The subject of our considerations will be values that from the XVIIIth to the Xxth century integrated the Polish state and national community, conditioned its undertaking positive actions, and thanks to which we managed to maintain our national identity. They are above all: faith, love of freedom and national independence, tolerance, soil, and language. Before, however, we begin our characterization of the above mentioned primordial values, we have to turn our attention to essential historic factors.

In the XVIIIth century after Russia, the Polish Republic was the largest, country in Europe in terms of territory with 11 million habitants. Culturally and confessionally Poland belonged to Christian Europe. Its territories witnessed a confrontation of two large cultures and traditions: Western and Eastern Christianity. It was at the same time an area of coexistence of different ethnic groups, denominations, and religions. These circumstances not only determined Poland’s place in Europe, but also shaped the system of socio-moral values acknowledged by Poles.

There occurred also other factors, resulting from the state system and from the presence of neighboring states. Poland of the second half of the XVIIIth century had a representative political system, associated with the notion of res publica, that is, republic (literally -- the common good). This state neighbored upon three monarchies, each being absolutistic apparatuses of political power, and having at their command efficient armies. Formally the Republic was divided into two territories: the Crown and Lithuania, but as a matter of fact it consisted of many regions different as regards economy, culture, and language.

The prevailing denomination of the population was Catholicism, existing in two rites almost equal in terms of quantity: the Latin and the Greek (uniate). There existed also a third rite, the Armenian, incomparably lesser in number. There were about 10 million Catholics. The non-Catholic population did not exceed 1.5 million, and consisted of the Orthodox, Protestants, and Jews, each organized in their own independent structures.

Catholics of the Latin rite constituted the core of the Polish population and inhabited mainly the central and southwestern lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In southeastern regions (the Greek-Catholics) were numerous, belonging either to the Ruthenian or to the Polish ethnic group. In the eastern territories the most numerous were the Orthodox, consisting of the Ruthenian and the Belorussian population. The northeastern part was inhabited by Lithuanians, almost entirely of the Roman-Catholic denomination. In the western areas settled in scattered groups were Lutherans of German, and partially of Polish, descent. Jews, on the other hand, were in various sectors of the Commonwealth, but were better represented in the East, forming a culturally and linguistically closed milieu.

In the frame of Catholicism a particular role was played by the Roman-Catholic Church, organized in diocesan structures and in religious orders, having its representatives in the Senate, its own school system, publishing houses, and printing offices. It exerted an immense influence on the national awareness of Poles, on their behavior and system of values. The structures of this Church (dioceses and parishes, orders and cloisters) performed mainly pastoral functions, but at the same time (similarly to other countries) they became a formational base of the educational system at all levels, as well as of the social care system (hospitals), of publishing houses and printing offices. These structures represented also economic and social power. They served also as elements of the state administrative system in direct touch with the population (parishes, monasteries). On the end of the XVIIIth and in the XIXth century ecclesiastic structures became the material and personal base of liberation activity aiming at regaining Poland’s independence.

Similar to other countries of Europe, Poland belonged to countries divided, although not fully and entirely, into hierarchically ordered feudal strata. On the top of the social pyramid stood the king, constituting a stratum in itself, but without absolute power over other groups. The second group consisted mainly of nobility (szlachta), including its richest stratum, that is, magnates, and clergy. This group, endowed with powerful privileges, encompassed as much as 10 percent of the country’s population, and in Mazovia even nearly 25 percent. The most numerous third layer, deprived of civil rights, was constituted of peasants together with a thin stratum of bourgeoisie.

The Commonwealth of many nations, as Poland, Lithuania, and Ruthenia were referred to, was a noblemen’s democracy, ruled by laws passed by a two-chamber parliament. The nobility, together with the magnates ruled the country, and legally ensured for themselves liberty and land ownership. These elements and law constituted the primordial values from the XVIth to the XVIII century. "The noblemen’s nation" set great store by external emblems of these values, such as characteristic clothes, mores, symbols legitimizing and externalizing nobility. To these symbols belonged coats of arms, seals, genealogies of ancestors, prominent seats in churches occupied during liturgical and religious celebrations. The nobility recognized values that to a great extent integrated them internally, promoting the development of bonds within the group. Among these values we should mention family (or neighbor) solidarity, especially strong among members of the middle layer of nobility. Family solidarity secured life and the noblemen’s rights -- among others, ownership and hereditary rights, as well as guaranteed social status. A common name and coat of arms created bonds of solidarity exceeding the closest neighborhood. In the situation of ongoing internal disintegration of the state, lack of police and administration, and of the increasing impossibility of executing court judgments, family solidarity provided material help, care of orphans, of the single, the poor, widows, etc. It also protected life and property against abuse by the mighty. Numerous closer and farther relatives guarded the right and fact of belonging to the great family of nobility. Territorial solidarity of noblemen was generated by close and frequent social contacts, as well as around the institution of local legislative and executive meetings (sejmiki) in which people met to discuss matters of vital importance to the whole group of noblemen living in a vicinity, to the whole land, county, district. Neighbor solidarity played a great role in the public life, even if peasants were excluded from it, and if it was surpassed by magnates whose interests and properties reached beyond the proximate lands.

