Stanczyk’s Portfolio: Reflection and/or Pprogram of the Cracow Conservatives

This article is devoted to the problem associated with the famous pamphlet “Stańczyk’s Portfolio” published in 1869 by the so called Cracow conservatives, including the founder of the Cracow historical school, Józef Szujski. Firstly, the context in which the idea of the pamphlet was born and developed is considered. Special attention is paid to the comparison of fundamentally important terms — loyalism and “ugoda” (reconciliation), which are used in Polish and Russian scientific literature when talking about the attitude of Polish society to the power of the Austrian Emperor or the Tsar. The author believes that these terms cannot be considered identical. The author of the article describes the success of Polish historians in studying the history of Polish conservatism; in particular, the activities of the Cracow conservatives during the period of Galician autonomy. The article also describes the lag in Russian historiography in the study of Polish (Cracow) conservatism and such important sources as “Stańczyk’s Portfolio”. This landmark work not only conveys the atmosphere in which Polish society found itself after the defeat of the 1863 insurrection, reflecting on the fate of the Fatherland in the past and present, but also contains the ideological postulates of the Cracow conservatives, which makes it possible to perceive the pamphlet not only as a reflection, but also as a political program of the Cracow conservatives. Considering the pamphlet as a socio-cultural monument, the author emphasizes the prospects for its study using interdisciplinary methods of historical and anthropological research.