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STEFAN BUSZCZYŃSKI: THE FUTURE OF AUSTRIA Title: Przyszłość Austrji: Rozwiązanie kwestii słowiańskiej przez B. (The future of Austria: A solution to the Slavic question, by B.) Originally published: Cracow (at the cost of the author), 1869. An enlarged and revised version appeared in 1892 in Vienna, under the title: Krieg oder Frieden? Versuch einer Entscheidung dieser Frage von S. B. Kriegfeind , Vertheidiger der Menschenrechte. Language: Polish Excerpts used are from the original edition, pp. 3–25. About the author Stefan Buszczyński [1821, Młodkowce (Ukr. Mlodkovci, present-day Ukraine) – 1892, Cracow]: journalist and literary critic. Buszczyński graduated from Kiev University . For a period he lived the calm life of a member of the country gentry. However , in 1863–1864 he participated in the January uprising, and after its defeat he was forced to emigrate to France. For some time he worked there as a publicist, but later he moved to Galicia. Buszczyński advocated the Polish cause and the principles of democracy and produced several, more or less unrealistic, projects of European federation. Later on, he turned his attention to problems related not only to the Habsburg dynasty and the Slavic nations but the entire world, developing the so-called Noarchy project, where all nations and individuals would find happiness and peace. On the ‘home front’ his critical writings on Polish developments targeted the liberal conservative ‘Cracow-school’ and positivist philosophy. He was also active as a literary critic, dealing mostly with Polish romantic poetry. His oeuvre, even in its exaggerations , is quite representative of the cultural atmosphere of late Romanticism; nevertheless, Buszczyński is virtually unknown even to Polish readers. Main works: Podole, Wołyń, Ukraina [Podolia, Wolhynia, Ukraine] (1862); La décadence de l’Europe (1867); Pol i jego pisma [Pol and his writings] (1873); Le catéchisme social (1876); Rachunek polskiego sumienia: Rozmyślanie w niewoli [Polish self-examination: Meditations in slavery], (1883); Posłannictwo Słowian i odrębność Rusi: Rzut oka na Słowiańszczyznę [The Slavic destiny and the separation of Ukrai-ne: A glance at Slavic lands] (1885); Krieg oder Frieden? Versuch einer Entscheidung dieser Frage von S. B. Kriegfeind, Vertheidiger der Menschenrechte [War or Peace? An attempt at solving this question by S. B., the Enemy of War, Defender of Human Rights] (1892); Obrona spotwarzonego narodu [Defense of the offended nation] 362 THE NATION AND ITS NEIGHBORS IN EUROPE (1888–1894); Nad brzegiem Lemanu [On the banks of the Leman] (1895); Czy rewolucja w Europie potrzebna jest i możliwa? [Is the revolution in Europe needed and possible?] (1895). Context From 1861 onwards, with the fall of neo-absolutism and the beginning of the constitutional period in Austria, the situation of Poles under Austrian rule considerably improved, and autonomy was granted to Galicia. It was given an elective legislature (Sejm Krajowy) and a provincial executive body (Wydział Krajowy). It is probably due precisely to their privileged position that, in the second half of the 1860s, Polish politicians did not support the Czech pro-federalist conception in the debate on the AustroHungarian Ausgleich. Instead, further political interventions of the Galician political elite, supported by public manifestations, led to the acceptance of the Polish language in schools, courts and in the Jagiellonian University of Cracow. A ‘Ministry of Galician Affairs’ was created in Vienna, and the Academy of Sciences was launched in Cracow under the patronage of the Habsburg family. These achievements were all the more spectacular in comparison to the markedly less favorable situation of the Poles in Russia and Prussia. The refractory reaction to the Czech ‘politics of absence’ was caused by the hopes attached to the future of the Habsburg Empire as a possible counter-balance to Russia. There was no doubt that Galicia was the only part of the former Commonwealth where Poles were allowed, to a certain extent, to exert selfgovernment . Comparison with the politics of ruthless Russification after the defeat of the January uprising (1863–1864) led to clear conclusions: it was only Galicia that could play the role of a Polish Piedmont. Stefan Buszczyński’s ideas, although very far from being realistic political calculations, bear traces of a common conviction of mid-nineteenth century Polish politicians about the character of Austria and its destiny. According to the Cracow conservatives, the Habsburgs might be capable of fulfilling the role, once played by Poland, of the ‘Bulwark of (Western) Christendom’— this time against tyrannical Russia. Therefore, a close Polish-Austrian cooperation...

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