THE SARMATIAN REVIEW Vol. XX, No. 2 April 2000 Mr. Thaddeus Comes to America Nationality and Ethnicity in Poland-Lithuania
A panoramic view of the Vilnius Castle in 1997. Photo by John Knasas. 694 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2000 The Sarmatian Review (ISSN 1059- ing theater’s performance of Mr. Thaddeus 5872) is a triannual publication of the Polish In- From the Editor in Polish testifies to the strong sense of eth- stitute of Houston. The journal deals with Polish, The last great pastoral of European litera- nic identity among Americans of Polish Central, and Eastern European affairs, and their ture, Mr. Thaddeus, was written in 1834. implications for the United States. We specialize background. in the translation of documents. The genre of the pastoral implies a perfect Nationhood is a tight weave of mytholo- Subscription price is $15.00 per year for individu- or nearly-perfect world where human ani- gies, ideals, facts, dreams, hopes and grati- als, $21.00 for institutions and libraries ($21.00 mosities, grief and anger are manageable tude, and Mr. Thaddeus is all that. It is sec- for individuals, $27.00 for libraries overseas, air and where “all is right with the world.” As mail). The views expressed by authors of articles ond only to Henryk Sienkiewicz’s Trilogy do not necessarily represent those of the Editors the name suggests, in pastorals the place of (1884-88) in upholding and promoting or of the Polish Institute. Articles are subject to action is the rural world, and the mode of Polish nationhood. But—how many in the editing. Unsolicited manuscripts and other mate- expression is generally poetry. The pastoral audience of several hundred at the Univer- rials are not returned unless accompanied by a self- lyrics resurfaced in the Renaissance, indi- addressed and stamped envelope. Please submit sity of Saint Thomas in Houston on the night your contribution on a Macintosh disk together cating the urbanized man’s longing for ru- of performance actually reached for Mr. with a printout. Letters to the Editor can be e-mailed ral context and simplicity of thought. Thaddeus in print? All too often, lapses into to
Native trees! How much I stand in your debt. As a trifling Hunter fleeing my companions’ gibes over a poorly-aimed MR. THADDEUS (PAN TADEUSZ, 1834) Shot, how many thoughts I chased in your silent haunts, When in the wild morasses I’d sit me down on a knoll And put all thoughts of the hunt behind me: around me Adam Mickiewicz The hoary-bearded moss, crimsoned with crushed blueberry. Yonder sprawled the purple-heather’d hills all decked Translated by Christopher Adam Zakrzewski With coral chaplets—the grenadine whortleberry. Darkness All about. Overhead arched the branches like dense, Green, low-hanging clouds; while over that motionless BOOK FOUR Vault the wind wailed, moaned, howled and boomed: You trees! As old as Lithuania’s Grand Dukes; A strange, heady din! As if a tumultuous ocean Trees of Bialoviezha, Svitez, Ponary, Kushelevo! Hung aloft. Your shade fell on the circleted heads of dread Vitenes A ruined city sprawls below: And mighty Mindove; and Gedymin too, when by a hunter’s fire Here like a massive pile looms an uprooted oak; On the Ponary heights he lay sprawled on a bear hide Like shattered walls and pillars the branch-bristling trunks And listened to the strains of wise Lizdeyko’s song; And decaying beams lean on it—all hedgerow’d with grassy When lulled by the sight of Viliya’s stream and Vileyka’s Ramparts. A terrible prospect beyond this bulwark! There Purl, he dreamed of the iron wolf; then roused himself Lurk the lords of the forest, boar, bear and wolf; At the gods’ clear behest and built the city of Vilna Half-gnawed bones of some unwary guest lie scattered That broods in the forests like a wolf among the bison, boar, At the gateway to their haunts. Now and then something And bear. From that city sprang, as from Rome’s she-wolf, Resembling two water jets starts up in the foliage: Keystut and Algirdas, and the entire Algirdas clan: great A hart’s beamed antlers. Then streaks away the golden Huntsmen all, vaunted knights no less—equally Beast like a ray of sun that penetrates the forest and fades. Unswerving in pursuit of foe and wild game. The lure Of the hunt afforded us a presentiment of future times: Stillness reigns again. A woodpecker bores lightly Always Lithuania would stand in need of her timber and iron. Into a spruce, then flutters off, lost to sight, yet still That busy bill betrays his presence: so a child You forests! The last to stalk your game was the last to sport At hide-and-seek spirits himself away then beckons Vytautas’s cap, last blithesome warrior of Jagellon From his covert. Hard by, a squirrel gnaws at a nut Blood—Lithuania’s last crowned monarch of the chase. Between his paws, tail overhanging his brow Ancestral trees! If Heaven ever grants me the boon Like a cuirassier’s helmet plume. Unhampered darts Of returning there, old friends, shall I find you yet? His frisky eye, spies a stranger, then quick as a flash Blossom you still? You, among whom I rambled Skips that prancer of the wood from twig to twig, and slips As a boy. Mighty Baublis lives?—whose great cavern Into an unseen niche like a dryad returning to her native The ages hollowed out; so spacious it could comfortably Tree. Silence. House a banquet table and a dozen dinner guests. Stirs a shaken branch. A face Prettier than a rowan parts a tangle of rowan-fronds: Mendog’s grove flourishes still by the parish church? A village maid come to gather nuts and berries; And yonder in Ukraine, that linden tree still stands Freshly picked whortleberries redder than her lips By the Holovynsky manor on the banks of the Ros?— She offers from her chip basket. A youth walks along- With a crown so wide five score swains and maids Side; he bends the hazel bough, she clutches randomly Could dance with ease in pairs beneath its spreading shade. At the cascading filberts. . .
You shrines! How many fall each year to the merchant’s ax The sounds of bugle and hunting hounds rend the air: Or the Muscovite’s felling blade? No nook remains for woodland Evidently the chase drawing near. Terrified, they hightail it Songbird or minstrel to whom your leafage stands as dear Into the thicket and vanish from sight like woodland gods. As to the fowl. Czarnolas’s linden: did it not sough in sympathy With Jan’s lyre-strings, inspiring him with a multitude of rhymes? Soplitsovo was all astir; yet neither din of hound And what marvels crooned that garrulous oak to the Cossack bard! Nor neighing charger, creaking chaise or blaring horn 698 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2000
Could rouse Thaddeus. Sound as a burrow’d marmot he slept His gnawed fingers, he bellowed: “Serves me bloody right!” On the straw where he’d tumbled fully-dressed that night. None of the youths gave their slumbering companion a thought: Alive with shouts just moments ago, the courtyard All were too busy dashing about and carrying out orders. Stood empty now: still as a burial ground. The entire Hunting party had departed for the fields. Thaddeus strained On he snored. Through a heart-shaped opening in the shutter His ear, cupping his hand trumpet-fashion: from far off A shaft of fiery sunlight pierced the gloom and fell Yells and bugle flourishes came wafting on the breeze. Square on his brow. Craving more shut-eye, he tossed about, Avoiding the glare. An urgent tapping sound awoke him. Already saddled in the stable stood his horse. Seizing A merry awakening! Blithe as a bird he felt. Light A flint-lock, he mounted up and galloped like the deuce His breathing. Blissfully he smiled to himself then blushed Toward the inns by the chapel—the huntsmen’s appointed At the recollection of his nocturnal tryst. He heaved a sigh; Meeting-place. Pounded his heart. . . Two public houses tilted Head to head on either side of the roadway, casements He looked through the little opening: marvel of marvels! Glaring at one another like mortal enemies. The older one A pair of shining eyes gleamed through that heart— By rights was deeded to the castle owner; the newer one Wide open, as happens when peering into the gloom To spite the castle was built by the Judge himself. Over From the broad daylight. He spied a small hand, like a fan The one, like a hereditary lord, Gervasius held sway; Held sideways screening the eyes from daylight’s glare: Protasius occupied the seat of honor in the other. With dawn-like translucence glowed those delicate fingers Turned toward the rosy light. Two curious lips Nothing particularly striking about the newer house. He saw—set slightly apart, through which tiny teeth The older one was built on an ancient design contrived Sparkled like pearls among the coral; and though screened By Tyrian craftsmen and then dispersed abroad by the Jews— By that rosy hand, the face flamed like a fulgent rose. A species of architecture quite unknown to foreign builders: We inherit it from the Jews. From the front it resembled a ship, Lying on his back right under the window, concealed From the back, a temple: a veritable coffer like Noah’s In the gloom, he marveled at the apparition. Almost touch it Four-faceted ark which today goes by the vulgar name He could; was it real, a dream? One of those sweet, radiant, Of ‘stable’. All manner of beasts were stalled within: Childish faces we recall from our dreams of innocence? Oxen, horses, cows, bearded billy goats; throngs The little face peered down: a shudder of terror Of fowl roosted in the loft, reptiles by the pair, and insects And joy racked him as all too clearly he recognized Too. The ship’s stern reared like a marvelous temple The short, golden locks wound in silvery, pod-like Recalling to mind that great mansion of Solomon’s which Hiram’s Curl-papers, all a-shimmer like haloes on sainted heads. Pioneers, skilled in the joiner’s craft, raised on Mount Zion. The Jewish schools still imitate the design just as road-house He started: instantly the vision fled, spooked And stable are modeled on these schools. The upturned, lath By the noise. Would it reappear? Alas, it didn’t. And straw roof was pointed and askew like a Hebrew’s tattered Again three taps he heard, and the words: “Get up, sir, cap. It’s time for the hunt; you’ve overslept.” He sprang up. From under the peak protruded the gallery’s parapet, resting With both hands he flung open the hinged shutters On a row of close-set wooden pillars, architectural prodigies With such force they crashed against the wall on either In their solidity since they were half-decayed and mounted aslant Side. Leaping out of the window, he looked around, Like Pisa’s tower. Not at all according to the Greek model: Bewildered, bemused. Nothing in sight, not a trace No hint of plinth or capital. Semi-circular wooden arches Of anyone. Hard by the window stood the garden rails Surmounted the columns in the Gothic style, hand-crafted All wreathed with hops leaves and blossoms. A-tremble Designs embellishing the surface. No etching-needle They were: stirred by a feather-light hand, or was it Or chisel fashioned these: deftly incised with the hatchet blade! The breeze? Long he gazed at them. Unwilling to venture All curved like the branches of the Sabbath candelabrum. Into the garden, he leaned against the rails, shot his eyes Aloft and fingered his lips: no rash word would From the tips of the arches swung little knobs, reminiscent Break his train of thought. He smote his brow as if Of the discs dangling from the Hebrew’s reverent head Rousing the old memories; finally, drawing blood from (zizith is their name for it). All in all, that tottering, lopsided April 2000 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 699
Hostelry brought to mind the Jew who nods A welcome guest at every household—and everyone’s private His head in prayer: the roof his cap, the unkempt thatch Mentor. He knew the barges and the grain-trade: a useful thing His beard, the soiled, smoke-smeared walls his swarthy In the country. All in all, he was held in high regard Frock; the frontal wood-carvings—zizith at his brow. As an honorable Pole. He was the first to put an end The inn’s interior was partitioned like a Hebrew school: To the frequent bloody broils that raged between the two One part was crammed with longish chambers intended Road-houses: he leased the pair of them. Respected For the travelling gents and ladies. The other was a huge Alike by Horeszko partisans and the Judge’s men, he Hall. Stretched like a centipede alongside each wall Alone could keep a rein on the grim Horeszko Warden Was a narrow wooden table. Short-legged benches stood by: And the scrappy Sergeant-at-Arms. In Yankel’s presence both Bench to table like urchin to his father. Held in check the engines of their ancient grudge: Hunched in rows Gervasius held back his arm, Protasius, his tongue. Thereon sat yokels, village wenches and the petty gentry-folk; Only the steward sat alone. After morning Mass at the chapel— Gervasius was absent today: he’d gone on the hunt. This being Sunday—they’d all tripped over to Yankel’s Unwilling to see the tender, guileless Count venture For a tipple and some fellowship. The bar-mistress hovered Alone on a chase so great and arduous, he’d chosen to ride Over the patrons with the vodka bottle; hoary spirits At his side, accompanying him as his bodyguard and advisor. Foamed in every cup. Amid the throng stood the publican, Draped in a long, silver-clasped sarafan; one hand thrust Today the Warden’s seat was occupied by the friar; between Behind a sash of black silk, the other stroking his solemn Two settles he sat, in the corner farthest from the door Grizzled beard. With darting eye he’d move about, Where the Orthodox place their holy icons. Yankel had seated Serving none yet barking orders, greeting the newcomers, Him there; clearly he held the Bernardine in high esteem. Broaching talk with the seated guests, settling quarrels. No sooner he’d observe the friar’s ebbing cup than he’d run Up and have it topped up with last summer’s mead; Yankel was an old Jew, universally respected for his probity. Rumor had it they’d chummed around in their youth abroad. In all the years he’d kept the inn no peasant or squire Father Grubb paid nocturnal visits to the tavern and held Had lodged a complaint at the manor; nor was there cause: Secret commerce with the Jew on various pressing matters; His drinks were good and choice; he kept a strict account In contraband, some thought, but this merited no credence. Yet cheated no one, was not averse to mirth yet brooked No drunkenness. A great lover of parties he was, catering Hunched over the table sat Grubb, holding forth quietly. To christenings and weddings; and every Sunday he invited A throng of gentry-folk encompassed him, straining their ears, Over the village capella with their bull fiddle and doodlesack. Noses bent over his snuff-box; each took a pinch, Then barked our petty squirearchy like a battery of mortars. He knew music; indeed he was renowned for his musicianship. With his national instrument, the dulcimer, he used to make “Reverendissime!” snorted Skoluba, “Now there’s stuff The rounds of the rustic seats, and astonish all with his playing That goes straight to the tip of your head. Never in all And trained, mellifluous voice. Though a Jew, he spoke My born days has this beezer of mine sniffed the like!” Decent Polish and was especially fond of Polish folk-songs: Here he stroked his long nose and sneezed again. Scads of them he brought back from his trips across “Genuine Bernardine snuff! Of Kovno provenance no doubt, The Niemen river: the Galician kolomiya, the Varsovian mazurka. World-famous for her snuff and mead. I was in that town It was noised about the entire countryside—though how reliable Once; when was it now?” “Good health!” broke in Grubb, The rumor is uncertain—that it was he who first brought back “Good health to you all, my noble sirs; as to the snuff, well, To the district and spread abroad that song now celebrated It comes from farther afield than our friend Skoluba supposes: Around the world, the one our legions’ trumpets first pealed From Jasna Gora—is more like it. The Pauline Fathers grind To the Italians on Ausonian fields. The art of singing pays This tobacco in Czestochova where stands the wonder-working In Lithuania. Wealth and glory accrue from it. Yankel made a mint. Icon of our Blessed Mother, Queen of the Polish Crown, Cloyed at last with celebrity and profit, he hung up Grand Duchess of Lithuania as she’s called even now. His sweet-stringed dulcimer, settled down with his youngsters Doesn’t the royal crown still repose on her head? At the inn and busied himself serving drinks, while acting How come then a schismatic Tsar rules over the Duchy of Litva?” As rabbi’s assistant in the neighboring town. He was 700 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2000
