Landscapes at dawn: the world of civic societies in the weekly “Kraj” in the first years of “Aušra” (1882–1883)

Abstract

The weekly newspaper “Kraj”, which began publication in St. Petersburg, in 1882, soon became the most popular Polish-language newspaper in the lands of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It provided information about national movements in Eastern Central Europe and social life in all the territories of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the “Polish” diaspora. The article examines how “Kraj” represented associations in 1882–1883 across the territories of the former Commonwealth and within diasporic communities. The study employs quantitative and qualitative methods to analyse seven narrative “landscapes”: about the revival of associations following the January Uprising in the Russian held territories of the former Commonwealth; about the defence of Polish associations network against Germanization in Poznań; about civic organizations shaping national communities within the Austrian Empire; about differences between Austrian and Russian Pan-Slavism; about the misery of emigrants and the bonds in diaspora; about multicultural philanthropy in the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Podolia; and about the achievements of Polish scholarly associations and intellectuals worldwide. Within this framework, eight articles mentioning the Lithuanian Literary Society in Tilsit are also analysed. By providing the opportunity to compare various “landscapes”, “Kraj” not only offered extensive information on different possibilities for building national civil society but also shaped the civic identity of its readers.