Patrice M. Dabrowski. Commemorations and the Shaping of Modern . Blommington: Indiana University Press, 2004. 313 S. $45.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-253-34429-8.

Reviewed by Laurie Koloski

Published on HABSBURG (May, 2007)

The ' "long nineteenth century" was in a mythologized past, and committed to an inde‐ even longer than that of most European nations, pendent Polish future. In so doing, they kept the stretching as it did from the frst partition of 1772, Polish nation, and the "Polish question," alive and when , , and Russia claimed chunks well. Commemorations and the Shaping of Mod‐ of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, to 1918, ern Poland, Patrice Dabrowski's excellent new when an independent Polish state re-emerged. Be‐ study, shows how. tween the third partition of 1795 and the end of The Polish "predicament" in the nineteenth , Poland as a political entity essential‐ century, as Dabrowski points out early in the ly disappeared from the map of , and eth‐ book, involved "the mind of a large nation in a nic Poles found themselves governed by three dif‐ stateless body" (p. 7). This dilemma turned out to ferent imperial states. Had the partitions hap‐ be a source of inspiration for Polish national ac‐ pened a century earlier, the "Polish question" tivists who had two goals: frst, to broaden the na‐ might have settled into historical obscurity. What tion to include the peasantry (only an inclusive Poland's partitioners could not know in the late nation would be strong enough to revive an inde‐ eighteenth century, however, was that in a few pendent state); and second, not only to avoid the short decades, their new subjects would make trauma of failed uprisings (several had been good use of the emergent ideology of launched, in 1794, 1831, and 1863), but also the and that, not long thereafter, an "age of commem‐ apolitical tactics and implications of "organic oration" would render memories and monuments work," the post-1863 eforts to turn away from the perfect venue for putting Polish national iden‐ anti-imperial resistance and focus on economic tity and political aspirations on display. As the and social modernization. Commemoration met nineteenth century gave way to the twentieth, both needs. Celebrations and monuments carried Polish activists used Krakow and other patriotic national and political messages, and "gave rise to settings to promote a new kind of Polish nation, a more palpable sense of national unity and one broadened to include the peasantry, steeped H-Net Reviews strength" (p. 6), appealing to even the "nationally will readers familiar with Polish history be sur‐ indiferent" (p. 15). As Dabrowski describes them, prised to learn that the Polish nation which commemorations were a "new brand of Polish emerged by the turn of the twentieth century was 'defance' ... tempered by concrete deeds ... a con‐ simultaneously more expansive (socioeconomical‐ structive, creative, yet intensely national variant ly) and exclusive (ethnically and culturally). Yet in of organic work--an attempt at national modern‐ considering Polish nation building through the ization, Polish style" (p. 15). prism of commemoration, Dabrowski gives us a Nowhere was Poland's commemorative age fresh and clearer picture of who and what were more visible than in Krakow, the provincial city involved in the process, and how "messy" it was sitting near the northwestern edge of Austrian (p. 16). Her work thus adds a great deal to existing , which occupies the center of Dabrowski's studies of Polish nationalism and nation-building story (though the book also includes case studies in east central Europe.[2] from Lwow, the Galician capital, and , in Historiographically, Dabrowski seeks primari‐ the Russian partition, as well as brief discussions ly to contribute to discussions on the genesis of of other locales).[1] Krakow was the frst Galician modern Polish nationalism. She is critical of intel‐ city to beneft from limited self-rule in 1866, lectual historians' emphasis on "the logic of which meant city residents could conduct their of‐ ideas," which, as she argues, "moved the masses fcial business in Polish, send their children to Pol‐ rarely--if ever" (p. 16), and of scholars who em‐ ish schools, and, as it turned out, host huge public phasize the critical role conservative Galician celebrations in honor of national heroes and an‐ leaders played in fostering a new sense of Polish‐ niversaries. This was no small matter, particular‐ ness (p. 17).