Slavic, European, or Asiatic? F. H. Duchinski on the Origins of the Russian People

Abstract

The emergence of Russia as a dominant force in Europe from the early nineteenth century onward was characterized by growing tensions between Russians and Poles as seen in the recurring Russian suppression of Polish uprisings. F. H. Duchinski (1817–93) who, like other Polish intellectuals, tried to uncover the root causes of these political tensions, concluded that Russians were neither Slavic nor European, but Asians, and it was this fact alone, he believed, that accounted for the continuing Russian hostility toward the Poles.

Notes

1. F. H. Duchinski (Duchinskiego), Zasady dziejów Polski i innych krajow i Moskwy (Paris: Renou i Maulde, 1858), 26. All translations from Russian and French are my translations.

2. Henri Martin, La Russie et l’Europe (Paris: Furne, Jouvet et Cie, 1866), 120.

3. F. H. Duchinksi, Les Origines Slaves, Pologne et Ruthénie (Paris: Typographie de Firmin Didot, 1861), 1.

4. F. H. Duchinski, Zasady dziejów Polski (Paris: Renouet Maulde, 1859), 36.

5. Duchinski, Les Origines Slaves, Pologne et Ruthénie, 27.

6. F. H. Duchinksi, Peuples aryâs et tourans, agriculteurs et nomads: nécessité des réformes dans l’expositionde l’histoire des peoples aryâs européens et tourans particuliérement des Slaves et des Moscovites (Paris: Friedrich Klincksieck, 1860), 26, 155–56; hereafter quoted in the text.

7. Duchinski, Les Origines Slaves, Pologne et Ruthénie, 115.

8. Duchinski, Les Origines Slaves, Pologne et Ruthénie, 24.

9. Duchinski, Zasady dziejów Polski, 5.

10. Duchinski, Les Origines Slaves, Pologneet Ruthénie, 35; Peuples aryâs et tourans, agriculteurs et nomads, 15.

11. Duchinski, Les Origines Slaves, Pologne et Ruthénie, 3.

12. Duchinski, Peuples aryâs et tourans, agriculteurs et nomads, 33.

13. Duchinski, Peuples aryâs et tourans, agriculteurs et nomads, 61.

14. Duchinski, Peuples aryâs et tourans, agriculteurs et nomads, 32.

15. Edgar Knobloch, Russia and Asia: Nomadic and Oriental Traditions in Russian History (Hong Kong: Odyssey Books & Guides, 2007).