Portret bohatera. Postać Waleriana Łukasińskiego w historiografii i edukacji historycznej w latach 1900-1939
The Hero’s Portrait. Walerian Łukasiński in historiography and historical education between 1900-1939

Summary/Abstract: At the beginning of the XX-th century, owing to the research conducted by Szymon Askenazy, the process of building in Polish historiography Walerian Łukasiński’s “beyond the grave historiography” began. Walerian Łukasiński (1786-1868) was a soldier and the creator of national freemasonry. He was imprisoned for 46 years in the tsar’s strict confinement, including 38 years in Shlisselburg fortress. In spite of various outlooks on life the authors of historical dissertations and school text-books, which mostly presented the “heroic” vision of history, tried to depict Łukasiński as an unshaken soldier, uncompromising opposition activist who defended the constitution. While the Polish hero and his dramatic fate were recollected, “the biography of the myth” or “the biography of the legend” of Łukasiński were created. Their most visible feature was the assumption that he was the person who strived for the compromise above all political and ideological differences in order to fulfill a more important task.

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