BIBLIOGRAPHY/BIBLIOGRAPHtE

W. H. ZAWADZKI

The Archive: An Important Source for the History of and in the Reign of Alexander I.

Introduction The Czartoryski Library in Krakow, Poland (ul. sw. Marka 17) holds a very important archival collection for the study of the political, cultural, social, and eco- nomic , and of Eastern and Central Europe in general from the middle ages to the latter part of the nineteenth century. It holds about 10,000 vol- umes and packets of manuscripts, 1,311 documents on parchment, a collection of 2,450 maps and plans, as well as 125,000 books and periodicals. One of the most significant sections of this enormous documentary collection is the public and private papers of (1770-1861), at one time one of Emperor Alexander I's closest friends and political advisers, deputy Russian foreign minister in 1802-04, acting foreign minister in 1804-06, and certainly one of the leading political figures in Russia and Poland in Alexander's reign. The memoranda and letters of Adam Czartoryski that were published by his son Wfiadysfaw in 1865 largely reappeared in the second volume of Adam Czartoryski's memoirs, and are of considerable importance However, they constitute only a small and even a somewhat biased selection from the large collection of manuscripts relating to Czar- toryski's political activities in the reign of Alexander I. Foreign scholars interested in the period have not used the archive extensively.2 It is therefore the aim of this short notice to offer some guidance as to the contents of those of Czartoryski's papers that are relevant to the study of Russian internal and foreign affairs, and of Russo-Polish relations in particular under Alexander I.

The Archive's History and Present Organization In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Czartoryski family exercised enormous political and cultural influence in Poland and , and ranked as one of the richest aristocratic families in Europe. The large archival collection in the Czartoryski Library today is the result of a conscientious effort by several generations

1. Memoires du prince Adam Czartoryski et correspondence avec 1'empereur Alexandre Ier, 2 vols. (, 1887). The English edition, Memoirs of prince Adam Czartoryski and His Correspondence with Alexander I, ed. A. Gielgud, 2 vols. (London, 1888), has numerous omissions compared to the French original, but contains more material relevant to Czartoryski's British connections. 2. Mention should, however, be made here of Prof. P. K. Grimsted's recent use of the archive. See below footnotes 4, 12, and 13. of the family in this period to preserve family records, accounts, and other documents, and to build up a national museum of which the Library was a part. In the early 1800's Princess (1746-1835), a grand dame with a strong taste for sentimental patriotism, founded the first historical and artistic museum in Poland in Putawy, the family seat on the banks of the about seventy miles south of . Her main interests-which were amateurish by modern standards-lay in works of art, national historical souvenirs, and a variety of foreign curiosities. Her eldest son Adam Jerzy Czartoryski had a passionate interest in collect- ing books and manuscripts connected with Poland's past, and was responsible for some important additions to the family's collection.3 But of course Czartoryski was not only an enthusiastic bibliophile; he was also an eminent statesman involved in national and international affairs throughout the greater part of his long life.4 He worked hard and wrote a great deal; he was also scrupulous in preserving his public and personal papers throughout his rich political career. And fortunately, his papers from before 1830 as well as the family library, archival collection, and museum were saved when he had to flee the country in 1831 and when Putawy and all his estates in Russian Poland were confiscated. The collection was successfully transported to , the Czartoryski residence in Austrian Galicia, and from there it was dispatched to Paris where Czartoryski spent most of his in the Hotel Lambert on the lie Saint-Louis. His son Prince Wl'adystaw Czartoryski (1828-1894) expanded the family col- lection and did much to bring some order into his father's papers. In 1865 he pub- lished the first selection of his father's documents dating from the period 1801-23.5 His attempts, however, to continue his father's political activities in exile soon came to an end. The events of 1870-71 destroyed all the hopes W1ad yslaw Czartoryski and his associates entertained for effective French, and even Austrian intervention in Poland's cause. The emergence of Bismarckian Germany, which radically altered the European balance of power, and the growth of Polish political autonomy in Galicia with the subsequent development of modern mass political parties, modified the dimension of the Polish Question. The Hotel Lambert lost its raison d'etre as a centre of Polish political agitation and private diplomacy.66

3. Czartoryski showed special concern for Polish books and manuscripts that had been carried off by the Swedes during their invasion of Poland in 1655-60, and was successful in securing the return of some of them. Cf. Czartoryski MSS no. 1182, ff. 237-243: Specyfikacya ksiazek i dokumentow darowanych przez krola szwedzkiego mbdemu X. Ad. Czartoryskiemu. Czartoryski MSS no. 5444, ff. 243-245 and ff. 247-250: F. Biernacki to A. J. Czartoryski, 9 August 1810 and 26 January 1811. 4. The two best known, although not always satisfactory biographical studies are: M. Handelsman, Adam Czartoryski, 3 vols. (Warszawa, 1948-49), and M, Kukiel, Czartoryski and European Unity 1770-1861 (Princeton, 1955). For the period 1801-09, see the more recent J. Skowronek, Antynapolemískie koncepcje Czartoryskiego (Warszawa, 1969), which is a detailed survey, based on the manuscripts in the Czartoryski Library, of Czartoryski's contribution to Russian foreign policy in those years. There is a general assessment of the prince as foreign minister in P. K. Grimsted's The Foreign Ministers of Alexander I: Political Attitudes and the Conduct of Russian Diplomacy 1801-1825 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1969), pp. 104-150. See also W. H. Zawadzki, "Prince Adam Czartoryski and Napoleonic 1801-1805: A Study in Political Attitudes," The Historical Journal, XVIII, 2 (1975), 245-277. 5. Alexandre Ier et le prince Czartoryski. Correspondence particuliere et conversations 1801-1823. Publiees par le prince Ladislas Czartoryski (Paris, 1865). 6. J. Zdrada, lmierzch Czartoryskich (Warszawa, 1969).