Eastern Christianity in Polesie in the Work of Józef Ignacy Kraszewski

Abstract

Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, one of the most prominent Polish writers of the nineteenth centu­ry, was associated with Polish, Belarussian and Ukrainian Polesie for a long time in his life. This economically poor region was characterized by isolation from other parts of Eastern Europe and, also, by considerable religious and ethnic multiculturalism. In terms of religion, Eastern Christianity predominated there, and from the national point of view – the peasant population called Ruthenians. A characteristic feature for Polesie in the nineteenth century was a very slow pace of socio-economic changes. In the literary texts by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski about Polesie we can find many references to the economic and social stagnation in this area. Kraszewski, to some extent, blamed for this very conservative Eastern Christianity upheld in the traditional existence of the people living in Polesie.