Zygmunt Wasilewski

Zygmunt Wasilewski
Zygmunt Wasilewski.jpg Zygmunt Wasilewski.jpg
Born	April 29, 1865 Siekierno
💀Died	October 25, 1948 VistulaOctober 25, 1948
💼 Occupation	politician

Zygmunt Wasilewski (1865-1948) was a journalist, lawyer, politician, senator of the Second Polish Republic, ideologist of National Democracy, literary critic and historian, regionalist, ethnographer.

Early life and education

He was born on 30 April 1865 in Siekierna near Bodzentyn, to an impoverished noble family with patriotic traditions, he was the grandson of General Józef Wasilewski. His father, Aleksander (1825-1907), was a forester in the forestry department of Bodzentyn, and his mother, Maria, née Ledoux (1828-1905), came from a French family who probably arrived in Poland in the late 18th century. He had six siblings: four of whom (Marceli, Leopold Alfred, Martyna Maria, Michał Antoni) died in early childhood, as well as Stanisława Aleksandra (b. 8 May 1859, d. ?) and Jadwiga Maria (b. 10 Aug 1863, d. V 1942). Until 1882, he and his family lived in Siekierna, and in the years 1882-1907 in Suchedniów. From second grade, in the years 1876-1884, he attended the men's grammar school in Kielce, which he completed with his matriculation exam. For the next two years he studied at the Faculty of Law at the University of Warsaw. Already at that time he began to show interest in literature, and belonged to a secret literary and historical circle. He continued his legal studies at St Petersburg University, where in 1888, after a short engagement in the work of the socialist youth circle, he became a member of the Union of Polish Youth "Zet". He finally completed his studies at the University of Kiev, where he received his diploma at the end of 1888.