“Czestochova, you say?” struck up Vilbik, “I went there He’s had!” “Not the Dombroski?” they queried, wide-eyed. To make my confession, on a pilgrimage, some thirty years ago. “The very one, the general. I was in his camp when he took Is it true the Frenchman lodges there now; is out to raze Gdansk The church and rifle its treasury? The Lithuanian Courier claims From the Kraut. He had something to write. Afraid of dropping off, It’s so.” “Not true!” countered the friar, “His Majesty He took a pinch and sneezed; then clapping me on the shoulder Napoleon’s your exemplary Catholic; our Pontiff anointed him Twice, ‘Father Grubb,” he said, “if all goes well, we’ll meet Himself. They see eye to eye, and together they’re restoring In Lithuania before the year is through. Be sure her sons The faith of France which has admittedly decayed of late. It’s true Are there to greet me with this Czestochova snuff, no other.’” Czestochova’s friars have handed over a good deal Of their silver to the nation’s treasury, for the sake our homeland; Such amazement, such joy the friar’s words aroused, The Lord Himself decrees it! His altars have always served That for a moment the entire boisterous assembly fell silent; As Poland’s bursary. A hundred thousand patriots—soon Soon half audible whispers arose: “Snuff, he says? There’ll be more—stand under arms in the Duchy of Warsaw; From Poland? Czestochova? Dombroski? From Italian Who’s to pay for it, eh? I say it’s you, the citizens of Lithuania! Lands?” Till at last thought fused with thought, Why, now you’re merely dropping coins into Moscow’s coffers.” Word with word, and all, as though on a cue, struck up In unison, “Dombroski!” Melded by that single roar “Deuce take it!” roared Vilbik, “Even that they take They fell in a common embrace: Crimean Count clasped By main and might” “Reverend Father!” spoke up a meek The rustic; Coronet, the Cross; Rose, the Griffin; Griffin, Little rustic, scratching and bobbing his head at the priest, The Galleon. All was consigned to oblivion, even the friar. “The gentry folk suffer, ay, but not half as bad as us; why One clamorous refrain was all you could hear: “Holla! They fleece us to the bone.” “Silence, you bumpkin!” bawled Bring vodka, mead and wine!” Skoluba, “You have it easier; you yokels are used to being Grubb let them warble on; Skinned like eels, but we born-and-bred gentry-folk, Finally, in a bid to cut them off, he took up his snuff box We esquires, I say, are accustomed to our golden liberty! In both hands and broke up their anthem with a sneeze. Yes, brothers, in the old days ‘the gentlemen on his croft...’ Before they could tune up again, he hastened to speak: (“We know, came the chorus, ‘struts with his cap undoffed!’”) “You find my snuff praiseworthy, eh, noble sirs?” These days they impugn our pedigree and make us frisk But take a look at the box and see what goes on inside.” Through papers to prove our noble birth.” “Easier for you, With a handkerchief he wiped the dust from inside the lid Sir!” yelled Yurakha, “your sires were but ennobled swains. To reveal what looked like a cluster of flies: a minuscule painted But I spring from princes! Futile to search for a patent; Army. Striding a charger in the center big as a beetle, God only knows when we were nobled! Might as well Sat a man, evidently the commander; one hand Tell the Muscovite to go into the forest and ask the oak Tugging at the reins, as though rearing the steed skyward, Who granted it a patent to lord it over the shrubs.” The other hand raised to his nose. “Now, he said, “Preen your feathers as you like, O Prince,” broke in Zagiel, Look well at that awesome figure; guess whose? “But there’s more than one house that bears a coronet.” All peered at it, intrigued. “I’ll give you a clue: a great man, “Your bearings show a cross,” cried Podhayski, “a veiled An Emperor, but not of the Muscovites; you’ll never see Allusion to the fact that a converted Jew graces your pedigree.” Their tsars snorting snuff.” “A great man in a capote? “Lies!” roared Birbasz, “I’m from a line of Crimean counts Bellowed Cydzik, “Great people strut about in gold; Yet my noble crest bears crosses over a galleon, full-sailed.” Take your Russkies, reverend, their plainest general glitters “The White Rose,” cried Mickiewicz, “crowned, on a field Gold like a saffroned pike.” “Nay,” broke in Rymsza, Of gold: now that’s a princely crest! Consult your Stryjkowski; “As a lad I saw Kosciuszko, our nation’s commander-in-chief; You’ll find he makes frequent mention of it.” A great man he was, yet he went about in a peasant’s caftan, Whereupon A czamara, that is.” “Czamara my eye, sir!” snorted A great murmuring broke out throughout the tavern. Vilbik, “it’s called a taratatka.” “A czamara comes with braids Grubb turned to his snuff-box. He proffered a pinch to each; And fringes,” yelled Mickiewicz, “your taratatka’s all plain In no time at all the clamor ceased as out of courtesy And smooth.” Right away quarrels broke out on the various They inhaled a few pungent grains and fired off a salvo. Cuts of frock and coat. . . Profiting from this interlude, the Bernardine resumed: “I tell you, many a great nostril has sniffed from this box; Seeing the talk so disperse, the artful Grubb coaxed General Dombroski’s for one. Four snorts I believe The throng back to the campfire—to his snuff box. April 2000 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 701
Once more he handed round his snuff. They sneezed, “Be sure to spend the night at Niehrymov, Father, called Wished each other health, and the friar resumed his theme: The steward, the Esquire Ensign will be delighted; why it’s an old “When Emperor Napoleon takes his snuff, pinch by pinch, Saw in Lithuania, ‘Niehrymov will skim off its cream for its clerics!’” It’s a sure sign the battle’s progressing well. Take Austerlitz, “And drop in on us, if you will,” said Zubkoski, “you can count For instance: the French stand unflinching by their field cannons. On a roll of linen, a firkin of butter, a fatted calf A swarm of Muscovites presses in on them. The Emperor Or sheep: remember the saying, ‘Zubkovo’s your depot!’” Watches in silence. Each salvo of the Frenchmen’s canons “And don’t forget us!” roared Skoluba. “Or us,” cried Cuts a broad swath through Ivan’s regiments. Regiment Terayevich,‘No Bernardine but greased his gills at Putsevich.’” After regiment gallops up and tumbles from its saddles. With such pleas and pledges the gentry plied the begging As each one falls, the Emperor takes a snort. Finally, Friar as he made his steady way to the tavern door. Alexander, his brother Constantine and the German Emperor Franz hightail it from the field; and Bonaparte, seeing the battle It was Thaddeus he’d seen from the window: riding full-tilt In his pocket, laughs out and flicks the snuff from his fingers. Down the high-road; hatless, head bent low, pale So if any of you fellows present here gets to serve in the Emperor’s And sullen-faced. Spur and crop he applied mercilessly. Grande Armée, be sure to bear this peculiarity in mind.” Alarmed by this sight, Grubb gathered up his cassock And made smartly for the forest brooding on the horizon. “Alas, dear Father,” called out Skoluba, “when will this be!? All those feast days in the year, and each time they promise Who has searched the soundless depths of Litva’s forests The French will come. We strain our eyes and stare until To their innermost recesses, their very vitals? The fisherman We blink, and still the Muscovite grips us firmly by the neck; From his shore never plumbs the bowels of the deep; the hunter Before the sun rises, as the saw goes, the dew will dim our eyes.” Skirting Litva’s wilderness knows but its outward form And face. Unknown to him the inner secrets of its heart; “Come, sir,” replied the Bernardine, “grousing’s for grannies; What happens there is known to fairy-tale alone. Let the Jew stand around, arms folded, till somebody Arrives and knocks at his tavern door. For Bonaparte Plunge into those forests and close-knit thickets, you strike It’s no trick to trounce old Ivan Ivanych, why he’s tanned Up against a massive palisade of boles, stumps and roots. The Swabian’s hide three times already; hasn’t he Fortifications abound: quaking bogs, a thousand streams, Drubbed the Prussian and flung the English back across Dense undergrowth, ant-heaps, wasps’ and hornets’ nests, The sea? Oh he’ll attend to Ivan all right. But what’ll And writhing snakes. Those who by superhuman efforts Come of it, my good sir? That’s what I want to know: Brave this barrage and penetrate deeper, run into still greater So Lithuania’s squires mount up and take up the sword Peril: small pools lurk underfoot like wolves’ lairs When there’s no one left to fight. Having done it all himself, Half overgrown with grass, unfathomably deep (they say Napoleon’s sure to say: ‘I got along without you, sirs, Devils lurk there). Their rusty, blood-stained waters So who are you?’ Not enough, sirs, to expect the guest and send Gleam with a lurid sheen as fetid vapors billow up Out invitations; you have to summon your servants and carry From their depths: a pestilence stripping the compassing tress Out the tables. Before the feast you have to clean the house, Of leaf and bark. So, with their bare, stunted, wormy, Clean the house; I say it again, my hearts, clean the house!” Moss-matted branches, and bearded trunks hunchbacked By grotesque fungi, stand these trees about the pools— There was silence. Then murmurs arose: “Clean the house? A huddling coven of witches boiling a corpse in a caldron. How’s that? What does he mean by that? they said, We’ll do anything, reverend father, we’re prepared for anything, Futile—for foot and eye alike—to venture further: Only be so good as to make your meaning clear.” A perpetual, all-enveloping mist rises out Of the quaking bogs. Beyond these vapors, they say, lie Just then Grubb looked out of the window and signaled Fair, fertile regions: the veritable capital city For silence. Something curious seized his attention: he stuck Of the plant and animal kingdom. Seeds of all the trees His head out of the window then rose to his feet, saying: And herbs are laid up in store there; from these seeds “No time now, we’ll have more to say on this later. Sprout all the species of the world. Like Noah’s ark the city Tomorrow I’ve business in town, sirs; I’ll be dropping in on each Holds at least a brood-pair of every race of beast. Of you on the way, counting on your largesse for alms.” In the very heart (the fable goes) stand the palaces of 702 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2000
The ancient Auroch, Bison and Bear, emperors of the forest; Foolish bear! Had you but remained in the heartland, never Like watchful ministers-of-state, the Fleet-eyed Lynx Would Grechekha Woyski have learned of your whereabouts; And glutton Wolverine roost in the neighboring trees; The scent of the apiaries lured you?— a yen for ripe oats? Boar, Wolf, horned Elk, the feudal vassals, Who knows! You strayed out to the forest’s edge Dwell in the outlying fiefdoms, while overhead soar Where the trees grow sparser, and there the forester discovered The courtly talebearers, the wild Eagle and Falcon, Your presence. Right away he dispatched his cunning spies, Living off the banquet tables of their liege lords. The beaters, to reconnoitre your sleeping and grazing grounds. Grechekha has marshaled his ranks, cut off your retreat. Concealed within the wilderness, unseen by the world, These archetypal pairs of beasts disperse their offspring Just now Thaddeus had learned that but a brief while ago As settlers abroad, while they live out their lives in peace The bloodhounds had plunged into the fathomless forest. And contentment. No side- or firearm smites them down; The old meet a natural death. They even have their own Silence.—To no avail the hunters strain their ears; Burial ground where, nearing death, the fowl reposes In vain each listens to the reigning silence as though His feathers, the four-legged beast, his fur. So, Bruin, Spellbound by the most eloquent speech. Long they stand, Whose molars lack strength to grind his sustaining victuals, Stock-still, expectant: the music of the wilderness is all The grizzled roebuck scarcely able to stir his legs, They hear. The hounds plunge like divers through the bush; The greybeard hare, his blood congealing in his veins, The marksmen watch Grechekha, their twin-barrels trained The raven, now hoary of quill, the falcon now failing On the forest. He stoops, puts his ear to the ground: as friends Of eye, the eagle, his ancient beak bent like a trigger- Of an ailing loved one strive to read the verdict of life Guard, closed forever, unable to gorge his throat— Or death in the physician’s face, so the shooters, trusting All of them head for the cemetery. Even the lesser beasts, In the Woyski’s skill, fix on him their anxious gaze. Sick or maimed, return to sleep in their grandsires’ haunts; “He’s here! He’s here!” he whispers softly, leaping to his feet, That is why no trace of dead beasts’ bones is ever “He’s coming this way!” The others strain their ears— Found in the places frequented by men. Now all’s within earshot: a hound bawls out, then two, It’s noised about Then twenty; all at once the entire scattered pack That the animals in this metropolis enjoy self-government; Takes up the scent, gives tongue, and is hot on the trace. Thence spring their genial customs. Unspoiled as yet A chorus of howls and bayings! Not the long, drawn-out They are by human civilization—ignorant of the laws Clamor of hounds on the trace of a hare or hind or fox Of property which embroil our world. No dueling, But a frequent, furious, staccato yelping. No longer No art of war they know. As lived the sires in paradise, On the scent of distant quarry, the hounds hunt by sight. So live today their scions: tame and wild—all The tumult stops—they have him! The din picks up afresh: Thrive in peace and harmony. No fang, no horn wreaks Howls!—the beast fights back, and evidently wreaks harm; Mutual harm. And even were an unarmed man, Amid that canine clamor, more and more whines To stumble on those parts, scatheless he’d pass through And whimpers of a mortally-clawed hound reach the ear. Their midst: the wild beasts would gaze on him with the same Look of awe as when, on that final, sixth day of creation, Our Nimrods stand their ground, each with his gun at the ready: Their grandsires in the Garden gazed on Adam—before the Fall Torso tensed like a bow, head bent toward to the forest. Set them at strife. Happily, men never stray But they cannot resist the urge: one after another deserts Into those haunts: Toil, Care and Death bar the way. His post and darts into the bush; all eager to be the first To stand down the quarry. Futile Grechekha’s admonitions! Yet it is known to happen that hounds, hot on the trace, In vain on horseback he circles the positions with threats Rashly blunder through the pitfalls, bogs and moss. That the next to leave his post, squire or simple peasant, Stricken by the sight of these dread regions, they flee, mad- Will feel the lash on his shoulders—all to no avail. Eyed, yelping, from that place; and long afterwards, under Despite his order, more shooters break ranks for the woods; The master’s gentle hand, tremble, bristling at his feet. Three guns boom out at once, then an entire cannonade, Till over the din of the shooting, filling the entire forest, In the sportsman’s tongue, this inner sanctum of the forest, The roar of the bear resounds. An awesome roar!—of pain, Uncharted by men, goes by the name of heartland. Of fury and despair—followed by a caterwaul of baying hounds, Hunters’ shouts and beaters’ horns. More shooters dash April 2000 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 703
