A Mythical (Wonder)Land: The ‘Ukrainian School’ of Polish Romanticism
What image of Ukraine did the Polish Romantics perpetuate in their works? Was the ‘Ukrainian school’ merely a manifestation of regionalism in literature or was it a genuinely original phenomenon – a separate branch that grew out of shared Polish-Ukrainian history, the landscape of the steppes and folklore?
On the Broad Steppes
‘Gloom, savagery, bloody scenes, crimes […], steppes, riverbanks, lapwings, Ukrainian towns and Ukrainian rivers’ – Aleksander Tyszyński enumerated the literary elements of the Ukrainian school. It was he who came up with the term ‘Ukrainian school’ for what was created by the Polish Romantic poets. Michał Dembowski wrote about them as follows: ‘[…] they completely capture the spirit and colour characteristic of Ukrainian poetry, one of the most perfect outgrowths of homegrown Slavic poetry.’ Stefan Sawicki, following on Edward Dembowski, spoke of three variants and selected a representative of each: the first achieved a tone somewhere between the Vilnius school and the Ukrainian (Malczewski), the second – the most characteristic – was created by, for instance, Czajkowski, Groza, Padurra (Padura), and Grabowski, and the third – in pastels and melodies – was represented by Zaleski. Słowacki, too, was close to them and the echo of the ‘Ukrainian school’ was still quite audible during the interwar period.
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'Jarema's Dumka' by Stanisław Masłowski, 1879, photo: Piotr Ligier / National Museum in Warsaw
Adam Mickiewicz also made his voice heard, describing the broad steppes as the capital of lyrical poetry, praising the pleasant sound of the Ukrainian language and saying that the characteristic feature of poetry should be sorrow and longing. The bard distinguished two schools in Polish literature: the Lithuanian and the Ukrainian, noting their spiritual – or fantastical – dimension. The latter in particular was said to stray from the path of classic Polish poetry, to leave the salon culture and enter onto the path of the plain people:
‘[…] it doesn’t seek its heroes amongst the statesmen, it praises few of the leaders of the people. For the first time, it promotes the names of those unknown in the literary world; it is a markedly folk literature’.
Born in right-bank Ukraine, the Polish-language poets drew fistfuls of inspiration from Ukrainian folk literature: motifs, artistic means of expression, elements of folklore, and historic and legendary heroes. They created, or perhaps rather developed, their own type of ‘Ukrainian myth’, whose beginnings go back to the work of Szymon Szymonowicz (i.e. at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries), and later of Stanisław Trembecki and his poem ‘Sofijówka’. The ‘Ukrainian school’ in certain of its aspects was close to Mickiewicz’s proposition of a Romantic national literature, yet it remained a distinct form based to a large extent on an idyllic approach to thinking and writing about Ukraine. Poles departing their families’ land in the chaos of war and revolution often bade it farewell precisely through the medium of their poetry.
The Nightingale
‘The Little Nightingale’ is what Mickiewicz called him. Mickiewicz held the folkloristic Ukrainianism of his friend in high regard. He would later come to be called ‘the greatest of all the Slavic poets’. I speak of course of Józef Bohdan Zaleski who, starting in 1819, through his printed poems initiated the Ukrainian school of Polish poets. His dumy, works modeled after melancholy Ukrainian songs and the fantasy poem Rusałki (Water Nymphs) are masterpieces of emotion and sentimentalism from a creator raised in close proximity to nature. Zaleski was born in 1802 (he died in 1886) in the village of Bohatyrka to which he regularly referred in his works. He represented the land of his childhood as Arcadia, an idyllic land: it is hard to outdo his description of the steppes. Yet pride of place in his works is held by the figure of the wild and free Cossack:
Text
‘Let us have Kudak [a fortress on the right bank of the Dnieper] and five thousand [Cossacks] from Zaporozhe.
Hanging from my belt is a dagger, sharp and new.
There is nothing more I want in life – nothing!
Rather than being a master of men,
I’d rather be a Ukrainian hetman’.
Author
‘Mazepa’s Dumka’ by Józef Bohdan Zaleski
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'A Cossack on Horseback' by Józef Brandt, c. 1877, photo: National Museum in Warsaw
The fate of the Cossacks inspired by the history of Ukraine was somewhat overly idealised by Zaleski, portrayed stereotypically while neglecting Polish-Cossack conflicts. That’s also why there’s no lack of criticism of him amongst literary critics - Iwan Franko even accused the poet of perpetrating historical falsehoods. Despite that, he valued Zaleski’s personal poetic program known as ‘sentimental romanticism’. He points to the melodious nature of Zaleski’s verses for which no less than Fryderyk Chopin composed music. Zaleski usually bases his work on three symbols: the Ukrainian bard Bojan, a poet who extols the history of his ancestors; the skylark (or nightingale) which is supposed to represent the author’s humility; and a figure in children’s tales who introduced simplicity and a spontaneous way of looking at the world.