Independence movement and political activity

After returning to Warsaw in 1889, he initially worked in a notary's office and in mortgages, and in 1901 was admitted to the bar. In 1889, he became a member of the secret Polish League, an organisation superior to "Zet", and the following year he joined the "Liaison" [Łączność] Association. From 1889 to 1891, he was on the editorial staff of the weekly magazine "Voice" [Głos]. In 1889 he also started to cooperate with the geographical and ethnographic monthly Wisła. In the "Wisła Library" he published the work „Jagodne, a village in Łuków district. An ethnographic outline.” [Jagodne, wieś w powiecie łukowskim. Zarys etnograficzny] (Warsaw 1889), It was the village in Podlasie where his father stayed on business and where Zygmunt spent his holidays. Thanks to this work, he became a member of the Ethnographic Committee of the Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1890 he became the secretary of the editorial office of "Wisła". There he published his ethnographic works in the popular folklore style of the time. These interests prompted the editors of "Voice" to entrust him "the section of provincial correspondence", which at least gave him a modest salary. In the "Voice" milieu, he got acquainted with Józef Karol and Antoni Potocki, Jan Ludwik Popławski and Roman Dmowski. In 1890, together with J. K. Potocki, he prepared a questionnaire on the readership of the Polish people. He reconciled his work in the editorial office with the need to undertake other gainful employment. To facilitate this he took up the duties of a curator in the Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw, an assistant secretary of the University Library, he also continued to work in the legal profession (in the notary's office), as well as giving private tuition. At the end of 1891, Wasilewski accepted a job of a librarian at the Polish National Museum in Rapperswil, Switzerland. He arrived there in March 1892. Thanks to his stay in Switzerland, he obtained the necessary financial stability and an opportunity to undertake more extensive research in the field of literary studies. At that time, he took up a broader study of the works of Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Seweryn Goszczyński. He also participated in the editing of a volume on Tadeusz Kościuszko's political activity. Thanks to his intercession, the Museum hired Stefan Żeromski, whom Wasilewski had earlier recruited to cooperate with "Voice". In Switzerland Wasilewski met among others Zygmunt Miłkowski (Teodor Tomasz Jeż), the main creator of Polish League. His stay in Rapperswil coincided with changes in the League, which was transformed into the National League. In 1893-1896, Zygmuntwas a member of the first Central Committee of the National League. In 1893 he married Wanda Karłowiczówna, daughter of Jan Karłowicz. Four years later he witnessed the birth of his son, Tadeusz (b. 30th Jan 1897, d. 20th Nov 1964 in London). In July 1894, he and his wife decided to return to Warsaw. The immediate reason for his decision was the need to resume work on the revival of "Voice", suspended in April 1894. The first reactivated issue of the magazine was published in October 1895. Until 1899, Wasilewski remained the actual manager of the magazine. He introduced numerous changes to the paper's profile and content. The list of contributors was extended and the paper started publishing (works by the authors of "Voice" and numerous translations were published). At that time, the magazine cooperated with, among others: Jan Kasprowicz, Ignacy Matuszewski, Władysław Reymont, Wacław Sieroszewski, Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer and Stefan Żeromski. Wasilewski himself published in the magazine; articles devoted to the literature of the 18th and 19th century, theatre reviews, columns and numerous shorter forms concerning social and cultural life and current events. It was in this magazine (1897, no. 7), where he announced the initiative of building a monument of Adam Mickiewicz in Warsaw. He was a secretary and one of the most active members of the Committee for the Construction of the Monument. The work of the committee, which culminated in the unveiling of the monument sculpted by Cyprian Godebski on 24 December 1898, on the centenary of the poet's birth, was described by Wasilewski in his publication Monument to Mickiewicz in Warsaw 1897-1898 (Warsaw 1899). After the suspension of "Voice" in 1899, Wasilewski. started to cooperate with "Polish Newspaper" [Gazeta Polska] and "Weekly Illustrated" [Tygodnik Ilustrowany]. A year later, he became the secretary of the editorial office of the largest daily newspaper of the Kingdom of Poland - "Warsaw Courier" [Kurier Warszawski]. The newspaper had two editions and the