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Adam Gurowski: Polish Nationalism, Russian Panslavism and American Manifest DestinyAuthor(s): Andrzej WalickiSource: Russian Review, Vol. 38, No. 1 (Jan., 1979), pp. 1-26Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The Editors and Board of Trustees of the Russian ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/129074 .Accessed: 04/07/2011 05:23

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Adam Gurowski: Polish Nationalism, Russian Panslavism and American

Manifest Destiny

By ANDRZEJ WALICKI

For the generation of Polish patriots who had witnessed the defeat of the November uprising, the meaning of Polish history ceased to be self- evident and taken for granted. Alien to them was the notion (character- istic of moder, ethnocentric forms of nationalism) that the existence of a nation is an end in itself and does not need any higher sanction. Polish thinkers of the "romantic epoch" were convinced that Poland had to prove that her restoration was necessary for mankind. The existence of a nation, they thought, is not of value as such; on the contrary, only such nations have an undisputable right to existence which can claim to represent a universal value, to be endowed with a special mission in the service of the universal progress of humanity.

It is easy to notice that such an attitude can lead to exaggerated, even megalomaniac notions about the importance of one's nation. On the other hand, however, the same attitude might justify complete disbelief in the given nation: the existence of a nation can indeed be meaningless if it must derive its meaning from a supranational, universal system of values. A good example of such a conclusion was Petr Chaadaev's "Philosophical Letter," proclaiming that the Russians were a super- fluous nation, a nation which had no "idea" of its own and, therefore, contributed nothing to the common heritage of mankind.1 An even more drastic example is to be found in Adam Gurowski's "national apostasy." The existence of the Russian state was a fact which could not be questioned and for which Chaadaev himself, in his later writings, found at last a providential sanction. In the case of the defeated, sub- jugated Poles, however, Gurowski's severe verdict was tantamount to condemning them as not worthy to exist as a nation, to sanctioning their defeat as an inevitable and just decree of Providence.

Adam Gurowski (1805-1866) was born near Calissia, the oldest Polish town, the son of a rich landowner who had had the Polish title of Castellan and the Prussian title of Count. He studied four years in

1 Cf. A. Walicki, The Slavophile Controversy (Oxford, 1975), pp. 98-101.

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Germany and belonged to the group of Poles who had the good luck to listen to the lectures of the old Hegel. Returning to Poland he became a prominent member of the conspiratorial organization which was to bring about the November uprising. He was also the initiator and the main organizer of the so-called, "coronation plot"-the unfulfilled at- tempt to kill Tsar Nicholas I on May 24, 1829, the day of his coronation as King of Poland.2 During the uprising he represented the extreme Left: he demanded the dethronement of the Romanovs as Polish kings, organized a demonstration in honor of the Decembrists, and proclaimed (with his friend, Maurycy Mochnacki) the idea of transforming national insurrection into a social revolution which would penetrate into the Ukrainian and even the Transcaucasian territories of the Russian Em- pire. In accordance with this he promised to enfranchise those of his own peasants who would enlist in the revolutionary army. Himself a brave soldier, he was given a Cross of Virtuti Militari and promoted to officer rank. In March 1831, he was sent to France to talk with the French government and also, unofficially, to establish contacts with the French revolutionary circles. There he published a brochure, La Cause polonaise sur son veritable point de vue (Paris 1831), in which he wared the peoples of Europe against the "new Attilla" (Russian tsar) and exhorted them to abandon the idea of a constitutional monarchy, which was merely a despicable juste milieu between freedom and des- potism.

After the defeat Gurowski was among the most active representatives of the emigre extreme Left. On his initiative, in March 1832, the former members of the Warsaw Revolutionary Club withdrew from Lelewers National Committee and founded their own organization, the Polish Democratic Society.

Gurowski's philosophical and social views were being formed at that time under the influence of French utopian socialists, especially Fourier and the saintsimonians with whom he had direct personal contact. Politically he remained faithful to the conspiratorial tradition of the revolutionary Carbonari, represented by Filippo Buonarroti, a disciple of the utopian communist Babeuf. These influences found expression in the journal "Przyszos6c" (The Future) whose first (and only) issue was published by him in January 1834. The future of the entire world, pro- claimed the Polish Count, belongs to the industrial proletariat, the only social class whose revolutionism is truly radical and in accordance with the principles of European civilization.3

2 Concerning the "coronation plot" see M. Zizan, P. Hertz, Glossy do "Kordiana" (Warsaw, 1967), pp. 275-291. 3 The importance of these ideas has been stressed in S. Kalembka, Wielka Emi-

gracja (Warsaw, 1971), p. 121.

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Unfortunately, Gurowski did not develop these ideas in his further writings. The failure of all revolutionary ventures undertaken by the Polish 6migres in 1833-1834-such as Col. Zaliwski's attempt to organize guerrilla warfare in Poland, the "Frankfurt campaign," organized to help an abortive revolution in Germany as well as the "Savoy expedi- tion," inspired by Mazzini4- brought him to serious doubts about the revolution in general and Polish revolutionaries in particular. He noted that Fourier and the saintsimonians were resolute opponents of revolu- tionary methods. It is proper also to mention in this context the death of his wife and the marriage of his sister to a high official in the Petersburg court.5 For whatever reasons, the year 1834 became the time of a sudden volte-face in his life. On September 8, 1834, the initiator of the "corona- tion plot" and spiritus movens of the dethronement of the Romanovs published a statement in the "Augsburger Zeitung" saying that he was ready to accept amnesty and to serve the Russian government.

The ideological motivation for this risky move was presented in Gurowski's pamphlet La Verite sur la Russie et sur la r6volte des prov- inces polonaises (dated Dec. 12, 1834). He declared that political and social studies had made him aware that his true fatherland was Russia -"the great sum total of Slavdom." Today only Russia represents Slavonic vitality; Poland is but a corpse which has passed through all phases of decomposition.6

The Reasons of Apostasy This striking conclusion was based upon the following argument. The recent heroic efforts made by the Poles to regain their indepen-

dence should not be taken as symptoms of the vitality of the Polish nation; sometimes falling nations seem to grow stronger in the moment of their final decay.7

Poland was never significant from the point of view of the great, vital interests of mankind. Historical progress lies in the increase of unity and centralization; Poland was always lacking the unifying force of attrac- tion, the spirit of hierarchy and discipline. She was not able and did not even want to care about Slavdom. She always kept herself apart from the main current of European history. Her own state was growing more

4 See E.E.Y. Hayes, Mazzini and the Secret Societies (London, 1956), pp. 111- 135.

5 Gurowski's friend, J. N. Janowski, claimed to know with certainty that it was Gurowski's sister who had insisted on her brother's return to the Russian Empire. See Z. Gross, "Diabel Asmodeusz w binoklach-Adam Gurowski," Zeszyty Naukowe Wyzszej Szkoly Pedagogicznej w Katowicach. Prace Filozoficzno-Spoleczne Katedry Filozofii 3 (1968): 28.

