#Leon Dembowski

[empirearchives]

Napoleon as the black angel and Tsar Alexander the white angel

This is from an excerpt about Madame de Krüdener, a religious mystic during the Napoleonic era, from the memoir of Leon Dembowski, Moje Wspomnienia, Volume 1. (Source)

A bit about her career:

“Her literary activity was followed by various writings and pamphlets about humanity, in which she plunged into mysticism and presented herself as a prophetess. From 1806 to 1814, despite poor health and exhausted strength, she began to walk through Russia, northern Germany, the Netherlands and France, gathering listeners around her, handing out money and pamphlets.”

Her teachings:

“The principles of her teaching, both repeated in writings and disseminated by living words, consisted in implementing the principles of the early Christian Church and abandoning battles and wars. Moreover, the abolition of the death penalty, the return of freedom to subjugated nationalities and the strict exercise of Christian mercy completed this philanthropic system.”

In which she finds her ideas to be at odds with greater geopolitical events and social currents of her time:

“These sublime and beautiful thoughts, which probably once prevailed in beliefs, had few supporters in the era of Mme de Krüdener’s activity. All Europe seemed to be one camp, and Napoleon, on the one hand, and English intrigues, on the other, were completely destroying it. Everyone was thinking about the marshal’s baton, principalities, subsidies that Napoleon lavished, and while some were longing for constant conquests, others were thinking about how to break Napoleon’s yoke. Therefore, her apostolate, which could only reach places where the French eagles had not reached, did not really reach her convictions. Seeing that the path of persuasion would not reach her goal, she began to prophesy and predict the fall of the black angel (Napoleon), who would be struck down by the white angel (Alexander).”

What’s interesting is that the duel between Britain and France is diagnosed as the source of Madame de Krüdener’s problems, so she turns to a third party (Russia) to be the savior.

Her influence over Tsar Alexander I:

“As a result, Alexander wanted to know her, and it must be admitted that this partly corresponded to his inclination towards mysterious things, because many similar examples can be cited in the life of this monarch. […] Throughout all these years, Mme de Krüdener constantly worked on Emperor Alexander, having established influence mainly over his mind, pushing him towards mysticism, religiosity and abandonment of liberal principles.”

The author makes note that Madame de Krüdener and Tsar Alexander died around the same time.

Bold letters by me.

Pages 180-182

[czerwonykasztelanic]

Edward Dembowski (born May 31st, 1822) was the eldest son of Leon Dembowski, a senator and affluent landowner. As a student, he discovered the works of Hegel; he published his first essay in 1841 and soon, aged twenty, became the editor of Przegląd Naukowy ("The Scientific Review"), which was at the time one of the most prominent left-wing newspapers in Warsaw. Greatly influenced by the French utopian socialists of his day, Dembowski, a staunch democrat, equated national liberation with the liberation of the common people, speaking out against both the conservative Polish aristocracy and liberal bourgeois-reformist circles. Though officially Tyssowski's secretary and subordinate, he was the de facto leader of the Kraków Uprising of 1846.

Dembowski was shot by Austrian troops on Feburary 27th, 1846; the wound was lethal, he died on that same day; he was twenty-three.

As his radical political views contrasted with his noble background, Edward Dembowski earned himself the nom-de-guerre of "czerwony kasztelanic" ("red castellan's-son" - his father was a castellan).

Today marks the 202nd anniversary of his birthday. (On that note: here is my translation of a poem Wisława Szymborska wrote about him.)