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Czartoryski and His Essai sur la diplomatic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

M. K. Dziewanowski
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If we wish to progress we must have an ȯbject we have not yet attained. And in order to be always in progress we must be capable of conceiving an object which will never be attained.

Prince Adam Czartoryski Memorandum to Tsar Alexander I (1803)

The first book of Tolstoy's War and Peace contains an episode from the Allied War Council at Olmütz, on November 27, 1805, five days before the Battle of Austerlitz. With the Council over, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky takes Prince Boris Drubetskoy, a new aide-de-camp, to present him to Tsar Alexander. Coming out of the emperor's room as they approach is a tall man in civilian dress who has a striking face and sharply projecting jaw, which gives him a peculiar vivacity and keenness of expression. “Who was that ?” asks Drubetskoy. “He is one of the most remarkable but to me most unpleasant of men—the minister of foreign affairs, Prince Adam Czartoryski,” replies Bolkonsky.

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , September 1971 , pp. 589 - 605
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1971

References

1. Marian, Kukiel, Czartoryski and European Unity, 1770-1861 (Princeton, 1955), p. viGoogle Scholar

2. The main works of Czartoryski are as follows: Essai sur la diplomatie: Manuscrit d'un PhilhelUne (Paris and Marseilles, 1830), the first, anonymous edition; the second (posthumous) edition (Paris, 1864) was published under the prince's name, and has been used in writing the present article. Le dernier mot sur le Statut Organique impose a la Pologne (Paris, 1833). Mazade, Charles de, ed., Memoires du prince Adam Csartoryski et sa correspondance avec I'empereur Alexandre II, 2 vols. (Paris, 1887)Google Scholar ; also available in an English edition: Adam Gielgud, ed., Memoirs of Prince Adam Czartoryski and His Correspondence with Alexander I: With Documents Relative to the Prince's Negotiations with Pitt, Fox, Brougham, and an Account of His Conversations with Lord Palmerston and Other English Statesmen in London, 1832, 2 vols. (London, 1888) ; the English edition is not identical with the French one. T., Olizarowski, ed., Zbior mow mianych, 1838-1847 (Paris, 1847)Google Scholar. Zywot J. U. Niemcewicsa (Paris, 1860). “Bard polski,” in Niemcewicz, J. U., Skarbiec historii polskiej, vol. 1 (Paris, 1840)Google Scholar ; then published separately (Paris, 1860). To this list one should add several miscellaneous works—poetry, a novel, essays, philosophical treatises—some unpublished, such as “Traktat o pocieszeniu.” Manuscripts are deposited in the Czartoryski Library of the National Museum in Cracow.

3. Andrei A. Lobanov-Rostovsky, Russia and Europe, 1789-1825 (Durham, N.C., 1947), p. 79. For interesting remarks about Czartoryski's Balkan plans and policies see Henryk, Batowski, Podstawy sojussu balkanskiego 1912 r.: Studium s historii dyplotnatycznej, 1806-1912 (Cracow, 1939)Google Scholar. For the text and an evaluation of the memorandum see Patricia K. Grimsted, “Czartoryski's System for Russian Foreign Policy, 1803: A Memorandum, Edited with Introduction and Analysis,” California Slavic Studies, 5 (1970): 19-90. For an earlier analysis of Czartoryski's role as Russia's foreign minister and his friendship with the tsar see two articles by Charles Morley, “Alexander I and Czartoryski: The Polish Question from 1801 to 1813,” Slavonic and East European Review, 25 (April 1947): 407-11; and “Czartoryski's Attempts at a New Foreign Policy Under Alexander I,” American Slavic and East European Review, 12, no. 4 (December 19S3): 475-85. For a recent attempt see the chapter on Czartoryski in Patricia K., Grimsted, The Foreign Ministers of Alexander I: Political Attitudes and the Conduct of Russian Diplomacy, 1801-1825 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1969)Google Scholar. For a panoramic view of Czartoryski's activities see the most important general work on the prince: Kukiel, Czartoryski and European Unity.

4. For a recent work on Czartoryski as Russian foreign minister written with emphasis on his attempts to counteract Napoleon's growing hegemony in Europe see Jerzy, Skowronek, Antynapoleonskie koncepcje Ceartoryskiego (Warsaw, 1969)Google Scholar.

