Prof. dr hab. Elżbieta Barbara Zybert
University of Warsaw
Faculty of History

The role of books and libraries in sustaining the national spirit of minorities
The Polish case in XIX c.

2. Some basic historical and geographical facts: Poles in the period of partitions

3. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
(the First Polish Republic)

• estabished in 1569 - (The Union of Lublin)
• powerful Commonwealth
• an influential player in Europe a vital cultural entity, spreading western culture eastwards.

4. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth till 1772

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth till 1772

5. The social and political situation between XVI and XVIII c.

6. The situation in the 70s of XVIII c.

• Habsburg Austria
• Kingdom of Prussia
• Russian Empire

7. The partitions of Poland

• the first partition: August 5, 1772
• the second partition: Jan. 23,1793 (Austria did not participate)
• the third partition: October 24, 1795

8. The Commonwealth territory was:

• partitioned and annexed by the three countries (Prusia, Russia and Austria)
• devided between them

9. The situation under the French emperor Napoleon Ist

• defeat of Prussia: -1807 – the Duchy of Warsaw, a small Polish state under French tutelage, was set up
• defeat of Austria -1809 Galicia was attached to the Duchy

10. The situation after Napoleon’s defeat

• 1815 Congress of Vienna
• most of the Duchy of Warsaw converted into Kingdom of Poland ruled by the Russian tsar

11. The partition of Poland (situation 1815)

The partition of Poland (situation 1815)

12. The size of the Commonwealth lands annexed by occupants

• kept changing along time
• in 1815 in relation to the pre-partitioned period (until 1772)
• Austria occupied: 11% (region named Galicia-Lodomeria)
• Prussia occupied: 7%
• Russia occupied: 82%

13. Of the three annexationists
Russia was the most hated one due to:

• its initiative role in the partition (together with Prussia)
• the size of the annexed territory and population.

14. The signing of the 3rd partition treaty meant:

• loss of independence and statehood of Poland for 123 years, until the end of the 1st World War.

15. Poland before 1772 was:

• a multicultural and multireligious country
• inhabited (apart from Poles) by Russians, Ukrainians, Byelorussians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Germans, Jews, Tartars, Austrians and also Lemeks, Boyks, Armenians, Gypsies, Czechs, and Mennonites (immigrants from Holland).

16. After the partitions

17. National minority

• a group of people living in a given country or a territory
• of the same race, with their own religion, language or tradition
• integrated by above features expressed through:
  • community spirit, preserving tradition and religion,
  • educating their children according to the tradition of their race and mutual support

18. As a result of partitions, Poles were forced to:

seek a change of the status quo in Europe emigrate in large numbers (hence the term Great Emigration)

19. Emigrants:

• poets, politicians, noblemen, writers, artists,
• many became the revolutionaries of 19th century
• the desire for freedom and liberty became one of the defining features of Polish romanticism
• participated in uprisings in Prussia, Austrian Empire and Imperial Russia
• fought alongside Napoleon
• participated widely in the Spring of Nations, particularly in the Hungarian Revolution (1848)
• under the slogan of For our freedom and yours

20. The goals of occupants:

• permanent subordination of the annexed territories
• denationalizing people (= rusification & germanization)
• constraining the cultural deveoplment of Polish people
• suppressing Polishness and national identity
• expelling the Polish language & customs from institutions
• killing people’s hope for a free Poland

21. The situation in each partition

• was different
• varied in terms of intensity of activities aiming at r&g

22. Situation in Austria:

• relatively better than in other partitions,
• obtained autonomy within the Austro-Hungarian empire (the end of the 1860s.
• this part was economically backward
• Polish education and culture had much greater freedom to develop there,
• a government with legislative powers was formed in Galicia (Poles were included)

23. Situation in Prussia and Russia:

the policy of repression exercised there was particulary acute in Russia it was intensified after the fall of national insurrections (Nov. 1830; Jan. 1863)

24. Political repressions in the Russian partition included:

• relegating Polish from public institutions
  - Russian an official language;
• closing down universities
• decreasing the number of schools,
• implementing systems of denunciation
• depriving Poles of property and giving it to Russians,
• sending Poles to Siberia,
• abolishing the remains of autonomy after 1863,

