The Philomaths, or Philomath Society ( pl, Filomaci or ''Towarzystwo Filomatów''; from the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
φιλομαθεῖς "lovers of knowledge"), was a secret student organization that existed from 1817 to 1823 at the
Imperial University of Vilnius
Vilnius University ( lt, Vilniaus universitetas) is a public research university, oldest in the Baltic states and in Northern Europe outside the United Kingdom (or 6th overall following foundations of Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews, Glasgow an ...
.
History
The society was created on 1 October 1817 in
Vilna
Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urba ...
,
Vilna Governorate
The Vilna Governorate (1795–1915; also known as Lithuania-Vilnius Governorate from 1801 until 1840; russian: Виленская губерния, ''Vilenskaya guberniya'', lt, Vilniaus gubernija, pl, gubernia wileńska) or Government of V ...
,
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...
, which had acquired those territories in the
Partitions of Poland
The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place toward the end of the 18th century and ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 12 ...
in 1794. The society was composed of students and alumni of the
Imperial University of Vilna
Vilnius University ( lt, Vilniaus universitetas) is a public research university, oldest in the Baltic states and in Northern Europe outside the United Kingdom (or 6th overall following foundations of Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews, Glasgow an ...
.
Notable members included
Józef Jeżowski (co-founder and president),
Jan Czeczot
Jan Czeczot of Ostoja ( be, Ян Чачот, ''Jan Čačot,'' lt, Jonas Čečiotas, 1796–1847) was a Polish romantic poet and ethnographer. Fascinated by the folklore and the traditional folk songs of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a c ...
(co-founder),
Józef Kowalewski
Józef Kowalewski (russian: Иосиф Михайлович Ковалевский) (9 January 1801 – 7 November 1878) was a Polish orientalist. Founder of the Philomatic Association, in 1824 convicted by the Russian authorities for pro-indepe ...
(co-founder),
Onufry Pietraszkiewicz (co-founder),
Tomasz Zan (co-founder),
Adam Mickiewicz
Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (; 24 December 179826 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. A principal figure in Polish Ro ...
(co-founder),
Antoni Edward Odyniec,
Ignacy Domejko
Ignacy Domeyko or Domejko, pseudonym: ''Żegota'' ( es, Ignacio Domeyko, ; 31 July 1802 – 23 January 1889) was a Polish geologist, mineralogist, educator, and founder of the University of Santiago, in Chile. Domeyko spent most of his life, an ...
,
Teodor Łoziński,
Franciszek Malewski
Franciszek Hieronim Malewski of Jastrzębiec coat of arms (1800-1870) was a PolishAleksandr Sergeevich
Pushkin translated by Vladimir Nabokov, ''Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse'', Princeton University Press, 1991, p.522. Quote: "Franciszek Malew ...
, ,
Aleksander Chodźko
Aleksander Borejko Chodźko (30 August 1804 – 27 December 1891) was a Polish poet, Slavist, and Iranologist.
Early life
He was born in Krzywicze, in the Minsk Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Belarus) and attended the Imperial ...
,
Michał Kulesza. Most of them were students, but some members and supported included faculty and former alumni.
Its structure was a cross between
freemason
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
organization and a
learned society
A learned society (; also learned academy, scholarly society, or academic association) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and science. Membership ...
. It was divided into two chapters – scientific-mathematic and literary. The members of the latter discussed literary works, and the organization aims were self-educational and didactic; however, around 1819-1820, the members became split on whether the organizations should concentrate on self-education (Jeżowski) or take a more active role in restoring Poland's independence (Mickiewicz), eventually the second faction gained dominance and new social and political goals emerged.
The discussions increasingly turned toward
romanticist ideas that were banned by the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...
for their pro-independence currents; history of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...
was studied, pro-independence works written and circulated. The organizations inspired the creation of many similar youth organizations across the former
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was Partitions of Poland, partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire, Habsburg Empire of ...
,
[WIEM Encyklopedia] and it established ties with similar clandestine pro-Polish organizations in
Congress Poland
Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. I ...
and
the rest of partitioned lands, such as the
Patriotic Society (''Towarzystwo Patriotyczne'') of
Walerian Łukasiński, and even Russian organizations such as the
Decembrists
The Decembrist Revolt ( ru , Восстание декабристов, translit = Vosstaniye dekabristov , translation = Uprising of the Decembrists) took place in Russia on , during the interregnum following the sudden death of Emperor Al ...