Into the forest, others cock their pieces, all of them in transports Gust it carried the music echoing into the wilderness. Of delight. All, that is, except for a head-shaking Grechekha— “Bloody idiots!” he shouts, “They’ve let ’im slip the sweep.” The huntsmen fell silent. Marveled the stalkers at the strength, One way run the beaters and stalkers to head off the beast The purity, the peculiar harmony of the song. Once again From wooded ground; while Bruin, frightened by the throng The old man regaled the hunt with all the art for which Of men and dogs, doublebacks to terrain less sedulously He’d earned celebrity in the forests of bygone days. Guarded—toward the fields now deserted by the marksmen; In a trice he filled, quickened the stands of beech and oak: Apart from a clutch of beaters stationed there, only As if the kennel gate he’d flung open and commenced Three shooters remain: Grechekha, Thaddeus and the Count. The hunt. His horn concert embraced the history of the chase: First a sprightly flourish: reveille and the call to sport; Sparser here the trees; from deep within they hear Then a series of whining sounds: the bay of hounds— A roar and the sound of cracking timber; then out Followed by staccato booming notes: the crack of carbines. Of the brushwood, like a bolt from the clouds, bursts the bear. All around him race the hounds, harassing him, tearing He stopped—yet the horn remained at his lips; it seemed to all At his heels. He rears up on his hind legs and gazes about, He was winding still; not so, it was the echoes responding. Terrifying his foe with his roars. Tree-roots he rips up With his forepaws; scorched stumps, sunken boulders He blew again. You’d swear the horn were changing shapes, He grasps and hurls at man and beast. Finally he smites Growing thinner and thicker, mimicking the call of the beasts; Down a tree, and brandishing it left and right like a bludgeon, Now craning like the wolf’s neck, howling fiendishly, Makes straight for the beaters’ remnant guard— Thaddeus and Now swelling and roaring like the brown bear’s gorge; the Count. Then rending the air with the bison’s bawl... Unflinching they stand their ground, train their flint-locks On the advancing beast . So a brace of lightning rods He stopped—yet the horn remained at his lips; it seemed to all Points toward the bosom of a rumbling cloud. Then— He was winding still; not so, it was the echoes responding. O guileless youth!—simultaneously they drop their cocks; Both pieces smoke at once. They miss. The bear springs up; The oak picks up that masterpiece of horn-blowing, bole Two pairs of hands seize a single pike-staff speared To bole repeats it, beech to beech... To the ground. They wrestle for it, look up, see the monstrous Red snout with its double tier of flashing fangs. Grechekha winds again: you’d swear the horn contained A great clawed paw sweeps down on their heads: they pale, A hundred horns. You hear the tumult of the chase, cries Jump back, and bolt for the sparse bush, the beast on their tail. Of wrath and alarm, huntsman, pack and quarry; till finally Up he rears, he lunges—swipes wide, then bounds up He lofts the horn: the triumphant paean smites the clouds. And rears again: his swarthy paw takes aim at the Count’s Blond scalp. He would have dashed the brains from his skull, He stopped—yet the horn remained at his lips; it seemed to all Like hat from head—right there on the spot—had not Bolesta He was winding still; not so, it was the echoes responding. And the Assessor then sprung up from the flanks. Gervasius Was ahead of them, five score paces away; the Bernadine friar As many trees that stand, so many horns fill Close by, weaponless—all three fired in the same instant The forest; as choir to choir, so tree to tree relays As though on command. The bear vaulted up like a hare The hymn: ever broader, ever higher soars that music; Before a pack of hounds, and crashed headlong to the ground, Ever softer, ever purer, ever more perfect, until at last His bloody carcass cartwheeling right by the Count, bowling him It melts in the regions of the air at the very gates of paradise! Off his feet. Still he roared, strove to rise, when horrid-hackled Constable and implacable Mouthpiece pounced on him. Grechekha withdrew both hands from the horn; it dropped And swung by its leather thong. All radiant, his face swollen, Then Grechekha grasped his leather-strapped buffalo horn: He stood like one inspired, striving still to catch the final Long it was, all coiled and patterned like a boa constrictor; Fading tones. Then rang out a thunderous applause, With both hands he pressed it to his lips, swelled his cheeks A thousand vivats and felicitations from as many throats. Balloon-like—eyes bloodshot, half-closed—he drew in His belly to half its size; then filling his lungs with its full Gradually the tumult subsided. Turned the eyes of the hunt Reserves of wind, winded the horn: on a gale’s irresistible To the bear’s enormous fresh carcass. There it lay, 704 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2000
Blood-bespattered and pierced with shot; the matted torso Men, gentryfolk since time out of mind. On opposite banks Sunk and entangled in the dense herbage. Spread-eagled Of the Vileyka they lived: one called Domeyko, the other, He lay there, still breathing, blood streaming from his nostrils; Doveyko. Stirred his eyelids still, but the head no longer moved; In the same instant they’d fired on a she-bear. Who felled her The Chamberlain’s English bulldogs clung to his throat, Was hard to fathom. What an awful broil ensued! They vowed Constable at his left, and looming on his right, Mouthpiece, To face off across the bear-skin: now there’s gentryfolk Sucking at his jugular, her gorge choking on the black gore. For you—all but barrel to barrel! The duel set the neighborhood Astir; songs were sung on it in my day. I was their second. Seneschal Grechekha commanded an iron bar be inserted How it transpired, I’ll tell all from beginning to end.” Between their teeth, and the vicious jaws prized open. With their rifle-butts they rolled the carcass over But before Grechekha could begin, Gervasius settled the matter. And once again a triple “vivat!” smote the clouds. On carefully circling the bear, he drew out his hunting-knife “Y’see?” cried the Assessor, twirling his fire-arm And cut the snout in two. At the rear of the skull he sliced By the barrel, “Y’see, my little piece? Bully for us! Open the lobes, found and extracted a bullet; then wiping it There, my bonny piece, songbird that you are. Deuce, On his frock, measured the gauge and applied the ball to his flint- Didn’t we show ’em! Nothing new of course: she’s never Lock. On the flat of his palm he held out the projectile: “Gentle Been known to let fly a stray—a gift from Prince Sanguszko men, Himself!” He showed them his gun: small indeed but of exquisite He said, “This was fired by neither one of you: out of this Workmanship. He was listing its virtues when Bolesta, wiping Single-barreled Horeszko piece it sped—here he raised The sweat from his brow, broke in: “Hold on a sec, His ancient firearm all wound in cord—yet it was not I Here’s my account: right on the bear’s tail I was That fired it! Oh, that needed courage! I shudder to recall it: When Grechekha yells out: ‘Stand where you are!’ Now I ask you, My eyes grew dim at the sight of the two young gentlemen How could I stand there? The bear was making for the open field Racing towards me—the bear right on their tail, just inches from At a rare bat. You’d swear he was a rabbit. Steadily forging Milordling’s head; the very thought of it: the last of the Ahead he was, while I was running out of steam Horeszkos!— And falling behind. Not a hope of catching up. Then I glance Albeit on the distaff side. Jesus, Mary!—I yelled; and the angels To my right: blowed if he isn’t pelting back through the thinning Sent the Bernadine to my aid. The good friar has put us all Bush. I draw a bead on him, ‘Freeze, Bruin!’ I say To shame. Brave priest! As I trembled there, not daring to pull To myself, and basta!—dead as a doornail he lies. Noble The trigger, he grabbed the piece from my hand, aimed and fired. Piece! A genuine Sagalasovka my gun is; take a look Imagine shooting between two heads—at a hundred paces!— At this here inscription: ‘Sagalas London à Balabanovka’. Unerringly! Into his very jaws. Ay, there’s dentistry for you! (A famous Polish gunsmith made his home there: he fashioned Polish guns but chose to embellish them in the English style.)” Gentlemen! Long I’ve lived and only one man seen That could pull off such a stunt: a man once famous among us “Bears, shmers!“ snorted the Assessor, “Dammit all, man, For the number of his duels, one capable of sniping the heel You’d have us believe you killed him? Enough of your ravings.” Off a lady’s slipper, that lout of louts, infamous in an age “Listen, you,” retorted Bolesta, “this ain’t your police inquiry, Of fame—Jack, vulgo, the Whisker!—surname better It’s a hunt: and every sportsman here I take for a witness.” Left unsaid. No more bear-chasing for him: I’ll bet My bottom thaler that knave now roasts in Hell—right up A fierce quarrel erupts, with part of the throng taking To his whiskers. Thank heavens for the priest! Two men’s The Assessor’s side, another faction siding with Bolesta. Lives he saved, maybe three: I am not given to bragging, None gave a thought to Gervasius; all were running up But had the last scion of Horeszko blood fallen to those jaws, From the flanks—too busy to notice what was taking place Gervasius late-lamented would be, the bear gnawing In front. Grechekha struck up: “Now here at least On his brittle bones. Come, Friar, we’ll drink to your health!” Is grounds for an affair of honor: no mere jack-rabbit this; A bear’s worth seeking satisfaction over: sabre, pistol— In vain they sought out the priest. All they learned was this: Take your pick. Your quarrel’s hard to settle, so according That after felling the bear, he’d lingered for a while, run To our ancient custom and usage we’ll let you to fight a duel. Up to Thaddeus and the Count, then seeing them both safe And sound, raised his eyes heavenward, muttered a prayer, “I recall in my day there were two neighbors, both upstanding And darted off like a hunted hind into the open fields. April 2000 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 705
Meanwhile bracken, dry twigs and stumps were piled up To relieve him of the task had been his aim. Such were the nettling In a heap at the Seneschal’s bidding: a blaze erupts, a greyish Gibes they exchanged amid the chatter and yelling of the cavalcade. Pine of smoke sprouts up, spreading out like a baldachin; Now stands a trestlework of pike-staves over the fire, broad- Grechekha the Seneschal rode in their midst. More jubilant Bellied copper kettles hang from the shafts; horsecarts Than ever was our worthy gaffer—and talked a blue streak. Disgorge their store of flour, bread, roasts and joints. Seeking to divert them and heal the breach, he resumed his tale Of Domeyko & Doveyko: “Mr. Assessor, if I urged you to a duel The Judge unlocked a cavernous coffer containing rows With Bolesta here, don’t think I’m set on seeing spilt blood; Of upright white-headed flasks. The largest crystalline bottle God forbid! Diversion was my purpose. A species of comedy He selected (a present from the friar himself)—Gdansk vodka! I had in mind: to revive a contrivance of mine of forty The cherished spirits of Poles: “Long live Gdansk!” he cried, Years ago—O what a beauty! You’re still young Raising the vessel, “The city was ours once; soon may she be And wouldn’t remember it, but in my day it caused quite a stir— Ours again!” And he decanted the silvery liquor by turns From our forests here—clear to Polesie’s wilderness. Until its gold-leaf dregs dripped and sparkled in the sun. “All Doveyko’s and Domeyko’s strife stemmed, strangely Bigos was on the boil; hard to express in words the wondrous Enough, from the rather awkward similarity of their surnames. Taste, the hue and gusty aroma of the huntsman’s stew. When canvassing for Domeyko during the local councils his Words are clanging cymbals, rhymes but serried sounds; backers Their substance the townsman’s belly will never plumb. Whispered, ‘Vote for Doveyko!’ The squire, not hearing right, To savor Litva’s songs and victuals one needs robust Would cast his ballot for Domeyko. When Marshal Rupeyko Health, country life and the stimulation of the hunt. Raised his banquet toast, “Vivat Doveyko!’ some would Chorus, ‘Domeyko!’ while those in the middle could never Yet even without such seasonings bigos is no ordinary dish: Make it out; the more so as table-talk is less than articulate. Of the finest vegetables it’s skillfully prepared. Choucroute’s The base of it, fine and tart à la polonaise, so toothy “It got still worse: in Vilna once, some squire—soûl comme As the saying goes, it makes its own way to your lips; Un Polonais, as they say —received two slashes in a brawl Locked within a boiler, it simmers and broods over the choicest With Domeyko. Quite by chance, on returning home from Vilna, Morsels of game meat until every ounce of living essence This here squire runs into Doveyko on the ferry-boat; so there Is coaxed out; till the steam spouts from the vessel’s rim, They are, sailing on the same craft down the Vileyka. And the ambient air becomes steeped with its exquisite odors. ‘Who’s that?’ he asks a neighbor—‘Doveyko’ he’s told; Whereupon he whips his rapier from under his fur-lined mantle: The bigos is ready! Armed with spoons the hunters peal Slash! slash!— and Domeyko’s whisker drops to the deck— A triple vivat, then make for the kettles with lunges and prods: by proxy. The boom of copper, the billowing steam, the bigos evaporates “Finally, adding insult to injury, a similar confusing Like camphor and leaves no trace; only vapors belch Incident took place on the hunt. Standing side by side, Up from the kettles which yawn like extinct volcano craters. Our two namesakes fired simultaneously on a she-bear. True, she dropped dead on the spot; but her belly had already Having eaten and drunk their fill, they hoisted the bear Been riddled with a dozen rounds, and since several carried On the cart and mounted up. Mirthful and boisterous they were: Arms of similar gauge, well, you try and figure it out! All save Bolesta and the Assessor, now madder than ever. They quarreled over their firearms’ merits, the one extolling “‘Enough!’ they cried, ‘It’s time to settle the matter once His Sanguszko, the other his Sagalasovka. Just as disgruntled And for all. The Good Lord or Beelzebub joined us, what boot’s it? Were young Thaddeus and the Count: they burned with shame Time to put us asunder: two suns—one sun too over Many for this world!’ They take to their sabers and places. Their bungled shots and hasty retreat: in Litva, the disgraced Both worthy gents they were. Try as the others might Jaeger must work overtime to wipe the blot off his escutcheon. To lay the dust, all the fiercer flare up their mutual Menacings. They change their choice of arms: from swords The Count insisted he was first to reach the spear; Thaddeus To pistols now. ‘Too close!’—we yell. To spite us all Had prevented him from facing the bear. The other claimed They vow to stand off across the outstretched bear-skin. He was stronger and more skilled at wielding the heavy pike— Can you believe it? Why that’s all but point-blank— 706 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2000