work there was a great challenge for the then young journalist trainee, but also a chance to gain professional professional skills. On the initiative of Wasilewski, in the first issue of 1901, the paper conducted a survey among the Polish intellectual elite, concerning the most important publications which appeared in the 19th century. At the beginning of 1902, Wasilewski accepted the offer to manage the largest periodical in the Austrian partition, the "Polish Word" [Słowo Polskie] from Lwów. Published between 1902 and 1915 under the auspices of the Democratic National Party, the paper was addressed mainly to the intelligentsia, bourgeoisie and merchants. J. L. Popławski was responsible for the political direction of the newspaper. Under the editorship of Wasilewski (the first issue under his direction was published on 1 March 1902), the paper gained a new graphic layout and extended the range of presented content (among other things, it was the first Polish paper to have a sports column). The editor-in-chief was particularly interested in literary issues, and for this purpose entrusted Jan Kasprowicz with editing the Sunday literary supplement to the daily. The supplement was published under the name of "The Weekly of the Polish Word" [Tygodnik Słowa Polskiego]. Kornel Makuszyński also collaborated with the magazine. In the unanimous opinion of Wasilewski's co-workers of that time, including Stanisław Grabski, Zygmunt made "Polish Word" the most widely read Galician daily. However, the paper also received less flattering assessments from other Galician publicists. Among others, these were voiced by Ostap Ortwin (actual name - Oskar Katzenellenbogen), a literary critic from Lwów, who accused the paper of lowering the paper's intellectual level and, despite the concern for the development of national culture declared by the All-Polish camp, of parochialism and ideological obscurantism. Due to numerous editorial duties, Wasilewski's own journalistic output was not very abundant at that time. Among other things, he published a series of twelve columns on the socio-cultural life of Warsaw. They were later published as a separate publication, written under the pseudonym "Accidental” [Przygodny], entitled "Contemporary Warsaw in twelve pictures" [Warszawa współczesna w dwunastu obrazkach] (Lwów 1903). He also cooperated with the "Polish Athenaeum", established in 1908 in Lwów, and the Warsaw monthly "National Review" [Przegląd Narodowy], edited by Zygmunt Balicki. At that time, Wasilewski remained an active member of a number of organisations and societies, including, among others The Scientific and Literary Union, of which he was vice-president from December 1902, the Adam Mickiewicz Literary Society, the Folklore Society and the Publishing Society, which he headed from mid-1910; he was also a member of the first board of the Association of Polish Journalists, established in 1909. In 1908, he was appointed to the Historical and Literary Commission of the Philological Faculty of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Kraków. Within the National League, he was a member of the Main Council and the National Committee for Galicia. From January 1904, he was a member of the Programme and Organisational Committee of the Democratic National Party , newly founded in the Malopolska Voivodship, in the Main Committee of which he was a member from XII 1905. He was also a member of the SDN Executive Committee. Alongside Stanisław Grabski, Stanisław Głąbiński, whom he won over to cooperate with the"Polish Word" daily, as well as Jan Gwalbert Pawlikowski, he was one of the leading figures of National Democracy in the Malopolska region. At the time of splits in the national camp, whose manifestation in the region was the departure of the "Rzeczpospolita" group ("Secession") in 1909, Wasilewski remained loyal to the political line of Roman Dmowski. From January 1912 onwards, he was a member of the Supreme Council of the National Club, and from February of the following year Deputy Chairman of the Information and Press Section of the Civic Committee. According to Urszula Jakubowska, a researcher of Wasilewski's legacy, the Lwów period in his biography was one of the most important, as it was the time when his political and journalistic personality was being finally shaped. In his writings Wasilewski paid more and more attention to the spiritual culture of the nation. These interests were evident in his reflections on the borderline between ideology, literature and psychology. He expressed them, among other things, in the article "On the spiritual culture of the nation. Loose comments" [O kulturze duchowej narodu. Luźne uwagi], which was published in the jubilee issue of "The All-Polish Review " [Przegląd wszechpolski] entitled "Dziesięciolecie