Między Wilnem, Uralem i Petersburgiem: asymetrie kulturowe, transfer wiedzy i polityka w końcu XVIII i pierwszej połowie XIX wieku

ENThis book primarily embraces the lives of several figures living in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Russian Empire in the second half of the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries. 1 delve into topics such as their literary, social, and scientific activities, their ideological dilemmas, their perception of the world, and finally their attempts at adapting to specific cultural and political conditions. Examples of the latter include conducting research and teaching in a new environment that is reluctant to undergo profound change, becoming prisoners, and being forced to settle on the empire’s peripheries, where the exiles tried, more or less successfully, to become involved in various activities despite the odds, or, fighting to establish one’s place on the Russian literary map as both strangers and representatives of an oppressed national group. In a broader sense, I address the political and socio-cultural factors impacting the work of Vilnius University as well as interethnic and intercultural relations in historical Lithuania and inner Russia. With the exception of the first, cross-sectional chapter that brings together various aspects of academic multilingualism in Vilnius, I focus on ambitious professors, such as the natural historian and explorer Georg Forster and the classical philologist Gottfried Ernst Groddeck, as well as exiled members of the Philomath Society: Tomasz Zan and Jan Czeczot, who became, more or less voluntarily, experts in the service of tsarist Russia. My other interests, however, also include Tadeusz Bulharyn (Faddei Bulgarin), a very influential Russian author and publisher, branded a renegade by many of his contemporaries. In the hook, the protagonists have different professions, expectations and experiences, and different national backgrounds. Some came from the Kingdom of Prussia, and others were descendants of polonised Belarusian-Lithuanian families.Some expressed critical views of the Respublica, while others cherished an idealized image of the past (and the present). Finally, whereas some were victims of Russia’s oppressive political system, and became immortalized in the visionary Romantic drama Dziady by Adam Mickiewicz, others may be regarded as beneficiaries of the multiethnic Empire. What Forster, Groddeck, Zan, Czeczot, and Bulharyn had in common was their social background and familial circumstances that pushed them to work hard and make sure they progressed. In that respect, the book depicts a history of striving for success, of different ways to achieve it, the various-political, social, and cultural-obstacles, as well as failures. Two things should be stressed about the choice of sources and my perspective on the period in question. First, the emphasis is put on life writing and the intertwinement of texts, social contexts, and biographical experiences. Second, I make scarce reference to the terms ‘the Enlightenment’ and ‘Romanticism’. A closer look at the second half of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries through the prism of selected cultural processes and individual trajectories of fate reveals the long persistence of the Enlightenment paradigm and its interweaving with the Romantic one. This compels us to apply well-established historical literary constructs with due care. In terms of theoretical concepts, this book employs classical ‘close reading', the cultural transfer approach (as elaborated by Michel Espagne, Michael Werner, Matthias Middell, and others), as well as postcolonial studies. It is also significantly indebted to new studies on imperial biographies.Chapter 1 - “Multilingualism in Academic Context. Scientific Networks, Self-Improvement, and Politics in Vilnius in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries.” -- Chapter 2 - “Out of Place. Georg Forster’s Letters from Vilnius (17841787) as an Autobiographical Testimony and a Source of Knowledge about the History of Vilnius University” -- Chapter 3 - “Gottfried Groddeck. Social Networks, Letters, and the Circulation of Knowledge in Middle Eastern Europe” Chapter 4 - “Tomasz Zan. Ambiguities of the Exile Situation” -- Chapter 5 - ‘"The Byelorussian Triangle.’ Jan Czeczot and the Dynamics of Nation, Class, and Power” -- Chapter 6 - “Tadeusz Butharyn and his Ivan Vyzhygin. On Hybridity and Imperial Biography”. [From the publication]