Even if material stratification among nobility increased and deepened, and in the XVIIIth century the number of nobility without any property increased, yet the process of disintegration of this social group did not hinder such labels as "a nation of owners," "a nation of possessors," as well as using the above mentioned external symbols, privileges, cultivating customs and mores proper to nobility.

Also the third estate (townsmen, and mainly peasants) was not homogenous, but consisted of various groups that could be differentiated in reference to their relation to the soil, to the degree of dependance, to the category of their properties, their size, as well as on the basis of emerging regional differences. Generally speaking, peasants were legally attached to the soil and made dependant on nobility be means of bonds of serfdom and obligatory services. They were entirely subjugated to their lords and owners. At the end of the XVIIIth century they were barred from other social strata by many barriers. At that time, they constituted 75 percent of the population of the Commonwealth.

All these "states" and strata formed the Polish nation, feudally structured and peacefully coexisting with other ethnic groups. At the head of all groups, differentiated in terms of ethnicity, law, denominations, economy, and culture stood the king. Apart from the king, the institution of the royal court, a common army, foreign policy, and currency, what other elements united this mass of peoples?

We have mentioned already the sense of territorial and family solidarity, occurring among nobility on the territory of the Commonwealth. For Poles, Lithuanians, Ruthenians, and Belorussians an integrating element, acquiring the rank of a primordial value, was the Christian faith. For a majority of them this meant the Catholic Church. An important integrating element was the same legislative system, the same juridical structure and the same tradition of self-governance (regional seyms and sejmiki), and finally the same, even if regionally and socially differentiated, Polish language. An essential value was denominational tolerance, peaceful cohabitation of various population groups, and their coexistence over many centuries.

And yet other factors were missing that could have provided integrative strength: good administration and strong political power, state ideology, a strong army, developed trade and economy, and efficient transportation.

Even if the mentioned system of primordial values was not generally accepted immediately by all ethnic and denominational groups and by all social layers, yet in awards and literature of that time we find confirmation that it really existed and functioned.

In what and in which domains were the primordial values manifested? We mentioned awards and literature that in the period between the XVIIIth and the XXth century were reserved for elites, and only eminent writers of Romanticism dreamt that their books could find the way to peasants’ cabins, that they "wander under thatched roofs" (A. Mickiewicz).

It is worth stressing that primordial values have been recorded and preserved in collective memory. They found their expression in songs (plebeian, insurrectional, ecclesiactical) that played an important integrative role in the life of a society divided by political and administrative borders. Usually choral singing was a powerful means of transmitting values, of their popularization, and at the same time of struggle for their realization. The written word constituted a means of struggle for both village population and plebeians from the town, and sometimes for workers. We can say a lot about primordial values of the society by analyzing literature and poetry, folk songs, insurrectional songs, forbidden religious and patriotic hymns, texts of prayers that were composed at that time and that accompanied people in their difficulties and combats. A precious source for analyzing values are also ideological declarations and programs of political associations and parties.

Primordial values also found their characteristic expression in the teaching of the Church, in family education, and in ethical and moral formation. A great number of examples of the realization of primordial values is provided by the activity of the Catholic clergy in the time of the uprisings of the XVIIIth, XIXth, and the XXth century.

We cannot analyze here the above mentioned domains in detail, even if they should be taken into account in a broader study of the subject. Therefore we will focus on some domains and quote characteristic examples that exemplify birth, formation, and configuration of primordial values.

August II the Saxon in 1705 established the Order of the White Eagle. This was made of very precious metals and granted for life only to the most meritorious citizens. It was not awarded to foreigners. It had a form of a cross enameled in red, with white edges, with a white eagle enameled on its reverse. The cross was, moreover, adorned with diamonds, and on the arms of the reverse of the cross loomed a remarkable maxim: "PRO FIDE, REGE ET LEGE," that is to say, "for faith, king, and law". To the order was added, as its integral part, a star embroidered with gold and silver thread, worn on the left side of the chest. It also included the chivalrous cross bearing the same maxim. According to a binding custom, after the decorated citizen’s death the order was returned to the king. The award symbolized values vital in the elite circles of the first half of the XVIIIth century, values that were held to be primordial and worth transmitting from one generation to another.

Fed with our compatriotes’ blood and sweet

Who preferred death over suffering slavery

From loosing country, language, garments, faith of Poles.