25. Political repressions in the Russian partition, cont.:

• abolishing the Polish Kingdom, instilling in their place the Vistula Land
• removing books from Polish libraries, robbing and moving them to Russia;
• imposing heavy censorship
• introducing the Russian monetary system (in 1841)
• recognizing the Orthodox religion as official religion

26. The situation in the Prussian partition

• similar to that in Russian partition
• after 1830 depriving Poles of moderate freedoms:
• substitution of the Polish governor by a German
• removing Polish language from public institutions
• depriving Poles of property and handing it over to Prussians
• removing Polish books from libraries; after 1848 new libraries had only German books

27. The situation in the Prussian partition, cont.:

• after 1870 (Otto von Bismarck, chancellor) the policy intensified
• Polish clerks substituted by Germans
• German - the official language; Polish forbidden in schools, law courts, at public meetings
• Bismarck’s Kulturkampf program “the fight for culture” (1871-78)
• removing Poles who were not Prussian citizens from their farms (“Prussian displacements”) (26 000 in 1885)
• the Colonialization Commission (1886) - buying Polish land from Poles and handing it over to German settlers

28. Struggle for Polishness

• Poles were not passive.
• different forms of struggle:
  • cultivating national traditions,
  • protecting cultural heritage (fight for freedom, Polish schools, secret teaching in Polish)
  • military clashes

29.New tactics of struggles against occupants

• the fiascos of the national insurrections (especially of Jan. 1863)
• recognition: no chance to regain independence
• the highest priority to preserving Polishness
• economic, cultural and social development (the Positivist Program) through educating all social groups (especially peasants and poor city dwellers)

30. The Positivist Program:

• represented by, e.g. Bolesław Prus, Aleksander Swiętochowski, Piotr Chmielowski, Eliza Orzeszkowa, Henryk Sienkiewicz (a Nobel Prize winner in literature); Dezydery Chlapowski

The positivists

Faustyna Morzyska

Bolesław Prus

Eliza Orzeszkowa

Konrad Prószyński-Kazimierz Promyk

Henryk Sienkiewic

31. The Positivist Program characterized by:

• emphasizing the value of work and faith in education and science as opposed to romanticism
• raising the living standard and strengthening national consciousness
• fighting illiteracy, spreading education and culture
• promoting activities for developing industry, agriculture, trade and transport as factors defending Polish national interest
• spreading the idea of emancipation of women
• trying to assimilate and integrate the Jewish community with Polish society

32. Poles undertook activities aiming at sustaining national identity and raising the intellectual and moral level of the people

33. Main activities:

• establishing organizations which collected funds for scholarships for libraries
• running secret schools and courses (with Polish history and literature, patriotic attitudes)
• (e.g. a secret school at the university level – “Flying University”, Warsaw 1885)
• organizing lectures
• developing vocational education, mainly agriculture, by societies, circles (disseminated political ideas)
• promoting popular education and readership run by special organizations
• disseminating national and nationalist ideas

34. Nationalist movement

• activities of the National League (1893) e.g. Jan Ludwik Popławski
• aim: to expand national policy in all 3 partitions
• a struggle for Polishness, rooting in the national spirit. -consequence: worsened relations between the nations living in the occupied lands

Jan Ludwik Popławski

35. Pan-Slavism movement

• aim: to unite all Slavs,
• backed by the Russian tsarism (tried to realize its imperial interests towards Slavic peoples that did not have their own states)
• rusification was an aim in itself,
• requirement: all Slavs should be converted to the Orthodox religion
• in Poland did not gain support - it did among Czechs

36. The loss of independence did not mean annihilation of the Polish nation or extinction of its culture

37. National preservation – special role of literacy, books, and libraries

38. Types of libraries in XIX c. in the occupied Polish territories

• research (scientific), belonging to foundations, families, universities, scientific associations
• vocational
• popular and school

39. The reasons for establishing particular libraries different, the common goal: support people in the preservation of national identity

40. The basic aims of the libraries:

• protecting national heritage
• protecting monuments of national literacy
• making collections for future generations in the re-born Polish state
• conservation of the independent past,
• enabling research into the future of the country
• sustaining national awareness and identity
• supporting the didactic and pedagogical process
• spreading popular education
• popularizing the printed word

41. Publishing activities of libraries

• the activities, based mainly on historical sources in particular collections
• this compensated the lack of publishing institutions
• create a basis for developing native historiography
• it follows that libraries functioned as underground research institutes

42. Protection of national heritage

• undertaken mainly by foundation, family, academic and research (scientific) libraries
• the founders’ idea: to establish Polish national library (Bibliotheca Patria) (as was abroad and in pre-partitioned Poland - the Zaluskis Library, robbed by Russians)

43. Foundation and family libraries

• Aims:
  • established for patriotic reasons, also to satisfy the ambition of their founders
  • oriented towards collecting polonica, often did relevant publishing
  • used to join art collections
  • sometime the book collections developed side by side with museum collections.

44. Examples of prominent family libraries:

• the Ossolinski National Institute Library, 1817, the largest in the Polish territory,
• Izabela Czartoryska’s Library in Pulawy, 1830
• the Zamoyski Library, originated at the beginning of 16th century
• the Krasinski Library, 1844
• the Przezdziecki Library, developed on the basis of collections that started in 18th century
• Tytus Dzialynski’ Library in Kornik, 1828
• Tte Raczynski Foundation Library in Poznan, 1829

Tte Raczynski Foundation Library in Poznan, 1829

the Ossolinski National Institute Library

Józef Maksymilian Ossoliński

Lvov, National Institute and house of Sapieha family

Lvov, The convent and the church of Sisters of Carmelite

45. Scientific associations’ libraries

• they fostered the development of science by documenting research.
• the major ones were:
  • the library of The Warsaw Society of Friends of Science (1803)
  • the library of Scientific Society of the Cracow University (1815)
  • the library of the Plock Scientific Society (1821-1898)
  • the library of the Poznan Scientific Society (1857)
  • the library of the Scientific Society in Torun (1875)

The Warsaw Society of Friends of Science

first location (1807-1823)

and after 1823

46. Other specialist, research libraries:

• medical collections: e.g. the Library of the Warsaw Medical Society (1821), in Lublin (1874), in Vilnius (1805); the Library of Galician Doctors 1867-69 (Austria)
• agricultural collections: e.g. the Galician Economic Society in Lvov (1846-1918), the Library of the Museum of Industry and Agriculture in Warsaw (1875)
• Very active in organizing lectures and exhibitions, supporting research

47. Polish libraries abroad

• The Polish diaspora created serious collections.
  • assembled works made by emigrants and polonica (seen as evidence of future independence)
  • treated as a basis for a future national library
• Examples:
  • the Polish Library in Paris (1838)
  • The Versaille Library (1841)
  • the Polish School Library in Batignolles (1843)
  • the library of the Polish National Museum in Rappersville, Switzerland (1870)

Polish libraries abroad

Polish Museum and Library, Rappersville

Polish Museum and Library, Rappersville

Polish Library, Paris

48. Libraries in didactic and pedagogical process

• supporting the educational process in a given school. (patriotic education, the Polish language, history and literature)
• (The Commission of National Education (CNE), 1773, the first such ministry in Europe, appealed for creating school libraries)
• but numbers of schools in the occupied territories were small.
• very many young people didn’t attend school (=a high percentage of illiteracy on Polish lands in the 19th century)
• better situation was in elitarian secondary schools
• repressions: Polish books removed from collections, education in the language of the occupants

49. The situation of education in Poland during the occupation: Russian partition

• The most difficult situation
• in 1897 75-80% of the population there was illiterate
• only 17% attended school (of 1 million children at school age)

50. The situation of education in Poland during the occupation: Austrian partition

• in 1880 77% of people were illiterate, in 1890 the figure was 67%

51. The situation of education in Poland during the occupation time: Prussian partition

• education and literacy was much higher there (in comparison with the other partitions)
• in mid 19th century illiteracy was close to zero
• the school was German but the ability to read and write enabled people using Polish books.
• the situation was worse in the secondary school context.

