Despite the breadth of his scientific interests (or thanks to them) Baudouin de Courtenay is by no means a scientist confined to his office, far from the problems of modern times. He does not shy away from social and political issues: he publicly speaks out against war, violence, xenophobia and discrimination, writes articles (he wrote around 200 editorial columns) and signs petitions. He considers maintaining an active social position as a sacred duty of scholars and the intelligentsia.
As a professor at Saint Petersburg University, he repeatedly publicly opposes the persecution of ethnic minorities in Tsarist Russia and advocates for the rights (language rights among others) of national minorities such as Poles and Jews. He argues that in Congress Poland (the central part of modern Poland which was a part of the Russian Empire until 1918) the Polish language should have equal status with Russian, and he repeatedly speaks and writes about the necessity of Poland’s cultural independence. In 1913, the scholar spends a few months in prison for fierce criticism of Great-Russian chauvinism.
After Poland regains its independence in 1918, Baudouin de Courtenay returns to Warsaw. Here he receives the title of honorary professor at Warsaw University, where he teaches right up until his death in 1929. In independent Poland, Baudouin de Courtenay’s active social position and his opposition to xenophobia gains the sympathy of the intelligentsia and national minorities, while at the same time angering nationalist circles.
The Church also does not tolerate the scientist because Baudouin de Courtenay is an atheist and speaks openly about it. In 1922 in Kraków, a group of Polish ‘jingoists’ tries to disrupt a public lecture by Baudouin de Courtenay in a crowded Słowacki Theatre and throws rotten eggs at him – and all because the scholar dared to say that it’s possible to be both Polish and German at the same time.
That same year, the national minorities of Poland, unbeknownst to Baudouin de Courtenay, nominate him for the post of president of the country. The chances of winning are small, so it is more of a demonstrative gesture and tribute to the great scholar. In the Sejm, Baudouin de Courtenay loses to Gabriel Narutowicz, who would be assassinated a few days later by an ultra-right-wing nationalist.
As a classic liberal-internationalist, Baudouin de Courtenay is not afraid to be responsible for his views. He is a Polish patriot without the shadows of xenophobia or megalomania, and he always thinks independently, remaining true to himself both in Russia and Poland. He is also remembered as altruistic and unmercenary, an exceptionally humble person who thought more about others than himself.
Not long before his death, Baudouin de Courtenay tells Józef Czapski, who is visiting the scientist in his poor and cramped apartment in the Warsaw’s Praga district:
Sometimes, honestly, I want to shoot myself, but I never have because every time, I think: what if I can still somehow help this unfortunate humanity.