Certain death!—and bloody good shots they were too! Drooping, tails cleaving to their bellies. With lifeless bounds They re-cross the furrows. Loath to lift their sheepish ‘Grechekha, be our second!’ they shout. ‘Agreed,’ I says, Eyes, up they run, and stop short of their masters. ‘Bid the sexton dig up a mound; an encounter of this kind Can have only one outcome. But fight like gentry-folk, Bolesta drooped a sullen head, the Assessor, a dismal I say, not butchers; enough of this close quarters dare- Eye. Then both begin to plead their case: their hounds Devilry. That you’re brave lads I can see, but any closer Were not used to hunting without a leash. The flushing And it’ll be barrel to belly. I won’t allow it; I agree to pistols Of the hare was too sudden; too rough the chase across But the stand-off may not take place any closer or farther than The plough. With all those jagged stones and boulders about, The span of the hide. As your chosen second, with my own two You’d almost need to put boots on those delicate pads. Hands I’ll spread the bear-hide on the field of honor, And I’ll position you myself: you, sir, will stand at one end— Wisely the expert stalkers presented their case: the others At the tip of the snout; and you, sir, at the tip of the tail’. Might have picked up a good number of useful pointers, ‘Agreed! they yell, ‘time?’ ‘Tomorrow.’ ‘Place?’ ‘Usha But no one lent much of an ear. Some started to whistle, Tavern!’ They rode off; while I turn to my Virgil...” Others chuckled out aloud. The rest with the bear-hunt fresh On their mind talked about precious little else. Just then a cry cut him off—“Yoiks!”—A hare sprang up From right under the horses’ hooves. Quick as a flash Grechekha scarcely deigned the hare a glance: seeing Falcon and Bobtail tear off in pursuit. Their masters It give them the slip, he turned his head nonchalantly Had brought them along, on the good chance they’d flush out And resumed his anecdote: “Now where was I? Ah, yes. A hare on their way home across the field; leashless I secured our gentlemen’s word that they’d shoot across They’d loped alongside the horses. Now spying the beast, The span of the bear-hide. The gentry were up in arms: Urged on by the huntsmen, they bolted after him. The Assessor ‘It’s certain death! Practically spout to spout!” As for me, And Bolesta would have followed suit, had not Grechekha stayed I smile to myself: my old friend, Vergilius Maro, had Them with a shout: “Stay your ground! Stop and watch! No one’s Given me food for thought: an animal hide’s no ordinary To budge an inch. From here we can see it all; see?— Yardstick. Gentlemen, you must know the story of Queen Our frisker’s heading for the grain.” True, seeing the hunters Dido; how she arrived on the coast of Libya and there And hounds, the hare had veered for the field, ears pricked up After a good deal of haggling secured for herself all the land Like a young buck’s horns. Streaked across the clod An ox’s hide could compass. On that little chunk of land That long, grey, resilient body; legs flung out Carthage would stand! So that night I mulled the matter over. Like two pairs of prongs. You’d swear they weren’t Stirring, barely grazing the ground’s surface; so swallows’ “At the crack of dawn, Doveyko’s gig drives up from one side Beaks buss the water’s face. A dust-cloud behind him; Domeyko on horseback from the other; and what do they see? In its wake—the two dogs; hare, dust, hound A shaggy bridge spanning both banks of the river— Seem to coalesce into a single body sliding snake-wise A belt fashioned of cut-up strips of bear-skin. Domeyko Across the plough: the hare its head; the dust , its bluish I stand at one end, and Doveyko at the other, at the tip of the tail. Coiling neck, the trailing hounds, its two-pronged tail. ‘Now pop away to your hearts’ content” I say, “but until You bury the hatchet, you stay put, right here. Mouths agape, Bolesta and the Assessor watch with bated Oh, they fumed all right; meanwhile the gentry hold their sides Breath. Suddenly the Notary turns white as a sheet; With laughter, and the curate and I hold forth aloud, The blood drains from the Assessor’s face as well, as all Drawing object lessons from the Gospels and Book of Statutes. Begins to go horribly wrong: the further slides that snake, No way out of it: they crack a smile, roar, and make their peace. The longer it stretches, till it breaks in half. That neck of dust Dissolved. By now the head’s in spitting distance of the forest; “Their quarrel then led to a lifelong friendship: The tail, way behind. The head vanishes: something tassel-like Doveyko wed Domeyko’s sister, while Domeyko paired Flickers at the forest’s edge, then fades; and snap!—the tail Off with the sister of his brother-in-law, Miss Doveyko. Breaks off. They divvied up their estate into two equal parts, Poor hounds! Stupefied they sniff And on the spot where this bizarre incident took place, The forest’s hem: as if conferring with one another, They built a tavern where swings the sign of ‘The Little Bear’.”
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Imputing mutual blame. Finally they turn back, ears 123456789012345 April 2000 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 707 to scholarly meetings. The price to pay was inserting Classical Studies in Central and East- Marxist interpretations into works of scholarship. It should, ern Europe however, be said that these interpretations and comments on historical events and literary works, except for the Chester Natunewicz writings of a few party zealots, were usually taken with a grain of salt even by their authors. It was a matter of play- ing the game in order to survive. We should remember, My somewhat broad definition of Central and Eastern too, that subjects like cruelties of aristocratic landholders Europe includes Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, or imperialistic excesses in antiquity were topics ripe for Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia (Serbia and Marxist exploitation. Nor would the Marxist cause per se Montenegro), Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, be necessarily promoted by stating in an introduction to a Macedonia, and the westernmost lands of the former So- museum catalogue of Greek and Roman antiquities that viet Union: parts of the Russian Federation, Ukraine, the founders of communism believed in free access, for Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia and all classes of society, to the cultural treasures of world Armenia. In all these lands extensive study has been car- history. In the end, despite pressures and restrictions, thou- ried on of Greek and Latin literatures in all periods: an- sands of able and undaunted Classical scholars stayed in cient, Byzantine, Medieval and Humanistic. For hundreds their native lands in Central and Eastern Europe, and did of years there has been a strong tradition of Classical schol- their jobs remarkably well until the liberalizing political arship in that area. Such regions as Illyricum, Dalmatia, changes of the late eighties. For this they deserve praise Moesia, Thrace, Dacia and Pannonia were in antiquity and credit from us all, and, as they now become older, provinces of the Roman Empire. Throughout the medi- retire, and pass from this world, they should be remem- eval period, the ancient Greek and Roman Classics con- bered with affection and esteem by their successors. tinued to be studied. Poland, the Czech and Slovak Re- publics, Slovenia and Croatia developed rich national lit- In spite of flourishing Classical scholarship in eratures in Latin during the period of the Renaissance and Baroque. In the twentieth century, even two devastating Central and Eastern Europe, relatively little is world wars and between fifty and seventy years of com- known in the West about what our Classics col- munist control did not succeed in eradicating Classical leagues in that area of Europe are doing. Their work studies in these parts of Europe. is seldom listed in Western bibliographies, and hun- In Soviet-occupied Eastern and Central Europe, schol- dreds of their journals do not receive international ars who either could not, or would not, yield to pressures circulation. for Marxist orientation in their teachings and writings, as well as who were able to leave for other lands, established In spite of new hardships caused by lack of funds in successful careers in new countries. The vast majority, postcommunist Eastern and Central Europe, impressive however, were denied the privilege to emigrate, and they archaeological discoveries continue to be made on an al- had to make do in circumstances that surrounded them. most daily basis, historical investigations are being pur- Some of them achieved a modus vivendi with the regimes sued, older professional organizations are becoming re- in power. Under very difficult conditions, they rebuilt their organized and revitalized, new journals are coming into shattered universities and academic programs. Though existence, associations for promoting Classical studies at greatly hampered by limited access to Western publica- all educational levels are springing up, an energetic con- tions and a lack of basic research materials, they began, temporary generation of teachers and scholars is emerg- almost literally from the ground up, once more to pro- ing, and the great museums of Central and East Europe, duce significant and solid scholarship. After the atrocities with their treasures of antiquity, are flourishing both as and killings inflicted by the Nazis and the Soviets (hun- resources for Classics professionals and as rich and fasci- dreds of Classical scholars were imprisoned or perished nating centers for tourists from all over the globe. The in concentration camps), whatever concessions were made best-known and most important traditional university cita- to Marxist/Leninist ideology seemed a relatively small dels of Classical scholarship are once more contributing price to pay for the right to live and continue professional significantly to the store of the world’s knowledge of the work. The communist regimes subsidized some research ancients, and, though slowly, Latin and Greek, especially projects, publications, professional organizations, archaeo- Latin, are returning to the curricula of secondary schools. logical expeditions, initiatives for popularizing the Clas- Among the university Classics centers there are, in the sics among a larger public, and occasional foreign travel Czech Republic, Charles University in Prague, Masaryk 708 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2000 University in Brno, and Palacky University in Olomouc; the U.S. and Western Europe. Occasionally, survey ar- in Poland, the University of Warsaw, the Jagiellonian Uni- ticles appear in French, German, or English by scholars versity in Kraków, the Mickiewicz University in Poznaƒ, from Central and Eastern Europe themselves, in their own the Copernicus University in Toruƒ, the University of or Western publications. But there are literally hundreds Wrocław, the Catholic University in Lublin, and the Marie of Classics serials, journals and periodicals that have been Curie-Skłodowska University, also in Lublin. In Slovakia, in existence prior to and/or since World War II, and there there is the Comenius University in Bratislava; in the are many thousands of Classicists from these countries in former Yugoslavia, the Universities of Belgrade and Novi every specialty, from philology to history, archaeology, Sad. In Croatia, the University of Zagreb and Zadar; in linguistics, epigraphy, philosophy, art history, the history Slovenia, the University of Ljubljana; in Macedonia, the of science and numismatics—who are doing splendid University of Skopje; and in Bosnia, the University of work that should be recognized beyond their own geo- Sarajevo. In Albania, there is the University of Tirana, in graphical boundaries. Hundreds of the journals in which Romania, the University of Bucharest, the Babes-Bolyai they publish do not receive international circulation and University in Cluj-Napoca, the A. I. Cuza University in come out in fairly limited printings under such titles as Iasi, and the Universities of Craiova and Timisoara; in Sprawozdania, Biuletyny, Cercetari, Acta, Materiały, Hungary, the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, the Lucrari, Ertesitö, Analele Stiintifice, Sbornitsi, Revista, József Attila University in Szeged, and the Lajos Kossuth Arhivy, Evkönyve, Spisaniya, Közleményei, Izvestiya, University in Debrecen; in Bulgaria, the St. Kliment Soobshcheniya, and Uchenye zapiski. Yet the contents of Ohridski University in Sofia and the Paisij Hilendarski these periodicals, however modestly published, are valu- University in Plovdiv. able and worthy of dissemination and perusal by scholars In the Russian Federation, Moscow State University in richer countries. and St. Petersburg State University stand out; in Ukraine, the Ivan Franko University in Lviv; in Moldova, the State I remain convinced that a far greater effort than University in Chisinau; in Georgia, Tbilisi University; in heretofore should be made to give publicity to the Armenia, the Yerevan State University; in Estonia, the