6 A Gurowski, La Vdrit4 sur la Russie et sur la revolte des provinces polonaises (Paris, 1834), p. 81.

7 Ibid., p. 2.

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and more decentralized, more and more isolated and consciously isola- tionist. The union with Lithuania, so much idealized by historians, was the main factor separating Poland from the European West. It would have been incomparably better if the Poles had decided to conquer Lithuania, to impose on her the right of the victor and to incorporate her into a centralized state, instead of strengthening centrifugal forces. Empires are made by conquests, not by unions.8

The notorious vehicle of anarchic tendencies was, of course, the Polish nobility. Poland's gentry republicanism was an imitation of the worst features of the political system of Venice. The Jagellons often quarrelled with the gentry but were not able to subordinate it to the raison d'etat. Unlike the Russian monarchs they failed also to impose their power on the Church and, as a result, became puppets of the pope and the jesuits. The free election of kings, introduced after the extinc- tion of the Jagellons dynasty, proved that the Polish ruling class was deprived of any sense of statesmanship. In addition, Poland always lacked great providential men. At the beginning of the seventeenth cen- tury, Poland carelessly wasted all opportunities to gain the upper hand with Russia which had been offered to her by the "time of troubles" in Moscovy. Soon after, Russia, having overcome her inner disorders, started her rapid growth at the cost of Poland. Her historical successes were legitimate, showing that she was truly God's elect. Russia has had everything which Poland has lacked: great statesmen, unifying, cen- tralizing force, direction and purpose.9

Another proof of Russian superiority was seen by Gurowski in the peculiarly Russian capacity of assimilating everything good without losing national originality. The Poles, on the contrary, were always aping what was bad in other nations, unable to assimilate anything good. Even the Polish language had become a victim of this.10 Under the influence of Latin, Italian, and French, it became de-Slavonized and degenerate. Its monotony and dryness contrasted with the growing richness, rhythm, flexibility, melody, and power of the Russian language.

A characteristic feature of the "conceited and careless" Poles was also their total indifference towards industry.l That is why Polish towns are inhabited by Jews and other foreigners while neighboring Russia has always had her own burghers and her own industry.

This reasoning led to the inescapable conclusion that only Russia can unite all Slavonic nations and, having done this, perform the great, civilizing and Christianizing mission in Asia. In a word, only Russia

8 Ibid., p. 29. 9 Ibid., p. 58. 1o Ibid., p. 35. 1 Ibid., p. 59.

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can represent the interests of all the peoples between Germany and China. In comparison with such tasks, what significance could be at- tached to the petty, particular interests of Poland?12

Twenty years later, in the preface to his book Russia as it is, Gurowski gave an interesting explanation of the theoretical genesis of these views. He had looked for the theoretical justification of his "apostasy" in the writings of the French socialists, first of all saintsimonians. For an histor- ian of nineteenth-century ideas this is not surprising. The theory of progress as an increase in unity and centralization was typically saint- simonian; the same held true for the characteristic element of Gurow- ski's views, the emphasis on the necessity of hierarchy, authority, dis- cipline and clear social purpose. The saintsimonians proclaimed that a new "organic epoch" was imminent; in the loosening of social bonds, weakening of authority and undermining the hierarchical structure of society they saw a symptom of the sterile "critical epochs."l3 In the light of such ideas it was easy to see the whole span of Polish history as one long process of "critical" decay and to find in Russia all elements of a truly "organic" society. Gurowski was correct in his interpretation of the saintsimonians, saying that they "established as an axiom that society ought to be directed by a supreme will embodied in one individual."14 His own invention consisted merely in the identification of this powerful individual, whom the saintsimonians had called "loi vivante," with the Russian tsar.

In another part of the preface Gurowski referred "to the great truths revealed by Fourier"; he even confessed that Fourier's personal advice had powerfully influenced his decision to serve the tsar: "Whoever has read his works, knows how repeatedly Fourier points to Russia and even to a Csar, as to the means of the speediest realization of the theory of association. And thus I went to Russia and to the Czar."15

There is no reason to doubt this. Fourier (unlike the saintsimonians) was not an advocate of centralization; however, he did believe that "the means of the speediest realization" of his vision of the future might be a monarch, especially an absolute monarch, like the Russian tsar.16 There were also some analogies between Fournier's "association" and the Russian artel (traditional association of craftsmen) and village com- mune. In the 1840s these analogies were discovered and emphasized by many different writers, such as Baron von Haxthausen and Adam Mic-

12 Ibid., p. 64. 13 Cf. Oeuvres de Saint-Simon et d'Enfantin, vol. 42 (Doctrine Saint-Simonienne

par Bazard. Deuxieme Annee) (Paris, 1877), pp. 326-329. 14 A. Gurowski, Russia as it is (New York, 1854), p. x. 15 Ibid., p. xii. 1 Cf. N. V. Riasanovsky, The Teaching of Charles Fourier (Berkeley, 1969),

p. 122.

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kiewicz, Russian Slavophiles, and some Russian Fourierists from "Petra- shevsky's circle."17 Gurowski, however, was certainly among the first men who wrote about this real or alleged similarity. In his book La Civilisation et la Russie (Saint Petersburg, 1840) he maintained (before Haxthausen!) that the entire Russian people was permeated by the spirit of association and that the principle of association was supported by the Russian government as well.18 The lack of such reasoning in La Verite sur la Russie was due, probably, to a reasonable caution: the word "association," belonging to the vocabulary of the European Left,19 was not a good means to winning the confidence of the tsar. To achieve this end the staintsimonian terms "social order," "hierarchy," "authority," "reglamentation" ("le RtGLEMENT de tous les actes collectifs ou individuels"),20 and so on were much better.

To see Gurowski's views in their proper context one should remember also that the idea of Russian superiority among Slavs was not new and unique in Polish thought of the epoch. Before the November uprising the main ideologists of Polish Slavophilism, Ignacy Benedykt Rako- wiecki and Zorian Dotlga-Chodakowski, maintained that the Polish people had become polluted by the Latinism of the Polish clergy and nobility, that only Russia had remained faithful to the truly Slavonic culture. After the uprising similar ideas were being developed in the historical writings of Waclaw Aleksander Maciejowski. In a different form, i.e., without condemning Roman Catholicism and the ancient Polish nobility, the idea of reducing Poland to the status of a province in the all-Slavonic Empire of the Russian tsars had been proclaimed by the leaders of the extreme right wing of the Polish nobility, Count Henryk Rzewski and the literary critic Michal Grabowski. Strange to say, even some Polish political emigres were fascinated by Russia. Gurowski's "national apostasy," although the most drastic, was not the only such scandal in the Polish Great Emigration. In 1843 Prince Swiatopelk-Mirski announced his conversion to Orthodoxy-"the natural religion of all Slavs"--and proclaimed his devotion to the "Slavonic idea" represented by Russia.21 At the same time the emigres were deeply

17 See August Freiherr von Haxthausen, Studies on the Interior of Russia (Chi- cago, 1972), pp. 89-93. For Mickiewicz's views and for the views of the Russian Slavophiles, see A. Walicki, "The Paris Lectures of Mickiewicz and Russian Slav- ophilism," The Slavonic and East European Review 46, no. 106 (January, 1968).

18 Le Comte A. Gurowski, La Civilisation et la Russie (St. Petersburg, 1840), pp. 117, 305.

19 This word was used as a symbol of the coming "new epoch" as opposed to the existing state of society. Cf. N. Assorodozraj, "Elementy swiadomosci klasowej mieszczanstwa," Prezglqd socjologiczny, vol. 10 (Lodz, 1949), p. 183.

20 See Oeuvres de Saint-Simon et d'Enfantin, v. 42, p. 325. 21 See Z. Klamer6wna, Slowianofilstwo w literaturze polskiei lat 1800-do 1848

(Warsaw, 1926), p. 105.

