The Szlachta and the Confederacy of Radom, 1746-1767/68: A Study of the Polish Nobility byGeorge Tadeusz LukowskiReview by: Harry E. DembkowskiThe American Historical Review, Vol. 84, No. 2 (Apr., 1979), pp. 498-499Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1855255 .

Accessed: 28/06/2014 17:32

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Oxford University Press and American Historical Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to The American Historical Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.213.220.163 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 17:32:06 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

498 Reviews of Books

lessons learned by the Soviet Union, he indicates that the West's indifference contributed to the So- viets' aggressive self-confidence in Eastern Europe. He also recognizes that Hungary was given the opportunity to experiment with a more humane form of socialist system. The latter observation is supported by Andrey A. Amalrik's brief analysis, in which he attributes Hungary's relatively high standard of living to the temerity of the 1956 revo- lutionaries.

Selected essays by the two major Marxist partic- ipants in the revolution, the Communist Imre Nagy and the socialist Anna Kethly, follow. Nagy, arrested by the Russians on November 23, 1956, was executed in 1958, ostensibly for revolutionary activities. Tibor Meray, however, using thus far untapped Chinese sources, claims that he was, in fact, "the victim of Khrushchev's difficulties with the Chinese and Yugoslavs" (p. 78). Nagy's treat- ise was written during the intraparty struggles in 1955. He called on his comrades either to abandon Stalinism in favor of reform or to face the possi- bility of a revolution. As indicated by the reflec- tions of Tamas Aczel, George G. Heltai, and Paul Jonas, young intellectuals rallied behind Nagy to stave off catastrophe. Nagy wished to give new meaning to democratic centralism and Leninism. His defense of these concepts, however, makes de- batable the claim that he was either a "proto- Eurocommunist" (Seton-Watson, p. 6), or one of the founders of Eurocommunism (Stephen Bor- sody, p. 129). Anna Kethly, who died in exile shortly before the twentieth anniversary, dismissed the argument that Kadar's Hungary achieved the aims of the revolution. Its basic goal, self-determi- nation, was not accomplished and, she claimed, Hungary continues to be exploited by the Soviet Union.

These essays indicate, however, that even during the uprising, self-determination was not carried through to its limits. The threat of Soviet inter- vention tempered the revolutionary designs of most. Despite this moderation, the Soviet army invaded, and the defense forces, under the com- mand of Major General Bela K. KirAly, engaged the aggressors. Kiraly, now Professor Kiraly, in his own contribution to this volume, sees this episode as the first war between socialist states.

Another group of essays treats the reactions of Hungary's socialist neighbors and Poland. The revolution inspired the "domestication" of social- ism. The term is used by Adam Bromke in his analysis of Polish developments after 1956, matched by those in Rumania. Stephen Fischer- Galati shows that Ceau?escu's brand of national communism was a response to the events in 1956. Paul E. Zinner observes that the leaders of the "Prague Spring," recalling Czechoslovakia's

unique democratic tradition, justified their at- tempt to domesticate socialism and to give it a "human face."

The last three articles deal with the revolution's impact on the West and demonstrate that Russian intervention contributed to the low esteem in which Western political groups hold the Soviet system. For this reason, even Western Commu- nists seek an alternative in Eurocommunism.

The editors of this book have succeeded in gath- ering a series of outstanding short studies and in fulfilling the premise of the book's title.

PETER PASTOR

Montclair State College

GEORGE TADEUSZ LUKOWSKI. The Szlachta and the Confederacy of Radom, I764-i767/68: A Study of the Polish Nobility. (Antemurale, number 2I .) Rome: Institutum Historicum Polonicum Romae. 1977.

Pp. 291. $14.00

The book under review is a case study in political irresponsibility or, to borrow an expression from Herbert H. Kaplan's The First Partition of Poland (I962), "the dementia of Polish politics." In de- scribing the causes and nature of the Confederacy of Radom, George Tadeusz Lukowski presents a vivid picture of the sad condition of the Polish Commonwealth on the eve of the First Partition.

The Confederacy of Radom was part of an am- bitious Russian attempt to mobilize the gentry of the commonwealth in order to strengthen its own influence over the hapless state. Because of over- whelming military superiority the Russians suc- ceeded; but, most amazing of all, many of the gentry willingly, even enthusiastically, partici- pated in this venture of calling for the intervention of Catherine II in Polish affairs-before realizing, too late, that they were but pawns in a game being played by a master, for objectives quite alien to their own.

