DRUGI KONRAD WALLENROD I BUDOWNICZY ŚWIĄTYNI NARODOWEJ. JÓZEF PIŁSUDSKI W OCZACH TADEUSZA MICIŃSKIEGO

The introductory part of the article presents the ambivalent and changing nature of Tadeusz Miciński’s political views right before and during WW I. In the light of this introduction the author provides an interpretation of Miciński’s essays on and literary pieces about Józef Piłsudski, an outstanding statesman and a creator of the modern Poland. In the following part of the article, the author focuses on the evolution of Miciński’s views concerning the role of Piłsudski in the history of the Polish nation. During the first years of WW I, Miciński perceived Piłsudski’s military alliance with the Austro-Hungarian Empire as endangering the idea of an independent Poland. Later, however, Miciński reviewed his position, so that hitherto critically perceived legionnaires became great patriots, while their leader became a hero and an avenger of Poles in all the lands under partition. Thus Piłsudski was proclaimed to be the National Temple builder equal to Stefan Czarniecki, Spirit King (Król-Duch), or the second Konrad Wallenrod. The author concludes that Miciński drew from the Romantic national liberation myth introduced by Adam Mickiewicz and the mystical project of historical incar-nation of the essential spirit of the nation created by Juliusz Słowacki