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shocked by the fact that Prince Waclaw Jablonowski, a prominent figure in Hotel Lambert, had admitted the possibility of solving the Polish question by uniting all the Slavs under the scepter of Romanovs.22 Another challenge to the emigres' national patriotism was provided by the russophile tendencies in Towianiski's circle and in the Paris lectures of Mickiewicz. In spite of his patriotic and revolutionary fervor, Mic- kiewicz acknowledged that Russia's strength had its source in spiritual power and that the real reason for Poland's defeat and subjugation by Russia was the greater strength of the Russian spiritual "tone."23 For many emigre journals this was enough to accuse the poet of a tendency toward national apostasy and even to draw parallels between his ideas and the Russian Panslavism preached by Gurowski. The unfairness of such parallels is obvious, but, nonetheless, it was true that Mickiewicz's view of the superiority of the Russian "tone" was indeed an acknowl- edgement of the legitimacy of Russian conquests: in accordance with Towianski's doctrine, spiritual superiority-the greater power of "tone" -was seen by Mickiewicz as the only legitimate right to rule over people, to lead the "inferior spirits" towards accomplishment of the eschatological destinies of mankind.

We must remember also that Nicholas I was sincerely respected by many people who otherwise belonged with his political enemies. The Russian throne had still preserved something of its charismatic glory. Bakunin was not just flattering when he indicated in his famous "Con- fession" that many Europeans, including the Poles, saw the tsar as the only monarch sincerely believing in his divine right and imperial calling. That is why Mickiewicz saw Nicholas I as the alternative to a new Napoleon. That is why he quite seriously tried to induce Krasiniski to stand before the tsar, to challenge him to a spiritual duel and to win it, showing thus that the Polish "tone" had matured and become superior to the Russian.24

In spite of its extremely drastic form, Gurowski's "national apostasy"

22 Ibid., pp. 105-108. 23 Cf. A. Mickiewicz, Dsiela, 20 vols. (Warsaw, 1929), 10: 416-417. 24 Cf. Adama Mickiewicza wspomnienia i mysli, ed. S. Pigon (Warsaw, 1958),

pp. 157 and 309. The most extreme expression of reverence for the tsar in Towianski's circle

was a letter to Nicholas I, written by Alexander Chod'zko, a former Russian diplomat, but inspired by Towianski himself. It contained the following words: "The salvation of millions is in your hands, Your Majesty. As the leader of so many Slavonic peoples you are now the most powerful instrument of God on earth." A. Makowiecka, Brat Adam (Warsaw, 1975), p. 58.

An instructive comment to Chod'zko's letter is provided by Towianski's letter to Mickiewicz of July 18, 1844. Referring to Nicholas I the Polish mystic wrote "His Israelite spirit still remains untouched.... He is the only monarch who shines with full tone and who will succumb only to our tone." Ibid., p. 48.

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cannot be explained in terms of mean, personal ambitions. The ideolog- ical climate of his epoch allows us to interpret his writings and actions as an expression of authentic convictions, as an effort to be consistent, and to draw from these convictions their ultimate conclusions.

The Theory and Practice of Panslavism Gurowski's pamphlet (La Verite) favorably impressed Nicholas I

but, understandably enough, did not at once win his full confidence. To break the ice, Gurowski wrote a special memorial concerning the Polish question and sent it to Benkendorf, chief of Russia's secret police. Its content is unknown but known is Nicholas' reaction to it: ".. . It is as if I have dictated to him my own confession. One cannot speak more strongly in the defence of a right cause."

The apostate got what he had wanted: he was allowed to come to the Russian border and to render himself at the disposal of the Russian authorities. He was sent to his family estate and soon after, in connection with the proposed rally of the monarchs in Calissia, informed Prince Paskevich, the Russian ruler in the Congress Kingdom, about vicious intentions of the Polish gentry of the province. He did not hesitate to make a list of persons and to demand for them severe reprisals.25

Having passed this test of loyalty, Gurowski got permission to settle temporarily in St. Petersburg. He imagined that his sincere repentance and the protection of his sister's husband would enable him to make a quick career in the apparatus of the state. He was deeply disappointed when he got the very modest post of a provincial clerk, but he did not abandon his hopes and did not cease to give advice to top Russian authorities. One of his memorials, sent to Benkendorf in May 1839, dealt with the problem of education in the Congress Kingdom. He was con- cerned with two main questions: (1) how to russify the Poles linguistic- ally and culturally and (2) how to implant in them the cult of autocracy. As a solution to the first question he advised the replacement of the Polish language in the Polish schools by Church-slavonic; this was to be only a temporary solution, after which Church-slavonic should grad- ually give way to moder Russian. The second question was to be solved by basing the education of the Poles upon the natural sciences and not upon classical languages and history. Classicism in the educa- tional system, Gurowski argued, always concentrates on the republican virtues of ancient Greeks and Romans and thus is not suitable for the subjects of a monarchy.

The proposed reform, Gurowski believed, would lead to the most

25 See J. Kucharzewski, Epoka Paskiewiczowska. Losy Oswiaty (Warsaw, 1914), p. 265.

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desirable results: young Poles will become convinced that the Russian tsar is a "living image of God"; the Polish language will lose its cultural significance, surviving only as a "poor dialect, a patois of the common people."26

Gurowski's memorial was measured against another, more reasonable, project prepared by Count S. Uvarov, Russian minister of education, who was a follower of "classicism" and refrained from advocating a forcible linguistic russification. Nicholas I sympathized with Gurowski's project but did not want to create a situation in which a Polish ex- revolutionary holding the post of an obscure, small clerk would win in competition with the eminent Russian statesman.

In 1840 Gurowski published in St. Petersburg his big book La Civilisa- tion et la Russie. Unlike the brochure La verite sur la Russie, this book was based upon direct knowledge of Russia. In order to write it, Gurowski made a special journey over the vast territories of the Empire.

La Civilisation et la Russie deserves to be compared in detail with the two most famous books on Russia under Nicholas I, La Russie en 1839 by Marquis de Custine (who, by the way, must have talked with Gurowski during his stay in Russia) and the solid study of the Russian social and economic relations by the German conservative Baron von Haxthausen. However, I must limit my task to a brief presentation of the main facets of Gurowski's image of his new fatherland.

The peculiar social philosophy in Gurowski's book may be defined as saintsimonianism reinterpreted for the use of autocracy. During the last three centuries, he argued, a spirit of criticism and negation reigned supreme in Europe. Today, however, symptoms of a new "organic epoch" are clearly visible: many people want to return to religion, to rehabilitate the principles of unity, authority and hierarchy so much discredited by the French eighteenth-century philosophers.27 As always in new epochs, the providential role will fall to great kings and dynasties. Religiously sanctioned monarchy is the most "synthetic" (organic) form of government, best suited to express the law of hierarchy and attraction ruling over the great whole (grand tout) of the earthly and planetary world. The person of the ruler must be dignified and remote from the masses; otherwise, it becomes 'la proie du vulgaire" and cannot accom- plish a lofty providential mission.28 A secularization of power leads to the same result, even if (formally) power remains absolute. Machiavelli, in spite of his great political genius, committed a grave error in reducing power to "a purely human mechanism."29

26 Ibid., pp. 269-271. 27 A. Gurowski, La Civilisation et la Russie, pp. 153-154. 28 Ibid., p. 165. 29 Ibid., p. 168.

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The ideal embodiment of a providential ruler is the Russian tsar. To define the essence of his power Gurowski used the saintsimonian term "loi vivante."30 The power of the Russian tsar truly deserves this name because it is not limited by written law, by the past. What such a power can achieve was shown to the astounded world by Peter the Great. This great tsar surpassed all other great monarchs, including Charles the Great and Napoleon, because he had owed his greatness neither to his predecessors nor to his epoch but solely to his own sovereign will.31

Social life in Russia has always been "'oeuvre du Pouvoir, l'manation de sa volonte."32 This is precisely the reason why the Russian tsar has to be an absolute monarch, an autocrat: any weakening of autocracy would be tantamount to weakening all social bonds; it would lead to a progressive dissolution of Russian social life and to the complete destruc- tion of the Russian State.

