SUMMARY:

Hieronim Gralja proves the concept, that Rzech Pospolita and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) were a unique non-imperial model of association of the different peoples, religions, political formations. The main consolidating forces were the freedom of aristocracy. It had attractive force, which rallied ethnic elites around of the king. The cultural influence of Poland to GDL was extraordinary great, and also was the factor of association. The role of an image of GDL as parts of the Polish national project of the19th - 20th centuries consists in romantic memoirs about the ancient greatness of the incorporated state. But it is more important cultural, than political contents of the Polish historical memory about GDL for the Polish project.