The author held that it is better to die than to consent to slavery, renouncing primordial values. In the changing sociopolitical scene of the end of the XIXth and the beginning of the XXth century, Jan Wybicki is counted among the important figures. The evolution of his views and attitudes mirrors the changes that took place in the consciousness of the generation of his contemporaries. Among them there were also changes in the domain of the hierarchy of values, hence in our further considerations we will return to his views and his literary achievements.

In the XVIIIth century, even before 1772 (the year of the first partition of Poland, effected by Russia, Prussia, and Austria), a political battle was fought in defense of the gradually lost liberty. In February 1768, J. Wybicki as a deputy dared to protest publicly in the Seym against Poland’s loss of sovereignty, whose evident proof was, among others, the activity of the Russian ambassador Repnin in Warsaw, and his act of kidnapping four Polish senators. This protest led him, under the banners of the Bar Confederation (1768-1772), to the fight with Russia by means of arms and diplomacy to defend the primordial values of the Polish Republic.

The armed struggle did not terminate with the fall of the Bar Confederation or after the first partition of Poland. It was continued for long decades on many levels: military, political, religious and moral, administrative and diplomatic. A particularly important role in this domain was played by the long lasting conjunction of military struggle with socioreligious and moral elements. This juncture contributed among others to a relatively rapid popularization and acceptance of the system of primordial values.

It seems that the period of forming Polish Legions in Lombardia in northern Italy, as well as the whole Napoleonic epoch (1797-1812) was of decisive significance for the process of the formation of primordial values. It is at that time that such concepts as fatherland and nation were revised and reevaluated. At the same time, the understanding of these concepts broadened. Poles began to think that fatherland consists not only of nobility, the king, and magnates, but also of the whole population living on a given territory -- as well as of emigrants who were forced to quit their fatherland, but are committed to the same values and willing to realize them on alien lands, of prisoners exiled to Siberia and forced to settle in distant provinces of Russia, and of peasants forcibly incorporated into an alien army.

Let us consider now subsequently the particular primordial values: faith, liberty and independence, tolerance, and language.

Uniates acted in defense of their Church, endangered by liquidation in the Russian partition, already after the first partition of Poland. Jews too stood up for their faith, considering it to be endangered by the invasive authorities.

The Catholic Church in all the three partitions lost the privileged position it had enjoyed within the Polish state. Subsequently, it fell under control of the Prussian, Russian, and Austrian administration. By order of the absolute rulers of these states, the new administration gradually took over Church possessions and goods (belonging to bishops, seminaries, parishes, and cloisters), which constituted the base of existence of many ecclesiastical institutions.

The absolutistic terror of the three partitioners led to a progressive liquidation of whole monastic families, of hundreds of cloisters that, apart from religious and pastoral functions, performed also other important social tasks in such domains as charity, hospitals, education, printing, and culture in general. The society perceived the policy of Russia, Prussia, and Austria towards the Church not only as a form of struggle with the Catholic faith, but also with the Polish identity, with values held as primordial and indispensable. The struggle for faith on the eastern frontier of the Polish Republic, in the Russian and in the Prussian partition had an especially sharp form.

Not only monastic and diocesan clergy took part in this wrestling, but also the population, coming from various social and ethnic groups. As a detailed analysis of this struggle would take too much space, we shall point, only to forms of communal and individual activity of the monastic and diocesan clergy in the period of uprisings (1768-1864), as well as in the whole conspiratorial movement after the November uprising. Forms of engagement of clergy give us also an idea of the social range of struggle for primordial values. In the collective consciousness of the society matters of faith and of the Church were identified with matters of the independence and liberty of the fatherland, and later, of the nation. We signaled above the decisive importance in this matter of the period of forming the Polish Legions in Italy, the Napoleonic period.

A stable and long lasting form of activity of the clergy during the uprisings was the institution of military chaplains, both employed and volunteers. Clergy participated in various institutions and insurrectional organizations, in conspiratorial authorities, and were charged with special missions (tax collection, emissaries, extraordinary commissioners). Both diocesan priests and monks explained the work of the uprisings, provided information about the course of war actions, and transferred necessary data to the fighting Poles. They were also organizers of patriotic services, holy masses and prayers for those who fight for their fathers’ faith, for liberty and independence, for tolerance and the possibility of using their native language in churches, schools, and offices. They also composed suitable prayers and hymns expressing these strivings. The clergy organized hospitals for the sick and the injured, as well as medical help and such forms of material assistance to the fighting (as cash, jewelry, liturgical vessels, natural products and food, clothes and military equipment, production of ammunition and various kinds of weapons). Efforts of this kind were not single events, but were repeated in almost all uprisings that burst out from 1768 to 1863.

A very interesting phenomenon from our point of view are the prayers and songs, composed often in extreme conditions, in situations of great danger threatening basic values. The following are typical examples.