Za – Go – Gra
Zaleski, Goszczyński and Grabowski, students of the Bazylian school in Humań (Uman), maintained close ties of friendship and poetry. They joined forces in the Za-Go-Gra group (formed from their names) which established the fundamentals of the Ukrainian style in Polish Romanticism. If the first of them described the Cossack Ukraine, the second emphasised the Haidamak Ukraine (I’ll add a few words about Grabowski in a moment). If one wanted to assign a metaphorical colour to the representatives of the ‘Ukrainian school’, Seweryn Goszczyński would best be painted in black. His brightest – maybe even optimistic? – image can be seen in his post-insurgency poem in 1831:
Text
Let’s plant roses, friend!
For a long time yet, the world
Will be swept with snow storms,
Let’s plant them for next year!
‘We, the exiles from our family lands,
May never again see a flower,
So let’s plant them for others.
Let’s plant a happier world!’
Author
‘On Planting Roses’ by Seweryn Goszczyński
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'The Taking Back of the Yassyr' by Józef Brandt, 1878, photo: Piotr Ligier / National Museum in Warsaw
Although he was born in 1801 in Ilintsy (he died in 1876 in Lviv), Goszczyński made his mark in the world of literature above all as the author of ‘Kaniów Castle’. This poetic tale created in 1828 was based on motifs from the Ukrainian popular uprising of 1768 (known as koliszczyzna) and it is the very opposite of the idyllic image of a conflict-free Polish-Ukrainian history that flowed from the works of Zaleski. Goszczyński did not shrink from reaching for macabre scenes of the battles fought and setting them in a gloom-filled scenario. The Ukrainian school thus combines wild beauty with a sense of threat and pain. It is not without cause that Mickiewicz said of the author of ‘Kaniów Castle’ that he ‘set fire to the old-fashioned structure of poetry’.
À la Byron
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Cover of the book 'Marya: A Ukrainian Novel', 3rd edition, Gebethner and Wolff, 1883; Antoni Malczewski, 1843, photo: Biblioteka Narodowa Polona
In turn, Antoni Malczewski called the bard ‘the vanguard of new literature’. Living in the years 1793-1826, the poet was known for two things: reaching the summit of Mont Blanc (1818) and writing the first Polish poetic tale Maria (1825). Many researchers ascribe to him the first place in representation of the ‘Ukrainian school’ even though Zaleski actually preceded him by three years in publishing his dumki. How did Malczewski see his native Volhynia? He repeated in Maria: ‘And it’s vacant – sad – longing, like when happiness fades’ and ‘And it’s vacant – sad – longing in lush Ukraine’.
The melancholy Ukrainian steppes are a symbol of the world here. The poem called ‘the Ukrainian tale’ speaks of authentic events which took place in 1771 (the murder of Gertruda Komorowska), but the author transports his characters to the 17th century. He constructs a philosophical vision of history and shows the futility of the individual confronting destiny. His gloomy, pessimistic tone can be compared to that of Byron. Malczewski greatly admired George Byron; he even met the English Romantic once during a foreign trip. While Maria is thought of today as most important work of Polish pre-Romanticism, during his life Malczewski was only marginally known. Malczewski died soon after its publication, a forgotten man.
The Next Acolytes
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'Ukrainian Windmill' by Jan Stanisławski, 1883, photo: Zbigniew Doliński / National Museum in Warsaw
These three poets established the foundations of the ‘Ukrainian school’, but the school soon took on a broader scope. The previously mentioned Michał Grabowski, author of the tale Koliszczyzna and the Steppes or Stanica Hulajpolska, was above all an outstanding literary critic. He became interested in that field of art under the influence of Zaleski and Goszczyński and he followed in the footsteps of his friends in leaving his native Volhynia. He used to organise literary salons in his Warsaw flat. Apparently, he was prevented from joining the civil service due to his illegible handwriting. After a few years, he returned to his family estate in the Kyiv area, travelled around Ukraine, and financed an edition of ‘Kaniów Castle’. In his three-volume collection of studies entitled Literature and Criticism, he presented his personal program of national literature and Romantic poetry. In his historical tales (written under the pseudonym Edward Tarsza), he drew upon the dramatic history of Ukraine.