accomplishments of our colleagues in Central and Universities of Tallinn and Tartu; and in Lithuania, Vilnius Eastern Europe. University and Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas. In these universities the Classics departments/programs/ Years ago, when I was doing postdoctoral research as a institutes are found for the most part in the Schools/Fac- Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, I had the op- ulties of Philology, Philosophy and History. portunity to serve as a facilitator for the visiting scholars In addition to these university centers there are smaller from Central and Eastern Europe at the International Con- universities, as well as pedagogical schools/institutes, with gress of Classical Archaeology being held in Rome and less extensive Classics programs. In several countries the Naples. During the ten days of the Congress I met and respective Academies of Sciences have institutes devoted established contacts with many distinguished Classicists to ancient studies. The classics are also taught in a num- from the Soviet-occupied countries. Thus began a schol- ber of both public and private secondary schools. In each arly activity of which I remain very proud to this day: of the Central and East European countries there are for- maintaining ties with non-Western European Classics pro- mal and informal associations and research groups that fessionals. I came to know many of them personally, I bestow much of their attention on the ancient Classics have corresponded and exchanged scholarly materials with and publish scholarly materials. Other cultural institutions, others, and on occasion have visited them in their own like museums and libraries, help to disseminate knowl- countries, attended congresses and meetings of their Clas- edge about the ancient world through lectures, printed sics associations, and toured their universities. At times I materials and exhibits. have published articles on Central and Eastern European However, as far as we here in the West are concerned, Classics in American periodicals along with reviews of relatively little is known concerning what our Classics Classics-related books produced in these lands. And to- colleagues in Central and East Europe are doing. The day I remain more than ever convinced that a far greater major international Classics bibliography lists the con- effort than heretofore should be made to give broader and tents of just a modest number of publications from this more detailed publicity to the accomplishments of our region, be they journal articles, festschriften, editions or colleagues in these regions. monographs. A few limited descriptions of Classical stud- With this in mind, I have embarked on a database project ies in these countries have been sporadically published in for which I hope eventually to set up an Internet website, April 2000 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 709 and to which I have assigned a provisional acronymic research being conducted in individual Soviet-bloc coun- name of CHOCEECS (Clearing House for Central and tries. In the Soviet Union itself, there was an annual de- Eastern European Classical Scholarship). To start with, I tailed ancient studies bibliography published in the Vestnik intend to assemble a directory of the thousands of schol- drevnei istorii for all the regions of that huge conglomer- ars on whom I already have some information, and a list- ate of nations. As noted earlier, throughout the commu- ing of the hundreds of journals, serials, and festschriften nist era the state was relatively generous in subsidizing that contain significant amounts of materials dealing with scholarly associations and publications. Classical antiquity that, at one time or another, have been in existence since 1945. I also plan to complete biblio- To that effect, I have embarked on an Internet graphical files for the leading Classical scholars; brief, database project to which I have assigned a provi- regularly updated descriptions of university Classics de- sional name of CHOCEECS—Clearing House for partments and programs; and, as available, directories of Central and Eastern European Classical Scholar- pedagogical institutes, secondary schools and other es- ship. tablishments where subjects relating to Classical antiq- uity are taught. Furthermore, I wish to assemble and pro- In recent years, all this has changed. The newly ob- vide an index to the main Greek and Roman archaeologi- tained political freedoms for scholars came along with cal sites in these countries, to compile a simple guide to major disruptions in the flow, through traditional chan- the libraries and museums with rich holdings in Greek nels, of Classical scholarship. There is no longer an Eirene and Roman materials, as well as to bring together data on or a Bibliotheca Classica Orientalis, and the Vestnik the major Classics-related associations, including sched- drevnei istorii’s last annual ancient studies bibliography ules and reports of their meetings. Finally, it is my hope was for the year 1986. Das Altertum, though still in exist- to make available a summary of the past and present work ence, appears to be devoting fewer of its pages to antiq- and scholarly interests of as many Central and Eastern uity in Central and East Europe. The former Yugoslavia’s European Classicists as I can, beginning with the years internal problems have victimized Classical studies to- immediately after World War II. I welcome communica- gether with other scholarly activity, and Romania, in the tions on that subject ([email protected]). political turmoil associated with liberation from Soviet The task is obviously an enormous one and, I shall domination, has experienced severe destruction of aca- readily admit, will require good will and assistance from demic facilities and libraries. Furthermore, in the rush to colleagues both in this country and in the lands with which become capitalist states, political leaders of several coun- I am dealing. I shall welcome all correspondence and ap- tries have tried to expand their economies, while funds propriate materials (bibliographies, publications, surveys, for traditional academic disciplines became scarce. The biographies) sent to me either by surface or e-mail, and, relatively abundant state subsidies for humanistic schol- as my proposed website comes into being, communica- arship are a thing of the past, and learned associations, as tion through that medium as well. in our own country, are increasingly scrambling for sup- In some ways, during the communist era, it was sim- port from private individuals and foundations. Publica- pler to keep track of Classical studies in Central and East- tion delays of important bibliographical data and reduc- ern Europe. Totalitarian countries enjoy an “order” which tions in numbers of articles and pages of the time-hon- makes it convenient for foreigners to comb through local ored journals are obstructing long-established means of resources in some areas. By way of illustration, there used scholarly communication. Some of the major periodicals to be an association called Eirene (the Greek word for which formerly could be acquired in the West at either “Peace”) for Classicists in the Soviet-occupied countries. little cost or, through exchange agreements, at no cost, Eirene had biennial scholarly meetings and published a now have become prohibitively expensive. Some Ameri- journal of the same name with useful scholarly papers. can university libraries have terminated their subscrip- Or: the East German Academy of Sciences in DDR, un- tions to Eastern and Central European scholarly materi- der the leadership of a Byzantinologist, Professor Johannes als, and their holdings have thus gone down at just the Irmscher, published the Bibliotheca Classica Orientalis, time when more and more high-quality research is ema- a periodical which, for several years, reported, in brief nating from the new generation of researchers/investiga- form, on important Classical scholarship in all of Soviet- tors. occupied Eastern and Central Europe. Also, the East Ger- But many American university libraries still have good man periodical, Das Altertum, which began publication collections of Central/Eastern European Classics periodi- after World War II, regularly featured surveys of Classics cals. Among the very best is Memorial Library at the 710 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2000 University of Wisconsin-Madison whose awesome hold- correspondence with colleagues. In recent months I have ings have been kept up-to-date by a very dedicated serials made many electronic contacts with Classicists and li- staff. The Center for Research Libraries in Chicago car- brarians from Moscow to âeské Budejovice, from ries numerous materials that cannot be found in other in- Wrocław to Yaroslavl, from Cracow to Prague to stitutions. On the shelves of each major research library Olomouc, and numerous other localities with which, in there are found the regularly published general Central/ earlier times, staying in touch, if not actually impossible, Eastern European bibliographical materials, from which was both discouragingly time-consuming and costly. important Classics data can be extracted with a little ef- Some readers may ask, “If so much information is so fort and patience. readily available, why are you limiting your data-base In the secondary sector as well there are great changes project to the Classics in just Central and Eastern Europe? taking place. The traditional Classical gymnasium or ly- Does not a similar need exist for other countries?” My ceum, with its strong emphasis on ancient studies, has, answer would be yes, and I would hope that colleagues much like its American counterparts that devote increased familiar with such studies might pursue projects parallel resources to vocational and sports programs, become what to my own. For my own current task the motivation has one of my colleagues calls a “Realgymnasium,” whose come from my particularly deep admiration and affection main mission appears to be teaching young people the for our associates in Central and Eastern Europe, and as a fundamentals of making money. modest and far-from-perfect recognition of their monu- But the recent political changes have produced many mental efforts during the post-World War II period in keep- positive results as well. Periodicals in the former Soviet- ing the ancient Greek and Roman Classics alive. I would bloc countries are now publishing more materials written also hope that at some time in the future an increasing by, and printing tributes to, scholars from the West, just as number of our universities would offer joint Classics and Classicists in Central and East Europe are increasingly Central/Eastern European Studies majors and minors, so publishing monographs, reports, surveys and articles in that our young people could have a greater appreciation Western publishing houses. Marxist interpretation of the both of what the ancient Classics have contributed to the past in journals such as Vestnik drevnei istorii has yielded culture of these lands and what the lovers of Classical to studies of the Christian Church Fathers and previously antiquity in Central and Eastern Europe have themselves rare praises of renowned historians like the late Professor accomplished in fostering the Classical tradition and its Michael Rostovtsev. For the promotion of Classical stud- vital role in Western civilization. ∆ ies at all levels, especially in secondary schools, there exists a new international organization, called Euroclassica, set This paper was read at the meeting of the Central Europe Study up in the early nineties and based in the Czech Republic. Group at Rice University on 9 December 1999. For general higher education data about that area, Europa Publications’ The World of Learning is a fine starting point. However, the best source by far is the On Being Lithuanian Internet. Such servers as Braintrack or the Ancient World Web provide extensive data on university structures and John Knasas departments (including departmental histories), lists of faculty members (with addresses, academic ranks and I am a philosopher by trade and a member of the Houston specialties), museums and archaeological research. Or, Chapter of the Lithuanian American Community. I am by clicking the name of an individual scholar, one can also a third generation Lithuanian American from Bos- often obtain a brief biography of the scholar, be referred ton. Both sets of grandparents arrived in New England to his/her publications (often listed in a very useful gen- around 1910. Ostensibly the men were avoiding conscrip- eral table of contents for a particular journal); or obtain tion into the Russian Empire’s army. My parents spoke detailed information about the entire department/institu- Lithuanian. But possibly because neither ever believed tion with which the scholar is affiliated. There are Internet any of us would return to Lithuania, they made no con- sites for Academies of Sciences (many of which have in- certed attempt to teach us anything but phrases. Never- stitutes dealing with Classical studies) and professional theless, from family attendance at ethnic days, by the philological, archaeological and historical associations, presence of Lithuanian books and literature in our home, like the 200-year old Morgenstern Classical Society at and by my mother and father corresponding with rela- the University of Tartu in Estonia. Not the least benefit is tives in America and abroad, my siblings and I in a vari- the possibility of direct, speedy and inexpensive e-mail ety of degrees identified with that heritage. In fact, one of April 2000 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 711 my brothers is married to a Lithuanian émigrée. Their in Lithuania. It is their country, not mine, for whose family of three sons all speak Lithuanian, and Rima has reindependence they have placed their lives on the line. business links with the old country. Also, my sister in the With that proviso, my limited observations are these two. late 1980s initiated an exchange project between the Bos- First, the official relations seem to be good. Internet ton and Vilnius city planning departments. So along with sources tell me that an official cooperation between the other values, my parents effectively communicated a love two countries is a fact. The presidents of both countries of their ethnic background. speak of a “strategic partnership” and commit themselves to “support each other’s integration into European and When my father died in 1986, my mother asked me to Euro-Atlantic structures.” Bilateral agreements include: make the list of offertory petitions at his funeral Mass. I abolition of visas, free trade, friendly relations, across- wanted to include things that I knew were dear to him. So the-border cooperation. A framework of joint institutions one petition was that the Lithuanian faithful’s forbear- also exists, and so do infrastructure projects like the Via ance amidst persecution would win for them the conver- Baltica, electricity networks, and rail modernization. Both sion of their oppressors. Not in the least did any of us militaries have conducted joint exercises. All of which is realize that in less than five years Lithuania would again certainly much better than existed between the two world exist as a free country. And little did I realize that I would wars. travel there and that I would teach the theistic philosophy My personal experience confirms the cooperation. of St. Thomas Aquinas. Dalia’s summer school has enlisted for lecturers Polish Dominicans, e.g., Jacek Salij for whom there is warm af- My first trip came about because of an invitation to fection; the 1998 Vilnius Philosophy conference drew attend a conference on Christian Philosophy at the Catholic young professors from Lublin; and of course there was University of Lublin, Poland, in August 1996. I had fa- the earlier 1996 presence at Lublin of Dalia and her col- vorably reviewed three publications of Lublin philoso- leagues. Yet not to be ignored is that in all this activity the phers, and so I suppose that is why they thought of me. I lingua franca is Lithuanian. Even if lectures or talks are surmised that since I would never return to Eastern Eu- given in Polish, there is simultaneous translation into rope, I ought to take the opportunity to visit Lithuania, Lithuanian. Stanciene’s Aquinas translation project should made all the more possible through the relatives of my also be remembered here. In other words, the attitude sister-in-law. So for five days before the Lublin confer- that I observed of Lithuanian academics from Vilnius ence, I was in Lithuania. Sad at the termination of what I University, the Lithuanian Institute of Philosophy and thought was to be my one trip to Lithuania, I went to Sociology, and Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas Lublin. And there I met a Lithuanian woman philoso- (where, however, English is encouraged), was that the pher and publisher from Vilnius. Her name is Dr. Dalia Lithuanian language was there to stay. Privately, I did hear Stanciene. After independence she resurrected the pre- Lithuanians using Polish with Polish professors but not war philosophy and theology journal titled Logos. I spoke vice versa. of my recent time in Lithuania and offered my services as My observation is that both Poles and Lithuanians re- a philosophy teacher. We remained in email contact and gard language as the carrier of a culture and of a national I was invited to teach in an annual Thomistic Summer identity. Not to be able to speak it is to lose something School also organized by Dr. Stanciene with the help of very valuable. And this brings us to two complaints of the the Lithuanian Dominican Order. The school draws on Polish minority in the Vilnius region. teachers from the world over. The students which num- According to Anatol Lieven’s The Baltic Revolution ber between 30–35 encompass university and secondary (l994), Polish minority complaints include the unavail- school teachers, university students and catechists. I have ability of higher education in the Polish language and the participated in this Summer School since 1997. Along non-official status of Polish in Lithuania. Since the with these activities, Dr. Stanciene and others organized Lithuanian tongue is non-Slavic, Lithuanian Poles find it and hosted a June 1998 Vilnius philosophy conference difficult to learn Lithuanian and easier to learn Russian. on the topic of “Thomism: Past and Present.” It drew The inability to get anywhere with these complaints and worldwide participation. Her latest project is the some others (e.g., redistricting to assure Polish minority Lithuanian translations of the works of St. Thomas representation in the legislature) lead the Polish minority Aquinas. Three volumes have been published to-date. in May, 1991, with Soviet support, to move to create their In light of the previous description of myself, I am not own autonomous area with an assembly, flag, police force really competent to speak of Lithuanian-Polish relations and army. The move dissipated after the failed Soviet 712 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2000 counter-revolution that August and with the Kremlin’s acceptance of Lithuanian independence. BOOKS BOOKS and Periodicals I am told now that a Polish University exists in Vilnius, Received though not yet accredited by the government. Students Christianity in East Central Europe: Late Middle attend for two years and then finish their studies in Po- Ages. Edited by Jerzy Kłoczowski, Paweł Kras, and land. Also in the Faculty of Philology at Vilnius Univer- Wojciech Polak. Lublin. Instytut Europy Ârodkowo- sity a department of Polish language and literature exists, Wschodniej (Institute of East Central Europe, ul. Curie- and at the Pedagogical Institute there are departments for Skłodowskiej 58/1, 20-029 Lublin, Poland. Email: instructing teachers of Polish. My friend at Vilnius Uni- [email protected]). 1999. 446 pages. Pa- versity also remarks that she allows Polish students to per. In French, German, and English. answer exams in Polish though she believes this is ille- The Institute of East Central Europe in Lublin has initi- gal. ated publication of archival works on Polish history, as Tensions still exist between the government and the well as scholarly commentaries on the yet-unpublished Polish minority. Most recently Lithuanian Polish leaders sources. A similar process had been initiated by Dmitrii of the move for an autonomous area were retried in court S. Likhachev in Russia half a century ago. The difference and given extended prison terms. Attending Polish sena- is that Polish medieval history (and East Central Euro- tors from Poland complained bitterly of this outcome. pean medieval history in general) was larger and richer My second observation is that dreams of the old com- than the Muscovite one, even though the second has been monwealth are very much alive among young Polish aca- studied extensively in America’s Slavic departments, while demics that I met. During the 1998 Vilnius conference, the first remains virtually unknown outside the borders of one Lublin professor went on and on about the stupidity the respective East Central European countries (and some- of independence and how Lithuania would be much bet- times, within these borders). While many archival sources ter off back in union with Poland. Also, during the sum- have been destroyed by wars and looting (the war ma- mer school this past July, a dear friend who I had met at chine had repeatedly been put to work by Germans and the 1996 Lublin conference came to visit me in Birstonas. Russians), whatever remains shows a vibrant Christian He is a physics professor at the University of Lublin. He culture in East Central Europe already in the twelfth cen- yearned to go to Lithuania and my being at the school tury. Another difference between Likhachev’s and the East provided him with that opportunity. We visited Kaunas Central European one is that Likhachev had at his dis- and Vilnius. He kept comparing things to ten years ago posal the bottomless treasury of the Soviet Russian com- in Poland and expressing his happiness at being able to munist colossus (as well as many supporters abroad), speak Polish in Vilnius, whose sights provided him with whereas the Lublin Institute has limited means. many signs of “a Right Honourable Past.” But signifi- These works bring to scholarly attention parts of East cantly, as a parting gift, Tomasz presented me with what Central European history that were edited out of Western he said was the only map of Lithuania that he could find history owing to East Central Europe’s status as territory before leaving Lublin. It was a pre-war map showing the occupied by colonial powers in the nineteenth century. Vilnius region as part of Poland. The gesture showed gross Norman Davies has already initiated the process of inte- Polish insensitivity to the national sensitivities of grating the region’s history into Greater Europe (Europe: Lithuanians. Tomasz is a young man from deep in Po- A History, Oxford, 1996), but that was only the begin- land. I shudder to think of the possible cross purposes ning, so far as the general public is concerned. Powerful existing between him and his countrymen on the one hand, ideological interests work against Davies’ book. and the young Lithuanian academics that I know on the Christianity in East Central Europe is divided into six other. ∆ sections: Pastoral Programmes and Religions Life, Intel- lectual Culture, Socio-Religions Situation in Bohemia in This paper was read at the meeting of the Central Europe Study the 15th–16th Centuries, The Problem of “Borderland” Group at Rice University on 27 October 1999. between the East and the West, Liturgy and Hagiography, Religions Orders. Each section is represented by four to nine essays written by scholars of diverse provenance. Would you do us a favor Alas, French prevails as the language of discourse; would and ask your academic library that it were English, the book would have had a broader to subscribe to The Sarmatian Review? audience. The book’s editor, Jerzy Kłoczowski, is argu- ably Poland’s greatest living historian. He teaches at the April 2000 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 713 Catholic University of Lublin. culated from the capital alone and all the installments were On the minus side, the book barely outlines the subject. equal. In other words, the interest was not cumulative but Some essays abound in generalities, having been written constant. Therefore, the real value of the amount to be in an academic style that has all but disappeared from repaid diminished rapidly all the time.” (145–6) American universities. A more lively style reflecting an Wizja Polski na łamach Kultury, 1947–1976 [the vi- awareness of recent academic methodologies would have sion of Poland in the monthly Kultura], 2 vols. Edited enhanced the book’s appeal. Some essays sound like out- by Grazyna Pomian, E. Muszyƒska and Irena Pielak. lines of doctoral dissertations rather than exhaustive works Introduction by Gražyna Pomian. Lublin. Maria Curie- of scholarship. Skłodowska University Press. 1999. Vol. 1, 441 pages; Zakony i klasztory w Europie Ârodkowo-Wschodniej, vol. 2, 455 pages. Index. Paper. In Polish. X–XX wiek [religious orders, monasteries and convents A selection of articles from the Paris Kultura from the in East Central Europe from the tenth to the twenti- times when Kultura was virtually the only independent eth century]. Edited by Henryk Gapski and Jerzy Polish periodical in Europe. The two volumes are divided Kłoczowski. Tables, statistics. Lublin. Instytut Europy into sections titled, in translation, “Poland from up close Ârodkowo-Wschodniej. 1999. 438 pages. Paper. In Pol- and from afar,” “Assessments and prognostications,” “The ish, English, Czech, Slovene, and French. Intelligentsia in People’s Poland,” “The [Roman Catho- This extremely well documented volume begins with a lic] Church and Modernity,” “I and the Other,” and “Emi- generalist section, followed by sections on the Middle grant and Native Opinions of People’s Poland.” Ages, Modernity, and the Twentieth Century. Virtually This is truly a publication that will enter history, if only all material is brand new and unknown, so far as Ameri- because of the dearth of publishing outlets in those grim can scholarship is concerned. If absorbed by American years. scholars, it would considerably update the image of the And yes, SR columnist Sally Boss managed to squeeze Middle Ages. Among the most revealing essays are “The herself into these volumes! She began to write for Kultura Significance of Turkish Sources for the History of the in 1976, and her first article appears in the collection. Church” by Olga Zirojeviç;” “The Medieval Network of Diecezja miƒska okolo 1830 roku [the Minsk diocese Monasteries in Great Poland and Kujavia. The Present in 1830]. Part 1, Struktury parafialne [parish struc- State, Research Necessities and a Preliminary Analysis tures]. Part 2, Struktury zakonne [religious orders]. By of the Problem” by Andrzej M. Wyrwa; and “The Activi- Ignacy Borejko Chodêko, edited by Marian Radwan. ties of Nuns in Poland in the 20th Century” by Witold Lublin. Instytut Europy Ârodkowo-Wschodniej. 1998. Zdaniewicz SAC. Part 1, 263 pages. Part 2, 213 pages. Tables, appendices. Churches and Confessions in East Central Europe in Paper. In Polish. Early Modern Times. Edited by Hubert Łaszkiewicz. This is the fifth installment of Materials on the History of Lublin. Instytut Europy Ârodkowo-Wschodniej. 1999. the Catholic Church in the Polish Respublica and in Rus- 199 pages. Paper. In English, French, German. sia published by a research institute in Lublin, Poland. Again, a multilingual volume. It covers various denomi- Volumes one and two were reviewed in the January 2000 nations in the Age of Reformation. Of particular interest issue of SR. Part 1 contains a history of Catholic parishes is Judith Kalik’s “The Jews and the Various Churches of in what today is central Belarus, Part 2 provides a history the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.” The author hails of religious orders in the same region. They were written from Israel and provides a Jewish perspective on the re- by Ignacy Chodêko (1777–1851), but had never been markable religious freedom that existed in the old Polish published. A Catholic priest named Bronisław Ussas saved Respublica. The author points out that Jewish communi- these and other materials from destruction by Soviet hands, ties accumulated huge debts to the Uniate, Roman Catho- and he gave them to the KUL Archives. There is a wealth lic, and Orthodox Churches in the 17th–18th centuries, a of material in both volumes, and this material has never fact little known among Polish gentiles. 80 percent all been integrated into the history of Catholicism or of the loans taken by Jews came from the Roman Catholic region itself. The distortive intervention of Russian colo- Church. “They totalled hundreds of thousands of Polish nialism prevented information contained in these and simi- zloty. What made the loans so attractive and worthwhile lar works from reaching scholars and the general reader. to the [Jewish] communities was the fact that the interest Pierwszy naród ukarany: Polacy w Zwiàzku (which was usually set at 7% annually) was the lowest Radzieckim, 1921–1939 [the first nation to be punished: available and always fell short of the inflation rate. Fur- Poles in the USSR, 1921–1939), by Mikołaj Iwanow. thermore, the interest on loans from the church was cal- Warsaw–Wrocław. Paƒstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. 714 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2000 1991. ISBN 83-01-10537-2. 399 pages. Index of persons, saw. Fronda (ul. Reymonta 30/61, 01-842 Warsaw). 1999. bibliography, summary, illustrations. Paper. Zl.12.99. In 497 pages. Index. Paper. In Polish. Polish. A detailed history of the commander of the right-wing A scholarly work detailing the fate of Poles in the USSR. Holy Cross Brigade (Brygada Âwi∏tokrzyska—NSZ) According to the 1926 Soviet census, 782,300 persons in which was part of the Polish Underground in Nazi- and the USSR declared themselves to be of Polish background. Soviet-occupied Poland during World War II. A great deal Only half said that Polish was their first language. 