Poland in Enlightenment

Poland is one of the biggest country of Eastern Europe with established democratic administration, rich history and a great cultural and intellectual heritage but also wonderful countryside, fauna and flora.
The date of official establishment of the country is identifiable for 699 when the monarch Mieszko I adopted Christianity. Poland became a Kingdom in 1025. For the most part of its history The Republic of Poland was an independent, multi-ethnic and multi-confessional country.
However, the country lasted till 1795 when the land was divided between three countries: The Kingdom of Prussia, The Russian Empire and Austria. Poland became independent again in 1918 after the First World War.
This is a tiny bit of history of Poland for you.
The Enlightement
To understand the natural world and humankind's place in it solely on the basis of reason and without turning to religious belief was the goal of the wide-ranging intellectual movement called the Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment in Poland is very interesting. It's a period of reformation when Polish literature and culture mature and blossom, bringing many intellectualists, philosophers and artists who bring about new history and culture into the country. The period starts in 1740. It includes Regnal Years of the last king of Poland- Stanislaw August Poniatowski (1764-1795)
Many writers, poets, politicians and also people interested in science were mainly known as ‘enlightened’ clergymen. A very important intellectual horizon emphasises a fight to ‘fix’ the country and to re-establish the right dimension of patriotism which was weakened during the annexation. The artists’ culture-forming role was expressed in a way that by extract the thoughts of European rationalism and criticism which was coming to Poland from Germany. This helped them to find the way in creating work which was original AND polish.

A famous reformer of education and a brilliant political writer, Stanisław Konarski, who taught at the Collegium Resoviense in Rzeszów from 1736, in 1740 he founded the Collegium Nobilium- an elite Warsaw school for sons of the gentry. He founded the first public-reference library on the European mainland in 1747 in Warsaw. Thereafter, he reformed Piarist education in Poland, in accordance with his educational program, the Ordinationes Visitationis Apostolicae. His reforms became a landmark in the 18th-century struggle to modernize the Polish education system.
At the time a very important role in Polish culture had two brothers Andrzej Załuski and Józef Załuski, who established the first in Europe public liberary.

Ideas of that period led eventually to one of the greatest achievements of Poland, the Constitution of the 3rd May (1791) It was the second-oldest world constitution. There were also other reforms, like the creation of the Komisja Edukacji Narodowej- first ministry of education in the world, which attempted to transform the Commonwealth into a modern constitutional monarchy.
Although attempts of political reform were let down by the civil war- Targowica Confederation- and military intervention of the Commonwealth neighbour, ending in the partitions of Poland, the cultural impact of that period persevered Polish culture for many years.
The ideas of the Polish Enlightenment had also significant impact abroad. Poland experienced a large output of political, particularly constitutional writing. Thomas Jefferson put his attention upon some of this literature after it was widely and carefully discussed in France.


It seems like I've said a lot about Polish Enlightenment, but there is still a lot to say.

Hope you enjoy it!

Speak soon!