Although at first he spoke out for the concepts of Panslavism and Russian Slavophilia, he later revised his views. In his Ukrainian home, he conducted a lively cultural life, seeking to unite Poles, Ukrainians and Russians through literature.
The unity of the Ukrainian and Polish peoples and the recognition of a common enemy – Russian despotism – were promoted in turn by Michał Czajkowski. The mediator was to be Wernyhor, the legendary Cossack lyrist of the 18th century. In his work, Czajkowski relied on folk traditions and folklore of the gentry and everything that he sought in Romantic literature he found in the image of the Ukrainian people. He was able to create a prose formula for Ukrainianism, but rather than going for artism, he opted for ideology.
Gory poetic tales were the domain of Aleksander Groza (e.g. ‘Starosta kaniowski’), though he didn’t eschew more subtle works either, portraying the landscapes of the steppes vividly in his dumy, which were inspired by Ukrainian folktales. We can find a mythical version of Cossack history in the works of Tomasz Padura (a/k/a Tymko Padurra). That poet – even as a pupil in school – used to hum melancholy Ukrainian melodies to his colleagues and he spoke that language in his daily conversations. He shared his Cossackophilia with Wacław Seweryn Rzewuski – Padura directed a school of lyrists which the count had organised. Characteristics of the ‘Ukrainian school’ can also be seen in some works of Juliusz Słowacki, who was born in Krzemieniec (ukr. Кременець). The author of – among other works – ‘The Ukrainian Duma’ and his play ‘Mazepa’ was the first by the Romantics to sacralise Ukraine.
Echo
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'Landscape from Ukraine' by Stanisław Masłowski, 1875-1878, photo: Krzysztof Wilczyński / National Museum in Warsaw
The quintessence of Ukrainianism, Alina Witkowska wrote, for the Romantics is the Ukrainian language and three elements: the steppes, the horse and the Cossack. The last of them contains within himself knightly bravery and savagery and even cruelty, pride and beauty. The works of the ‘Ukrainian school’ had this character, too: intense and varied. What bound them together? A fascination with the history of the region, its folklore and natural environment flowed primarily from recollections of the land of one’s childhood that came back to you while in exile, but which weren’t limited to simple sentimentality. A common history of the Slavic nations was not only created, but also reinterpreted, sometimes embellished, and filtered through the sensitivities and talent of each poet and writer. The ‘Ukrainian school’ was an original phenomenon, but its adventure and secrecy long resonated throughout Polish literature.
A particularly loud echo of the Ukrainian myth could be heard during the interwar period. It’s enough to recall Bolesław Leśmian studying ethnographic research materials who wrote from France to Zenon Przesmycki: ‘In Paris, all of Ukraine burst out of me; I didn’t even suspect that I had it in me’. Some descriptions of childhood idylls penned by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, a poet from Kalnik, were compared to ‘the blue of exile’ – the colour of the Ukrainian land. The poet, translator and publicist Józef Łobodowski is considered a Ukrainophile, and Jan Śpiewak also constructed his own vision of the land of the steppes. In this work, the biography of the authors tied to Ukraine or similar means of imagery were of less importance; instead, of paramount importance were a common tradition, common dreams and values.
Although the Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Polish Literature doesn’t have a separate entry for ‘the Ukrainian school’ – a fact pointed out by Halyna Dubyk – the term is nonetheless commonly used ‘for literary works in which the Ukrainian element is the key axiological, image-generating and stylistic concept’; just such works constitute some of the most outstanding achievements of Polish literature (not only Romantic literature) and they derive from a fascination with the land of Ukraine.
Sources: Iwona Boruszkowska, "Źródła romantycznej fascynacji Ukrainą i zagadnienie »szkoły ukraińskiej« w romantyzmie polskim (debata o »szkołach poetyckich«)", Kraków 2015, online: academic-journals.eu [dostęp: 28.02.2022]; Halyna Dubyk, "Pogłosy »szkoły ukraińskiej« w literaturze polskiej dwudziestolecia międzywojennego", Warszawa 2011; Stanisław Makowski, "Romantyzm", Warszawa 1994; "»Szkoła ukraińska« w romantyzmie polskim: szkice polsko-ukraińskie", pod red. Stanisława Makowskiego, Warszawa 2012; Alina Witkowska, "Dziko – pięknie – groźnie, czyli Ukraina romantyków" [w:] "Teksty Drugie", 1995/2; polskipetersburg.pl; pamiec-historyczna.net
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