204,000 of material has been gathered in this volume which could lived in the Russian Federation, 496,000 in Ukraine, have profited from professional editing. Books of this kind 97,000 in Belarus, 6,000 in the Caucasus, and 3,000 in are very much needed to tell the part of the Polish story Central Asia. However, during the 1929 Congress of the during World War II with which the first world is unfa- Polish Diaspora, the figure of one million was quoted for miliar. Soviet totalitarianism deprived two generations of the USSR. In 1930, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Af- Poles of access to their own history, submitting instead fairs estimated the number of Poles in the USSR to be for public consumption a history that still survives in 955,000. After a lengthy argument, Iwanow estimates that Western textbooks of World War II in particular. before World War II, Catholic Poles in Belarus numbered A longer review to follow. 300,000, and in Ukraine, 650,000. Iwanow points out that under the Soviet regime, Poles Among Other Books Received: did not develop a sense of unity and solidarity across the Idei v Rossii / Ideas in Russia / Idee w Rosji, Soviet republics and across the Russian Federation. This edited by Andrzej de Lazari. Vols. 2–3. Łódê. University unfortunate characteristic prevented them from helping of Łódê Press. 1999–2000. Vol. 2, 477 pages. Vol. 3, 501 one another in times of particular pressure. Thus Poles in pages. Paper. Trilingual (Russian, English, Polish). Siberia kept apart from Poles in the Far East, and neither Volumes second and third of Professor de Lazari’s group felt solidarity with Poles in Ukraine. At the same monumental work follow the format of the first: articles time, all those groups of Poles felt loyalty to the Second in alphabetical order range from Russian anthems to Polish Republic (1918–1939), a fact which made them Aleksandr Zinovev, and from Liubov Akselrod to Iosiv targets of sometimes savage persecution. Kablitz. Volume 3 reprints Andrzej Walicki’s review of Another factor was Catholicism. In 1930, Soviet pa- volume 1 published in Sarmatian Review (September pers published cartoons presenting three greatest enemies 1999). All three volumes draw on scholars in several coun- of the Soviet regime: the wrecker (saboteur), the capital- tries. Philosophical topics include Logos, bezpopovtsy, ist, and the Pope. Ideological indoctrination was particu- Hammer, Hand-fist, I–we–they, dvoeverie, Russian ide- larly vigorous in areas inhabited by Poles. Attempts to ology, socialist revolutionary ideas, will, and philosophi- foment class hatred (rich vs. poor peasant) were frequent. cal education in Russia. A useful compendium of infor- Attempts to create a “Polish proletarian culture” were mation that otherwise is difficult to obtain. undertaken by Polish communists such as Witold On the Field of Glory, by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Trans- Wandurski and Jan Hempel. Presentations of the Second lated by Mirosław Lipiƒski. New York. Hippocrene Books. Polish Republic as a country similar to Rwanda in the 2000. 257 pages. Hardcover. 1990s were routine. Cartoons (reproduced in the book) A new translation of Sienkiewicz’s historical novel showed Poles in Poland starving and dying. Anti-Catho- based on late seventeenth-century history. The action takes lic propaganda was ferocious, and arrests of Polish Catho- place some ten years after the last events described in lic priests became more and more frequent as the 1930s Pan Wołodyjowski. Considerably less known than the rolled on. In 1937, there remained only 11 Catholic Trilogy, this lovely tale brings to bear the dynamic fea- churches and nine active Catholic priests in the entire tures of Polish national mythology. USSR. By that time, several hundred thousand Poles from Uciec z wiežy Babel, by Jerzy Narbutt. Kraków. Arcana. western regions of the USSR were forcibly deported to 1999. 158 pages. Paper. In Polish. Siberia and Turkestan, and executions of Poles (as wreck- A collection of essays previously published in various ers and/or religious fanatics) became frequent, especially Polish journals of opinion. Some of them are truly reveal- in the countryside. Collectivization of agriculture dealt a ing; others suffer from a journalistic quality. A longer re- decisive blow to Polish rural communities in the USSR. view to follow. Narodowe Siły Zbrojne “Zàb” przeciw dwu wrogom, TožsamoÊç, odmiennoÊç, tolerancja a kultura pokoju by Marek Jan Chodakiewicz. Introduction by Andrzej [identity, difference, tolerance and the culture of peace], Czuma. Edited by Piotr Szucki. 2d enlarged ed. War- edited by Jerzy Kłoczowski and Sławomir Łukasiewicz. April 2000 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 715 Lublin. Instytut Europy Ârodkowo-Wschodniej. 1998. xiii Gombrowicz’s Grimaces: Modernism, + 485 pages. Paper. Summaries in English or French, table of contents in Polish and Russian. Texts in Polish. Gender, Nationality Papers from a conference titled “Identity, difference, tolerance and the culture of peace” held in December Edited by Ewa Płonowska Ziarek. Albany: State Univer- 1995 in Lublin and sponsored by the Institute for East sity of New York Press, 1998. Selected bibliography of Central Europe. Among several dozen authors there are Gombrowicz criticism. Notes on contributors. Index. xi well known names. The conference’s intent was to foster + 327 pages. Paper. tolerance in the region where both the tradition of toler- ance and the sense of identity varied greatly from country Angela Brintlinger to country. Słup ognia, by Karl Stern. Translated by Magda In an essay some ten years ago, Czesław Miłosz posed a Sobolewska. Warszawa-Zàbki. Biblioteka Frondy (ul. question which this volume continues to attempt to an- Reymonta 30/61, 01-842 Warszawa). 1999. 365 pages. swer: “Who is Gombrowicz?” The collection under re- Paper. In Polish. view, Gombrowicz’s Grimaces, examines how Originally published by Harcourt Brace & Co. under Gombrowicz can contribute to our understanding of mod- the title The Pillar of Fire (1951), this story of conversion ernism, of gay and gender studies, and of national defini- of a prominent Jew to Catholicism is engaging and mov- tions. This erudite and interesting series of articles is well ing. There are various kinds of conversions; this one is as written, well organized, and convincing in its argument: thorough as could be, with the author understanding fully that Gombrowicz belongs right in the middle of today’s the mode of perception and feeling of his new faith. A conversations about literature and self-presentation. Us- good read. ing contemporary theoretical approaches from Deleuze, Samoidentyfikacja mniejszoÊci narodowych i religijnych Kristeva, Lacan, Judith Butler and beyond, these schol- w Europie Êrodkowo-wschodniej: Historia i historiografia. ars bring Gombrowicz from the periphery into the center. Edited by Jerzy Kłoczowski. Lublin. Instytut Europy In the world of academia, Slavicists tend to feel Ârodkowo-Wschodniej. 1999. 146 pages. In Polish and marginalized, and Poles and Polonists feel marginalized English. even in Slavic studies. Outside the walls of universities On national minorities in East Central Europe and the and scholarly institutions, national literatures, particularly ways in which these minorities express their separate iden- of the Slavic world, make news and noise mostly thanks tities. to the Nobel Prize or political events within the country Obraz pokolenia, by Tadeusz Pawłowicz. Kraków. of origin. Readers of Polish literature are rare within the Jagiellonian University Press. 1999. 269 pages + illustra- university, and we expect them to come mostly from the tions. Paper. In Polish. ranks of people of Polish origin. What, then, of Memoirs of a former President of the Piłsudski Insti- Gombrowicz, whose biographical fate made him an exile tute in New York. Skillfully written, they add to the con- to—from the point of view of Eurocentrism—an even siderable body of books about the fate of survivors of more marginal land, Argentina, and whose self-fashion- Central European slaughters during World War II and the ing, among other factors, kept him outside of the Polish post-war Stalin era. national canon? What is his place in modern literature, in W obliczu koƒca [facing the end], by Marian the history of the twentieth century, and in the various Zdziechowski. Warsaw. Fronda. 1999. 231 pages. Paper. studies of that century which have emerged at its end? In Polish. Witold Gombrowicz, the singer of antinomies and con- A reprint of a book under the same title published in tradictions, of dialectic, of love of order simultaneous with Wilno (Vilnius) in 1937 and authored by the famous Pol- love of chaos, is neither a “Polish writer” in the usual ish eschatological philosopher. Reflections on German, meaning of the term, nor an “émigré writer.” Ewa Russian, Polish and European topics. A review to follow. Płonowska Ziarek emphasizes his role as a figure of “in- Korzenie i owoce: Wspomnienia i listy, by Ewa betweenness,” and in this collection she gathers together Karpiƒska–Gierat. Bethlehem, CT. Domek. 1998. 816 authoritative and insightful studies of Gombrowicz by pages. Paper. In Polish. scholars of Slavic, Latin America, English, theater and The contents of many archival folders to which a book comparative literature from all over the world to demon- cover has been added. strate that “in-betweenness” can also be central. The collection is divided into three sections. The first, 716 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2000 “Gombrowicz’s Aesthetics: Writing, Self, Performance,” Holmgren updates her 1988 survey of Gombrowicz in focuses on Gombrowicz’s autobiographical non-fiction the United States, classifying Gombrowicz studies as in- (his diaries and A Kind of Testament) and the role of au- troduction, juxtaposition, and exoticizing. She points to thor/narrator in his major novels. Tomislav Longinovic the recent translations and retranslations of Gombrowicz argues that “kind of” is a “perfect linguistic signifier” for as a sign of American translators trying to finally “get Gombrowicz as an author and a human being (34). Valérie Gombrowicz right” for a nonspecialist audience. In her Deshoulières considers Gombrowicz’s persona to be that essay, Holmgren imagines various ways to use American of a chameleon. Such changeability offers a natural link publishing, packaging, and advertising enterprises to “sell” with the theme of Immaturity. In Gombrowicz Gombrowicz, to save him from the “ghetto” of East Eu- Deshoulières sees a different Romanticism—without the ropean fiction. 19th century accouterments—an art of the fragment and One of the things to celebrate about this collection is the fragmentary. Dorota Głowacka explores the figures that it takes Gombrowicz and his works seriously for their of Gombrowicz and Bruno Schulz in a duel of Form. In own sakes, as literary and aesthetic phenomena. Too of- the final article in this section, Hanjo Berressem uses ten in the “peripheral” literatures we are guilty of catastrophe and chaos theory to look at form and content boosterism, of promotion for promotion’s sake, of efforts in Gombrowicz’s major novels. to turn the study of Slavic literature into the glorification The second section of the book, “Modernity and the of Slavic culture. If we at the periphery want other disci- Trajectories of Exile,” features a particularly interesting plines and other readers to take “our” writers and cultural look at Gombrowicz from the perspective of Argentinian figures seriously, then we need to approach them with the letters by Latin American scholar Marzena Grzegorczyk. tools of theoretical analysis, the gravity of scholars, not Certainly students and readers of Gombrowicz think about national apologists, and the responsible clarity of unbi- how accidental exile to Argentina affected the writer, but ased commentators. This collection proves that as a sub- Grzegorczyk shows in her essay how the writer affected ject of study, Gombrowicz has a lot to offer contempo- his place of exile, how Gombrowicz himself became a rary literary criticism, that he can and must be central to character in Argentinian culture. In an elegant essay, Piotr considerations of modernism, of exile, and of national Parlej examines the way in which Gombrowicz’s dialec- and gender definitions. What the collection does not do is tical structures remained fresh (or scandalous) for both beat its bass drums loudly to drown out the whispers of official socialist realist writers and anti-Communist Pol- insecurity and insignificance often heard on the periph- ish post-war poets who, in rejecting politicized aesthetics ery, and that is something we can truly applaud. ∆ moved too far toward lyricism. Katarzyna Jerzak’s inter- esting discussion of Gombrowicz’s exilic character and that of the Francophone Romanian E. M. Cioran reveals THEATER AND FILM REVIEWS that each was engaged in a similar project: having rejected Andrzej Wajda’s Pan Tadeusz nationalism, patriotism and religion, “all traditional ways (shown in the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, 19 February 2000, English subtitles, poetic text in Polish) of belonging in and despite exile,” Cioran and Gombrowicz chose a strategy which Jerzak calls “defa- Aleksandra Ziółkowska-Boehm mation,” a strategy of intensified confrontation with their home cultures. In “An Epic Return for Polish Filmmaking” (Philadel- In the collection’s third section, Ziarek, Agnieszka phia Inquirer, 25 December 1999) Peter Finn describes Sołtysik and Allen Kuharski examine Gombrowicz using Pan Tadeusz as a combination of Gone with the Wind and theories from queer studies, postcolonial thought and the poetry of Walt Whitman. This is an apt description. performativity. Ziarek, in her essay, considers the role of For historical reasons, poetry has occupied a special place aesthetics in national culture and of love in national affili- in Polish culture. The Romantic notion that poets were ations through analysis of Gombrowicz’s novel Trans- spiritual leaders has enjoyed a long half-life in Poland. Atlantyk Sołtysik considers Gombrowicz in light of Abdul The heritage of poetry, of its metaphors and symbols, has JanMohamed’s notion of “specular [sic] border intellec- often imparted a special flavor to Polish cinema, and it tual,” while Kuharski suggests that performing has also served as a means to convey messages forbidden Gombrowicz in the English-speaking world will offer a by censors in Soviet-occupied Poland. As a film director, new—queer—angle from which to view his philosophi- Andrzej Wajda mastered the art of combining cinema- cal system and his personal politics. tography, painting, and poetry. The addition of painting As a conclusion to Gombrowicz’s Grimaces, Beth resulted from the fact that before attending the Film School April 2000 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 717 in Łódê, Wajda studied painting at the Academy of Fine 2000; poetic text in Polish) Arts in Kraków. A four-person cast of Chicago’s Polish Theater gave an By his own admission, Wajda has always been fasci- adaptation of Pan Tadeusz suitable for traveling perfor- nated with the complications of Polish history. He has mances. While all too often the show had an unmistak- confessed to having a great admiration for Polish people, able air of an operetta, the difficult task of impersonating their Sarmatian roots and traditions. At the same time, he several characters simultaneously was executed by the knew that these good