1st Edition
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth History, Memory, Legacy
This volume provides a fresh perspective of the history and legacy of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as the often-disputed memory of it in contemporary Europe.
The unions between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania have fascinated many readers particularly because many solutions that have been implemented in the European Union have been adopted from its Central and Eastern European predecessor. The collection of essays presented in this volume are divided into three parts – the Beginnings of Poland-Lithuania, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Legacy and Memory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth – and represent a selection of the papers delivered at the Third Congress of International Researchers of Polish History which was held in Cracow on 11-14 October 2017. Through their application of different historiographical perspectives and schools of history they offer the reader a fresh take on the Commonwealth’s history and legacy, as well as the memory of it in the countries that are its inheritors, namely Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus and Ukraine.
An exploration of one of the biggest countries in Early Modern Europe, this will be of interest to historians, political scientists, cultural anthropologists and other scholars of the history of Central and Eastern Europe in the Early Modern period.
Introduction
Andrzej Chwalba and Krzysztof Zamorski
1. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: History-Legacy-Memory
Antony Polonsky
Part I: The Beginnings of Poland-Lithuania
2. The Principles of Ancient Rzeczpospolita Formation: The Medieval Ruthenian Dimension
Myroslav Voloschchuk
3. Words for Images: On Perceptions of ‘Greek Manner’ in Lithuania and Poland
Giedrė Mickūnaitė
4. Religious Tolerance and Intolerance in Vilnius in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
Tomasz Kempa
Part II: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
5. “A Free and Feudal Government:” Civic Republican Mentalities in the Cities of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Curtis G. Murphy
6. Electing Kings With All Manner of Freedom: The Polish-Lithuanian Elective Monarchy in Context
Felicia Roșu
7. Cases of the Expulsion of Jews From the Towns of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: Strategies of the Burghers and the Jews
Jurgita Šiaučiūnaitė-Verbickienė
8. Tolerance as a Non-Topic: Cooperation on Behalf of the Town Between Catholics, Jews and Protestants in Early Modern Rzeszów
Yvonne Kleinmann
9. The Medical Science Heritage of French Physicians in Lithuania in the Last Quarter of the Eighteenth Century: Jean-Emmanuel Gilibert, Nicolas Regnier and Jacques Briotet
Arnaud Parent
10. Discourses of Tolerance and Intolerance at the Four Years’ Sejm (1788-1792)
Richard Butterwick
Part III: Legacy and Memory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
11. The Frames of Reference of an Eighteenth-Century Jewish Galician Merchant (Based on the writings of Dov Ber Birkenthal)
Gershon Hundert
12. The Rights and Privileges of the Polish-Lithuanian Nobility: A Benchmark for the Russian Empire’s Legislation of the Latter Half of the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century?
Tamara Bairašauskaité
13. France Facing the Independence of Poland: New Historiographical Approaches
Frédéric Dessberg
14. The French Position on the Polish Cause in 1918: Historical Borders and Principle of Nationalities
Isabelle Davion
15. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Politics of Memory in Belarus
Liubou Kozik
16. Organizing the Past: The Policy of the Soviet Authorities Towards the Museums in Lviv, 1939-1941
Iryna Horban
Biography
Andrzej Chwalba is Professor of Social and Religious History of 19th and 20th-century Europe with special consideration for Poland at the Institute of History at Jagiellonian University, Poland.
Krzysztof Zamorski is Professor at the Institute of History at Jagiellonian University, Poland.