Przegląd wszechpolskiego". Articles and treatises on politics and related fields (edited by Roman Dmowski, Kraków 1905). Also in 1905, Wasilewski published "In the footsteps of Adam Mickiewicz. Sketches and contributions to the history of Romanticism" [Śladami Mickiewicza. Szkice i przyczynki do dziejów romantyzmu] (Lwów 1905). In 1907, the first edition of his work entitled "From the Romantics to Kasprowicz. Literary studies and sketches" [Od romantyków do Kasprowicza. Studya i szkice literackie] (Lwów 1907), which summed up the critical literary output of the author at the time. highly acclaimed work was a collection of sketches entitled "On art and the eternal man" [O sztuce i człowieka wiecznym] (Lwów 1910) /M. Kalityński, "Literary Memoirs" [Pamiętnik Literacki], 1912, no. 3). An important text from this period written by Wasilewski was a preface entitled "Jan Ludwik Popławski. Sketch of an image" [Jan Ludwik Popławski]. Szkic wizerunku in: "Political papers” [Pisma polityczne] Volume I,(Kraków-Warsaw 1910). It was prepared for a two-volume posthumous edition of the writings of Jan Ludwik Popławski, who had died on 12 March 1908. Apart from the loss of his close associate and ideological guide, Wasilewski was not spared personal misfortunes at this time. In 1903 his father-in-law J. Karłowicz and Zygmunt's wife Wanda died in quick succession. His mother died in 1905, his father in 1907, and his brother-in-law Mieczysław Karłowicz the following year. The minor son was then taken care of by Helena Kozłowska (1870-1938), née Godlewska, whom he married on 25 August 1915. Son Tadeusz was brought up together with his stepson Stefan Godlewski (1894-1942), who perished in Auschwitz during World War II. The outbreak of World War I found Wasilewski in Lwów, where he continued publishing the newspaper after the Russian army entered the city. In the period from February to June 1915, he headed the financial section of the Lwów Rescue Committee. He left Lwów in June 1915, after the city had been taken over by the Central Powers. The last issue of "Polish Word" was published on 20 June 1915. From Lwów, Wasilewski went to Kiev, where he was initially supposed to publish "News" [Nowiny], but was summoned by Roman Dmowski and went via Moscow to Petersburg. The leader of the National Camp entrusted him with the task of creating a weekly which would be the organ of the Polish National Committee transferred from Warsaw. That paper became the weekly "The Polish Case" ["Sprawa Polska"], published from 9 October 1915 to 16 December 1917. His closest collaborators at that time included Stanisław Kozicki and Bohdan Wasiutyński. Every week, Wasilewski published a regular column entitled "Loose pages"[Luźne kartki]. The editorial office of the newspaper, and at the same time the meeting place of the leading National Democracy politicians staying in Russia, was located in Wasilewski's flat at 10 Sapiorny Pierieułek. In Petersburg, Wasilewski published a work entitled "Active forces of Polish politics before the Great War. National Democracy. On the twentieth anniversary of the party's programme (1897-1917)" [Siły czynne polityki polskiej przed wielką wojną. Demokracja Narodowa. W dwudziestolecie programu stronnictwa (1897-1917)]. (St. Petersburg 1917). In this work, he made a kind of recapitulation of the views of his home political circle. He focused above all on the ideological genesis of National Democracy. Wasilewski considered its programme to be the crowning achievement of Polish socio-political thought to date, which successfully overcame the antagonism existing between romanticism and positivism. The All-Polish programme was presented as a creative synthesis of both these trends, in which positivist methods were used to realise the goals indicated by the Romantic bards. The work, not very large in volume but of great importance in terms of genre, was also another writer's tribute to W. Popławski as the actual creator of the All-Polish programme. According to Wasilewski, the starting point for the system created by Popławski was the conviction that a truly national Polish policy should be based on Polish strength, which he saw above all in the people. From 4 February to 6 October 1918, Wasilewski stayed in Kiev, where he edited the daily "Polish Review" [Przegląd Polski]. He wrote introductory articles for it and ran the "Voices" [Głosy] section. In Kiev he also participated in the work of the Polish Executive Committee headed by Joachim Bartoszewicz. A specific résumé of the activities and efforts aimed at regaining Polish independence, undertaken by the national camp during the war and revolution in Russia, was the work "At the Eastern post. The pilgrimage book 1915-1918" [Na wschodnim posterunku. Księga pielgrzymstwa 1915-1918] (Warsaw 1919).

