Although an unannounced arrives, it is accepted without delay. And all of this together, actually “set” the full situation. It builds contexts and explanations of our political position at the time.
You should be an exceptionally hardy messianist to believe in any real sense of knocking on a door that has long been slammed. It seems that a good summary of the above subject will be included in the account of Emperor Napoleon III. He states: “Politics only talk about what is being realized at the moment”. For people, politics is obvious, but not for literates who in their artistic exuberance think that these 2 orders can be unpunishedly combined. Nothing more wrong.
Antoni Koniuszewski
Think Poland, No. 51-52 (17-24.12.2023)
