i8 NARODwith the completion of the masterwork of his literary heir, Henryk Sienkiewicz
(1846-1916), whose Trylogia (Trilogy, 1883-8) represented the zenith of popu-
lar literature in Poland. In the eyes of his Polish readership, Sienkiewicz's chival-
ric tales of the Cossack Wars of the 1650s, and, in Krzyzacy (1900), of the
medieval struggle against the Teutonic Order, lacked nothing in comparison to
his world-wide success with Quo Vadis? (1896). In the same era, the Cracovian
dramatist and designer Stanislaw Wyspiariski (1869-1907) used the theatrical
stage to explore the theme of national liberation in a series of highly colourful,
eccentric, and symbolic dramas on historical subjects. In Warszawianka (La
Varsovienne, 1898), Lelewel (1899), Legion (The Legion, 1900), Kazintierz
Wielki (Casimir the Great, 1900), Wyzwolenie (Liberation, 1903), Bolesiaw
Smiaty (Bolesiaw the Bold, 1903), and Zygmunt August (1907), and above all in
Wesele (The Wedding Feast, 1901), which evokes the historical memories of
Galicians, and in Noc listopadowa (The November Night, 1903), which fanta-
sizes on the outbreak of the Rising of 1830, he conjured up a body of images
which are infinitely more forceful and memorable than any documentary or fac-
tual historical record. In the world of painting, Jan Matejko (1838-93) devoted
his later years to a marvellously tendentious sequence of heroic historical scenes.
His vast canvases of The Battle of Grunwald, The Prussian Homage, and
Rejtan's Defiance, and his Poczet Krolow Polskich (Portraits of the Polish Kings,
1890-2) have been known ever since to every Polish school child. In the world
of music, Stanislaw Moniuszko (1819—72) drew heavily on History and Folklore
to amass a large and very popular repertoire of operas and songs. All these
artists had numerous admirers and imitators, who pursued the same goals and
interests. For them,,as for all patriots, the love of their country's heritage over-
rode any scruples of objectivity or factual accuracy. For them, it was sufficient
that Polish History should not be forgotten, and that its dead champions and
heroes should provide a living force of inspiration. Such indeed was their suc-
cess that the poetic, imaginative, and enthusiastic approach to History is still
more common among Poles than the critical, reflective, or analytical approach.
In the Polish tradition, the historical image has proved far more convincing than
the historical fact.^18
The Poles also drew on, and contributed to, fashionable racial theories. In the
world of scholarship, the work of the ethnographer, the Revd Franciszek
Duchiriski (1817-93), had repercussions far beyond the Slavonic orbit. His
Peuples Ary as et Tourans (Aryan and Turanian Peoples, 1864) was written in
response to Pan-slav concepts emanating from Russia, where official policy was
urging all the Slavonic nations to think of themselves as 'brothers of the one
blood'. Its point of departure was the debate surrounding Alexander IPs un-
veiling in 1861 of a monument in Novgorod celebrating the supposed
Millennium of the Russian State; and its specific target was the ideology which
has since become known as The Russian Scheme of History'. According to
Duchinski, the origins of peoples cannot be reduced to simple factors such as
Language or Religion, but can only be determined by reference to twenty-eight