Mean enemies took everything

and menace our faith

They think they will turn

Our souls to them.

We do not want German faith

Nor this from Petersburg

God will help us win

Social consciousness of the distinctness of the Catholic faith was shaped in opposition to hostile Protestant Prussia and equally hostile Orthodox Russia. These countries cooperated with each other in stifling resistance of habitants of the former Commonwealth, intensifying germanization and russification, undertaking repressive actions, condemning those who resisted to various penalties, prisons, exiles, and even publicly executing insurrectionists. The same penalties were shared by diocesan and monastic clergy. In these condition, faith was more and more understood as a shield against unpredictable blows that can strike the closest family, parish, neighbors, relatives, or brothers in faith (Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Bielorussians), named in various ways in the XIXth century.

All great centers of faith and religious and national sites, together with the two largest, found characteristic expression in literature, poetry, songs, in collections of widely distributed song books and prayer books. We shall quote some examples.

Go, you brisk Cracovian

Stop there, think and long

On this site of glory

History of your land

Read here on the tombs

Welcome with a hug

Tombs of your commanders

So, you say, all hope is gone

all slogans faded away

and there is only despair

Left for us, despair alone?

Not this way, my brother-bard!

As long as on altars burn

Smokes of our holocausts,

as the sound of our speech

sound adorned with stars and rhymes

fills our prophecies with fire

and as glitter flags of spirit -

- we cannot renounce our faith

Poland did not perish yet!

The defense of the faith was organized and undertaken both by clergy and by laymen from various social strata. Thus, this defense became a necessity for still broader circles of the society. As a result of this determined social attitude, neither Prussians nor Russians managed to liquidate the Catholic Church. But, on the other hand, the Russians managed to delimit, and subsequently to abolish gradually the Greco-Catholic Church, refuge of the Ukrainian population. This process involved many victims, caused sufferings of the Ukrainian population living on western territories of the Russian Empire and in the Kingdom of Poland subjugated by Russia. The uniate population showed resistance, refusing to convert to the Orthodox Church. In spite of the fact of administrative cancellation of the Union in 1875 by Russian authorities, in spite of massive deportations and bloodshed, over 50 parishes (compared with their total number of 270) persisted in heroic resistance till 1905. It was only in 1905 that a decree on tolerance alleviated the difficult situation of the Church in territories governed by Russia. Even if it did not remove all obstacles posed to the clergy in regard to their functions, yet it made possible for nearly 200,000 Uniatesto reconverted from the Orthodox Church that a part of the confiscated churches were recuperated, and that teachers could teach religion in their native language.

Through the struggles and persecutions mentioned above, the Catholic faith (Church) remained the sole public factor unifying people despite of frontiers, and political, administrative and ideological obstacles. Hence there was particular significance for the transfer of primordial values, not to the words spoken in thousands of churches, the hymns sung there and prayers that were uttered, but also to the example and unanimous attitude down by both diocesan and monastic clergy in conspiracies and insurrectional struggles in the face of sufferings and persecutions.

Defense of faith was indissolubly related to defense of independence, and, in consequence, to the necessity of regaining a free fatherland, as well as to the defense of language, tolerance, and preservation of cultural identity.

The experiences of the years 1794-1812 showed that peasant soldiers would go to fight together with their squires and accept, at least for the time of the fight, his system of values as their own. This phenomenon of increasingly wide acceptance of common values occurred still in 1831, as we see in the example of the development of the uprising on the frontier of the Polish Republic, where Polish nobility was accompanied by peasants, not always Polish speaking. For the domination of the nobility over the rest of the society was perceivable in many domains.

There were many ways of communicating information about events, forming opinions and evolving a whole system of values. A certain role is played the written word (newspapers, posters, handbills, appeals, brochures, books), but the most important were spoken words of leaders of the uprising, of thousands of priests, monks, chaplains, and parish priests, of officers and soldiers, as well as words recited and sung, not only during struggles and uprisings. After periods of armed actions (1768-1863, 1914-1918, 1920, 1939-1945) there followed other forms of the defense and cultivation of primordial values. Yet especially the Bar confederation and uprisings of 1794, 1830, 1848, 1863 bred many literary works in which motives of love of God, the Church, the Fatherland, liberty and independence, tolerance, and the native language occur very often and intertwine. Poetry and songs, common prayer and religious hymns became bearers of great causes and vital values. Let us quote a couple of examples.

Bishop Ignacy Krasicki (1735-1801), living at the end of an epoch, a prose and drama writer, an editor, a partisan of the "middle way" expressed accurately in one of his works the attitude of service to the Fatheland, the basis of struggle for its existence and faith in its future resurgence:

In your service our troops embark!

Since our early years to the grave

We want to stand vigilant on your guard!

Let us align our steps, strengthen our sight

Looking for tricks hid by enemies around

Let us hearten our voices, as bells strong

Long live Poland, long live, let us cry!