An excellent support to Russian autocracy has always been the Russian Orthodox Church. She endows secular power with the aureole of the sacred but, at the same time, humbly subordinates herself to it in all earthly matters and, thus, in contrast to the Roman Church, can- not become an obstacle to progress. Protestantism-this "discussing con- fession," characteristic of the "critical epoch"-could not have been born from the womb of Orthodox Christianity. The Orthodox clergy was never taught rhetoric and, consequently, was never inclined to dema- gogy. Also it did not succumb to influences from abroad. Latin, the carrier of the vicious influences of pagan antiquity, has contaminated the Christian character of the Roman Church; by contrast, Church-slavonic has helped the Orthodox Church remain faithful to the pure Christian spirit and, at the same time, enhanced in the hearts of the faithful feel- ings of national identity and solidarity with the rest of Slavdom.

Central autocratic power has always coexisted in Russia with some form of local self-government in which the principle of eligibility-in its legitimate, i.e., strictly local sphere-was encouraged and applied. The basic units of this local self-government were the village communes. Gurowski saw them as representing not only the principle of self- government but also the principle of "association," permeating the en- tire Russian life and supported by the Russian autocracy as a safeguard against the atomizing influences of Western individualism. Because of the lack of individual, hereditary ownership of land, the situation of the Russian peasantry is incomparably better than that of Western workers or the landless Polish peasants. In his relations with the gentry and with the State, the Russian peasant is always a member of a commune and

30 Ibid., p. 20 and 61. 31 Ibid., p. 281. 32 Ibid., p. 20.

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never an isolated individual. In Gurowski's eyes this was additional proof of the "organicity" of Russian life, which sharply contrasts with the atomistic individualism of the West.

Analyzing the social structure of Russia, Gurowski repeated his favorite ideas concerning the existence of Russian townspeople and the indigenous Russian industry. This time, however, he put emphasis on the role of the Russian nobility, to which he assigned the mission of leaders in the process of further industrialization. The last pages of his book contain a true paean in honor of nobility-not only the Russian nobility but nobility in general. Thanks to its corporate spirit of sacri- fice, generosity, and patriotic duty, nobility has always been a chosen instrument of Providence. The French nobility was the first to hurl its- self into the whirl of revolution, which served in fact the interest of the bourgeoisie. Nobility should not abuse itsself by mixing with the urban middle classes. What religion, what institutions were created by them? The bourgeoisie was only an expression of the spirit of negation, which replaces faith with skepticism, noblemindedness with an egoistic greed for profit.33

Gurowski's main conclusion was that divine Providence had chosen Russia to lead the other nations into a new organic epoch. The political dogma of a "balance of power," he argued, is false because an artificial balance of heterogeneous forces is incompatible with organicity. The necessary condition of peace and order in Europe is an undisputed domination of one principle and one nation, and only the Russians have what is needed to accomplish this task.34 The providential mission of the Russian nation is shown by its adventurous spirit of expansion, the in- stinctive striving for conquest.35 Only a nation with such qualities can unite smaller Slavonic peoples and perform a civilizing mission in Asia. The latter task can be accomplished not only by colonization but also by exporting industrial commodities, which would create enormous op- portunities for the industry of the Congress Kingdom.36 (In this Gurow- ski had anticipated the main argument of the so-called Warsaw positiv- ists of the 1870s, who claimed that Poland had to come to terms with Russia because an easy access to eastern markets was a necessary condi- tion of her industrial development.)

The publication of La Civilisation et la Russie did not help its author win the confidence of Nicholas I and become a Russian statesman. On the contrary, for unknown reasons (perhaps because of an attempt to denounce the governor under whom he served), he lost his right to stay

33 Ibid., pp. 295-296. 34 Ibid., pp. 172-175. 35 Ibid., pp. 119-120. 36 Ibid., p. 274.

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in St. Petersburg and had to take a post as a minor clerk in the Congress Kingdom. Irrespective of frustrated ambitions, it created for him an unbearable situation: he had been ostracized by the Poles and could expect from them only humiliation. Moreover, the protection of his sister was now too remote to strengthen his position in the inevitable conflicts with the Russian clerks who did not like his restive character and aristocratic manners. This probably explains his sudden escape to Germany. Tsar Nicholas was enraged by Gurowski's escape-he wanted to put him at the disposal of a court martial. Gurowski was fully aware of the irreversible consequences of his decision. He confessed that he had once more become an exile "a la suite d'une persecution et d 'une hostilite de bas lieu, subalterne mais implacable, contre laquelle echou- erent meme les bienveillantes intentions du souverain."37

Despite this Gurowski did not change his basic attitude towards Russia. In 1848 in Florence he published a book on panslavism in which he continued to proclaim the providential mission of tsardom. This is, perhaps, the best argument for the thesis that his prior writings were an expression of authentic convictions and not merely a convenient disguise for careerism.

Le Panslawisme opens with rather lengthy and sometimes fantastic considerations on the origin of the Slavs and the legendary period of their history. Much more interesting are the elements of a general philosophy of history which are to be found in the book.

According to Gurowski, philosophy of history was born with the Christian idea of Providence. Among its best representatives he listed Augustine, Orosius, Bossuet, Vico, Ballanche and Hegel.38 He main- tained, however, that they had merely created a foundation upon which, in the near future, the Slavonic genius would build a complete historiosophical construction. This construction, he claimed, is already being built by prominent Russian thinkers largely unknown in the West but prophetic of the future. He meant, of course, the Russian Slavophiles, first of all the Slavophile and Panslavist Aleksei Khomiakov, whom he called "one of the deepest thinkers of the contemporary epoch."39

Gurowski's philosophy of history is a combination of a providentialist theory of progress with the theory of historical cycles. The universal history is the history of an inevitable progress, guaranteed by Provi- dence, while the histories of particular nations, races, and states are subject to a cyclical rhythm: every nation has to pass through the phases

37 A. Gurowski, Le Panslawisme, ses veritables elements: religieux, sociaux, philosophiques et politiques, vol. 1 (Florence, 1848), p. 150, note. (Vol. 2 has

never appeared.) 38 Ibid., pp. 190 and 229. 39 Ibid., p. 233.

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of childhood and youth, maturity, and decay. A reconciliation of the "law of progress" with the "law of cycle" is provided by the universal law of the succession of races. Each civilization, being a manifestation of a race, contains in itself two principles: an "inner" principle, peculiar to the given race and subject to cyclical evolution, and a seemingly "outer" principle, representing a universal value. The latter is part of the "spiritual current" running through the history of all mankind. A race may exhaust itself and disappear, but the universal progress of mankind cannot be halted or reversed. After one race another comes and continues the work of universal history.40

In the history of particular races Gurowski saw the action of the cosmic law of increasing unity. There are two stages in the progressive development of nature: disintegration and the conflict of centrifugal forces and integration, which consists in the beginning of bringing to- gether and reconciling the different forces and which ends, finally, with their organic fusion. The same stages are to be found in history. In historical evolution a precondition of the second stage is the emergence of the unifying self-consciousness of the entire race, finding expression in "Pan"-ism. The achievement of this self-consciousness by a given race is testimony to its maturity and readiness to fulfill its historical destinies. The Slavonic nations, awakened by "Panslavism," are now entering this historical stage.