53. The aim of organizations and educational societies

• fighting with illiteracy
• developing linguistic skills in the mother tongue
• cultivating national culture and strengthening national awareness
• developing education and vocational aptitude
• raising living standards
• disseminating reading interests

54. Methods of work:

• creating free reading-rooms, popular libraries for wide circles (their feature: public character)
• library activities addressed the emerging working class and peasants (without developed patriotic awareness)
• the activities were conducive to strengthening national unity

55. The most important associations in organizing popular libraries

• the Warsaw Charity Association (Russian partition)
• the Association of Popular Education (APE) (the Austrian and Prussian partitions)
• the Association of Popular Reading-rooms (APR)
• the Popular School Association (Austrian partition)

56. The Warsaw Charity Association - WCA, 1825
(Russian partition)

• organized a Department of Reading-rooms, 1858
• the 1st such room, since 1861 (very modest)
• the no. of these rooms: in 1863 - 14 and in 1893 - 23 in total.
• they functioned openly and their aim: provide books to the poor of Warsaw
• the reading-rooms used by workers and artisans, students and clerks.
• topics of the collections: Polish history and literature, social and economic issues
• of enormous popularity: historical novels, (H. Sienkiewicz’s works,

57. The Association of Popular Education - APE

• organized its branches in the A. and P. partitions, in Russia severely repressed
• the earliest branch – Lvow, 1867, next in Poznan, 1872 and Cracow, 1882
• created popular libraries with Polish publications (information on agriculture, education, the country and its history and religion)
• involved in publishing and in circulating books and inexpensive pictures
• large extent of the Association’s influence: e.g. Cracow branch supervised 800 libraries in 1896.

58. The Association of Popular Reading-rooms – APR, 1880
(Prussian partition)

• founded after the dissolution of the Association of Popular Education,
• aim: popularizing reading in Polish with emphasis on the patriotic role of reading.
• organized a net of small libraries (149) in parishes, with 30 000 volumes in 1880.
• in 1900 the no. of libraries - 1563 with half a million volumes
• the libraries run by volunteers, priests, artisans, and others
• workers - very dedicated, but not professional librarians
• the books themselves were not of much value but, at least, in Polish.

59. The Popular School Association – PSA, 1891
(Austrian partition)

• on the initiative of Adam Asnyk, poet and playwright
• goal: organizing a Polish educational system, especially in Eastern Galicia, by building modern, well-equipped schools and popular libraries
• up to 1901 founded 200 small libraries.
• had Central Library in Cracow (with 7 free lending libraries) and 3 others in Lvov.

60. Other forms of activity:

• mutual help in accessing books, such as reading partnerships (e.g. Reading Association founded by brothers Bonawentura and Wincent Niemojewski in 1820 in Kalisz)
• membership fee libraries (e.g. Citizens’ Libraries founded by the secret society of the Vilnius University students [Philomats] in 1830 in Vilnius).

61. Initiatives of individuals: teachers, writers, priests.

• e.g. in the Prussian partition – Jozef Lompa, Karol Miarka, in Silesia - Wojciech Korfanty, in Warmia and Mazury – Krzysztof Mrongowiusz, Gustaw Gizewiusz, Wojciech Kętrzyński
• in Russian partition (Stanisław Michalski, Konrad Proszyński (Kazimierz Promyk)
• founded libraries, organized home reading evenings, run bookshops, published journals promoting national-democratic ideas and social reforms
• defended the rights, culture of local communities, collected regional legends and folk songs
• supported self-education and prepared adequate publications.

Fighting with illiteracy

Konrad Prószyński-Kazimierz Promyk

62. Forms of library work

• lending books, (reading-rooms were in fact lending libraries, small, limited opening hours e.g. once a week for 2 hours)
• reading aloud organized in libraries and, more often, in private homes
• public lectures; e.g. in the PSA libraries about 3000 lectures were given annually
  • slides, that were a novelty then, were used
  • a slide-lending library in Cracow
  • the slides were catalogued and borrowing them was charged
• book exhibitions
• free or low-priced distribution of books and pictures
• giving performances to include the illiterate in the audiences

63. Occupants’ counteraction

• were aware of the significance of the book in service of preserving national identity
• tried to diminish the influence of Polish books on the people.

64. The occupants adverse activities included:

• searches for forbidden books and their confiscation
• persecuting librarians and people involved in book distribution
• organizing mixed collections in libraries; e.g. in the Russian partition (so called Imretynski initiative) funding small village libraries of 250 books (100 in Russian and 150 in Polish), but they were not popular.
• organizing also large public libraries, mainly in the Prussian partition (under close vigilance of Prussian authorities and intended to be centers of Germanic culture)

65. Summary

• Losing independence Poles understood:
  • what is motherland
  • what is national and community spirit, and identity
  • they undertook to fight for them.
  • the printed word and the library performed a very important role
• Libraries were crucial instruments against denationalization and in sustaining national awareness, which resulted in regaining independence in 1918

Thank you for your attention