<Articles>The Fall and Restoration of Two Nations: The Impact of the Partitions on Polish-Lithuanian Elites at the Turn of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Special Issue : Ruining)

一八世紀末のポーランド＝リトアニア共和国の分割は、現在も大きな関心を呼ぶ反面、しばしば後世の価値基準で議論されてきた。本稿は、一八・一九世紀転換期のエリート層の分割の衝撃に対する反応を、遡及的な視点を排して同時代の文脈で考察する。まず、三度に及ぶ分割への反応と分割国への態度を検討し、多くの貴族による分割国への忠誠や新たな環境への適応を指摘した。次に、一八世紀後半の国家とネイションの関係をふまえつつ、分割後のエリート層による公的な行動を取り上げ、ポーランドの滅亡という悲観的な立場とネイションとしての存続を主張する楽観的な立場が併存していることを指摘した。最後に、連合国家を構成したリトアニアの政治的独自性がいつまで存続したのか、当時の考えを検討し、第三次分割以前にはリトアニアの主体性が認識されていたにもかかわらず、その後は政治的独自性に言及される機会が格段に減ったことが明らかとなった。The partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the end of the eighteenth century are a theme that still elicits great interest among historians today, but it is often argued in terms of support for Polish resistance to the partitions on the basis of later patriotic value judgements. In this paper, I consider the shock of the partitions on elites and their reaction to them during the transitional period from the 18th to the 19th century in the contemporary context. In the first section, I examine the reaction of elites to the three partitions and the attitude toward the partitioning powers. One can discern the astonishment at the first partition, the resistance to the second, and the shock and despair at the third, which entailed the ultimate erasure of the state. The people who formed the Targowica Confederation, which was the impetus for the partitions, had not envisioned the dissolution of the state, and they too resisted the final partition of the commonwealth in their own fashion. Furthermore, in contrast to the despair caused by dissolution of the state, most aristocrats pledged allegiance to new sovereigns and countries. In some cases they continued living under the new, unfamiliar political environment and language, and on occasion they strove to attain social or economic advancement in the partitioning powers. In the second section, I consider the public thoughts and actions of the elites toward dissolution of the partitioned state and the fate of Poland in terms of the relationship between the state and the nation in second half of the 18th century. Many people were pessimistic, fearing the annihilation of the nation, composed of the Polish people, with the dissolution of the state, but among them were also those who attempted to preserve the legacy of literature, language and history forever, despite the irreversible dissolution of the state. On the other hand, those who had fled abroad optimistically held the idea that the nation survived and would continue to exist even without the state, and developed an armed independence movement. In either group, the people who were engaged in these public activities were mainly those who had participated in political activities prior to the partitions and had held public offices. Finally in the third section, I confirm the relationship between Poland and Lithuania before and after the partitions and examine the period of the erasure of a distinct Lithuanian political entity before and after the period under consideration. Under the commonwealth, as can be seen in the term “the Reciprocal Guarantee of Two Nations, ” the debate had been premised to the last on the existence of Lithuania as a distinct political entity, but after the third partition, even in the political arena and in terms of history, the realization that Lithuania had ceased to be a distinct sovereign state by the Union of Lublin or the Constitution of May 3 had become the mainstream. It became clear that there was a change in the evaluation of the existence of Lithuania as a distinct political entity in the period just before and after the third partition. As a result of the considerations noted in this paper, I have demonstrated the necessity of re-examining the activities and thoughts of the people who cooperated with the partitioning powers and the attitudes of those outside of reformist circles toward the partitions, and the necessity of a demythification of post-partition historical study, maintaining a certain distance from a patriotic Polish view of history. Moreover, I indicate that the independence movement following the partitions was based on an imagined commonwealth altered after experiencing the shock of the partitions, and not the commonwealth which had actually existed prior to the partitions