Matteo Piccin | University of Warsaw (original) (raw)

Papers by Matteo Piccin

Rocznik Historii Sztuki, tom XLVIII, pp. 203-234, 2023

This article presents the genesis, progression and outcome of a trip to Poland in September 1969 ... more This article presents the genesis, progression and outcome of a trip to Poland in September 1969 by the Italian writer, journalist and painter Dino Buzzati (1906–1972). Together with the patron of the arts Renzo Cortina (owner of the Cortina Gallery) and the art critic Franco Passoni, Buzzati travelled to Poland in order to get acquainted with local artistic centres. He met, among others, Ryszard Stanisławski, Director of the Museum of Art in Łódź, and in Warsaw, the painter Maria Anto (1936–2007). Before the Italian delegation went to Poland, in February 1969, the young artist presented some of her works at the exhibition of Polish Painters at the Cortina Gallery in Milan. This exhibition was organized by Renzo Cortina and Mariapia Vecchi, a photographer who met Maria Anto in Poland in early 1968. For the Corriere della Sera, Buzzati wrote some articles on Polish art and artists, among which he assigned a special place to Maria Anto. He considered her an exceptionally talented and original artist on the European art scene of her time. At the invitation of Renzo Cortina, the opening of Maria Anto’s individual exhibition took place in his Gallery in Milan in February 1971, in the presence of Dino Buzzati. In March 1971, the Corriere della Sera published an article by Buzzati, Maria Anto, Enchanted Poetry, in which the author reflected on the artistic roots of Anto’s “fantastic art”. He described the dominant themes in her work including nostalgia, romanticism and fatalism, which, incidentally, were close to his own. Buzzati also included five short descriptions/stories directly inspired by Anto’s paintings exhibited in Milan. The meeting with Buzzati was considered by the Polish painter as crucial for her further artistic development. After the death of the Italian writer, Maria Anto dedicated two paintings to him, reflecting the remarkably close poetic motifs they shared.

Storica. 83-84 • anno XXVIII, pp. 53-101, 2022

Beginning with ideas of transition from an «elitist» Russian nationalism, theorized in the early ... more Beginning with ideas of transition from an «elitist» Russian nationalism, theorized in the early 19th century by Nikolaj Karamzin, to a modern, «popular» nationalism as framed by Mikhail Pogodin in the mid-19th century, Piccin analyzes the reflections of both historians on the role of the western territories of the Russian Empire in strengthening the empire and in the process of nation-building. In particular, it was with Pogodin’s writings on the Polish Uprising of 1863 that the eastern districts of the Kingdom of Poland, so-called "Kholmskaya Rus'", began to be perceived as ab origine Russian territory, thereby further expanding the imagined boundaries of the Russian nation westward.

Studi buzzatiani. Rivista del Centro Studi Buzzati, XXVII, pp. 69-94, Pisa-Roma, 2022

This article intends to shed light on the largely unexplored relationship between Dino Buzzati an... more This article intends to shed light on the largely unexplored relationship between Dino Buzzati and the Polish painter Maria Anto. The brief but intense bond of acquaintance between the Italian writer and the Polish artist unfolded between 1969 and 1971, when Maria Anto’s works were exhibited in Milan, and Buzzati, together with Franco Passoni and Renzo Cortina, paid a visit to Anto in her Warsaw atelier. In this partnership, places and presences emerge that testify to the profound artistic affinity between Buzzati’s
poetics and the lyricism of Maria Anto’s canvas. The encounter with Buzzati, who dedicated an encomiastic article to Maria Anto’s «bewitched painting» published in the «Corriere della Sera» in 1971, was considered by Anto as one of the most important events in her artistic career. After Buzzati’s death, the Polish artist would have kept a grateful and lasting memory of the Italian writer.

