THE GROWTH OF THE MODERN NATION 23day, Polish politics have been dominated by three distinct traditions, those of
Loyalism, Insurrection, and Conciliation.^8 ' From the nationalist point of view,
they represent the roads respectively of Treason, of Idealism, and of Realism. In
the eyes of the ruling Empires, they followed the paths of Duty, of Rebellion,
and of Moderation. As always, each side in the political arena had its own
vocabulary for describing the positions of its opponents in relation to itself.
Loyalism persisted at every level. Its clearest formulation was made shortly after
the Third Partition by Stanislaw Szczesny Potocki, the Confederate of
Targowica. 'I no longer speak of Polishness and the Poles,' he said. 'That state,
that name, have vanished, as have many others in the history of the world. Poles
should abandon all memory of their fatherland. I myself am a Russian for-
ever.'^24 In the course of the next century and more, many Poles followed where
Pctocki had led, and not all of them for the same opportunist motives. General
Wincenty Krasiriski (1782-18 5 8), for instance, the father of the poet, was a man
of unbending conservative principles, who consistently opposed all forms of
nationalist politics and served for twenty years on the Russian Council of State.
In that same generation Tadeusz Bulgarin (1789-1859), editor of The Northern
Bee, and Osip-Julian Senkowski (1800-58), Professor of Oriental Languages at
St. Petersburg, both of them from Polish families, may be regarded as leading
ideologues of official Russian Nationalism. As neophytes to Russian values,
they showed zeal beyond the call of duty. In Prussia, a similar role was played
by Bogdan Hutten-Czapski (1851-1937), a close associate of Bismarck, and in
Austria by Kazimierz Badeni (1846-1909), who for two years served as President
of the Imperial Council of Ministers. These men, whilst in no way denying their
Polish origins, placed full political confidence in the governments of St.
Petersburg, Berlin, or Vienna. In this sense, they were Central European coun-
terparts of Scots, Welsh, or Irish politicians who made their fortunes with the
British government in London. They were nothing unusual.
Loyalism commanded the support of several prominent writers and philoso-
phers. Henryk Rzewuski (1791-1866) had the misfortune to be born on 3 May
1791 and spent the rest of his life combating all the liberal ideals which the
defunct Constitution symbolized. As the author of Pamiqtki Soplicy (Memoirs
of Soplica, 1839), he was widely admired for his sentimental, nostalgic evoca-
tions of old Polish society; and as a disciple of de Maistre, the advocate of uni-
versal papal theocracy, he was seen to be a pillar of conservative Catholicism.
* Loyalism (Lojalizm), Insurrection (Powstanie), and Conciliation (Ugoda) are all trans-
lations of specific Polish terms, and cannot be divorced from their specific Polish context.
Polish Loyalism has something in common with American Loyalism of the Revolutionary
Era and also with Irish Loyalism, but not with loyalism as generally understood in England.
The Polish concept of Insurrection used to be equated with political 'Revolution'; but the
appearance in the later nineteenth century of social revolutionaries, who were strongly
opposed to national insurrections, made nonsense of the equation. 'Conciliation' often
appears as 'Realism' or 'compromise'. The Polish word from which it derives, ugodzic sie,
literally means 'to strike a bargain'.