. . .

And we will march obedient, oblivious of bars

And we will fight with zeal for your existence!

So that we shout rewarded, by our youth assisted

Announcing your rebirth, o Fatherland, your dawn!

When, reaching for swords

Freedom will be common slogan

And our Fatherland

From Italy to Poland

Under your command

We will join our land.

With struggle for liberty of the Fatherland were combined such virtues as courage, sacrifice, attachment and love of the native land. They were also treated as precious values that are to be cultivated, generated in order to achieve primordial values. We may presume, therefore, that they were treated as mediating values, necessary to acquire on the way to the main values. A very strongly mediating value was cooperation, common fight, brotherly help. During the uprising of 1863 it turned out that the sense of integrity of all the lands of the Commonwealth before the partitions underwent far reaching changes. An attempt to evoke insurrection in the Ukraine ended with a fiasco. Only the core of Lithuania came to the rescue. Poles then understood that in the lands of the former Commonwealth live nations that will soon reveal aspirations to have their own independent states.²⁰ They understood freedom in a different way and did not want to realize these great values together with Poles. Ethnic groups started their way towards nationalisms, towards specifying their distinctness and differences instead of what is common.

In the January uprising of 1863/1864 Poles fought not only for independence and freedom, for integrity of Polish lands, but also for a social reform, for granting peasants their soil.

In the face of the inequality of forces existing between Poland and its three mighty neighbors armed actions ended with military defeats. For half a century there was no perceivable possibility of undertaking armed struggle in the name of liberty and independence. The nation did not renounce these values, nor give them up. In the situation of overthrow after 1864 conclusions were drawn that armed attempts to regain liberty and independence may be undertaken only in a favorable international context.

The harm done to the population inhabiting lands of the former Commonwealth by the invasive states turned out to be acute. For this reason, great attention was paid to wounds, experienced sufferings, but also to dreams of recovery, of returning to normal life in an independent and free fatherland. The experienced assaults did not, however, turn out to be something so horrible as to paralyze imagination and the will to act. The cult of those who fought for primordial values, especially for independence and freedom, did not cease. It lasted without a break to the end of that century and has survived to this day. Hence participants of liberation national fights of the XVIIIth to the XXth century enjoyed the highest respect as real patriots. This cult contributed to a large extent to the survival of primordial values.

Literature gave homage to the heroism of those who fought in the January uprising. At the same time, it gave answers to the question: where is Fatherland if we have no state, no proper government, no administration, army, liberty, and independence?

Let us turn our attention to a poem by a Polish poetess, Maria Konopnicka (1842-1910), remarkably entitled "So What -- Fatherland?" (Co Ojczyzno):

My Fatherland is this dear land

Where I first saw the sun and learnt my God

Where father, brothers, and where mother dear

Taught me to say my prayers in native speech.

My Fatherland is this bold spirit of the nation

That lives by miracle amidst cold, wind, and hunger

It is this hope that flourishes in Polish hearts

It is work of the fathers, songs of children!

You are our glory!

You sow the future that

We enter bold!

Every clod of our land

Baptized with blood

and walls of Warsaw

Primordial values were supported and developed in the social consciousness not only by writers and poets through literature, poetry, and songs. Their proper tasks in the process of preserving these values engaged people also from other social and professional circles -- artists (such as, for instance, Jan Matejko with his immense canvases reminding of great and glorious events and of historical figures), journalists, publicists, historians. An important role in the process of transmission of these values was played by diocesan and monastic clergy, especially increasingly numerous and active feminine congregations, both those who wore garbs and those who did not. The transmission of primordial values, including liberty and independence, came about also during pilgrimages, organized on a large scale, to national and religious sanctuaries, during solemn celebrations of anniversaries of victories, and dedicating monuments and tombs of heroes, great national figures and writers.

Just before the outburst of the first World War especially there increased the number of celebrations of various anniversaries, as well as of expositions of souvenirs left after insurrections. In emigrant circles and within the Austrian partition which enjoyed greater liberty, books, prayer and song books were issued that appealed to liberation aspirations and to the already formed system of primordial values.

Also in the course of the XXth century Poles had to fight for liberty and independence. We should add that at the same time a free Europe was at stake. The first chapter of this epopee was the year 1920, when the Soviet army attacked the whole Polish territory with the clear goal of occupying, after conquering Warsaw, the entire European continent. In August 1920 the Polish army defeated the Soviets. Without this victory, Europe would probably have shared the destiny of Russia under governance of Joseph Stalin. The second chapter of this defense was the second World War of 1939-1945. Poland contributed in three ways to victory in this war: firstly, it stopped the series of capitulations, opposing by means of arms Germany and Russia; secondly, it offered to the allied nations an eight months’ period, allowing them to prepare for war; thirdly, through direct participation of Polish soldiers and officers in the armed confrontation of 1940-1945. For the freedom and independence of their country, but also of the whole Europe, Poles paid a high price.

