The cover of "Stanislas Auguste. Mémoires"
Interweaving diary entries with the monarch’s correspondence as well as official government documents, Stanislas Auguste. Mémoires has been edited by professor Dominique Triaire of the Université Paul-Valery Montpellier III and Anna Grześkowiak-Krwawicz, Ph.D. The book enjoyed its official launch at the Royal Castle in Warsaw on the 1st of March, 2012.
Grześkowiak-Krwawicz explains in her introduction to the Mémoires
Diaries edited or written up by monarchs themselves are a rarity in modern history. This large and rather extraordinary work is characterised by a continuous narrrative which tells the king’s story in third-person, beginning with his own birth and ending in the year 1778. The story is blended with correspondence, for example letters exchanged with Catherine the empress of Russia as well as official government documents, such as the act of the First Partition of Poland and parliament chronicles. The king began to write in 1771, following his abduction. He interrupted his writing and then took it up again towards the end of his life. Rumours have it that death in fact came to him as he was penning his diary. The Mémoires that we have published end with the year 1778, because it was up to this date that they were personally edited by Stanislas Augustus Poniatowski himself.
The diaries remained unknown for a very long time, as following the king’s death, the Tsar of Russia had them sealed and locked away in his archives, where they remained for over 100 years. They were first shown to Russian scholars in the 20th century, and it was then that they were released for the very first time. This year’s critical publication is nonetheless the first one to compile the complete Mémoires, with the supplement of sources obtained from the Czartoryski family archives.
It is a fascinating read not only for historians. Stanislas Augustus Poniatowski was one of the few European monarchs acquainted with the meandering paths of the period’s international politics. He travelled across Europe describing the culture, customs and political life of the places he visited. He found himself in the Russian court and continued his observations from there. This is documented in the Mémoires as he quotes the reports he was sending to his Sas mandataries. The king’s entries capture the era’s reality and customs and also describe virtually all of the period’s most significant personas.
The king doesn’t gloss over his romantic relation with the future empress Catherine the Great, and he even goes as far as describing a moment when Catherine’s husband learned about the couple’s affair. According to the diaries’ editor
A very telling description paints the image of a scene with the participation of the prince Peter, his mistress, Catherine and Poniatowski. Although the description is rather discreet, it leaves no doubt as to the fact that there was a romantic liason between the Polish monarch and the Russian empress-to-be. The king also quotes poetic letters addressed to Catherine the Great. Although these pay testimony to the romance, they are also an example of a literary style typical for this time period, and the literary form of a love letter veils a growingly significant political context. The monarch was usually discreet when it came to his love life, and the relationship with Catherine is the only one he describes. The affair was a well known fact across Europe, and it was undoubtably a matter of political prestige that the king gained by Catherine’s side, as she was a very popular monarch in the Enlightment milieux.
The reader can also learn about Polish internal affairs and the political network which Poniatowski was initially part of as a member of the powerful Czartoryski family, and then, as the king.
One could state that the king’s dilemma began the moment he took the throne. He thought that he would be able to accomplish something politically and hoped to play matters out with Russia. Although he was aware that Poland would no longer be autonomous, he hoped that some moves would still be possible. And these memoirs document the dramatic situation of a man who suddenly finds himself deprived of any power, incapacitated. Each time he attempted to do something for his own country, he was hampered not only by Russia but also by his Polish subjects. The Memoirs pay testimony to a dramatic struggle.
The number of documents quoted by the monarch gradually increases, as if he was trying to prove that he was really unable to do anything. They seem to be a defence on the monarch’s part. began to write at a moment when he became aware of the aristocracy’s huge remorse for his person. The Mémoires’ editor writes that the king wanted to justify himself, but not necessarily only in the face of his contemporaries. Anna Grześkowiak-Krwawicz states
In a way, these diaries are addressed to all of us, to the progeny. The king was an intelligent and witty observer with quite a well thought-out political vision, that he was unfortunately unable to pursue. These writings show a man who is very much trying to explain himself while describing the situation and context he lives in. The Mémoires were written up by the king in French, with translations of Polish political documents. The monarch thus aimed at a more universal transmission, hoping to reach a wider public.
The book is not available only in France, and it can also be obtained through the internet. Anna Grześkowiak-Krwawicz has revealed that there are plans of translating the Mémoires into Polish.
Dominique Triaire is a literary researcher and editor of workd from the Enlightment period. He is a professor at the Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier III. French-language literary works by Polish authors are the fundamental object of Triaire’s studies, and he is one of the most acclaimed experts of historic archive materials from Poland of the late 18th century. Together with François Rosset, Dominique Triaire co-authored a 5-volume publication of Jan Potocki’s complete works, as well as his first thorough biography. He regulary cooperates with Polish researchers and he is a member of the Polish Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.
Anna Grześkowiak-Krwawicz is a historian and associate professor at the Artes Liberales Institute of Interdisciplinary Research of the Warsaw University. She is the director of the Enlightment Literature Study of PAN’s (Polish Academy of Sciences) Literary Research Institute, and has published numerous books and articles in Poland and abroad. Grześkowiak-Krwawicz is the vice president of the Polish Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, and between 2003 and 2011 she was a member of the International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies executive comittee.
Stanislas Auguste. Mémoires
edited by Anna Grześkowiak-Krwawicz and Dominique Triaire
published by Institut d'Etudes Slaves, Paris 2012
Source: PAP, www.zamek-krolewski.pl, nouveautes-editeurs.bnf.fr, culture.pl