Alexander I about the Polish Issue in the Memoirs… of Prince Michael Kleofas Ogiński
Alexander I about the Polish Issue in the Memoirs… of Prince Michael Kleofas Ogiński

Summary/Abstract: The Memoirs… of Prince Michael Kleofas Ogiński are a very precious source of information about the social and political life on the territory of Poland, remaining under partitions. Moreover, they picture the initiative to restore the role of former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, with reference to France or Russia, and present the numerous attitudes of the Polish and Lithuanian society towards the rulers of the two powers. The picture shown by Ogiński was full of radical loyalism and servility joined with „blind” belief in Tsar’s promises. It seems as if it was a need of the hour, which should have been used and treated as a moral and political obligation in view of a lost state, even with a possibility of failure. This viewpoint was definitely a result of geopolitical realism, which influenced the proposals presented to the Tsar by the Memoirs’ author.

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