[3] Instead, Dabrowski seeks to extend ly compared to the limitations and repressions of agency to historiographically marginalized everyday life under Prussian and Russian rule at groups, particularly Galicia's liberals and peas‐ the time. Moreover, though Krakow had no "na‐ ants, and to highlight the contested nature of na‐ tional" standing in the political or economic tion building and the changing "constellations" of realms, it could boast an impressive cache of me‐ political power that accompanied it. In this sense, dieval historical monuments. The combination of her book can be considered a valuable companion these sites with the city's relative cultural and po‐ to Keely Stauter-Halsted's excellent study of peas‐ litical autonomy was a potent one, and Krakow ant nationalism in Galicia (cited above), both his‐ "proved to be a national space par excellence," in torically--Dabrowski's story is an essentially ur‐ which Poles could literally see their national ban one, even if her protagonists are often seek‐ past--and, ideally, their future as well (p. 215). ing peasant support for their agendas--and histo‐ Dabrowski's is the frst monograph-length riographically. study of east central European commemoration- Dabrowski seems less eager to situate her as-nation-building to be published in English, and work within the broader scholarly literature on it is a welcome addition to the growing body of collective memory and its role in nation-building, work on "imagined" national communities in the but to my mind it belongs there as well.[4] This is, region. Her central questions are not new: how after all, a story of how individuals and groups did the modern Polish nation take shape? What mobilized the past in the service of their present were the mechanisms through which Polish sub‐ goals, and Dabrowski does an excellent job illumi‐ jects of three diferent imperial states were en‐ nating the political and social agendas that in‐ couraged to identify themselves as Poles? Which spired them and their audiences. Her book re‐ defnitions of Polishness prevailed, and why? Nor minds me of Alon Confno's The Nation as a Local

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Metaphor, in which he makes a convincing argu‐ monwealth's 1410 defeat of the Teutonic Knights ment for the centrality of local ideals in an emerg‐ at Grunwald (chapter 6) and the more recent an‐ ing German national identity and successfully bal‐ niversaries of the 1813 death of the Polish prince ances the power of representation with the agen‐ Jozef Poniatowski, who had fought with cy of reception.[5] Dabrowski's story is a very dif‐ , and the 1863 anti-tsarist uprising ferent one, but its approach and lessons (though (chapter 7). In a lengthy conclusion, Dabrowski missing Confno's explicit theoretical apparatus) feshes out the central implications of her study are similar and equally illuminating of the com‐ fully. plexities of national identity formation. The overall narrative that emerges is one of Dabrowski divides her monograph into three growing awareness and action, as previously dis‐ sections, each devoted to a stage in the commemo‐ engaged sectors of the population (with the peas‐ ration-as-nation-building process. Part 1 focuses antry at the forefront) came to acknowledge Pol‐ on the late 1870s/early 1880s and the frst of the ishness as their own and as Poles in all three par‐ "notable public celebrations with a broad reach titions came to prioritize a revived Polish state as and impact" that are the book's focus (p. 20). In well as the fghting spirit required to achieve it. the frst chapter, Dabrowski traces the many Commemorations, Dabrowski argues in the con‐ agendas visible in the 1879 jubilee of Jozef Ignacy clusion, helped consolidate Poles and Polishness Kraszewski, a prolifc and popular writer from in four key ways. Along with the institutions they Prussian Poland. Chapter 2 chronicles the 1883 spawned (among them museums and educational commemoration of the 1683 "Relief of ," a programs directed at peasants), celebrations drew battle against the Ottoman Turks led by Polish Poles from all three partitions, fostering "horizon‐ forces under King Jan Sobieski. In the book's sec‐ tal" integration. They led to "vertical" integration ond section, Dabrowski turns to commemorations as well, as peasants came to play an increasingly of the 1890s, exploring the interactions between pivotal role in visions and celebrations of Polish celebration and mass politics and the growing as‐ nationhood. No longer could nobles cast the na‐ sertiveness of the Polish peasantry and integral tion in their own image or avoid interacting with nationalists. Two of three chapters chart the com‐ "the people." Commemorations also "fostered memorative signifcance of national bard Adam what could be considered a notion of 'Polish' or Mickiewicz, whose remains were transferred 'national' time, a time that transcended partition from to Krakow in 1890 (chapter 3) and and geography," and in this sense promoted "tem‐ whose Krakow and Warsaw monuments, erected poral" integration between past, present, and fu‐ in 1898, were the stuf of contest but also national ture (p. 215). Finally, as a "living national relic" (p. construction (chapter 5). In an intervening chap‐ 215), Krakow contributed to the Poles' "symbolic" ter, Dabrowski shows how Poles in Krakow, War‐ integration, serving as a "surrogate homeland" saw, and Lwow celebrated the Enlightened consti‐ and promoting a "shared vocabulary for a nation‐ tution of May 3, 1791 and Tadeusz Kosciuszko's al discourse" (p. 216). 1794 insurrection against the partitioning powers. Of the "sub-stories" that weave their way By the early twentieth century, with the growing through this narrative of nation-making, that of threat of war--and possibility of Polish indepen‐ the peasantry's growing engagement, both at the dence--nationalists' emphasis had shifted from urging of liberal activists and on its own behalf, is bards to battles, and in the third part of the book, perhaps among the most central. Here, Dabrowski Dabrowski turns to celebrations of the Polish in‐ builds on Stauter-Halsted's work to show in detail surrectionary spirit. These included the six-hun‐ how activists used celebrations to promote politi‐ dredth anniversary of the Polish-Lithuanian Com‐

3 H-Net Reviews cal participation and the "" of peas‐ tional self, Dabrowski weaves a second sub-story ants in the ethnically mixed borderlands. Orga‐ on the workings of the "constellation of power," nizers of the 1883 celebrations of King Jan Sobies‐ political constituencies that organized and pro‐ ki's victory over the Turks worked hard to ensure moted, but also controlled and sometimes thwart‐ peasant participation, and their eforts paid of, as ed, eforts to build monuments and stage public some twelve thousand peasants came to take part festivities. The Poles' imperial rulers, Habsburg (p. 61). In 1891, during anniversary celebrations ofcials, of course, did their best to quash events for the 1791 constitution, liberals took advantage judged subversive, though with mixed success; for of the occasion "to highlight the value of demo‐ the most part, the commemorations described cratic principles and promote both the transfor‐ here challenged rather than consolidated state- mation of the masses into citizens and the transi‐ level imperial agendas. Still, there was nothing tion from a noble nation to a more comprehen‐ unifed about the individuals and groups that sive body" (p. 107). In creating the People's School sought to forge or capitalize on a new sense of Society (Towarzystwo Szkoly Ludowej), with its Polishness, and to Dabrowski's credit, there is no slogan "through an enlightened folk to a free easy "top-down" or elite-driven narrative here. In‐ Poland," liberal democrats hoped not just to edu‐ stead, as Dabrowski is well aware, commemora‐ cate, but also to "polonize" the peasantry, particu‐ tions were highly contested afairs. Challenging larly border region populations most likely to con‐ existing scholarship, which credits Galician con‐ sider themselves Czechs, Germans, or Ukrainians servatives with taking the commemorative initia‐ (p. 108). By the time Kosciuszko's rebellion was tive, Dabrowski shows that the liberal democrats celebrated in 1894, peasants had added activities were "the true initiators of the celebrations" (p. and agendas of their own. Indeed, this was an 17) and argues persuasively that conservatives, event tailor-made for peasant activists, as scythe- who were eager to maintain close ties with the wielding peasants had helped Kosciuszko win the partitioning