Zdziechowski, Marian

Of the old Zdzehovskys , the father was Edmund Fortunatovich (1836-1900), a large landowner and public figure, owned the estate of Rakov.

He graduated from the Russian gymnasium in Minsk ( 1879 ). He studied at the Historical and Philological Department of St. Petersburg University , then at the University of Dorpat ( 1879 - 1883 ). Improved in Zagreb and Geneva . Since 1888 he lived in Krakow . He taught at the Cracow Jagiellonian University (doctor 1889 ; doctor rehabilitated 1894 ); Associate Professor ( 1889 ), Professor Extraordinary ( 1899 ), Professor Ordinary ( 1908 ). Corresponding member ( 1903 ), later a full member of the Academy of Sciences in Krakow . One of the founders of the Slavic Club in Krakow ( 1901 ) and its print organ Świat słowiański ( 1901 - 1914 ).

He spent the years of World War I in Russia (Rakov, Suderve , Moscow , Petrograd ). The February Revolution found him in Finland .

Since 1919, the head of the Department of World Literature at the University of Vilnius , Stefan Batory ; in 1920 it was renamed the Department of Comparative Literature. In 1920 - 1931 he lectured on Russian literature, the spiritual foundations of modern European culture. In 1921 - 1922 the dean of the humanitarian department; in 1925 - 1927 he was rector of the University of Stefan Batory. Collaborated with the School of Political Sciences at the Society for the Study of Eastern Europe.

He was chairman of the Professional Union of Polish Writers in Vilna, chairman of the Society of Friends of Science in Vilna ( 1928 ), trustee of the Union of Russian Students of CSS . Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( 1928 ), full member of the Warsaw Scientific Society ( 1929 ).

In connection with the 50th anniversary of scientific and literary activity in 1933, he was awarded the title of Doctor honoris causa of the University of Stefan Batory and the University of Tartu . In 1938, in connection with the 55th anniversary of scientific and literary activity, Zdziechowski was awarded the title of Honorary Professor of CSS. The title was awarded by the President of the Republic of Poland on the proposal of the Minister of Religion and Education; if the title of doctor honoris causa meant a moral connection between its carrier and the institution, then the title of honorary professor allowed lectures at the university.

He corresponded with L.N. Tolstoy and his entourage, visited Yasnaya Polyana, talked with the writer. He was familiar and corresponded with Russian public and political figures, publicists, writers, scientists N. S. Arsenyev , N. A. Berdyaev , S. N. Bulgakov , D. S. Merezhkovsky , L. F. Panteleev, A. L. Pogodin , P. B. Struve , with brothers Sergey , Eugene and Grigory Trubetskoy , D.V. Filosofov ^[3] , B.N. Chicherin , S.F. Sharapov and others.

At the initiative of Zdziechowski in 1932, a committee was formed to build a monument on the grave of the outstanding Vilnius publicist Cheslav Jankowski who died in 1929 at the Rasu cemetery. A year later, a monument was erected according to the project of Boleslav Balzukevich and Ferdinand Ruschits in the form of an obelisk with an urn on top, a bas-relief portrait of Jankowski and an inscription in Latin Qui nunquam queivit quiescit (“ Resting , who never rested”) ^[4] .

He was buried at Antokolsky cemetery .

The author of books published in Russian under the pseudonym M. Ursin "Essays on the Psychology of the Slavic Tribe" (St. Petersburg, 1887 ) and "Religious and Political Ideals of Polish Society" (Leipzig, 1896 ). The main works in Polish on literary Slavic and comparative studies “Messianists and Slavophiles” ( 1888 ), “Byron and his era” ( 1894 , 1897 ) and many others. Particular attention was paid to Russian religious thought and the comparison of Russian and Polish messianism.