characteristics have often been over- four actors with skill and grace. The most challenging job come by reckless bravado, a lack of prudence and long- was that of the show’s director, Ryszard Krzyžanowski, term planning, and an inability to master emotions. His who played the Narrator, the Count, the Judge, and the films reflect these attitudes. Russian Captain Rykov. In our estimation, his rendition Pan Tadeusz is based on a lengthy epic poem by of the Count was best of all, as it introduced a touch of Poland’s most cherished Romantic poet, Adam irony necessary to prevent the show from slipping into Mickiewicz (1798-1855). Its goal is to inspire the Polish waters so shallow as to ground any artistic ship. Our only viewer to look at the poem from the perspective of a now- complaint about his performance was misquotation of the free country. The film tries to make Polish and non-Pol- famous phrase “kraj lat dziecinnych.” Instead, he said “kraj ish viewers ask, “Where do I come from?” It is universal dzieciƒstwa:” a spot in his copybook. Another fine (and enough to inspire such questions in anyone, and to make appropriately distanced) rendition was Andrzej viewers reflect on their identity and roots. Krukowski’s Płut, a Russian Major symbolizing the style The acting is impeccably professional. Andrzej Seweryn of governorship practiced by Russians in their Polish- is wonderful as Narrator, Michal Zebrowski skillfully Lithuanian colony. Too bad that the caricatures of Poles plays Tadeusz, while the late Jerzy Biƒczycki beautifully in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov are known to portrays the country bumpkin Maciek Dobrzyƒski. Other the entire literate world, whereas Mickiewicz’s no less prominent cast members: Bogusław Linda, Daniel poignant and brilliant caricatures of Russians are only Olbrychski, Marek Kondrat, Gražyna Szapołowska are enjoyed by the Polish ethnic community. up to the task. Wojciech Kilar’s music is exquisite. The two actresses playing, respectively, Telimena and The serenity of the Polish zaÊcianek (a village inhab- Zosia (Barbara Denys and Julita Mroczkowska) were rich ited by petty nobility) and dworek (a small nobleman’s and faultless in their feminine charms. Altogether, in spite mansion) recalls well known illustrations to the printed of some roughness of the plot line, an enjoyable evening. version of Pan Tadeusz by Michał Elwiro Andriolli. The show was brought to Houston courtesy of the Drs. Wajda’s ability to handle light effects is remarkable. The Stanisław and Barbara Burzyƒski. (sb) movie abounds in landscapes, dawns, working peasants, swampland and storks in the fields; it is nostalgic and melancholic like old watercolor paintings. The wonder- Letters ful colors of the countryside, the dworek in the village of Soplicowo in Polish-speaking Lithuania are contrasted Professor Gella responds with the darkness and noisiness of Paris streets and the Since I had not been given an opportunity to see before special sadness of Polish émigré life in France. publication Professor Anna Cienciala’s review of my book, During the first three months of the film’s showing in Zagłada Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej, 1945-1947 (SR, XX:1, Poland, almost four million people, or some ten percent January 2000), I request that my response to her vehe- of the population, saw it. The film’s popularity surpassed ment criticism be published without editing as a Letter to the American hits Titanic and Star Wars. It is to be hoped the Editor. that the Oscar Andrzej Wajda received on 26 March 2000 First of all, it is impossible for me to discuss issues will bring closer to American audiences his talent and his with her using the style and method which she has used. special gifts as a moviemaker. ∆ Professor Cienciala began and ended many paragraphs with invectives against me. For example, “He. . . inter- prets history to suit his purpose. . . Gella continues to Chicago’s Polish Theater distort history. . . Gella favors a conspiratorial theory. . . performs To say that Gella’s ideological views are strange is an Pan Tadeusz understatement.” In addition, her repeated use of terms such as “allegedly” in reference to my sources casts un- in Houston warranted doubts upon their veracity. (shown at the University of Saint Thomas in Houston, 22 January These invectives are not supported by serious argu- 718 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2000 ments, but eventually by Prof. Ciencialas interpretation traditional role of the Polish intelligentsia as leaders of of history. Her views and entire criticism are almost iden- society ended with the last resistance heroes of the Sec- tical to a review by her formed teacher, Prof. P. Wandycz, ond Republic in 1947.” There is no such statement in my published in Zeszyty Historyczne, no. 129 (Paris, 1999). book. But the fact is that as a social stratum, the old Pol- Exactly like Wandycz, she confused the criticism of my ish intelligentsia ceased to exist with the communist take- historical book on 1945–1947 with my Foreword and a over. 17-page-long remarks on the present situation in Poland Cienciala defends Józef Beck’s policy, which is quite (1989–1997) which have been added to the book as its understandable as she edited Beck’s papers of the years “Closing.” 1926–39. Therefore, she cannot see his policy more criti- Then she has chosen various fragments while omitting cally. the central topic, the annihilation of the Second Polish It is unfortunate that she has not read J. E. Hayes’ and Republic in the years 1945–1947. It should be obvious to H. Klehr’s Venona: Decoding the Soviet Espionage in any reader that her review is directed more ad personam America before she wrote that I favor “a conspiratorial than ad rem, and it is an aggressive ideological attack. theory of history” in relation to my views on F. D. Professor Cienciala’s self-confidence undermines the aca- Roosevelts foreign policy. The authors show that paid demic character of her statements; she criticizes me for Soviet agents were operating at the top echelons of the “intemperate statements and judgments” and for “misin- American administration. terpretations of history,” while in fact presenting her own To criticize my data on the Polish Underground she personal views but not convincing arguments. uses data from a textbook by A. Paczkowski. But most There are three basic faults in her review. sad and erroneous is her criticism of my chapter VI. She 1. The book presents documented facts and only margin- writes: “The author’s speculation about British policy is ally my opinions and interpretations. Prof. Cienciala does not supported by any evidence whatever.” The truth is not write about facts presented in the book, but rather deals that the entire chapter is based on British documents dis- with my grievances. covered by me in 1983–84 in the Public Record Office in 2. Cienciala’s criticism is empty because it is deprived of London, and cited in the said chapter. Cienciala replaced some other verified documents which could undermine the term “disposal” used in the secret documents of the the truths of the presented documents, or at least deliver British Cabinets Committee on the Polish Forces with the some critical analysis of them. However, as long as she softer term, “dissolution.” And she remarked that “There attacks my interpretations of history, I allow her be happy is an earlier study on PRC, based on Foreign Office docu- with her political convictions. ments. . .” published in 1989. However, she did not want 3. In her frustrated angriness, she imputes to me (a) a to notice that my work, which was reprinted as chapter term which I never used, “bandit capitalism”; (b) a state- VI, was published in 1988. ment that “if Poland had agreed to Hitler’s demands, he Aleksander Gella, Professor Emeritus, SUNY Buffalo, would have succeeded at invading Britain in the fall of Buffalo, NY 1939.” All too freely, she interprets my statements to suit her purpose. A view of NATO from Massachusetts From the first paragraph, where she stated that I misin- I would like to comment on “Poland and the Future of terpret history, through the entire review, Cienciala did NATO” by Marek Jan Chodakiewicz (SR, XIX:3, Sep- not turn attention to the main topic of the book, while her tember 1999). As a third generation American, I carefully opinions of my supposedly “ideological” statements are watched the entry of Poland into NATO. I think all Polish left without any explanation, and are nothing but offenses. Americans believe that Poland’s membership in NATO Like her former professor Wandycz, she is scandalized will be valuable to Poland’s security. by my statement that “without Polish armed effort, the However, as an American, I found the discussion of fate of Europe would have been total catastrophe.” This NATO’s expansion incomplete. Although I found new is my statement which, because it was well documented, points in Mr. Chodakiewicz’s article, he omitted what I was used in a preface written by Mrs. Zofia Korboƒska, a think are important facts about NATO expansion. well known hero of World War II who, although not an What is missing from his and other discussions of NATO American scholar, has a deep knowledge of Polish merits is history and operational details. NATO was formed on and contributions to the Allied victory. For Cienciala, April 4, 1949, as a military organization to thwart a west- however, this statement “borders on megalomania.” ward attack by the Soviet Union and the Soviet-occupied Prof. Cienciala is astonished by my statement that “the nations. This mission was simple and clearly understood by everyone. A simple and clear mission is the basis for April 2000 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW 719 successful foreign policy or an efficient organization. with the Robertson Museum and Science Center in NATO was successful in fulfilling this original mission. Binghamton, NY, offers students (ages 8–17) an opportu- Today there is no Soviet Union and nations are no longer nity to attend a week-long astronomy program at the Soviet-occupied. By its own account, Russia is feeble Kopernik Space Education Center in July 2000. Students economically and it has an ineffective military. will work with research teams and live on Binghamton During the Cold War, the mass media carried detailed University campus. More information at information about the size of the military on NATO side,
Announcements and Notes Polish American Historical Association Member- About the Authors ship Drive Angela Brintlinger is Associate Professor of Slavic Lan- PAHA seeks new members. To keep Polish American guages and Literatures at Ohio State University. discourse going, associations like PAHA are essential. To John Knasas is Professor of Philosophy at the University join, send your check and address to of Saint Thomas in Houston, Texas. PAHA, St. Mary’s College Chester Natunewicz is an independent scholar who, be- 3535 Indian Trail fore his retirement, taught at numerous schools and uni- Orchard Lake, MI 48324 versities including Yale University and Goucher College. Or contact Dr. Karen Majewski at [email protected]. Walenty Tyszkiewicz heads Centrum Polonia Membership fees are as follows: students and senior citi- Turkmeƒska, a Polish ethnic organization in Turkmenistan. zens, $12/yr; regular, $20/yr; institutional or family, $35/ Christopher Adam Zakrzewski is a professional transla- yr; patron, $100; lifetime member (individuals only), $500. tor residing in Wilno, Ontario, Canada. PAHA’s history goes back to 1942. The organization pub- Aleksandra Ziółkowska-Boehm is a Polish journalist and lishes a Newsletter and a bi-annual periodical, Polish writer. American Studies.
One-week scientific exploration scholarships for high 12345678901234567890123456789012123456789 12345678901234567890123456789012123456789
12345678901234567890123456789012123456789 school students of Polish background 12345678901234567890123456789012123456789 12345678901234567890123456789012123456789 Kopernik Society of Broome County, NY, in conjunction 720 THE SARMATIAN REVIEW April 2000 Polish Diaspora in Turkmenistan Thank You Note A Colonial Narrative The Sarmatian Review would like to thank the following Walenty Tyszkiewicz individuals and institutions for their donations to the The group “Turkmenistan Polonia” was formed in Octo- Sarmatian Review Publication Fund: ber 1992. I say “group” because in present circumstances, Professor and Mrs. Thomas E. and Mary Lynne Bird; free civic activity is still impossible. We cannot for in- Mr. & Mrs. James & Marla Burns; Rev. (Dr.) Raymond stance place an ad in the paper seeking descendants of the T. Gawronski, SJ; Mr. Stefan J. Ginilewicz; Ms. Jadwiga nineteenth-century Polish political prisoners and exiles. J. Henderson; Dr. Danuta Zamojska Hutchins of We do not know whether they retained their Polish iden- CULANCO; Ms. Halina Kallaby of TAG TRAVEL, tity or not, and to what extent they have been intimidated Houston’s Favorite Travel Agency Since 1977; Mr. and by all too many factors in the history of Russia and the Mrs. Ryszard and Janina Kowalczuk; Professor and USSR. The only possible way to reach them is through Mrs. Alex and Wendy Kurczaba; Mr. & Mrs. Thomas personal contacts. M. and Barbara Ostrowski; Mr. & Mrs. Casimir & Mira What is the history of Polish ethnic communities in Pieniazek. Turkmenistan? Tsarist policy toward Poles drafted into the army was to dispatch them as far away from Polish Thank you—we rely on your support. lands as possible. Before World War I, 50 percent of sol- diers and 15 percent of officers in the Russian army sta- tioned in Turkmenistan were Polish. The first wave of RADIO COURIER civilian Poles consisted of political prisoners sentenced Polish American Radio Network to hard labor after the failed 1863 rising. They built 700 P.O. Box 130146, Houston, Texas 77219 kilometers of railway which connected Krasnowodsk and Polish Language Program Aschabad. The second wave of forced laborers came in Saturday 11:00 AM, 1520 KYND 1903. They built a glass factory in Aschabad and were tel./fax: (281) 872-1062 subsequently employed there. In 1908, Aschabad’s Pol- email: [email protected] ish population was 8 percent (5,000 out of 60,000). In 1910, the number of Poles in Turkmenistan (then called the Caspian oblast’) was between 10 and 20 thousand. A and M Technical Services Inc. The amount of disruption that their imprisonment and exile Metallurgical Testing Laboratory caused in Poland can only be imagined. Their labor prof- 407 Sylvester Road ited the Russian empire. Houston, Texas 77009 Eventually, their descendants made a living for them- Anthony Rudnicki selves. They built homes and planted vineards. Last but Chief Metallurgist not least, they built five Catholic churches in Aschabad, Phone: 713-691-1765 Fax: 713-695-7241 Krasnovodsk, Chardou, Kyzych-Arvat and Mary. Under Soviet rule, these churches were mostly destroyed. (To be continued in the next issue) The Anya Tish Gallery 1740 Sunset Boulevard. Houston, Texas 77005 phone/fax: 713-523-2299 Give where it really Artwork and paintings from Central and Eastern Europe counts:
TAG TRAVEL Ticketing, Cruises, Accommodations, Car Rental support Halina Kallaby General Manager The Sarmatian Review. 6484 Woodway Drive Houston, Texas 77057 Phone: 713-932-0001 Fax: 713-932-9901