Ancient Rus’ of Polish romantics

Abstract

This article examines the place of the history of Ancient Rus in the works of the most eminent Polish Romantics — Adam Mickiewicz and Juliusz Slowacki — with the help of a wide range of written sources (literary works, diaries, lectures, and correspondence). The focus is on (no mistake here, just to avoid repeating “analysis”) the connection between individual historical plots and the Romantics’ range of literary interests s as well as their erudition, but also on their independent attempts to create their own personal historiosophy of the common destiny of the Slavic peoples. As a result of the analysis of medieval Polish and Russian sources, many corrections have been made to the interpretation of individual subjects and their historical context. The issue of the dependence of the authors’ historical ideas on the culture and traditions of the Russian lands of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the centuriesold antinomy that characterizes it: Russia (Ruthenia) vs Russia (Moscovia) is analyzed separately.