The defining feature of the Russian soul was considered maximalism, the scope of which could enchant the Poles. At the same time, maximalism leads to an antinomic lifestyle and a tendency to extremes: anarchy and the cult of a despotic state, the dream of the brotherhood of all people and disrespect for other nationalities. Maximalism, reducing each question to a dilemma, is either all or nothing. Since the achievement of the absolute is impossible, the maximum grows into a denial of reality, into a blind and decisive in its decisiveness destruction in all areas of morality, social and state life. Maximalism gives rise to contradictions characteristic of Russia, according to Zdzekhowski, for example, the desire for holiness and the unbridled enjoyment of sin, true faith and atheism. ^[5] Zdzekhovsky saw the extreme expression of Russian maximalism with its religiosity and thirst for destruction in Bolshevism. Paying tribute to the depth of Russian religious thought and literature, he considered the Russian influence on the Polish soul to be dangerous and destructive.

He participated in the Russian press (Severny Vestnik magazine, the newspapers Novosti, Rassvet; Moscow Weekly, etc.), speaking mainly on issues of Polish-Russian and Polish-Austrian relations, the moods of Polish society, and new trends in Catholic theology.

In the Vilnius period, with the exception of a few literary works (for example, about the Lithuanian-Belarusian beginning in the Polish-language works of Vladislav Syrokomli ), he focused on the fate of European Christian culture, after the catastrophe of Russia, as he perceived the revolution that was on the verge of death. He was skeptical about the prospects of European culture and the moral state of Polish society, the decline of which he saw in the widespread dissemination of philistine vulgarity and a frivolous attitude to Bolshevism, underestimating its threat to the very existence of civilization.

• Essays from the psychology of the Slavic tribe. Slavophiles. St. Petersburg, 1887.
• Mesjaniści i słowianofile. Szkice z psychologii narodów słowiańskich. Kraków: G. Gebethner i Spółka, 1888.
• Byron i jego wiek. Studia porównawczo-literackie. T. I: Europa Zachodnia. Kraków: Czas, 1894.
• Religious and political ideals of Polish society. Feature article. With the introduction of Count L.N. Tolstoy. Leipzig: E.L. Kasprovich , 1896.
• Byron i jego wiek. Studia porównawczo-literackie. T. II: Czechy, Rosja, Polska. Kraków: Czas, 1897.
• Pestis perniciosissima. Rzecz o współczesnych kierunkach myśli katolickiej. Warszawa: E. Wende i spółka, 1905.
• Die Grundprobleme Russlands. Literarisch-politische Skizzen. Aus dem Polnischen übersetzt von Adolf Stylo, Wien - Leipzig, 1907.
• U opoki mesjanizmu. Nowe szkice z psychologii narodów słowiańskich. Lwów: Gubrynowicz i syn, 1888.
• Pesymizm, romantyzm a podstawy chrześcijaństwa. Kraków: Czas, 1914.
• Wpływy rosyjskie na duszę polską. Kraków: Krakowska Spółka Wydawnicza, 1920.
• Europa, Rosja, Azja. Szkice polityczno-literackie. Wilno: Księgarnia Stowarzyszenia nauczycielstwa polskiego w Wilnie, 1923
• Władysław Syrokomla. Pierwiastek litewsko-białoruski w twórczości polskiej. Wilno: Lux, Księgarnia Stowarzyszenia nauczycielstwa polskiego w Wilnie, 1924.
• Renesans a rewolucja. Wilno: Księgarnia Stowarzyszenia nauczycielstwa polskiego w Wilnie, 1925 (Biblioteka Księgarni Stow. Nauczycielstwa polskiego IX).
• Walka o dusze młodzieży. Z czasów rektorskich. Wilno: Lux, 1927.
• Od Petersburga do Leningradu. Wilno: Drukarnia Jana Bajewskiego, 1934.
• W obliczu końca. Wilno: Grafika, 1937.
• Widmo przyszłości, 1939.

Reprints

• Wybór pism. Kraków: Znak, 1993.

• B. Białokozowicz . Marian Zdziechowski i Michał Arcybaszew // Studia Rossica III. Warszawa, 1996. S. 17-68.
• B. Białokozowicz . Marian Zdziechowski i Lew Tołstoj. Białystok: Łuk, 1995.

• Biographical materials