Reception of the views of the Cracow historical school in the journalism of the St. Petersburg 'Kraj' newspaper

Banaszkiewicz M.

The article deals with the perception of the ideas of the so-called Cracow historical school by the «Kraj» newspaper. The latter represented opinions of Polish supporters of reconciliation with Russia after the suppression of the January uprising. A distinctive feature of the Cracow historical school was a pessimistic view of Poland's past. According to it the neighbors of Russia, Prussia and Austria are not to blame for the depriving the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of independence in the XVIIIth century. Instead, it was the Polish elite, who failed to determine the correct path of development country. The article examines the views on the history of the founders of this trend in Polish historical thought: Walerian Kalinka (1826–1886) and Józef Szujski (1835–1883). Also, on the basis of the journalism of the «Kraj» newspaper in the 1880s it is shown how the legacy of the named historians was used by supporters of loyalism in relation to Russia headed by V.D. Spasovich.

Keywords:Russian Empire, Poland, Russo-Polish Relations, Cracow Historical School, Spasowicz, «Kraj» newspaper.