The Chairholder of the European Civilization Chair at Natolin, Professor Richard BUTTERWICK-PAWLIKOWSKI, recently participated in two public discussions in Warsaw regarding the Polish-Lithuanian past. The first, held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw on Monday 16 October 2018, was the debate "Czasy przełomu. Między epoką stanisławowską a Królestwem Polskim" [Turning point. Between the Stanislavian era and the Kingdom of Poland]. The debate was chaired by Professor Anna GRZEŚKIOWIAK-KRWAWICZ of the Polish Academy of Sciences, President of the Polish Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. The other panelists were Professor Jarosław CZUBATY and Professor Maciej MYCIELSKI, both of the University of Warsaw. The discussion focused on the questions of what changed and why during the decades on either side of the final partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795. It also considered the experiences and roles of the generation of statesmen born in the mid-eighteenth century, who co-ruled the Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw and the Russian-dominated Kingdom of Poland until the 1820s. Foremost among these figures was Stanisław Kostka POTOCKI (1755-1821), probably the most important owner of the Natolin estate.
The second event, held on Tuesday 24 October 2018, was a discussion of the book by Professor Anna GRZEŚKOWIAK-KRWAWICZ, Dyskurs polityczny Rzeczypospolitej Obojga Narodów. Pojęcia i idee [The political discourse of the Commonwealth of the Two Nations. Concepts and ideas], newly published by the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP). The discussion was held in the FNP’s headquarters in Warsaw, and was chaired by Professor Teresa KOSTKIEWICZOWA of the Polish Academy of Sciences, formerly Vice-President of the International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. She, together with Professor Bogdan SZLACHTA of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow and Professor BUTTERWICK-PAWLIKOWSKI, highlighted the wider international and interdisciplinary relevance of the work, which explains the changing meanings, functions and contestations of nine key concepts within the broadly republican discourse of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. A lively discussion ensued, before the author responded with characteristic elegance to questions and comments.