170 KULTURA
the elementary schools, lessons were conducted either in German or in Latin.
The secularized University of Lemberg (1784), and in 1795-1815 and 1848-70,
the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, were German institutions. The Republic
of Cracow, in 1815-46, ran a Polish educational system modelled on that of the
Congress Kingdom. (See Map 6.)
The middle decades of the nineteenth century saw several important devel-
opments, especially in Russia and Austria. As a result of political tensions, the
Tsarist Government was shaken from its previous lethargy. There were alarm-
ing swings in policy. Periods of brutal state intervention, alternated with periods
of half-hearted reconciliation. In 1850, as earlier in 1821. the temporary exemp-
tion of the peasants from compulsory school contributions threatened to
destroy the entire fabric of elementary education at a stroke. In Lithuania in
i8zz. and in the Congress Kingdom in 1839, the autonomy of the Polish school
districts was withdrawn, only to be briefly reinstated under Wielopolski's aus-
pices in Warsaw in 1861-4. Yet from 1830 onwards, there was an unmistakable,
intensifying trend towards Russification. In Galicia, the opposite happened.
Following the grant of autonomy in 1867, the entire school system, together
with the two universities, was polonized. Thus, if at the start of the century
Polish culture had flourished most openly in the Russian Partition, and in the
Congress Kingdom, henceforth it was promoted exclusively by the Austrian
authorities in Galicia.
The critical point was reached in the 1880s. Twenty years after the final
Emancipation of the peasantry, the pressures of industrialization, urbanization,
and the population explosion put mass education into the forefront of social
policy. The absolute number of Polish schoolchildren was rising dramatically in
Russia and Prussia, at a time when the campaigns to eradicate Polish culture
were reaching their peak. In Galicia, conflicts arose with the Ukrainians who
demanded equal rights with the Poles. At that same time, a new generation of
educated Poles, among whom the pioneers of Women's Emancipation were
most noticeable, were deprived of all meaningful participation in political life.
They sensed a situation in which the traditional language and values of Polish
society would soon be swamped by the brainwashed products of the state-
backed mass education. Terrorism and political activism may have been for the
few; but cultural activism was for the many. Thousands of young people of both
sexes, who recoiled from illegal acts, found a mission in life by fighting for
Polish culture. In Russia, the typical Polish 'patriot' of the turn of the century
was not the revolutionary with a revolver in his pocket, but the young lady of
good family with a textbook under her shawl. In Prussia and Austria, where
political organizing was permitted, Polish schoolteachers formed the backbone
of the national movements.
This generation of revokes went forth as missionaries into their own land.
They were as determined to manufacture 'true Poles' as the authorities were
determined to train 'good Germans' or 'good Russians'. In this, from the same
human material, they contended not only against the power of the state, but also