SUMMARY:

This article by Henryk Głębocki is focused on Adam Gurowski (1805– 1866), a representative of Polish radical democratic forces in the period of the November Uprising of 1830–1831 and in the subsequent period of emigration. It explores the evolution of Gurowski’s views on Russia that shifted from a position of anti-Russian and left-leaning radicalism to enthusiastic support for Pan-Slavism with the attending recognition of the leading role of Russia (around 1834). Gurowski became a vocal advocate for the unification of Slavs, in which the Russian autocracy and the Russian Empire was supposed to play a decisive role. Connected with his Pan-Slavic program was Gurowski’s idea that the Pan-Slavic platform would reinforce the mission civilisatrice of the Russian Empire in Eurasia. Gurowski’s views were the opposite of the prevalent attitude toward Russia among the ranks of the Polish emigration, which hinged upon antagonism and the idea of the restoration of an independent Polish state. Despite Gurowski’s escape from Russia and resettlement in the United States, he retained the core of his views on Russia and its mission and helped to shape public opinion in the US accordingly. The author argues that there was a crucial link between the first and second phases of Gurowski’s intellectual and political development. This link can be found in Hegel’s philosophy and utopian socialism of Charles Fourier and Henri de Saint Simon. Based on these intellectual influences Gurowski developed his own philosophy of history, according to which the defeat and weakness of Poland produced a metonymical substitute of historical progress in the form of the Russian Empire.