Second Polish Republic

Once Poland regained independence, Wasilewski and his family returned to Warsaw, where they settled in Polna Street. From November 1918 to February 1925, Wasilewski held the position of editor-in-chief of the leading press organ of the national camp, the daily newspaper "Warsaw Newspaper" [Gazeta Warszawska]. His ambition was to create, from the re-launched periodical, a great political and cultural newspaper on the model of the "Polish Word" from Lwów. To achieve this, he gathered a group of co-workers around the journal, among whom, apart from the leading figures of National Democracy at the time (Roman Dmowski, Stanisław Grabski, Stanisław Głąbiński, Roman Rybarski), the following should be mentioned as well: Józef Hłasko, Bohdan Wasiutyński, Kazimierz Smogorzewski and the Italian Egisto de Andreis, the newspaper's correspondent from Rome. Underthe direction of Wasilewski, the paper took on the features of a theoretical organ of the national movement. He himself published relatively rarely, speaking out only on the occasion of important events, e.g. in the jubilee article for the 100th anniversary of the newspaper (After 150 years, "Warsaw Newspaper", jubilee issue of 31 December 1924). In his writings, he eagerly continued his earlier reflections on the culture and psyche of the nation, which was evident in the publication of one of his best-known works entitled "On the life and disasters of national civilisation. Introduction to considerations on programmatic issues of the present day" [O życiu i katastrofach cywilizacji narodowej. Wstęp do rozważań nad programowemi zagadnieniami doby obecnej] (Warsaw 1921). The study "Mickiewicz and Słowacki" (Warsaw 1921) was a continuation of his research into the works of the national bards. Particularly the first work evoked a lively response, as testified by the statements of Ludwik Bujalski "Cornerstone. About the basis of the national programme. Because of Zygmunt Wasilewski's book /On the life and disasters of national civilisation. Introduction to considerations on programmatic issues of the present day/" [Kamień węgielny. O podstawę narodowego programu. Z powodu książki Z. Wasilewskiego „O życiu i katastrofach cywilizacji narodowej”], (Warsaw 1921), Adam Grzymała Siedlecki "The Spirit of History" [Duch sprawca dziejów], (Rzeczpospolita, 1921, No. 3), Wincenty Lutosławski "Life and catastrophes of national civilisation" [Życie i katastrofy cywilizacji narodowej], "Morning Courier" [Kurier Poranny], 1921, Nos 325-326), or Jan Emil Skiwski (ibidem; "Beyond soothsaying and pedantry. Żeromski - writer and apostle - and other critical sketches" [Poza wieszczbiarstwem i pedanterią. Żeromski - pisarz i apostoł oraz inne szkice krytyczne], (Poznań 1929). Another important work from this period was entitled "The contemporary. Characteristics of writers and their works" [Współcześni. Charakterystyki pisarzy i dzieł] (Warsaw 1923), in which Wasilewski outlined the profiles of political writers (Jan Ludwik Popławski, Roman Dmowski, Zygmunt Balicki), novelists (Bolesław Prus, Adolf Dygasiński, Józef Weyssenhoff, and others) as well as dramatists (Stanisław Wyspiański and Stanisław Przybyszewski among others). In the same year, he also published the following works: "Jan Kasprowicz. Outline of the image" [Jan Kasprowicz. Zarys wizerunku] (Warsaw 1923) and "Seweryn Goszczyński. Literary sketches" [Seweryn Goszczyński. Szkice literackie] (Warsaw 1923). At that time Wasilewski also cooperated with "All-Polish Review" [Przegląd Wszechpolski], which was relaunched (second series), where he published, among other things, an extensive sketch recalling the ideological beginnings of the All-Polish movement "Kasprowicz and Popławski in 1887. Historical sketch" [Kasprowicz i Popławski w 1887. Szkic historyczny], "All-Polish Review", 1922, No. 3. In 1924, starting from February, "Warsaw Newspaper" published a series of articles by Roman Dmowski under the common title: "How Poland was rebuilt" [Jak odbudowano Polskę". This was to serve as evidence in the court case brought against Wasilewski by Aleksander Lednicki, which lasted from 28 January to 11 February 1924. In an article entitled "Addressed to the Ministry of Justice" [Pod adresem Ministerjum Sprawiedliwości] ("Warsaw Newspaper", 1920, No. 20), Wasilewski accused Aleksander Lednicki of betraying the Polish state and attempting to escape criminal responsibility. He justified his allegations with Lednicki's activity during the war. As a result of the trial, Wasilewski was acquitted of the charges of slandering Lednicki. The trial and the circumstances surrounding it were described in a work prepared by Wasilewski - "The Lednicki Trial. Fragment from the history of Polish reconstruction 