Gurowski's conception of the historical mission of the Slavs was given a certain religious coloring, more pronounced in Le Panslawisme than in his previous works. Echoing the Russian Slavophiles, the Polish Pan- slavist claimed that the Slavs, in contrast to the Romano-Germanic peoples, had not been infected by the miasmata of pagan antiquity and, therefore, preserved and embodied the pure spirit of Christianity.41 Sometimes we can trace in Gurowski's reasoning the influence of the Paris lectures of Mickiewicz. True, he set himself against Mickiewicz's apotheosis of imagination and exaltation;42 he rejected also some schol- arly hypotheses of the poet, such as the Slavonic origin of Assyria (based upon the similarity of sounds in "Nabuchodonosor," "Balthasar" and "Tsar").43 It seems, however, that the image of the Slavs as a virgin people, a people without a past, whose only heritage is the divine Word, was taken from Mickiewicz. The Slavs, Gurowski asserted, should not feel ashamed of the lack of great, historical traditions of their own; the less they have in the past, the more they will have in the future.44

40 Ibid., pp. 115-116. 41 Ibid., p. 117. 42 Ibid., p. 241. 43 Ibid., p. 20. 44 Ibid., pp. 117-118.

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There were moments in the history of Slavdom when Providence offered opportunities to the Poles. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Poland was given the opportunity to unite under her leader- ship all eastern Slavs. This great chance, however, was wasted. The Poles, like the Czechs, entered the phase of decay without passing through the phase of maturity. Only the Russians have preserved intact the original spirit of the race. Even Russian peasants speak a pure, un- corrupted language and possess an historical, national consciousness completely alien to their Polish counterparts.45 Unlike the other Slavonic languages, Russian is well-suited for legislation and military command.46 The superiority of the Russians is felt immediately in any international company: they speak with a certainty which commands respect and leaves no doubt as to their right of leadership.47

Unlike other Slavs, Russians have an inborn need for speed, an onward rush, rapid and violent like a wind unfettered over a vast space. "Et voila pourquoi le Russe, portant le Pan definitif dans son char (troika oudalaia), lance sa course rapide vers l'infini de l'avenir, et 6tend toujours son orbite. Et les autres nations et Etats tout en faisant la grimace, se rangent ebahies sur son parcours."48 It is easy to recognize in these words a paraphrase of the famous lyrical passage from Gogol's Dead Souls.

Another interesting motif in Gurowski's ideas about the economic advantages of autocracy reflects the influence of saintsimonianism. The best solution for the economic problems of a state was seen by Gurowski in the uniting of the divergent, centrifugal forces in a harmonious, "synthetic" organization based upon hierarchy and discipline. Eco- nomic liberalism might be good for England but ruinous to her weaker competitors. Since the sixteenth century Poland has been a country of "free trade" and this is precisely the reason why her native industry had had no change to develop.49 In Russia, happily, economic individualism has never been sanctioned by law, political power dominates in the economic sphere and can impose on it an "intelligent discipline."50 If the Russian tsar wants to change something in the economic system of the state, he does not have to consult the bankers. That is why the co- ordination and reconciliation of the interests of labor, industry, and trade is quite feasible in Russia. She is in fact "a country of labor," her

45 Ibid., pp. 168-170. 46 Ibid., p. 217. Similar opinion was expressed by Mickiewicz in connection with

his analysis of the reasons for Suvorov's victory over Kosciuszko. (A Mickiewicz, Dziela 10:417-418.)

47 Ibid., p. 256. 48 Ibid., p. 170. 49 Ibid., p. 271. 50 Ibid., p. 309.

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greatest tsar was the "worker on the throne"-Peter the Great.51 The great mission of the Slavonic peoples united under Russian leadership will consist of building a society based upon labor, organized according to the principle of association.52

This conception was first outlined in La Civilisation et la Russie. Now, however, Gurowski added to it an important element: a postulate of the emancipation and enfranchisement of the Russian peasants as a necessary condition for the desired association of labor and capital. This postulate, formulated at the end of Le Panslawisme, was a definite political appeal by the Polish Count to the Russian monarch and the Russian nobility.

In his conclusion, Gurowski unexpectedly made reference to Hegel- ianism. The Slavs, he maintained, will not enter the arena of history as "new barbarians" because their true task consists not in destruction but in harmonious reconciliation.53 In its conciliatory mission Panslavism will make use of Hegelian dialectics, the method of solving contradic- tions by their reconciliation in a higher synthesis. It is worth recalling that the same conception of the historical mission of the Slavs (although with a quite different appraisal of Poland) was proclaimed in 1848 by August Cieszkowski-heterodox Hegelian and the greatest philosopher of Polish Romanticism.

The New Image of Russia As a matter of fact, already in the early 1840s Gurowski had set his

hopes much more on the Russian nation than on the Russian tsar or even the Russian autocracy.54 In 1848, under the impact of the Spring- time of the Peoples, his belief in the tsar broke down completely. The apologist of Russian autocracy became a sympathizer with European revolutionists.55 He rightly suspected, however, that the Polish emigrEs would never forget his past, and that they would do everything to com- promise him in the eyes of European democrats. Therefore he made a decision which opened an entirely new chapter in his life: he decided to emigrate to the United States.

He went first to Boston, hoping to get a chair at Harvard University. Abandoning this hope (the main reason for which was his insufficient

51 Ibid., pp. 309-311. 52 Ibid., p. 312. 53 Ibid., p. 200. 54 In his later book Gurowski tried to present the evolution of his thinking in

such a way as to make his readers believe that the change in his attitude toward Russian autocracy had occurred earlier and was the real cause of his escape from Russia. (A. Gurowski, Russia as it is, p. xii).

55Cf. L. H. Fischer, Lincoln's Gadfly, Adam Gurowski (Norman, Oklahoma, 1964), p. 43.

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knowledge of English), he settled in New York. Very soon he became known in the milieu of local writers, journalists, and politicians, winning among them the reputation of an unsurpassed expert on Russia. Thanks to this he was given the post of an editor for the New York Tribune, with responsibility for the foreign policy column. This was quite an important post, especially in the years of the Crimean War, when the American public became greatly interested in Russia.