powers and unwilling to sacrifce the Battle of Raclawice in 1794. Though festivities in mythology of the noble-led nation, had little Krakow focused on Kosciuszko's oath on the Main choice but to try to co-opt commemorations they Market Square, events in Lwow highlighted the would have preferred to ignore. Conservatives Raclawice Panorama, a painting in the round that themselves jumped on the celebratory bandwag‐ featured peasant soldiers and Kosciuszko himself on, though often reluctantly: after liberals in peasant dress and drew two hundred thousand launched an efort to translate Mickiewicz's re‐ viewers (pp. 122-126). Beyond coordinating pil‐ mains to the crypts at Krakow's Wawel Castle in grimages to Lwow, peasant activists organized re- 1879, for example, the conservatives argued enactments of the battle, published a commemo‐ against burying a "foreigner" in the crypts (Mick‐ rative song book (which eventually sold eight iewicz had never been to Krakow and had spent hundred thousand copies), and, most important, many years in emigration); when that failed, they held a peasant rally that led to the creation of the dragged their feet until liberal critics formed a cit‐ Peasant Party (Stronnictwo Ludowe) the following izens' committee of their own to collect the neces‐ year (pp. 127-130). "The inclusion and increasing sary funds and fnalize the celebration. Faced participation of the peasant in national matters is with this fait accompli, conservatives reclaimed one of the successes of this Polish commemorative power in the name of the provincial authorities, age," writes Dabrowski (p. 214). and succeeded in bringing their more moderate Beyond showing how peasant citizens of plans to fruition and ensuring that nothing got nineteenth-century imperial states could look in out of hand (pp. 83-86). the mirror of commemoration and see a new na‐

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Liberals and conservatives were not the only played out. Even as the Polish nation was expand‐ groups battling over how to celebrate the past. ing to include the peasantry, it was also narrow‐ Church ofcials were also often reluctant to en‐ ing to exclude those considered ethnically or cul‐ dorse commemorations, fearing that national turally non-Polish. Though organizers of the 1883 ideals would supplant religious commitment. Dur‐ celebrations of the Relief of Vienna had been care‐ ing the Grunwald celebrations of 1910, church of‐ ful to appeal to Ruthenes and other Slavs, albeit as fcials faced a predicament, as the Vatican enjoyed "Poles" in the pre-partition sense of gente close ties with Prussia, and the Teutonic Knights ruthenus, natione Polonus (pp. 68, 69), by 1910 could be--and were by the Germans--presented as and the commemorations of Grunwald, such ef‐ defenders of Christianity against the pagan forts had all but disappeared. Grunwald, a battle Lithuanians (pp. 175-178). As Dabrowski writes of fought by the troops of the Polish-Lithuanian the entire period, "for an age for which it has gen‐ Commonwealth, was increasingly presented as a erally been assumed that Church and nation went Polish victory, and Lithuanians, fully aware of the hand in hand, there was a great deal of ambiguity limitations of the new Polishness, boycotted the on both sides" (p. 230). Youth groups and social‐ Krakow ceremony (pp. 173, 174). "Amazing for a ists, and, by the end of the nineteenth century, partitioned nation," Dabrowski writes, "Poles proto-paramilitary groups like the Falcons seemed to be vying for hegemony in East-Central (Sokoly), promoted their own interpretations, Europe" (p. 174). If early celebrations had "publi‐ with varying levels of success. By the early twenti‐ cized the attractiveness of Polish strengths" and eth century, however, it was the integral national‐ also "transcended the more narrow confnes of ists and groups like the National League (led by the nation," by the early 1890s, they had contrib‐ ) who had claimed the high uted to a defnition of the nation that was broader ground of national commemoration. Already in socially but "more exclusively ethnic" (p. 223). 