Poland between the West, Russia and… Turkey. The mythologization of Polish-Turkish relations in Ryszard Berwiński’s memoirs and correspondence from the Ottoman Empire

The study analyzes Ryszard Berwiński’s memoirs, letters, and articles written in the 1850s after the poet had emigrated to the Ottoman Empire during the Crimean War. The article focuses primarily on the literary legacy of Berwiński who actively promoted cooperation with Turkey during the fight for Poland’s independence. The main emphasis was placed on the mythologization of Polish-Turkish relations, Berwiński’s views on the East-West dichotomy, and his commentaries on the political systems and history of Poland and Turkey. The myth of a “righteous Turkey” and the deconstruction of the concept of Poland as the bulwark of Christianity in Europe seem particularly interesting in this context. The analysis of Berwiński’s historical self-awareness aims was undertaken to expand the existing research on the political thought during the Partitions of Poland. Poland’s relations with Turkey, the only neighbor of thefirst Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that did not participate in any of the three Partitions, constitute an interesting chapter in Polish history, but remain insufficiently investigated.