In spite of his disappointment in Russian autocracy, Gurowski re- mained very favorably disposed towards Russia and greatly contributed to the dissemination of pro-Russian feelings in American society. The most interesting and curious episode of his editorial activity was, per- haps, his censoring of articles written by Engels. Marx and Engels had sent to the Tribune nine articles on the Eastern Question in which, as usual, they considered tsarist Russia the main bulwark of reaction and sharply condemned the idea of Panslavism. Gurowski published the first two articles (written by Engels) after rewriting them in his own way, and the other articles he simply rejected. A good example of his "editorial" work is the following insertion into Engels article:

"Panslavism as a political theory has had its most lucid and philosophic expression in the writings of Count Gurowski. But that learned and dis- tinguished publicist, while regarding Russia as the natural pivot around which the destinies of the numerous and vigorous branch of the human family can alone find a large historical development, did not conceive of Panslavism as a league against Europe and European civilization. In his view the legitimate outlet for the expansive force of Slavonic energies was Asia. As compared with the stagnant desolation of that old con- tinent, Russia is a civilizing power, and her contact could not be other than beneficial. This manly and imposing generalization has, however, not been accepted by all the inferior minds which have adopted its fundamental idea. Panslavism has assumed a variety of aspects; and now, at last, we find it employed in a new form, and with great apparent effect, as a warlike threat. As such, its use certainly does credit to the boldness and decision of the new Czar."56

Gurowski's American biographer, Le Roy H. Fisher, commented: "Gurowski's efforts to reorient the ideas of Marx and Engels on Pan- slavism were far-reaching in their effect. The two revised Tribune ar- ticles were in later years reprinted separately or together in at least three languages and were presented as the authentic Panslavic thinking of the two socialist collaborators."57

Marx and Engels were inclined to see in Gurowski a paid, Russian

56 Ibid., pp. 64-65. 57 Ibid., p. 65.

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agent. Marx wrote to Engels on Oct. 30, 1856: "We thus have also the honor that our articles are, or rather were, directly watched over and censored by the Russian Embassy."58 In fact, however, this was not true, Gurowski's pro-Russian stand was based on authentic conviction and, in spite of appearances, did not run counter to his commitment to the cause of the radical, American Left.

A novel explanation of Gurowski's russophilism was provided in his book Russia as it is (New York, 1854), written on the eve of the Crimean War. In it Gurowski repeated many of his earlier ideas but did this selectively, adding new motifs and considerably changing the ideolog- ical meaning of his Panslavism.

The most important change was a severe criticism of contemporary Russian autocracy. In the past tsarism had been superior to the Western estate monarchies, let alone the parliamentary monarchy of Poland.59 Its superiority lay in its wider social basis: it was based, in principle, not on a privileged class but on the "whole mass of the people" who saw in it an expression of its own power. That is why powerful tsars always in- spired in their subjects a feeling of unlimited national pride.60 The most glorious period in the history of Russian autocracy was the reign of Peter the Great. Soon afterwards, however, the Russian Empire showed some dangerous symptoms of a progressive degeneration. The lowest point in this degenerative process was reached under the reign of Nicholas I. Gurowski attacked Tsar Nicholas ad personam, accusing him of an insane megalomania combined with a cowardly pusillanimity (shown, among other ways, in his treatment of the defeated Decem- brists), making him personally responsible for the universal corruption, the demoralizing system of spying, persecuting Russian culture and thought (including Panslavism), and the deaths of Ryleev, Pushkin, and Lermontov. In the general conclusion he said: "Tzar Nikolai will appear in history as fatally precipitating into inevitable destruction the power embodied in his person."61

The diagnosis of an incurable disease in contemporary Russian au- tocracy was accompanied by changes in the general interpretation of Russian history. These changes consisted first of all in emphasizing the republican traditions in the Russian and Slavonic past. Gurowski began

58 K. Marx, F. Engels, Briefwechsel, 4 vols. (Berlin, 1949-50), 2:193-194, pp. 211-212. Fischer, Lincoln's Gadfly, p. 66.

59 Gurowski, Russia as it is, p. 41. (An English edition of this book, published in London, 1854, was entitled Russia and Its People.)

60 Ibid., p. 41. Marquis de Custine (in his La Russie en 1839), also wrote about the "unlimited ambitions" of the Russians, inspired and supported by autocracy. However, his explanation of this feature was different: in dreams of collective power he saw a compensation for the lack of individual freedom.

61 Ibid., p. 68.

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a glorification of "ancient Slavonic freedom," dismissing autocracy as a "political and social enslavement."62 In accordance with the Decem- brists' and Lelewels conception of Russian history, he stressed the im- portance of the city-republics of Novgorod and Pskov and the liber- tarian tradition of Ukrainian Cossacks. He also changed, partially at least, his view of Polish history, recognizing in the Polish "gentry democracy" a genuine attempt to preserve, although in a distorted form, the ancient Slavonic tradition of freedom and equality. He did not hesi- tate to assert that even the Polish liberum veto, in spite of its fatal po- litical consequences, deserves attention as an expression of Slavonic spirit striving for political equality.63

The foundation and the only real safeguard of a republican system was seen by Gurowski in local self-government. The Republic should be organized not from above, as in France, but from below, as in the United States. True republicanism is thus tantamount to communalism, i.e., to the truly Slavonic ideal of society. This concept of course, cast new light on the significance of the Russian village community.

In nineteenth-century Russian social and political thought, we can distinguish two different ways of idealizing the peasant commune: as an institution based upon common ownership of the land and thus representing a principle of agrarian communism, or as an institution embodying the principle of self-government. Some Russian thinkers (especially Herzen) combined both points of view, but, in general, the commune was appreciated as a germ of socialism. The Decembrists, who saw peasant communes as "small republics" (Kakhovsky), relics of the "ancient Russian freedom," were an exception.64 Later Russian thinkers who, like Herzen or Shchapov, highly appreciated the principle of communal self-government, were extremely careful to avoid associ- ation with European republicanism. In Polish thought the situation was quite different: the Slavonic community (of course the ancient com- munity and not the contemporary village commune in Russia) was idealized first of all as a prototype of modem republicanism; thinkers who saw it as a germ of a socialist (Dembowski) or cooperative (Podo- lecki) form of ownership were more rare and less influential.

In these brief remarks, we can see some characteristic features of Gurowski's view on the Russian commune developed in Russia as it is. This view represents an extreme version of the "republican" interpreta- tion of communalism and was completely devoid of the anti-capitalist spirit permeating the conceptions of the Russian Slavophiles (the con-

62 Ibid., p. 23. 63 Ibid., pp. 24-25. 64 Cf. A. Walicki, "Russian Social Thought: An Introduction to the Intellectual

History of Nineteenth-Century Russia," The Russian Review 36, no. 1 (1977): 2-6.

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Adam Gurowski

servative variant of Russian communalism), as well as the ideas of Herzen and the later Russian populists (socialist variant). Thus, Gurow- ski's pro-Russian sentiments were in full harmony with his enthusiasm for the capitalist American democracy. In spite of her "corruption from above," Russia was in his eyes a society healthy "from below," more healthy than France where the communal order had been destroyed by centralist tendencies.65

The most peculiar feature of Gurowski's conception-a feature equally alien to the Russian and the Polish romantic idealizations of the Slavonic commune-was the fact that his high appraisal of communalism was bound up not with the ideal of an agrarian society but with a pro- nounced pro-bourgeois tendency. Even in his early works Gurowski had emphasized the existence of a native Russian bourgeoisie; we re- member, however, that in La Civilisation et la Russie he pinned his hopes on the Russian nobility. Now, in Russia as it is, he appeared an enthusiastic admirer of the Russian burghers. In contrast to the Western bourgeoisie, he claimed, Russian townsmen were always close to the people, permeated by the republican civic spirit of ancient Novgorod, always ready to gather at a moot. They have never been a separate middle class; they belong wholly to the people, to its holy cause. There- fore, "one cannot err in asserting that in any future attempts or struggles for regeneration, the Russian bourgeoisie will stand foremost, strength- ening and not palsying the efforts for a large and radical emancipa- tion."66

At the end of his book Gurowski concluded that Russia's political and social emancipation is an historical inevitability because "democracy is as absolute and irresistible as the laws of the physical world.67 If so, one can ask why did he wish tsarist Russia to win in the Crimean War? Why did he refuse to accept the thesis that the defeat of the tsarist state would be the best means of accelerating the emancipation of the Russian people?

The answer to this question is contained in the last chapter of the book and further developed in Gurowski's brochure The Turkish Ques- tion. The tsar is a despot but the sultan is at least equally despotic, and, unlike the Turks, the Russians are a civilizing force in Asia; they are a young nation, "growing, expanding and tending onward," while the Turks are "diminishing, withering, and sinking down both morally and physically."68 The conquest of Constantinople and the liberation of the Turkish Slavs would open for Russia a window to the entire world (not

65 Gurowski, Russia as it is, pp. 231-232. 66 Ibid., p. 169. 67 Ibid., p. 270. 68 A. Gurowski, The Turkish Question (New York, 1854), pp. 42-43.

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just to Europe, as it had been in the case of St. Petersburg). The capital of the Empire would have to be transferred to the legendary 'Tsargrad," bringing about a denationalization of the dynasty and weakening its control over the Russian people. Finally, conditions would be created for an easy overthrow of autocracy. Through the gates of Hellespont the Russians will enter the arena of civilization without the tsar and his hirelings.69

Very similar ideas were proclaimed at the same time by Alexander Herzen. In 1849, in his Lettre d'un Russe a Mazzini, he had expressed his conviction that the Russian conquest of Constantinople "will be the beginning of a new Russia, of a democratic and social federation of Slavonic peoples."70 In 1854, in his La Russie et le vieux monde, he wished his country to win in the war with Turkey, claiming that the Russian victory would be a "splendid and martial entering" of the Slavonic world to universal history. The annexation of Constantinople would be followed by transferring to it the capital of the Empire; this, in turn, would mark the end of the German Petersburg period of Russian history. "Constantinople will kill St. Petersburg."71 The Russian people, instinctively striving for the annexation of Constantinople, "uncon- sciously realizes the hidden aims of history, deepens the abyss which, sooner or later, will engulf Tsar Nicholas or his successors."72

These Slavonic conceptions of Herzen and Bakunin were given the name of "democratic Panslavism." This name well fits the new version of Gurowski's view on Russia which abandoned the pro-tsarist variety of Panslavism for a democratic one.

The United States and the "Old World" In the last chapter of Russia as it is (entitled "Manifest Destiny")

Gurowski took up de Tocqueville's well-known idea: that of a parallel between Russia and the United States as two great, young countries, destined to dominate the future of the world.73

The similarity between Russia and the U.S., he asserted, is limited; the differences are more essential. While Russia is a relatively young state, she is also old; her future will be, essentially, a continuation of the "old world." America, by contrast, is a completely new world and not only in the chronological sense; she represents a completely new principle and opens an entirely new historical epoch.74

69 Gurowski, Russia as it is, pp. 285-286. 70 A. I. Herzen, Sobranie sochinenii, 30 vols. (Moscow, 1958-65), 6:230. 71 Ibid., 12:165. 72 Ibid. 73 See the last two pages of the first part of de Tocqueville's, De la democratie

en Amerique. 74 Gurowski, Russia as it is, pp. 261-262.

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Gurowski develops this idea in his book America and Europe (1857). American superiority over the Old World was seen by him in her trans- cendence of the law of the "succession of races." Unlike Slavs, Americans are not a race but a mixture of different races. "The American world was not called to life, and is not circumscribed by the narrow, blind, fatal- istic physical laws of race";75 it emerged out of nothingness in an act of a free, conscious choice of constitutional principles. The development of American society refutes the generalizations of the hitherto existing philosophy of history; it refutes as well the generalizations of sociology which claim that all societies have to develop from the phase of organic unity, based upon authority and religious synthesis, to the phase of analysis and criticism. "America, religiously or philosophically con- sidered, is the creation of analysis, and accordingly of that phasis in which other societies have terminated; politically and socially, America personifies the combination of free individuality with association, in a self-conscious democracy-a combination hitherto unknown in the his- tory of nations."76

One can easily notice that by "sociology" the author meant the soci- ology of Comte (whom he classified also as a philosopher of history) and the doctrine of the saintsimonians which he called in another context the "most powerful new social conception for the remodelling of so- ciety."77 The assertion that "sociology . . . is at fault"78 was, thus, tantamount to abandoning the thesis of the necessity for the "organic epoch" which restores hierarchy and authority-the thesis which had been the main theoretical foundation of Gurowski's apologia for the Russian autocracy.

America's true mission, her "Manifest Destiny," consists of building a social system based upon democracy, self-government, and law, com- pletely ignoring all ethnic divisions. Up to now all republics have been aristocratic, but the American republic has embodied the principle of democracy. Everywhere political rights are merely another form of privilege; in the United States they are "an inborn right, a social duty." Liberty in the Old World was a privilege bestowed upon towns, guilds, or estates; in contrast with this, "in America at the outset, liberty was a right settled in the individual."79 Democracy will finally win in the Old World; at present, however, it has to struggle with the principle of authority. That is why European thinkers accuse democracy of bringing about "social instability"-they do not understand that "instability is the

75 A. Gurowski, America and Europe (New York, 1859), p. 58. 76 Ibid., p. 125-126. 77 Ibid., p. 325. 78 Ibid., p. 126. 79Ibid., pp. 98-99.

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principal agency and condition of progress and development."80 That is why democracy is so often distorted in Europe by attempts to com- bine it with the principle of the French type of centralization.

The philosophical conclusion to these considerations was expressed by Gurowski in lofty words about spirit rising above matter, ethical law finally triumphing over the physical. "Liberty, essentially a moral law and force, absorbs authority, which, even in its most philosophical and exalted conception, resolves itself into material substance."81

A rather surprising justification for this view was provided by an enthusiastic eulogy for American "money-making." Money-making, Gurowski argued, cannot be reduced to a trivial, practical materialism; it is, in fact, "one of the noblest manifestations of the consciousness of human dignity."82 It does not derive from a hedonistic striving for pleasures; it is a noble striving for success "considered as God's vir- dict."83 It is, thus, not a "material" but a "spiritual" passion, resulting in the conquest of nature, in subjugating rough matter to the power of the human spirit.

Equally enthusiastic was Gurowski's eulogy for "private enterprise" and "private association."84 In earlier years Gurowski had seen the essence of "association" in the effort to bring economic life under the conscious control of society; now he conceived of association as a union of people acting within the framework of a free play of economic forces, as a corollary of self-government and the opposite of the "so- called governmental action." In a sense, it was a return to the older, pre-Fourierist concept of association.85

Complete freedom of economic activities was for Gurowski not only a guarantee of maximum productivity but also a necessary condition for and a consequence as well of self-government. "Self-government," he wrote, "is the healthy, everlasting maturity, is the full manhood of man in the social state.... If humanity is to be modelled according to ab- stract types, self-government is its present most perfect typical form."86

Gurowski's view of democracy, as present in America and Europe, was thus a truly "bourgeois" democracy consciously accepting the basic principles of a capitalist democracy. Within these limits, however, it was a radical democracy, close to the ideas of John Stuart Mill, whom

80 Ibid., pp. 105. 81 Ibid., pp. 410-411. 82 Ibid., p. 68. 83 Ibid., p. 71. This conclusion is in perfect agreement with Max Weber's famous

essay on the protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. 84 Ibid., pp. 149-150. 85 As used, above all, in A. de Laborde, De 'lsprit de l'association, vols. 1-2

(Paris, 1815). Cf. N. Assorodozraj, "Elementy," p. 183. 86 Gurowski, America and Europe, pp. 166-168.