1894, at Warsaw celebrations of Kosciuszko's re‐ A fourth sub-story, perhaps less central than bellion, Dmowski had called for "pan-Polish" the others but no less interesting, highlights the deeds rather than separate ones (p. 117), exhort‐ very real political power of ostensibly apolitical ing even Poles in Galicia to "mourn" alongside individuals and endeavors. Krakow painter Jan their sufering brethren in the German and Rus‐ Matejko, a master of (huge) historical paintings, sian partitions rather than celebrate and devote produced one titled Sobieski at Vienna for the money to "national consciousness-raising" (p. 1883 festivities, which reached international audi‐ 112). The nationalists' "unifed" approach beneft‐ ences as well as local ones. Sending it to Vienna ed from and contributed to a growing sense of ac‐ for public exhibition, Matejko surprised Austrian tivism and militarism as the twentieth century audiences with an interpretation of the battle un‐ rolled in (pp. 131, 152-154, 163, 193-194), and familiar to them--one in which a Polish rather eclipsed the socialists' mass appeal. Only the so‐ than Habsburg ruler had played the central role cialists could rival the nationalists in terms of ap‐ (p. 59). But there was more: rather than present‐ pealing to the masses, but with a message that ing the painting to the newly opened National Mu‐ was also national in tone; given the ongoing reali‐ seum in Krakow, Matejko gave it to local leaders ty of anti-socialist discrimination, theirs was an with the stipulation that they give it to Pope Leo uphill struggle. XIII on behalf of the Polish nation. "As an infuen‐ In the end, the vision of Polishness that pre‐ tial painter and generous patriot," writes vailed was close to that of the integral national‐ Dabrowski, "Matejko efected a type of foreign ists, and in her third sub-narrative, Dabrowski policy in the name of his nation" (p. 74). In other uses commemoration to illuminate how this celebrations, novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz and pi‐

5 H-Net Reviews anist--later politician--Ignacy Paderewski played and students of nationalism across Europe and pivotal roles (see chapters 5 and 6), stretching the even elsewhere. After all, the "Polish question" bounds of the permissible and engaging Poles on was as powerful as it was for as long as it was not emotional as well as intellectual levels. just because noisy emissaries came to in The book raises several issues about which I 1918 to demand a state. Throughout the long nine‐ wished I could know more. Brian Porter has writ‐ teenth century, the Poles had something impor‐ ten of romanticism's staying power in late nine‐ tant to say about nationhood and statehood, and teenth-century Polish nationalism, even amongst Dabrowski does a superb job helping us under‐ such "realists" as Roman Dmowski, and I would stand what it was. like to have a clearer sense of how activists (be‐ Notes fore and after Dmowski's rise) drew on or sought [1]. Dabrowski uses the anglicized "Cracow" to reject romanticism's legacies, which to my throughout the book. mind seem very powerful here.[6] I would also [2]. Of English-language works on Polish na‐ like to know more about activists' borrowing from tionalism, see two excellent recent monographs, or contacts with Polish emigres and non-Poles in Brian Porter, When Nationalism Began to Hate: western Europe. How did commemorations in Imagining Modern Politics in Nineteenth-Century Krakow compare with those in other European Poland (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000); cities, or with those promoted for other, perhaps and Keely Stauter-Halsted, The Nation in the Vil‐ state-initiated, purposes? Finally, I would be eager lage: The Genesis of Peasant National Identity in to know more about the tension between the uni‐ Austrian Poland, 1848-1914 (Ithaca: Cornell Uni‐ fying efects of viewing and participating in na‐ versity Press, 2001); reviewed on HABSBURG by tional celebrations and the divisive politics in‐ Chris Chulos, http://www.h-net.org/reviews/ volved in staging them (which Dabrowski has showrev.cgi?path=96141024029325. For an over‐ chronicled so efectively). Is our ability to see such view of recent work on nation-building and com‐ tension a gift of retrospect, or were activists at the memoration in the Habsburg lands and east cen‐ time aware of it as well, and, if so, what did they tral Europe more broadly, see the collections by think and say about this? To end with these ques‐ Maria Bucur and Nancy M. Wingfeld, eds., Stag‐ tions is not to suggest that the author should have ing the Past: The Politics of Commemoration