“Where is Poland?”: N.M. Karamzin and the Polish Case at the End of the 18th and the First Quarter of the 19th Century

Abstract

The article analyzes the works and individual statements of the Russian writer and historian N.M. Karamzin (1766‒1826), devoted to the relationship between Russia and Poland, the perception of poles and Poland in Russia. For the first time, Karamzin’s works and individual statements about the Polish question are collected in the fullest possible format. Karamzin’s attitude to the partitions of Poland in the context of the French revolution and the European wars of the end of the XVIII century is characterized. For the first time, some draft notes of Karamzin are published, including materials from the History of the Russian state. Karamzin’s methods of working with the works of Polish historians are analyzed.