Citizenship and Identity in a Multi-national Commonwealth : Poland-Lithuania in Context, c. 1500-1750
The Sawyer Seminar at the Centre for Early Modern Studies, University of Aberdeen
24-26 November 2005
The Linklater Rooms, King’s College
In Honour of Professor Andrzej S. Kamiński’s 70th Birthday
(with thanks to the permission of Aberdeen University Special Collections)
Early modern parliaments, estates and representations were guarantors neither of liberty nor modern democracy, but they relied on ‘consensus systems’, to integrate groups with different confessional, regional and national identities. After the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, many of them failed or never developed much beyond medieval corporate traditions, as dynasties expanded their power – boosting, to use Weberian terms, their charismatic and their bureaucratic rule. In East Central Europe, and more specifically in Poland-Lithuania, parliamentary political life and republican citizenship, however, was remarkably long-lived, and was only destroyed by the intervention of foreign powers through partition – by Russia , Prussia and Austria – between 1772 and 1795. Early modern Polish political culture proves that the creation of civil society and the rule of law as preconditions for liberty to flourish was not an invention of nineteenth-century liberalism. The constitutional limitation of the ruler by laws and immunities, its mixed form of government, the free election of the monarch by the noble citizens, a bicameral parliament and representative local assemblies, the free vote in the Diet, and the constitutional right to resist central power went much further in the Commonwealth than in any other early modern state. The conscious adaptation of classical models of citizenship and representation by the learned and well-travelled elite of the Polish-Lithuanian state during the Renaissance, the influence of conciliarist theory and ideas of active toleration proved cornerstones in the development of Poland-Lithuania during the sixteenth century – its ‘golden age’ of liberty.
The Commonwealth of the many nations was built on powerful ideas of self-government by a society of citizens – and not on dynastic ties, a strong bureaucratic apparatus imposed on passive subjects, or ideas of ethnic nationalism. This model attracted other national and social groups, such as the Cossacks, the Jews, or the burghers in Ruthenian or Prussian towns, to the constitution of the Commonwealth, albeit with varied consequences. An enduring crisis hit the Commonwealth in the mid-seventeenth century with the Cossack and Muscovite wars and the Swedish ‘Deluge’, from which it found it hard to recover. The romanticisation of Polish history by later writers, in particular during the partition period, as well as the damning judgement of foreigners who often misunderstood Poland-Lithuania’s exceptional constitution, has hampered the emergence of a balanced and unblinkered view of the Commonwealth.
The Sawyer Seminar, funded by The Mellon Foundation, links early modern perspectives with contemporary debates. The expansion of the European Union eastwards has fuelled doubts among the ‘old Europe ’ about the ability of East Central European states to build modern democracies and tolerant societies. The tradition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is thereby often overlooked in favour of the nationalist romanticism of the nineteenth century, which arose from the specific context of the partitions. Yet citizenship was a central theme of the theoretical political debate in the early modern Commonwealth. For many contemporary religious and national conflicts, early modern Poland-Lithuania cannot be a direct model for imitation, but it might give inspirations for creative solutions and compromises it negotiated while integrating many faiths and ethnicities. The conference will address the following key questions:
- To what extent did national, regional, religious and cultural identity dictate integration and exclusion from the concept of citizenship in the Commonwealth?
- To what extent did the Commonwealth’s political culture permeate groups that were excluded from active citizenship in the republic, such as burghers, Cossacks and Jews?
- What allegiances and loyalties did define the various national groups and regions of the Commonwealth, both among noble citizens and non-nobles?
- How did the republican concept of free citizenship live side by side with the ambitions of the monarchs?
- How was the Commonwealth seen by its neighbours and other contemporary European states?
- What is the legacy of the Commonwealth for a Europe of regions and nations liberated from the Cold War divisions of the 20 th century, and united in an ever larger European Union which has not been universally accepted as a positive force?
This conference is held in honour of Professor Andrzej Sulima Kamiński, who has been an inspiring teacher and researcher on the multi-ethnic and multi-religious Commonwealth and its traditions of citizenship. We wish him a very happy 70 th birthday!
Provisional Conference Programme
Thursday, 24 November 2005 |
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| 1. Inclusion and exclusion: Citizenship in the Commonwealth | |
14.00-14.30 |
Professor Robert Frost ( U. of Aberdeen): introduction, |
14.30-15.00 |
Professor Edward Opaliński ( Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw): ‘Republicanism and notions of citizenship and the Zebrzydowski Rebellion, 1606-1609’ |
15.00-15.30 |
Dr Barbara Pendzich ( Wrocław): ‘Civic resistance and cohesion in the towns of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the Polish-Muscovite war of 1654-1667’ |
15.30-15.45 |
Tea |
15.45-16.30 |
Discussion |
16.30 |
Drinks Reception |
| Friday, 25 November 2005 |
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9.30-10.30 |
Prof. Andrzej S. Kaminski (Georgetown University, Washington D.C.), chair and discussant Virginia Zickafoose ( Georgetown University, Washington D.C.): ‘The virtuous crown and its citizens: the changing role of monarchy in a republic of citizens in the sixteenth century’ Felicia Ruso ( Georgetown University, Washington D.C.): ‘Monarch versus citizens and the law under Stefan Batory: the legal reform of 1578’ |
10.30-10.45 |
Coffee break |
2. The Commonwealth of many nations and faiths |
|
10.45-11-45 |
Professor Józef Gierowski (chair and discussant) Professor Gershon Hundert ( McGill University, Montreal): ‘ Identity Formation in the Early Modern Polish Commonwealth ’ Dr Richard Butterwick (senior lecturer in History, SSEES/UCL, London): ‘De-confessionalisation? The Commonwealth's policy towards Ruthenia, 1788-1792’ |
11.45-1.00 |
Discussion |
13.00-14.30 |
Lunch |
14.30-15.30 |
Dr Jerzy Łukowski ( University of Birmingham
) Professor David Frick ( University of California, Berkeley): Dr Arturas Vasiliauskas (Vilnius): |
15.30-15.45 |
Coffee break |
15 .45-16.30 |
Discussion |
20.00 |
Conference Dinner (location t.b.a.) |
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| 3. Notions of citizenship: the European comparative dimension | |
9.15-10.15 |
Professor Paul Bushkovitch (Yale) (Visiting Carnegie
Professor, Aberdeen): Professor Jim Collins ( Georgetown University, Washington
D.C.): Dr Karin Friedrich ( U. of Aberdeen): |
10.15-10.30 |
Coffee break |
10.30-11.00 |
Professor Allan Macinnes ( U. of Aberdeen): |
| 4. Modern visions of Citizenship | |
11.00-13.00 |
Dr Krzysztof Łazarski (Warsaw): 'Freedom, State and 'National Unity' in Lord Acton's Thought' |
| 11.20-11.40 | Dr Haifaa Khalafallah: tba |
| 12.00-13.00 | Lunch |
| 13.30-15.00 | Panel Discussion Prof. Andrzej Kamiński, Prof. Józef Gierowski, Prof. Gershon Hundert, Dr Jerzy Łukowski, Prof. David Frick, Prof. Jim Collins, Prof. Allan Macinnes, Prof. Hamish M. Scott, Prof. Isabel de Madariaga, Prof. Paul Bushkovitch, Prof. Gabor Agoston |