Any discussion of this event, which was so di- rectly connected with the eventual partitions, of Poland, must take into account the internal weak- nesses of the commonwealth, as well as the per- nicious role played by Prussia and, especially, Russia. Such discussions, particularly by Western observers, have tended to emphasize the "anar- chic" conduct of the Poles themselves, especially of the self-willed magnates and the ignorant, reac- tionary, and xenophobic rank-and-file of the gen- try. One of the major intentions of Lukowski's monograph is to "shed more light on the attitudes and mentality of the Polish nobility" (p. io) and thus, in effect, to investigate the culpability of the Poles for their own ultimate plight, the loss of national independence.

This content downloaded from 91.213.220.163 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 17:32:06 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Modern Europe 499

In investigating his subject, Lukowski makes a valiant attempt at quantification, having compiled the names of the thousands of noblemen who signed the various local acts of confederacy be- tween I764 and I767 and by using a computer to ascertain some correlations among the signers. Al- though maintaining the reservation that the avail- able data were incomplete and somewhat unre- liable, Lukowski nonetheless is able to reach several conclusions about the gentry. The most important are that family solidarity played a lead- ing role in the formation of "political parties" and issues and that "the family was indeed a major political unit to be reckoned with at the local level" (p. 138). Lukowski also reaches the conclusion that as much as one-third or even one-half of the adult male szlachta population (out of a total szlachta population of approximately 950,000) may have belonged to the Confederacy of Radom, either di- rectly or through the signature of a representative. "How many of them believed in, or even knew, what the Confederacy stood for, when its own leaders were none too sure, is another, unquanti- fiable, matter. . ." (p. I56).

The monograph also contains a number of inter- esting, sometimes provocative observations, for in- stance that "the Commonwealth was a secular theocracy" (p. 107), in the sense that "the Com- monwealth and its Catholicism were indivisible" (p. 1 i8), and that "equality was a totally bankrupt aspect of szlachia ideology, kept alive by the mag- nates, who saw in it the means of mobilizing the masses of petty nobility" (p. i i8). This well-docu- mented study, based upon a large number of ar- chival materials, represents a genuine contribution to the historiography of eighteenth-century Po- land.

HARRY E. DEMBKOWSKI

Alliance College

JERZY MICHALSKI, editor. Historia nauki polskiej. Tom III, i795-i862 [History of Polish Science. Volume 3, 1795-1862]. Wroclaw: Ossolineum. 1977. Pp. xxv, 869. 240 ZI.

This is the third volume in a series entitled Historia nauki polskiej and the first of two projected volumes dealing with the development of Polish education in the "period of bondage, 1795-1918." The pres- ent volume deals with the stateless existence of the Polish nation in the years 1795-1862 and with that nation's intellectual progress despite the numerous adversities encountered under foreign domination The volume begins with the assumption that Pol- ish learning in this period lay on the periphery of European civilization and that it entered the main-

stream sometime after 1862. Nevertheless, the Poles, a nation with an ancient, rich, and diverse intellectual tradition, made considerable progress in the years 1795-1862, as individuals and institu- tions of education struggled to survive. Service to a politically divided Polish nation represented the common bond shared by the relatively small num- ber of intellectuals, scattered throughout the parti- tioned Polish lands and in exile but persistent in their efforts in all fields of learning. The most notable intellectual developments in this period of service to the divided Polish nation were in the disciplines of history and language.

Among the book's many strong points is its or- ganization. The volume consists of forty-four chap- ters divided into three parts, with an introduction by the editor of the series and contributions by many Polish scholars associated with the Institute of the History of Education, Science, and Tech- nology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The twenty-one chapters of part one introduce the reader to the historical circumstances under which Polish education developed. The two chapters of part two focus on the philosophical foundations of Polish education between the era of the Enlighten- ment and the era of positivism. The twenty-one chapters of part three deal with the development of specific disciplines. Each chapter represents the work of individual contributors. Chapters on the exact sciences, the natural sciences, rural econom- ics, technology, historiography, and literature are included. In general, the individual chapters are clearly written and bring together valuable infor- mation concerning virtually all areas of education. One need not agree or concur with the individual interpretations to appreciate the value of this work. The result is a comprehensive synthesis of Polish education between 1795 and I862 tempered by significant attention to details.

No undertaking of this scope, however, is with- out its problems-some avoidable nevertheless. Documentation is scanty. The omission of foot- notes in a large work may be editorially justifiable, but long direct quotations (for example, pp. vii, 182, and 225-26) without documentation are dis- concerting. The volume also lacks a bibliography, and the omission on page 244 of lines 9, 24, 27, 32, and 34 is a careless one.

Nonetheless, this impressive volume will serve as an indispensable compendium for students of polo- nistyka. It is regrettable that those lacking a knowl- edge of Polish will not find its information acces- sible elsewhere. The work deserves a wider audience and should not be relegated only to spe- cialized libraries or to large university libraries with special Slavic collections.

JOAN S. SKURNOWICZ

Loras College

This content downloaded from 91.213.220.163 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 17:32:06 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions