6585845071

282

SHORT NOTES

Kingdom of Poland. The author describes these relations in the last few years of the Polish State and in the first 100 years after the loss of independence. The arrangement is chronological in both parts. The book is based mainly on legał acts of a normative character. After briefly discussing the state’s attitude to the peasant ąuestion during the reign of Stanislas Augustus, at the turn of the 19th century, and during the period of the Duchy of Warsaw, the author concentrates on the 19th century, devoting two extensive chapters to this epoch: ‘From Rent Reforms to Enfranchisement’and The Enfranchisement of Peasants and Farm-ing Townsmen in 1864 and 1866’. In the first chapter Kukulski discusses the peasants’situation during the time when the Polish Kingdom enjoyed autonomy, the programme of rent reforms, the peasants’ attitude to the act of 1864 and its consequences. In the latter chapter he starts with the enfranchisement law of 1864 and then focuses on its implementation and consequences. The second part of the book, devoted to the influence which the Polish-Lithuanian State and later the occupying powers exerted on the situation of the Catholic Church and the fate of its clergymen, starts again with a brief review of the situation before the partitions and in the three zones under foreign rule until the establishment of the Duchy of Warsaw. The author then discusses in detail the legał and economic situation of the Catholic Church in the Duchy of Warsaw and the Polish Kingdom. Separate chapters have been devoted to the period between the November 1830 Uprising and the January 1863 Uprising and to the years 1863-90. (DD)

Jerzy Szczepański, Książę Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki, 1778-1846 [Prince Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki 1778-1846), Warszawa 2008, DiG, 278 pp., ills., genealogical table, maps, bibl., indexes, sum. in English

This is a biography of Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki, one of the most important Polish politicians of the first half of the 19th century. Although a rich literaturę has been devoted to Drucki-Lubecki, the author has madę use of previously unknown Lithuanian sources (the archives of the Drucki-Lubeckis from Szczuczyn, kept in the State Historical Archives in Vilnius) and of Russian sources. Thanks to this, he has been able to draw readers’ attention to less known aspects of Drucki-Lubecki^ life and activity, but has refrained from a detailed analysis of elements of his biography which are known from other books. Szczepański also discusses the black legend surrounding his protagonist. The book has been arranged in chronological order. The author starts with the private life of Drucki-Lubecki and then goes on to describe his political career and economic activity when he was Minister for the Treasury. In separate chapters Szczepański discusses Drucki-Lubecki’s attitude to the November 1830 Uprising, his mission to Saint Petersburg and his work in the Russian Council of State. The author portrays the life and career of Drucki-Lubecki against a wide background of Polish-Russian relations during that time. (DD)