The independence and liberty of the Fatherland has been the main care, almost the obsession of many generations of Poles. No wonder therefore that these values not only were reflected in literature and art, not only pervaded political, social, and religious thinking, not only constituted the subject of long lasting contentions and discussions, but also became the target of long lasting struggles, uprisings and wars, and were ransomed with sacrifices and suffering. Entire generations worked for them, prayed and fought.

Polish tolerance had its practice, legislation, and theory reaching as far back as the Middle Ages, and developed in the XVIth century. Then Poland was called the "asylum of heretics and paradise for Jews". As a matter of fact, for hundrets of years people were valued here not according to their denomination or religion, but according to their moral attitude and competencies. In the whole history of Poland there were no cases of organized persecutions incited by religious differences. First, however, tolerance appeared in the society, and only then were treatises written that justified that practice.

Tolerance resulted from political realism, was the chance for survival for the multiconfessional, multinational, and multilingual Commonwealth. It also resulted from respect for different religious commitments of the Protestant nobility. On the other hand, interconfessional relations based on tolerance were a part of the general atmosphere of intellectual and public life. This atmosphere was free of fanaticism and excessive irrational zeal. Religious tolerance in the period of the thriving Commonwealth exerted an immense influence on the practice of general social tolerance. The Catholic Church helped in its formation influencing attitudes of its faithful. As far as the Church’s teachings are concerned, they were based on the theological axiom of the freedom of God’s children’s and of God’s mercy. Arguments provided by this axiom implied that man is a being who is free even before God, and therefore Christians should be guided by respect for the other and by mercy towards all people, including those of other religious convictions.

Did confessional tolerance at the end of the XVIIIth and in the course of the XIXth century require its continuation in the life of the society deprived of its state? Was this society able to achieve tolerance in these difficult conditions? Was it held as a primordial value? We find a positive answer to all these questions.

Tolerance emerged as a precious value in the XVIIIth and the first years of the XIXth century in the ideology of the Enlightenment, along with such values as reason, science, labor, utility and happiness. In principle to these values were opposed the countervalues of fanaticism, prejudice, and ignorance.

The main ideas and values of the Enlightenment were reflected in the ways of conduct, mores, attitudes, literature and the language of its representatives. They permanently united to form the modern humanistic consciousness, with its recognition of the ideals of universal liberty, equality, tolerance, with an important role for knowledge and education, work and the distribution of information.

And Mennonites, whose blood once sunk in soil;

Dissidents, looking for taste in their style

And Romans who in all things believe without doubt;

This difference of views sometimes incites to harm

Living together, are you able to live in accord?

We -- one of the manor habitants said -- feeble pots made

by divine hands

We do not seek to quarrel on unthinkable things

Nor we despise one another as savages do

More, we help one another in our daily works

Everyone keeps his mores to the end of his days

And all his ways of worship, as mother taught him to.

We used to work together, to rejoice alike

And to split after death we would not be glad

So we pray, be it digging or pasturing cows

We for their conversion, just like they for ours

To the proclamation of the Constitution neighboring countries answered with canons, invading the territories of the Polish Republic and hindering realisation of the constitutional resolutions. Despite this fact, the Constitution is counted by historians among three great legislative monuments of the XVIIIth century, together with the American constitution of 1787 and the French revolutionary constitution of September 1791.

Preserve three legacies: of light, of faith, of law.

In them is all your dignity, and virtues, and bliss

Without them will destroy you power, ignorance, and

sorrows

Through long, dark ways, melted with blood and with tears

Your ancestors brought them to you throughout centuries

Transfer them to your successors, strengthen virile vigor

And there will be a time they will raise their triumphant

banners

In the Napoleonic era the idea of tolerance was propagated even more broadly, together with other ideals of the Enlightenment and the Revolution. For many Polish Romantic writers (1822-1863) Napoleon combined in himself all their ideals, among others liberty of nations and peoples, unshaken pursuit of the highest ideals (values), and the individuals’ power to shape history. Young representatives of Romanticism highlighted the importance of spiritual reasons and values which they opposed to the flat reality. The simple folk became for them a treasury of regional and national values, bearers of "living truths". The leading poet of Polish Romanticism, Adam Mickiewicz, in the foreword to the first volume of his "Poetry" (Poezje -- 1822) distinguished two types of culture: the folk (national) culture and the courtly culture of the mighty. He also presented the conflict between two values, individual and national liberty, in his poetic drama Konrad Wallenrod in 1828. Turning to folk culture, he showed examples of the coexistence of people of different mores, cultures, and religions.