5. For Czartoryski's activities during and following the Congress of Vienna see Kukiel, Czartoryski and European Unity, chaps. 9 and 10.

6. Essai sur la diplomatie (henceforth Essai) is a work of considerable importance, both intrinsically and because it provides an insight into the prince's mentality; yet the book has not received the attention it deserves. It was almost unnoticed by contemporaries; the fact that it was published under a pseudonym did not help, of course. Marceli Handelsman, in his monumental Adam Czartoryski, 3 vols, in 4 (Warsaw, 1948-50), has only a few words about the Essai; Kukiel's Czartoryski and European Unity includes a brilliant but short chapter of eight pages only (12: 151-58).

7. The Essai (pp. 74-76) contains an interesting analysis of the partitions and their consequences for Russia and for Europe in general.

8. For a similar view expressed by a conservative writer, opponent of Czartoryski, and a close coworker of Prince Metternich see Gentz, Friedrich von, Fragments Upon the Balance of Power in Europe (London, 1806), pp. 76–77 Google Scholar. “If the division of Poland was the first event which by an abuse of form deranged the political balance of Europe, it was likewise one of the first which begot an apathy of spirit, and stupid insensibility to the general interest” (pp. 89-90, italics in the original).

9. Essai, pp. 7-8. “States, like individuals, are bound by the same natural laws“ (P. 140).

10. For a detailed criticism of the system of the Holy Alliance see Essai, pp. 223-28.

11. Compare Czartoryski's views with those of Masaryk, Thomas G. in The Role of Small Nations in the European Crisis (London, 1918)Google Scholar.

12. For the Russian text of Pestel's work see Pestel, Pavel I., Russkaia Pravda: Nakas Vremennomu verkhovnomu pravleniu (St Petersburg, 1906)Google Scholar. For a recent analysis of Pestel's ideas by the Soviet historian see P. Kh. Iakhin, Gosudarstvennol pravovye vzgliady P. I. Pesteli (Kazan, 1961). See also I. A. Stone, “Paul Pestel and the Decembrist Revolution of 1825” (Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, 1934), esp. chap. 4 on Russkaia Pravda. Professor William Blackwell was the one who drew the attention of this author to the parallels and differences between Pestel's and Czartoryski's work.

13. Essai, p. 231; the whole of chapter 10 is devoted to the role of British diplomacy during and after the Vienna Settlement. A great deal about the prince's attitude toward England may be found in Eugeniusz, Wawrzkowicz, Anglia a sprawa polska, 1813-1815 (Warsaw, 1917)Google Scholar.

14. In 1789 Czartoryski, as a young visitor and student of British political institutions, attended Warren Hastings's trial in London. The trial made a profound impression on him, and his passages on India have undoubtedly been influenced by this early personal experience. For Czartoryski's views on colonialism see Kukiel, , Czartoryski and European Unity, pp. 179–82, 204-5, 233, and 319Google Scholar.

15. For this phase of his activity see Kukiel, Czartoryski and European Unity, chaps. 13-20, and Handelsman, Czartoryski; most of Handelsman's work is devoted to the latter part of the prince's life.

16. As minister of foreign affairs, Czartoryski overhauled the Russian political intelligence service and organized a vast network of secret agents in Europe. He managed to recruit, among others, some prominent French emigre personalities, including Louis- Emmanuel de Launai, Count d'Antraigues, as well as an inspector general of Napoleon's army, Count Daru. See Leonce, Pingaud, Un agent secret sous la Revolution et I'Empire: Le Comte d'Antraigues (Paris, 1893)Google Scholar. The intelligence activities of the count have been analyzed recently by Jacqueline, Chaumie, Le reseau d'Antraigues et la contre-revolution, 1791-1793 (Paris, 1965)Google Scholar.

17. Essai, pp. 84-95. Czartoryski recognized what Walter Bagehot called the vital principle of representative government: “Le gouvernement representatif est dans la nature meme de toutes les societes civiles” (p. 143).