Quaderni del ’900, XXII, a cura di Tiziana Morosetti e Valentina Polcini, con il patrocinio dell’Associazione Internazionale Dino Buzzati, pp. 85-94, Pisa-Roma, 2022

This essay investigates the presence and fortune of Dino Buzzati’s works in Poland from the first... more This essay investigates the presence and fortune of Dino Buzzati’s works in Poland from the first translations in the late ’60s to the present day. It examines classical and more recent studies on Buzzati published in Poland, as well as the presence of the Italian author in Polish handbooks devoted to the history of Italian literature, focusing in particular on the last 30 years, after the fall of the Communist Regime in Poland. I consider whether and how the approach to Buzzati’s works has changed compared to the traditional reading of Buzzati’s work as an epigone of Franz Kafka, a cliché often due to superficial understanding of Buzzati as an existentialist writer, as well as not very favorable social and historical conditions, which has been at the core of Polish critical studies on the author.

CHRZEŚCIJAŃSKIE DZIEDZICTWO DUCHOWE NARODÓW SŁOWIAŃSKICH. Literatura, Język, Kultura, Historia. Seria V: MONASTYCYZM I MISTYCYZM w literaturze, kulturze i języku Słowian, s. 15-40, redakcja naukowa Lilia Citko i Jarosław Ławski, współpraca redakcyjna Krzysztof Rutkowski, Białystok, 2021

The article aims to analyse the ideological sources and the social and cultural context in which ... more The article aims to analyse the ideological sources and the social and cultural context in which the Orthodox Bishop of Kholm and Lublin Eulogius Georgiyevsky (Eulogius of Paris) grew up and was educated at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Particular attention is paid to his ideal of serving the Russian people and the Orthodox Church between narodnichestvo and the modern Russian Nationalism. Nationalist tendencies developed most often by contact with the Polish‑Catholic identity in the borderlands of the Russian Empire. Eulogius was the main supporter of the creation of the Kholm gubernija (1912), which aimed to support the formation of the Russian‑Orthodox identity of former Uniates from Kholm and Podlasie region.
The author also emphasizes how the further actions of the bishop as a leader of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia reflect in some way the Slavophile ideology which to some extent was at the core of the Russian bishop’s ideal of religious life.

Roczniki Humanistyczne, Tom LXIX, zeszyt 2, s. 105-142, Towarzystwo Naukowe Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego, Lublin, 2021

Art in the Service of Empire and Nation: The Case of Byzantine Frescoes of The Holy Trinity Chape... more Art in the Service of Empire and Nation: The Case of Byzantine Frescoes of The Holy Trinity Chapel in Lublin Castle Through the Lens of Russian Historians (19th ‒ Early 20th Century)

The purpose of this article is to reflect on Russian nationalism ‒ its significance and territorial range, real and imagined ‒ in the Kingdom of Poland at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. As a case study, the author chose the renowned Byzantine frescoes from the early 15th century that cover the inner walls of the chapel of the Holy Trinity in the Lublin Castle. The author considers whether, due to the presence of Ruthenian frescoes, whose uncovering dates back to early 20th century, Russian nationalists understood Lublin as a “Russian” (Ruthenian) city, which would then need to undergo Russification (as had occurred in the neighbouring Chełm region for at least the previous 30 years). Where then was the border of Russian nationalism? Given Lublin’s location on the border with the Chełm land, the discovery of the paintings could have caused a radical reassessment in the perception of the city as Polish. Well-known Polish intellectuals, as well as Russian archaeologists historians and zealous seekers of antiquities took part in the debate about the origin of the frescoes and their attribution. The First World War interrupted all conservation projects, and with them any further attempt at unearthing Lublin’s “Russiannes”.