At the end of the fifties and at the beginning of the sixties of the XIXth century there came a visible integration of Polish society around the primordial values: faith, tolerance, liberty, and independence. This became manifest especially during spectacular religious and patriotic manifestations in the years 1861-1862, organized in Warsaw and in major cities with participation of all denominations and social layers. Russian troops intervened many times, dissipating and killing demonstrators. In spite of that, people came on the streets to publicly manifest their unity and protest. They opposed violence, armed interventions, and the fanatism of Russian authorities. This atmosphere is reflected for instance in the "Prayer of the Warsaw Jews" from 1861:

A year of sacrifices and sorrows has passed

But on the tombs of killed compatriots

We unrolled banners of our brotherhood

Texts of occasional prayers circulated among people, were uttered publicly during religious celebrations, and found social approval. In the Catholic "Prayer for the Fatherland" from 1861 we read

In February 1861 in Warsaw in the course of a religious celebration the first victims were killed by the Russian army. They were people of different denominations. It is a remarkable fact that in the funeral procession accompanying the five deceased many religious officials took part: two Catholic bishops surrounded with clergy, superintendents of Protestant Churches (Lutheran and Calvinist), the head rabbi and the rabbi of Warsaw. In the funeral about 160,000 people participated from viarious denominational communities. Manifestations, lasting from January to October 1861, drew together the people of Warsaw, as well as of other cities; the Polish population collaborated with the Jews, which led to closer approximation between the religions.

The common prayers then had a particular meaning, as did religious gestures, singing, words spoken from pulpits. Religious and patriotic manifestations were interrupted on October 15, 1861 by the introduction of martial law, but their memory was transmitted from one generation to another.

Polish positivists wrote that tolerance is accompanied by the idea of pluralism, embracing the ideas and forms of social life, the strivings and interests of its various groups. Therefore they pleaded for tolerance towards other ethnic groups and stigmatized feelings of hatred. Writers of Polish positivism proved that lack of tolerance is an impediment to the nation’s development and would contribute to its fall.

Positivism laid the foundations of modern society, urging attention to universal values and indicating the general principles on which society should be based. This influence left a permanent mark on the outlook of Polish society and broadly influenced the way of thinking of intelligentsia of the following generations.

The fundamental factor of national integration in the period from the XVIIIth to the XXth century became the Polish language. In the Enlightenment the struggle for the development and perfection of the Polish language was one of the major issues. The Polish language was purified from alien words taken mainly from Latin, and enriched with economic, legal, and scientific terminology. It was also subject to democratization, and to a greater extent, became a national value. At the end of the XVIIIth century more and more elements of the plebeian, bourgeois, and peasants’ everyday speech were used in the high spoken Polish. French survived as the second language of the Polish propertied class.

At the end of the XVIIIth and at the beginning of the XIX century there occurred mature and permanent forms of the Polish official and office language, of the language of political pamphlets, press and public statements. Such terms as nation, liberty, independence, uprising, resurgence were widely popularized. We can claim therefore that it is then that the Polish language was elevated to the rank of a primordial value. How was this value propagated and defended?

The language as a value was highly appreciated by people of letters living in the period of Enlightenment, Romanticism, and positivism, as well as diocesan priests, monks, and nuns. It was used in the course of pastoral action, catechizing, school education and everyday contacts with people. In a distinct manner the Polish language was defended by participants of the Great Polish uprising of 1848 and of the January uprising of 1863. It was defended by children, supported by adults, during religion lessons at the time of school strikes in the Austrian partition at the beginning of the XXth century. The battle for the language was fought not only on battle fields, but also in state institutions (considered to be hostile towards the Polish language), in schools, in workplaces, in towns and in the country. The struggle for people’s right to use their own language was combined with the struggle for their right to remain a nation. The fight with germanization and russification was won by the Polish nation before the first World War. Also Lithuanians managed to defend themselves against russification by protecting their language. Bielorussians and Ruthenians continued their struggle for language for a long time in the XXth century.

Russification and germanization in lands of the former Polish Republic after the partitions was imposed by means of various methods and with various intensity. The first wave of russification in the Russian partition, that is in lands directly incorporated onto the Russian Empire came just after 1795. In the years 1832-1856 these attempts were greatly augmented. Germanization was initially introduced on a small scale in the Austrian partition at the end of the XVIIIth and at the beginning of the XIXth century. It was subsequently undertaken with much greater intensity in the Prussian partition in the years 1834-1840 and after 1850. In Galicia the fight against the Polish identity intensified in the mid XIXth century, but subsided in the 1860s never to return. On the other hand, the next wave of intense russification came after 1863, as dependence on Russia increased in the Polish Kingdom as well as in annexed lands. Not only administration, but also the system of education, justice, post offices and transportation -- practically the entire public life, except for the strictly pastoral activity of the Church – were russified. There was similar range to the germanization in the Prussian partition, where attempts to germanize the society, combined with struggle against the Church (in the frame of Kulturkampf), were intensified in the years 1872-1878.

