The Bar Confederation’s evening. Confederation after 250 years.
The Confederation was formed to defend the sovereignty of the Republic of Poland and the Catholic faith 250 years ago, at the fortress of Bar in Podolia. It was directed openly against the King Stanisław August Poniatowski and his policy of reforming the country with the help of Russian troops, which resulted in a formal transformation of Poland into a Russian protectorate. The four-year struggle of the confederates is often considered the first national anti-Russian uprising and the first partition put an end to it. The warfare inspired i.a. Juliusz Słowacki and Adam Mickiewicz as well as the painters Artur Grottger and Józef Brandt, and the Confederacy holds an important place in the Polish national memory.
How do we see the Confederation today? Was it a selfless struggle for sovereignty and subjective Polish politics? Or was it political irresponsibility under the given circumstances? How did the king and the opposition understand the raison d'etat? Why couldn’t they reach an agreement, despite the obvious risk of a dramatic weakening of the state? What should be done to protect the memory of the Confederation?
We talked about all this during the "The Bar Confederation’s Evening" organized by the Centre for Polish-Russian Dialogue and Understanding and the Royal Łazienki Museum. The following Russian and Polish historians took part in the discussion: Dr. Boris Nosov, Prof. Andrzej Nowak, and Dr. Adam Danilczyk and was preceded by a concert of an art historian, Prof. Jacek Kowalski, who along with his band performed songs related to the Bar Confederation.
Photo: Marek Gorczyński
Information about the participants:
Adam Danilczyk – PhD in History, an employee of the Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History at the Polish Academy of Sciences. He specializes in the political history of the eighteenth century and Polish-Russian relations during the times of Stanisław August Poniatowski.
Boris Nosov – PhD in History, Head of the Department of the History of the Central European Slavic Nations in Modern Times at the Institute for Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, deputy chairman of the Russian Commission of Historians of Russia and Poland (RAN and PAN).
Andrzej Nowak – full professor (and Head of the Department of Eastern European History) at the Institute of History of the Jagiellonian University and at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Chairman of the Council of the Centre for Polish-Russian Dialogue and Understanding.
Maria Przełomiec – a journalist, former correspondent of the Polish section of the BBC, currently works in the Polish Television. She specializes in topics related to the countries of the former USSR. Since 2007, she has been running a Studio Wschód program at TVP Info.
13 March 2018
Łazienki Królewskie, Stara Oranżeria, Teatr Królewski