Czytanie mapy: Litwa na przełomie lat 50. i 60. XIX stulecia
Map Reading: Lithuania in the 1850s and the 1860s

Author(s): Grażyna Borkowska
Subject(s): Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, 19th Century
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: history; Poland; Lithuania; uprising; serfdom; enfranchisement of peasants
Summary/Abstract: The article discusses a series of Eliza Orzeszkowa’s letters, published in the Niwa periodicalas Znad Niemna (1874–1875). The novelist portrays the tensions that preceded the outbreak ofthe January Uprising (1863–1864) in Lithuania: the confl ict between ‘the Old’, who reluctantlyaccepted the need for social change, with ‘the Young’, who not only demanded the abolishmentof serfdom but also enfranchisement of peasants. As can be inferred from Orzeszkowa’s words,the need for a social transition – rather than the national cause only – was one of the reasonsbehind the thrust for revolt; yet, the uprising had no chance to succeed, particularly in thatterritory. ‘The Young’ could perhaps have listened to reason, if they could believe the promisesof compromise made by the noblemen and landowners. However, the uprising broke out all thesame; its suppression gave rise to a period of repression and stagnation, which was particularlysevere and affl icting in the eastern provinces of the former Poland-Lithuania.

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