18. Essai, p. 206; for Czartoryski's views on Russo-Polish relations see pp. 74-76 and 8S-9S. Even when he was in opposition to Russia, Czartoryski never completely abandoned the idea which he expressed in his letter to his Russian friend, Count Paul Stroganov: “The happiness and glory of one of our two nations are not necessarily dependent on the enslavement and unhappiness of the other” ( Mikhailovich, Grand Duke Nikolai, Le Comte Paul Stroganov, 3 vols. [Paris, 1905], 2: 270)Google Scholar.

19. “Les representants de nations, toujours reunis et en presence dans un point central, oterait a la diplomatic ce air suspect et mysterieux qui la depare et donnait a chaque matiere politique la plus grande publicite, en la rendent, des son debut, l'affaire du monde entier” (Essai, p. 288). Here is the Wilsonian concept of “open covenants openly arrived at” clearly formulated.

20. Gentz, , Fragments, pp. 58–59Google Scholar and 76.

21. Skrzetuski, K. J., “Projekt czyli utozenie nieprzerwanego w Europie pokoju,” in his Historia polityczna dla szlachetnej mlodziezy (Warsaw, 1775)Google Scholar. For a study of the subject see Piotr S. Wandycz, “The Polish Precursors of Federalism,” Journal of Central European Affairs, 12, no. 4 (January 1953): 346-55. For a general study of the early Polish political writers see Wactaw, Lednicki, The Life and Culture of Poland as Reflected in Polish Literature (New York, 1944)Google Scholar. See also Belch, Stanislaus F., Paulus Vladimiri and His Doctrine Concerning International Law and Politics, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1965)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22. “It is this doctrine of the natural goodness of man that is, to the traditional Christian, the fundamental heresy of the Enlightenment” ( Crane, Brinton, Ideas and Men: The Story of Western Thought, 2nd ed. [Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1963], p. 318 Google Scholar). For an illuminating discussion of the relationship between the Enlightenment and Christian tradition see Brinton, , Ideas and Men, pp. 312 and 332Google Scholar. See also Becker, Carl L., The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers (New Haven, 1932)Google Scholar.

23. Albert, Sorel, L'Europe et la Revolution franfoise, 8 vols. (Paris, 1885-1904), 7: 65 Google Scholar.

24. Essai, p. 160. This motif recurs; for example, on page 158 he stresses that individuals should never forget that they are particles of humanity.

25. “Quand on prepare des perfidies, des desastres … un homme d'honneur, un homme moral, un homme chretien doit y prendre part, et son devoir est de quitter plutot que d'agir contre sa conscience” (Essai, p. 194).

26. For the act of the Holy Alliance see Phillips, Walter A., The Confederation of Europe: A Study of the European Alliance, 1813-1823, 2nd ed. (London and New York, 1920), pp. 305–6 Google Scholar; for a discussion of its origins and foundations see pp. 128-41. For the story of the Alliance sketched against a broad European, as well as American, background see Maurice, Bourquin, Histoire de la Sainte Alliance (Geneva, 1954)Google Scholar.

27. See Essai, pp. 80-95, 215-17, 223-34, and 268-76.

28. To Czartoryski may be applied the term that Eleanor L'H. Schlimgen gave to Leszczynski, that of “Christian internationalist,” in her article “Stanislaw I. Leszczynski, King of Poland—Reformer-in-Exile,” Bulletin of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America, 3, no. 3-4 (April-July 194S): 647. But Czartoryski was first of all an heir to the Polish tradition of the Enlightenment, the embodiment of which was the Four-Year Diet and the Constitution of May 3, 1791. For interesting remarks about the Czartoryskis as heirs and admirers of the tradition of the constitution see Boguslaw, Lesnodorski, Dsiela Sejmu Czteroletniego, 1788-1792 (Wroclaw, 1951), pp. 455–56 Google Scholar. For connections between Polish liberalism and the French influence, see Marceli, Handelsman, Les idees francaises et la mentalite politique en Pologne au XIX” siecle (Paris, 1927), esp. pp. 20–23 Google Scholar. See also Helena, Wieckowska, Opozycja liberalna w Krolestwie Polskiem (Warsaw, 1925)Google Scholar; Kukiel, Czartoryski and European Unity, chaps. 11 and 13; and Leslie, R. F., Polish Politics and the Revolution of November 1830 (London, 1956)Google Scholar.