Polish Encounters, Russian Identity

9. Tsar Vasilii Shuiskii, the Staszic Palace, and Nineteenth-Century Russian Politics in Warsaw

144 nine Tsar Vasilii Shuiskii, the Staszic Palace, and Nineteenth-Century Russian Politics in Warsaw Robert L. Przygrodzki At the end of the nineteenth century, the Russian Empire had controlled Warsaw and much of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for approximately a century. The empire’s rule in Poland, however, was far from untroubled. Repeated Polish rebellions during the nineteenth century and a large revolutionary émigré population in France and Great Britain contested Russian claims of being the legitimate rulers of Poland. Russian authorities reacted by increasing their presence and ending the last vestiges of the Polish Kingdom’s autonomy in the years after the 1863 uprising. One of the most visible methods of staking a claim to the permanence and history of the Russian presence in Poland was through architecture: monuments, churches, and public buildings. The Staszic Palace, because of its significance to Poles and its connection with Tsar Vasilii Shuiskii (reigned 1606 to 1610), became a crucial site for Warsaw’s Russian community in justifying its presence in Poland and defining its national identity through the lens of its encounters with the Poles. The Staszic Palace became a concern for Russian authorities because of its significance to Polish society during the nineteenth century. The Polish Tsar Vasilii Shuiskii, the Staszic Palace, and Russian Politics 145 Society of the Friends of Science, under the leadership and sponsorship of Stanis™aw Staszic (1755–1826), erected the palace in 1820 to serve as its center; the building’s name (it was not officially called the ‘‘Staszic Palace’’) was a nod to the sponsor who had strongly supported intellectual endeavors in Poland throughout his life. The palace was intended to be a center for the development of Polish national enlightenment, which educated Poles hoped could eventually lead the way to Polish independence. The palace is located in the very center of Warsaw on the city’s primary street, Krakowskie Przedmies ́cie. The gates of the University of Warsaw can be seen from it, and the Royal Castle is only a brief walk north. The neo-classical building was designed by Italian architect Antonio Corazzi (1792–1877), who had a hand in many of Warsaw’s major architectural projects in the first half of the nineteenth century, and who helped develop a specifically Polish neo-classical style.1 This style connected Polish culture with the broader European culture of the West and also announced the intellectual accomplishments and aspirations of the Polish nation. To further emphasize the value of science to the nation, the Society commissioned a bronze monument of Nicholas Copernicus , which it placed in the center of the square in front of the building. After the 1830 uprising, Russian authorities closed the Society and shipped its possessions to Russia. For the next few years the building faced an uncertain future. Russian government authorities rented out various rooms for the benefit of the school district’s financial accounts. It even became the home of the Directorate of the Lottery for a short time. In 1857, the viceroy offered the building as the site for the new Medical-Surgical Academy, but the academy’s director found the premises unsatisfactory. In 1865, it finally became the home for the Russian First Boys’ Gymnasium.2 The importance of the Staszic Palace to the Varsovian Russians changed during the course of the second half of the nineteenth century as its symbolic representation shifted from being a sign of Polish national enlightenment to becoming a monument to Russian history. Russian authorities ended the building’s use as a center for Polish learning early in the century, but it was not until after the January uprising of 1863 that the civil administration decided to convert it into a secondary school for Russian boys. By the turn of the century the building’s significance to Varsovian Russians increased after greater attention was brought to the site’s brief connection with Shuiskii. The tsar, along with his brother Dmitrii and sister-in-law Catherine, had died in Polish captivity in 1612 during Russia’s Time of Troubles (1589–1613). In 1620, King Zygmunt III ordered their remains brought to Warsaw and a crypt built for them on the site where the Staszic Palace later stood. The construction of a collective memory centered upon Shuiskii in the late nineteenth century represented an attempt by Varsovian Russians to produce their own part of a Russian narrative that also would link Warsaw to Russia. Such a...