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Gurowski had met in the early 1830s, thanks to their mutual interest in saintsimonianism.

America and Europe was, on the whole, warmly received in the United States. A leading American journal compared it to de Tocqueville's work, saying that "it is, in truth, a more perceptive and philosophical treatise than de Tocqueville's."87 Today, Gurowski's book has been completely forgotten. Undeservedly forgotten, I should say, since it contains not only a social philosophy but also a perceptive description of American realities in a very interesting period of American history.

The image of America as a country destined to liberate mankind from the sway of the "law of races" collided, of course, with the legal existence of slavery in the southern States. Aware of this, Gurowski from the very beginning committed himself to the cause of abolitionism. In America and Europe he devoted a separate chapter to the poisonous influence of slavery on American life. He had thoroughly studied the arguments of the advocates of slavery (including six volumes of J. D. Calhoun's Works) and resolutely rejected them. It cannot be true, he maintained, that slavery is better than being made proletarian: "The apologists of slavery, reducing this question to that of food, of physical maintenance, as forming a compensation for all the destruction of manliness in their victims, prove how under the influence of slavery the comprehension, the feeling of manhood is lowered in the master himself."88

In 1860 on the eve of the American civil war, Gurowski published a book entitled Slavery in History. This work, which analyzes and criti- cizes all historically known forms of slavery, gave him the reputation of an expert on the subject and made him a well-known figure among the radical abolitionist Left. During the war Gurowski became one of the leaders of the American radicals known as "Jacobins." He demanded not only complete equality for the former slaves but also (perhaps re- calling the agrarian problem in Poland and in Russia) giving them land. Suspecting Lincoln of a desire to achieve a compromise with the South, he attacked him violently and brutally. Because of this, he was called "Lincoln's Gadfly." The great President was seriously afraid of him. He said once: "So far as my personal safety is concerned, Gurowski is the only man who has given me a serious thought of a personal nature. From the known disposition of this man, he is dangerous wherever he may be. I have sometimes thought he might try to take my life."89

The last of Gurowski's works were the three volumes of his Diary, 87 Putnam's Monthly Magazine of American Literature, Science and Art 9 (Junet,

1857): 659. Fischer, Lincoln's Gadfly, p. 67. 88 Gurowski, America and Europe, p. 197. 89 Ward Hill Lamon, Recollection of Abraham Lincoln, 1847-1865 (Washington,

1911), p. 274. Fischer, Lincoln's Gadfly, p. 3.

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covering the years 1861-1865. J. S. Mill called it "an important part of the evidence which future historians of these great events will have to study."90 This opinion has been shared by some American scholars. Gurowski's Diary "remains the Jacobin bible,"91 wrote LeRoy F. Fischer. It 'reflects the plans, aims, passions, ambitions and hatreds of the Radicals better than almost any other printed source,"2 wrote his- torian George Fort Milton.

As can be seen, the last phase of Gurowski's intellectual evolution was in a sense a dialectical return to the first. This is corroborated by Gurow- ski's impressive letter to J. N. Janowski, the co-founder of the Polish Democratic Society. Written in 1863, i.e., in the year of another Polish uprising, the letter reads:

"In one respect there is an abyss between us, but you understand that a man of true convictions is not a monster. I am deeply shocked by the bloody struggle in Poland and, although I look at this struggle from the same standpoint which I had chosen in 1834, sometimes I am driven to desperation. Victus or Victor, Poland as a country, Poland as a people (and even more as a nation) will be so destroyed that she will need a century to heal her wounds and recover from poverty.... My convic- tions, although always pure and sincere, have separated me from men whom I most appreciated 33 years ago and whom I still appreciate to- day. What am I doing? That which I started as a boy of thirteen. I am struggling with all means of my nature, struggling for holy human rights, in defense of humanity, which is violated by the pride and egoism of the aristocrats of the New World who sell human bodies, who are more rotten, corrupted, and dangerous than the aristocrats of the old Europe against whom I fought in my youthful years. Moreover, I have to struggle against prejudices, egoism and intellectual narrowness among people who claim to belong to my own party. Therefore I remain faithful to the principles which we developed together, more than 30 years ago, in our young Democratic Society."93

* * O

"Lincoln's Gadfly" died in Washington in May 1866. According to Walt Whitman, "all big radicals" were present at his funeral.94 There were also many other political figures, including the official representa-

o9 Fischer, Lincoln's Gadfly, p. 189. 91 Fisher, Lincoln's Gadfly, p. 196.

^ 92 George Fort Milton, The Age of Hate: Andrew Johnson and the Radicals (New York, 1930), p. 687. Fischer, Lincoln's Gadfly, p. 196.

93 Jagellonian Library, manuscript 368512, letter written in Washington, Oct. 3, 1863. Z. Gross, "Diabel," p. 49.

94 Fischer, Lincoln's Gadfly, p. 271.

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tives of Russia. The funeral service was held by a Unitarian preacher, Reverend John Pierpont. This choice was made out of respect for Gurowski's religious views: he was known among his American friends as a sympathizer with religious rationalism.95

There was not a single Pole at this funeral ceremony and this was, of course, not accidental. Also very significant is the fact that Gurowski's colorful life has not become a subject of scholarly interest in Poland.96 Polish public opinion did not forgive him his "apostasy" and sentenced him to oblivion. Today he does not hold any place in the Polish national memory.

It seems to me that he deserves such a place not only because of his unusual life, but because he is interesting also as a thinker. His sig- nificance in Polish intellectual history can be formulated in two points.

First, as I have already pointed out, Gurowski's "apostasy" was an expression of the utter despair of his nation-a despair of a frustrated romantic nationalist. He had cherished great national ambitions and precisely because of this he could not agree to belong to a weak, periph- eral nation, a nation not able to perform a great historical mission. He wanted Poland to be a great nation, capable of unifying under her

leadership the other Slavs and opening a new epoch of universal re- generation; otherwise he would conceive of her as not worthy of exist- ence. In this sense his "apostasy" was a product of the same spirit which gave birth to the Polish romantic messianism. Minimalization of national ambitions, reducing them to the mere maintenance of national existence devoid of any higher mission, was for him utterly unacceptable. If Poland is not a truly great country, she is not worthy to exist; she is despicable if she does not deserve admiration. This is why, having abandoned his faith in Poland's universal mission, Gurowski had no other choice than to change totally his loyalties and become a "national

apostate." Second, Gurowski was perhaps the only nineteenth-century Pole who

had the courage to break with the "francocentrism" so characteristic of both his and subsequent generations of Polish intellectuals and to adopt a point of view which we could call "de Tocqueville's perspective." I mean, of course, his analysis of America and Russia. At the time of the Crimean War or the American War of Secession, such a point of view was neither novel nor rare. We should note, however, that before Gurow- ski nobody had adopted this viewpoint, both in theory and in practice, as systematically and consistently as Gurowski did. The author of

95 Ibid., pp. 268-269. 96 The only outline of Gurowski's biography in Polish is the article by Z. Gross,

"Diabel."

25

26 The Russian Review

America and Europe-Polish admirer of Khomiakov and personal friend of Henry Longfellow and Walt Whitman-was, perhaps, the only man who has succeeded in joining Russia with America in his life, thought, and political activity. He is the only thinker who has been at the same time a theoretician of Russian Panslavism and an ideologist of American Manifest Destiny.