Long lasting russification and germanization did not result in the spiritual breakdown of the population but, on the contrary, evoked ever greater integration around values held vital and important for Polish society. The reaction of the population was not limited to defensive acts leading to armed struggle. With strong help from the Catholic clergy Poles organized diverse forms of teaching the Polish language. This drew punishments, imprisonments, exiles and various other sufferings. These hardships were suffered not only by organizers, but also by students attending these clandestine courses. In spite of that they were continued in territories dominated by Russia and Prussia till the outbreak of the first World War.

It was of great importance that the Polish language was maintained in the Catholic Church, for it embraced all lands of the former Polish Republic, and exerted considerable influence on stregthening national bonds. In spite of actions undertaken by invasive authorities, the language was defended unanimously by diocesan priests, monks and laymen, who together bore the burden of the consequences. A similar role was played in some regions, especially in Masuria and in Cieszyn Silesia, by the evangelical Churches. The Ukrainian and the Bielorussian languages were defended by the Greco-Catholic Church on south-eastern territories of the former Commonwealth until liquidated by force. Russian authorities regarded the Uniate Church as competition, an enemy hindering russification and absorption of the Ukrainian and Bielorussian population. Therefore they abolished it in 1839 in the annexed lands and in 1875 in the Polish Kingdom. The struggle concerned not only language and religious rites, but also their cultural distinctness, which is why there were so many victims. The uniate Church still survived in Austrian Galicia, becoming a base of support that helped the Ukrainian and the Bielorussian population develop their primordial values.

Russification was also a tragic threat to other ethnic groups of the Polish Republic, especially to Ukrainians and Bielorussians, and, to a lesser degree, to the Lithuanians. Russian authorities russifying all existing groups used the whole arsenal of means of pressure and constraint, from law, administration and courts, to the police and army. The Russian Orthodox Church also became a means of russification.

Resistance against russification and germanization took various forms and was stifled with incredible brutality. The matter of language as a value on the Polish territories, in Lithuania, Bielorussia, and Ukraine was related to other important problems, such as national consciousness, the struggle for liberty and independence, denominational and ethnic tolerance, and the struggle for cultural goods and traditions.

In conclusion we will quote several fragments of Polish poetry and prose of Enlightenment, Romanticism, and Polish positivism that account for the value of the native language.

Even if fate throws thunders on it, still

It shall prevail when we keep alive

May express everything that mind can think

And that it sometimes be as quick as thunder

And sometimes as sad as dark songs of steppe

And sometimes gentle just like nympha’s songs

And sometimes beautiful like angels’ speech

So that it fly through all on angel’s wings

And force, and naught -- it’s not a meager thing

So that this Language not burn out at once

But like an armed fortress, as defensive walls

And in Królewiec sound or in Sandomierz

Language of populace, of savants, knights, and kings

This castellanian language of Jan from Czarnolas

The language that will cry on Judgment Day from ashes:

"I am woven from Angel’s nerves stained with blood

And I judge you from your feet to heads, for I am

For all of you -- both breath and moral baptism"

In a poetic manner Kornel Ujejski (1823-1897) expressed the wrestling about the Polish language in his work "Jeremiah’s complaint" (Skarga Jeremiego).

There exists also another witness from the XXth century, bearing witness to the highest love of the Polish language as "a holy relic, most dear, unique". In the situation of constraint, in the face of threats to life in a concentration camp, Prof. Kuraszkiewicz, a prisoner for many years, wrote about the role of prelections, lectures, presentations, evenings of songs and poetry as follows:

Scarce books smuggled into the camp were protected like treasures against search, paid with bread, borrowed for clandestine reading silent and aloud to whole groups of listeners. Apart from Polish books, Polish songs, most often religious, but also popular and military, had a great psychological and educative value in the difficult conditions of life in the camps. This form of the Polish language was compared by camp prisoners themselves to a vivifying bath, refreshing thoughts and souls, overcoming the camp jargon. That is why they looked for the beautiful Polish language that was "like a meal, like a caress that strengthens, soothes, filling with joy and rapture."

This set of examples from different epochs, from different social circles and situations illustrate the meaning of language as a primordial value. We could quote more. They convince us of the truth of the words of Maria Konopnicka’s "Oath" (Rota): "We shall not abandon the land of our fathers! We shall not let our language be buried!"

Primordial values were formed in dialogue between various ethnic groups and different social layers. Thanks to these values social bonds and common actions came into being. They endowed with meaning the works and struggles of the society, its artistic and literary creativity. They occurred in literature and were reflected in songs and prayers. The Polish nation and other ethnic groups were engaged in their realization; hence they deserve to be called universal.