in written a diferent book than she did, but merely Habsburg Central Europe, 1848 to the Present to say that in reading the book, I found myself (West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2001); wanting to know even more about the intellectual and Nancy M. Wingfeld, ed., Creating the Other: and cultural foundations, the ideological strug‐ Ethnic Confict and Nationalism in Habsburg Cen‐ gles, and the broader European context underly‐ tral Europe (New York: Berghahn Books, 2003), re‐ ing these commemorations. viewed on HABSBURG, respectively, by Mills Kelly, Dabrowski's book is an extremely impressive http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi? work that confrms what we have learned about path=230631016640092, and by John Czaplicka, nation-making in the late nineteenth century in a http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi? broad sense, but it also reminds us that the difer‐ path=203291016638963. See also Pieter M. Judson ences between one case and another are real, sig‐ and Marsha L. Rozenblit, eds., Constructing Na‐ nifcant, and worth our close attention. This is a tionalities in East Central Europe (New York: book that, given the spectrum of European experi‐ Berghan Books, 2005). There is very little work in ences in the late nineteenth and early twentieth English dealing specifcally with commemoration centuries, should be of great interest to scholars in nineteenth-century Poland. An early and still

6 H-Net Reviews relatively isolated example is Keely Stauter-Halst‐ 1994); and Wojciech Wrzesinski's Polskie mity ed, "Patriotic Celebrations in Austrian Poland: The polityczne XIX i XX wieku (Wroclaw: Wydawnict‐ Kosciuszko Centennial and the Formation of Peas‐ wo Universytetu Wroclawskiego, 1994). However, ant Nationalism," Austrian History Yearbook 25 she does not discuss them or her broader concep‐ (1994): 79-95. There are several pieces on the Pol‐ tual approach to the history and historiography of ish lands in the collections listed above, including memory. one by Stauter-Halsted. Even in Polish, there is [5]. Alon Confno, The Nation as a Local surprisingly little; Dabrowski lists relevant works Metaphor: Wuerttemberg, Imperial Germany, and in Polish by scholars such as Adam Galos (p. 239), National Memory, 1871-1918 (Chapel Hill and and cites others throughout the text. There is, London: University of North Carolina Press, 1997). however, a large body of work on Krakow's sym‐ [6]. See in particular Brian Porter, "Who Is a bolic role (and, by implication, its centrality to Pole and Where Is Poland? Territory and Nation Polish nationhood), and Dabrowski cites many of in the Rhetoric of Polish National Democracy be‐ these in her bibliography. In English, see Jacek fore 1905," Slavic Review 51, no. 4 (Winter 1992), Purchla, Cracow in the European Core (Krakow: 639-653. International Cultural Center, 2000), a gorgeous and efusively celebratory album published to commemorate the city's 2000 designation as a Eu‐ ropean City of Culture. In Polish, see the work of Jacek Purchla, Matecznik Polski: Pozaeko‐ nomiczne czynniki rozwoju Krakowa w okesie au‐ tonomii galicyjskiej (Krakow: Wydawnictwo Znak, 1992); and Krakow: Prowincja czy metropolia? (Krakow: Universitas, 1996). Also see Zbigniew Baran, ed., Krakow: Dialog tradycji (Krakow: Wydawnictwo Znak/Miedzynarodowy Centrum Kultury, 1991); and Roza Godula, ed., Klejnoty i sekrety Krakowa (Krakow: Wydawnictwo Wawel‐ skie, 1994). [3]. In particular, Dabrowski challenges the work of Brian Porter and Jacek Purchla, cited above. [4]. Dabrowski cites numerous sources relat‐ ed to monuments, festivals and celebrations, myths, and memory; for example, Mona Ozouf's Festivals and the French Revolution (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988); Pierre Nora's Les Lieux de memoire (1984-1992), published in Eng‐ lish as Realms of Memory: Rethinking the French Past (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996); Iwona Irwin-Zarecka's more site-specifc work, Frames of Remembrance: The Dynamics of Collec‐ tive Memory (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction,

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Citation: Laurie Koloski. Review of Dabrowski, Patrice M. Commemorations and the Shaping of Modern Poland. HABSBURG, H-Net Reviews. May, 2007.

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