1915-1924" [Proces Lednickiego. Fragment z dziejów odbudowy Polski 1915-1924]. (Warsaw 1924). According to Wasilewski, it was a continuation of the work "At the Eastern post" [Na wschodnim posterunku]. Also in 1924, Wasilewski got involved in organizing the reunion of the graduates of the Kielce secondary school, which took place on 7th and 8 September 1924. He was one of the most active participants. In a commemorative book published after the congress, he published a sketch entitled "Life of the school and the school of life" [Życie szkoły i szkoła życia] in: "Commemorative book of Kielce citizens 1856 - 1904 issued on the Reunion of the former Kielce grammar school graduates on 7th and 8th September 1924, edited by T. Ruśkiewicz" [Księga pamiątkowa kielczan 1856-1904 wydana z okazji Zjazd b. wychowanców gimnazjum w Kielcach 7 i 8 września 1924 r., pod red. T. Ruśkiewicza, (Warsaw 1925). His efforts as editor-in-chief of the "Warsaw Newspaper" did not bring the results, expected of it by the leaders of the national party. The need to give the paper a strictly political character, at the expense of its cultural and literary content, forced Wasilewski to resign from its management. The changes may also have been influenced by the reaction of "Warsaw Newspaper" after the assassination of the President of the Republic Gabriel Narutowicz by Eligiusz Niewiadomski on 16 December 1922. The newspaper managed by Wasilewski at first condemned the perpetrator of the assassination, which was met with dissatisfaction by Roman Dmowski. In his novel "The Legacy" [Dziedzictwo] (Warsaw 1931), the latter returned to this event, portraying Wasilewski in an unfavourable light as the editor of Grzybowski (it is worth mentioning here that a different literary image of Wasilewski. also appeared in Andrzej Strug's novel "Great day. The chronicle of the events that did not happen" [Wielki dzień. Kronika niedoszłych wydarzeń] (Warsaw 1957), in which he was shown as the editor Urwilewski. The resignation from the post of editor of the "Warsaw Newspaper" shook his relatively stable financial situation For this reason, among others, he started to cooperate with the "Lwów Courier" [Kurier Lwowski], which lasted until 1927. The improvement of his financial situation was also ensured by the possibility of publishing in "Poznań Courier" [Kurier Poznański]. This allowed Wasilewski. to change his apartment and he moved with his family to a tenement house on the corner of Królewska and Marszałkowska streets in Warsaw. Between October 1925 and 3 September 1939, Wasilewski was the editor-in-chief of the weekly "National Thought" [Myśl Narodowa]. Under his management, the magazine became the most serious socio-cultural periodical in pre-war Poland. In a short time, Wasilewski managed to gather a wide circle of co-workers, including both the leading activists and publicists of the National Democracy (J. Bartoszewicz, Zygmunt Berezowski, Tadeusz Bielecki, Jan Dobraczyński, Jędrzej Giertych, S. Głąbiński, J. Hłaska, Władysław Jabłonowski, S. Kozicki, Medard Kozłowski, Jan Mosdorf, Jan Rembielińśki, R. Rybarski, Marian Seyda, Stanisław Stroński, Mieczysław Trajdos, Bohdan Wasiutyński and Jan Zamorski), as well as outstanding representatives of the world of culture connected with the national camp (Ignacy Chrzanowski, Stanisław Cywiński, Feliks Koneczny, J. Kasprowicz, Władysław Konopczyński, Wojciech Korfanty, Irena Pannenkowa, Teodor Parnicki, Stanisław Pigoń, Karol Hubert Rostworowski, Wacław Sobieski and Aleksander Świętochowski). The merger of the paper with "All-Polish Review" [Przegląd Wszechpolski] in 1926 greatly strengthened the editorial team. On Wasilewski's initiative, also in 1926, the Library of National Thought was established. Wasilewski himself expressed his opinions on the most important political events, e.g. by reflecting on the motives for the May coup of 1926 in the first issue of the periodical published after the cessation of hostilities ("What was the motive for the coup?" [Jaki był motyw zamachu], "National Thought", [Myśl Narodowa] 1926, No. 22). He also edited a regular column called "Theatre" [Teatr] (also known as "Theatre reviews" [Recenzje teatralne]), which was later transformed into "In the audience" [Na widowni]. As he himself stated, editing a theoretical weekly with a strongly emphasised cultural and literary profile was more to his liking than running a party daily newspaper, which necessarily had to cope with the dynamics of political life. Apart from running the weekly, Wasilewski cooperated at that time with other titles of the national press, including "Poznań Courier" and "Warsaw National Daily". In the second half of the 1930s, however, the position of the paper managed by Wasilewski started to decline a bit. One of the reasons for this was the fact of the emergence on the press market (also within the broadly conceived national camp) of several titles of a similar profile and character (such as "Straight to the point" [Prosto z mostu], "Podbipięta" or the Poznań-based "Culture" [Kultura]). In juxtaposition with the lively new periodicals, "National Thought" [Myśl Narodowa], ascetic in its layout and kept in the characteristic Young Poland style of the previous epoch, was becoming increasingly archaic and old-fashioned. Wasilewski remained also active in the field of literary criticism. In 1927, in the form of a separate publication, he published "Memories of Jan Kasprowicz and Stefan Żeromski" [Wspomnienia o Janie Kasprowiczu i Stefanie Żeromskim] (Warsaw 1927), in which he described, among other things, his personal relations with the two outstanding writers. Between 1927 and 1935, he was the editor of six of the eight volumes of "Memoirs of Kielce Citizens' Circle" [Pamiętniki Koła Kielczan]. In the 1930s, his writing activity began to somewhat decline, which was largely due to the publicist's deteriorating eyesight. For example, in the collection entitled "Henryk Sienkiewicz. An image of creativity" [Henryk Sienkiewicz. Obraz twórczości] (edited by K. Czachowski, Warsaw 1931), was a reprint of an extract from an earlier published work. In recognition of his literary output, which was counted in thousands of articles and dozens of monographs, was honoured in 1935 by the Akademia Umiejętności for his work "Norwid" (Warsaw 1935) This work was criticised in a number of ways by Stanisław Cywiński, who devoted a polemical dissertation to it, entitled "On Norwid's Starry Diamond" [O gwiaździsty diament Norwida] (Vilnius 1935) Wasilewski was also awarded Probus Barczewski Prize as well as an award from the readers of "Straight to the point" magazine (for 2000 Polish Złoty) in 1938. Other distinctions included his appointment in June 1927 as a senior member of the Syndicate of Polish Journalists and the foreign distinctions he received - the Yugoslavian Order of St. Sava, 4th Class (1923) and the Commander's Medal of the Order of the Romanian Star (1926). Wasilewski did not hold any prominent positions within the subsequent formations of the national camp - he was a member of the Supreme Council within the National Populist Union and the National Party. In the years 1925-1927, he was a member of the Main Council of the National League, and after its dissolution he was most probably a member of the Main Focal Point of the National Guard, a secret organization directing the activity of the national camp. He belonged to the Association of White Eagle Writers, which brought together writers with national views, and belonged to its Executive Department. In the years 1930-1935, Wasilewski was a member of in the Senate on behalf of the National Party. He did not get involved in the disputes within the National Democracy in the 1930s. Neither were they reflected in the magazine he managed. He was of the opinion that the magazine could not be a field of political struggle, and in its pages he strove to synthesise the ideas and views of the old and young generation of the national camp. His views on the essence and role of the national idea in the life of the community remained unchanged throughout the period in question. Within the national camp itself, he was regarded as one of the leading ideological creators of Polish nationalism, an opinion shared also by researchers of his legacy; Urszula Jakubowska ranked him among the "big four" creators of the national camp. Throughout his life, Wasilewski nourished undisguised respect for the achievements of Jan Ludwik Popławski and Roman Dmowski, remaining one of the closest associates and friends of the author of "Thoughts of a Modern Pole" [Myśli nowoczesnego Polaka]. In the opinion of some researchers and commentators on his work, his attachment and loyalty to the ideological ties established in his youth gave him the features of a mental dogmatism. This, however, was not fully reflected in reality, as evidenced by his attitude to artists who were ideologically distant from him. This is proven, among other things, by the fate of his acquaintance with Stefan Żeromski. Wasilewski also consistently perceived literature as the most perfect manifestation of the nation's soul, which he expressed many times during his studies of the works of S. Goszczyński, Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki, Władysław Reymont or J. Kasprowicz. His achievements in this field placed him among the most eminent Polish critics and historians of literature, while his achievements as a journalist among the leading publicists of the first half of the 20th century.

