Opinie na temat rządów w Rzeczypospolitej z perspektywy zabezpieczenia ludności przed plagą jasyru – w wypowiedziach wybranych pamiętnikarzy siedemnastego stulecia
Opinions of governments in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from the point of view of protecting the population against the plague of Tatar captivity – based on statements by selected memoirists of the 17th century

Summary/Abstract: The research so far has failed to notice that for 17th century memoirists, the state’s ability to defend its citizens against Tatar captivity was an important criterion for the assessment of the government’s effectiveness. In fact, in Poland at that time, Tatar raids were a serious problem. The Tatars would kidnap inhabitants of the south- eastern borderlands on a mass scale. This is why Polish memoirists at that time reflected on how the government coped when it came to limiting this threat. The author focused precisely on the documentalists’ assessment of the government’s actions to protect its subjects against captivity. On the basis of a historical and literary analysis, it can be concluded from the memoirists’ statements selected in terms of their subject matter that these judgments were most often critical. The aspects outlined here are ones that failed to draw the attention of researchers studying Old Polish literature; they may also serve as a source for historical and cultural observations.

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