IDEAŁ ANTYCZNY, CZYLI (JUGO)SŁOWIAŃSKI: POLACY JAKO PÓŁNOCNA DIASPORA
THE ANCIENT OR YUGOSLAVIAN/SLAVIC IDEAL: POLES AS NORTHERN DIASPORA

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with the Polish fascination with Yugoslavia in the 1930s. Catholics pacifists, liberals as well as nationalists representing different parties shared that enthusiasm for southern Slavic nations, yet, for various reasons. Generally, however, it could be associated with the attempt to shift the paradigm which forced the Middle (Middle-Eastern) Slavs to define themselves in relation to Western Europe or Russia. The acceptance of the new North-South axis, where the South means the perfect, ancient ideal (according to such categories as: nature, culture, body), allows the Slavs from the North to see themselves as the diaspora longed-for by the Yugoslavs, and therefore it arouses their pride and hope. West-European nations that have so long colonized culturally the “East” and found themselves “elder” and “more civilized” turn out to be “pitiful” “nightmares”. Poles, too, but they have a chance to return to their roots and ideal, cognate nations. The dream of the reunion with Yugoslavs, the authentic heirs of the ancient Greeks, was a new version of a comforting Slavonic myth, important at the time of interwar crises.

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