.
Two closely related groups were formed:
* The Radiant Association (''Towarzystwo Promienistych'', from "'',''" the "Radiant Ones"), (1820) a legal organization created by Tomasz Zan, and disbanded under pressure from University authorities, in May 1820;
* The
Filaret Association (''Zgromadzenie Filaretów'', ''Filaretai'', ''Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Pożytecznej Zabawy'', ''filareci'', from the Greek "''philáretos''," "Lovers of Virtue), (1834) a secret organization created by Zan within the Philomaths after the dissolution of the Radiants. It continued the traditions of the Radiants, but with a much clearer pro-independence goal, and was dedicated to the study of Polish and Lithuania patriotic literature. It was disbanded in 1823 after the arrests of the Philomaths.
Ignacy Domeyko
Ignacy Domeyko or Domejko, pseudonym: ''Żegota'' ( es, Ignacio Domeyko, ; 31 July 1802 – 23 January 1889) was a Polish geologist, mineralogist, educator, and founder of the University of Santiago, in Chile. Domeyko spent most of his life, a ...
described the spirit prevailing in the Philomaths and the Filaret Association as: "purely national, patriotic, Polish – but free from plots and conspiracies, free of demagogic rants". According to Theodore R. Weeks, both organizations advocated a love for Polish culture and patriotism, but avoided formulating any concrete political plans and their members generally expressed loyalty to the Russian ruler.
In 1822 the organizations went through some name changes. In 1823 the organization was discovered by Russian authorities led by
Nikolay Nikolayevich Novosiltsev
Count Nikolay Nikolayevich Novosiltsev (Novoselcev) (russian: Граф Никола́й Никола́евич Новосельцев (Новоси́льцев), pl, Nikołaj Nowosilcow) (1761–1838) was a Russian statesman and a close aide t ...
. After a trial that lasted several months, in 1824, 108 people were convicted of membership in this or related organizations; 20 members of the Philomaths or related organizations were sentenced to imprisonment or ''
katorga
Katorga ( rus, ка́торга, p=ˈkatərɡə; from medieval and modern Greek: ''katergon, κάτεργον'', " galley") was a system of penal labor in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union (see Katorga labor in the Soviet Union). Pris ...
'' and
exiled to Siberia; over a dozen faculty members were dismissed (including historian
Joachim Lelewel
Joachim Lelewel (22 March 1786 – 29 May 1861) was a Polish historian, geographer, bibliographer, polyglot and politician.
Life
Born in Warsaw to a Polonized German family, Lelewel was educated at the Imperial University of Vilna, where in 181 ...
).
Adam Mickiewicz
Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (; 24 December 179826 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. A principal figure in Polish Ro ...
, one of the
Three Polish Bards, convicted of being a Philomath member and exiled into Russia, later described his experiences in that period in the third part of a major work, ''
Dziady
Dziady ( Belarusian: , Russian: , Ukrainian: , pl, Dziady; lit. "grandfathers, eldfathers", sometimes translated as Forefathers' Eve) is a term in Slavic folklore for the spirits of the ancestors and a collection of pre-Christian rites, ritual ...
'' (Forefathers' Eve).
Notes
References
*
Jerzy Jan Lerski, ''Historical Dictionary of Poland'', Greenwood Press, 1996,
Google Print, p.141-142* Zbigniew Wójcik
Zwoje 4/2004 (41)
*
WIEM Encyklopedia
WIEM Encyklopedia (full name in pl, Wielka Interaktywna Encyklopedia Multimedialna - "Great Interactive Multimedia Encyclopedia"; in Polish, ''wiem'' also means 'I know') is a Polish Internet encyclopedia.
The first printed edition was released ...
Filomaci*
Encyklopedia InternauticaFILOMACIPhilomates Association
Further reading
*J F. Gomoszyński, ''A course of three lectures on the history of Poland'', London, 1843
Google Print, p.60-65"> Google Print, p.60-65(public domain)
(Filaretes' Song)
{{Authority control
1817 establishments in Europe
1823 disestablishments in Europe
Congress Poland
History of Lithuania (1795–1918)
Collegiate secret societies
Polish independence organisations
Student organizations established in 1817
History of Vilnius
Polish messianism