Miłość, przyjaźń i milczenie (biografów)
Love, Friendship, and Silence (of Biographers)

The Correspondence between Edward Abramowski and Emilia née Andronowska

Summary/Abstract: Despite a growing interest in the radical Polish intelligentsia of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, relatively little is known about their personal lives and negotiating intimate relationships. Edward Abramowski is a conspicuous example of an influential and popular political activist whose biography still contains many gaps. This article examines the correspondence between him and his second wife, Emilia, née Andronowska. Emilia was the daughter of a Russian mother and a Polish father exiled to Siberia after the uprising of 1863. She met Abramowski in Geneva, where she studied, and they married in 1901. Their relationship went through different stages. There were periods of love and periods of friendship, when the couple lived separately and addressed each other as “little brother” and “little sister.” Their letters reveal a close and “modern” marriage relationship in which both parties did not adhere to traditional gender roles.

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