Oktawian Jeleński – Polak w carskim mundurze. O Rosjanach i relacjach polsko-rosyjskich w XIX wieku
Oktawian Jeleński – a Pole in the Tsarist Military Uniform. On the Russians and Polish-Russian Relations in the Nineteenth Century

Summary/Abstract: In his “Meditations and Memories of a Pole”, Oktawian Jeleński characterised the everyday life in the country led by the military men, landed gentry, peasants, merchants, Russian women, and Orthodox clergy. In addition, he devoted a lot of attention to the Polish-Russian relations during the January Uprising (1863–64). He took part in discussions held in salons in Moscow in which their participants sympathised with Poles.In the 1880s, he started collaboration with the Polish weekly Kraj (Country) published in St Petersburg, to which he wrote texts on the lives of Poles from various regions of the Russian Empire. Undoubtedly, Jeleński took a conciliatory position, but he strongly criticized all undertakings of the Russian administrative and police apparatus aimed at weakening the Polish spirit, especially in the Northwestern Krai. As for himself, Jeleński saw the possibility of establishing good relations between Poles and Russians, hampered in his opinion by the so-called patriotic historiography. He believed that the time would come for an objective assessment in the Russian historiography on the subject of Poles’ attitudes towards Russia throughout the nineteenth century. He believed that at that time his countrymen would not be blamed for their lack of patience and extreme hot-headedness.Jeleński’s memories testify that a Pole wearing the tsarist military uniform did not have to deny his Polishness and the Catholic faith.

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