Second World War

After the outbreak of World War II, throughout the entire German occupation, Wasilewski stayed in his apartment at 11 Mokotowska Street. He was then under the care of his sister Jadwiga, who lived with him. The apartment became a place of conspiratorial meetings - in the spring of 1943, for example, it was the scene of a conversation between General Stefan Grot-Rowecki and Ferdynand Goetel, who reported on his inspection of the Katyn graves discovered by the Germans. During the war, Wasilewski devoted himself to writing "Curriculum Vitae," [Życiorys] on which he worked in the winter of 1939/1940, as well as a work he wrote in the years 1940-1942 entitled "On the way of understanding the national psyche" [O sposobie pojmowania psychiki narodowej]. The author intended it to be a kind of summary of several dozen years of reflections on the culture and psyche of the nation, its connections with individual life and the directions of development of the national community. In 1941, Wasilewski underwent cataract surgery, which allowed him, among other things, to finish work on his dissertation "Roman Dmowski - Letters to a Friend" [Roman Dmowski – listy do przyjaciela], which was regrettably lost as a result of military operations. The following year, in turn, Wasilewski prepared a study entitled "Lwów advancing. Sketches from the history of intellectual culture in Poland 1895-1914" [Lwów przodujący. Szkice z dziejów kultury umysłowej w Polsce 1895-1914]. At that time he also prepared an extended edition of the study on J. Kasprowicz, a dissertation "Jadwiga Marcinkowska. Outline of the image" [Jadwiga Marcinkowska. Zarys wizerunku], the second edition of works "Norwid" and "Aspasia and Alcybiades. On the story of a Warsaw novel" [Aspazja i Alcybiades. Z dziejów powieści warszawskiej] (Warsaw 1935). He also spent the entire period of the Uprising (1944) in Warsaw. As a result of war operations, his apartment was destroyed, along with his personal archive, manuscripts of his works, a rich library and a number of valuable mementoes. After the end of the fighting in Warsaw and the capitulation of Polish forces, he was expelled from the city, just like the rest of the population. He found shelter in Kraków, where he was initially sent to the St Lazarus Hospital, and then lodged with Stanisław Rymar, with whom he stayed from November 1945 to April 1947.

Late life and death

After the war, he was no longer actively involved in the political life of the country. Together with Stanisław Rymar, he only made an unsuccessful attempt to revive "National Thought" in Kraków. He occasionally published parts of his earlier works in published periodicals. "Warsaw Weekly" published, inter alia, fragments of his diary ("Looking for a way" [W poszukiwaniu drogi], 1945, Nos 1-2), while "Today and Tomorrow" [Dziś i jutro] contained fragments of the work "On the way of perceiving the national psyche" [O sposobie pojmowania psychiki narodowej] (inter alia: Foreword, "Today and Tomorrow", 1947, no. 47; Our national consciousness, "Today and Tomorrow", 1947, no. 50; "On the creation of culture" [O tworzeniu kultury], "Today and Tomorrow", 1948, no. 36; "On the profession of a journalist" [O zawodzie dziennikarza], "Today and Tomorrow", 1948, no. 46). From May 1947, Wasilewski stayed at the "Pod Jaworem" guesthouse in Wisła. He died there on 25 October 1948. He was buried in the local parish cemetery (section L-119-A), and his symbolic grave is located in the Powązki cemetery (section 37-2-12). In the years 1958-1960, the London-based "Polish Thought" published thirty-seven episodes of his biography. It was subsequently published in an abridged form in the work "Generations in the Service of the Nation" [Pokolenia w służbie narodu] (London 1962); the work „On the Method of Understanding National Psychology" [O sposobie pojmowania psychiki narodowej], written during the occupation, was also published there.

Bibliography

Motas M., Zygmunt Wasilewski [in:] Słownik biograficzny polskiego obozu narodowego, t. 1, Warszawa 2020.

References

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