Polska, Imperium Osmańskie i Wschód w pismach Michała Czajkowskiego: Dziwne życia Polaków i Polek oraz Moje wspomnienia o wojnie 1854
Poland, the Otoman Empire and East in Dziwne życia Polaków i Polek and Moje wspomnienia o wojnie 1854 by Michał Czajkowski

Summary/Abstract: The article concerns the memoirs and letters of Michał Czajkowski, one of the main representatives of the Polish community in the Ottoman Empire and the author of interesting, synthetic historiosophical concepts. Article focuses on the issue ofCzajkowski’s palimpsest identity (Polish, Cossack, Turkish and Eastern in general)and his views on the dichotomy of East and West. Czajkowski’s comments on Polish-Turkishrelations during the Crimean War of 1853–1856 allow us to read hisperspective on the geopolitical dispute between the West and the East, and on theplace of Poland, Turkey and Russia on the civilizational map of Europe. The article is an attempt to present his mythologized vision of Polish-Turkish history, related to the political rapprochement with the Ottoman Empire in the mid-nineteenth century.The issue of the Polish variant of literary Orientalism appears in the article as an important context, a convention which Czajkowski later resigned from.

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