Przegląd Środkowo-Wschodni, t. 5, s. 9-43, Uniwersytet Warszawski - Katedra Studiów Interkulturowych Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej, Warszawa, 2020

This article analyses the nationalization process among the Ruthenian population of Chełm Region ... more This article analyses the nationalization process among the Ruthenian population of Chełm Region in the period after the January Uprising. From the 1850s, Russian intellectuals of the Slavophile and Pan-Slavic orientation began to perceive the eastern frontier of the Kingdom of Poland as indigenously Russian land. These areas, as a result of the Brest union, were for a few centuries strongly influenced by Polish culture and the Roman Catholic Church. The Russian authorities sought to build Russian national and Orthodox religious consciousness among the local Ruthenian people using tools (lieux de mémoire) such as museums, newspapers and apologetics, both scientifi c and popular, directed towards both schools and the common people. Further tools included the celebration of state and church anniversaries, the erection of monuments, and the renovation of churches in the Byzantine style. Most of these lieux de mémoire were created, invented, or reworked to serve the nation-state. This “Nostalgic experience” was a way of shaping and directing historical consciousness. Russian national State was thus conceived, establishing and legitimating itself as a great regenerative process founded on, and made of, memory. The ideology of government-supporting intellectuals and clergy in the borderlands of the empire can be defined as primordialism, according to which the nation is described as a group based on a perpetual community of origin, religion and morality, as well as attachment to the land of fathers. The practice of such periphery nationalism differed significantly from the famous doctrine of official nationality, formulated by Sergey Uvarov in the 1830s. Nationalist concerns from the borderlands were one of the factors that led to the evolution of the St. Petersburg elite’s policy towards nationalization of the Romanov Empire.

Przypominać zapomniane, odkrywać nieznane. Polskie losy – Kościół – Syberia – Rosja (XIX-XX w.): studia ofiarowane Profesorowi Eugeniuszowi Niebelskiemu w 70. rocznicę urodzin, red. nauk. Anna Barańska, s. 205-224, Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL, Lublin, 2019

This article aims to analyze the emergence and development of Russian Nationalism: from a traditi... more This article aims to analyze the emergence and development of Russian Nationalism: from a traditional, loyal attitude towards the territories that became part of the Russian Empire due to the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 18th century, to ethno-religious assimilation of these lands in the second half of the 19th century. The Author discusses the views of Nikolay Karamzin (the official historiographer of the empire during the reign of Alexander I) as well as his opinions on the importance of western governorates (called by Poles "the Taken Lands") for the empire. This paper also examines the "discovery" of Ruthenians within the borders of the Kingdom of Poland (Augustów and Lublin regions) in the context of Mikhail Pogodin's ideas. In Pogodin's opinion, Ruthenians from these areas were tout court Russians, what allowed Russian Nationalists to extend the borders of Russianness even further to the west. Focus is therefore on the geographies of Russian nationalism, i.e. on the historical and cultural ideas of the geographical space, which are particularly pronounced in this specific issue.

Multa et Varia. Studi offerti a Maria Marcella Ferraccioli e Gianfranco Giraudo, a cura di Florina Creţ Ciure, Viviana Nosilia, Adriano Pavan, vol. II, pp. 317-368, Biblion Edizioni, Milano, 2012

THE LEGACY OF CYRIL AND METHODIUS THROUGH THE LENS OF MEFODIEVSKII IUBILEINYI SBORNIK (1885) T... more THE LEGACY OF CYRIL AND METHODIUS THROUGH THE LENS OF MEFODIEVSKII IUBILEINYI SBORNIK (1885)
The purpose of this article is to analize the historical and ideological background of the Mefodievskii Iubileinyi sbornik, a collective work of Russian and Czech Slavists from Warsaw Imperial University. This book was edited by Anton Semenovich Budilovich and appeared in 1885. In the authors’ opinion, following the defeat of 1863 Uprising, Poland had no choice but to take part in the Panslavic Renaissance guided by Russia and to accept the leading role of the Russian language and Russian Orthodoxy. According to them, Russia was the sole heir of Cyril and Methodius’s mission in Moravia. The authors considered that the Polish periphery of the Russian Empire in this period was a symbol of the clash of civilizations: the Eastern, Greek-Slavic and Orthodox culture and the Western, German-Latin and „schismatic” one.

FUNDAMENTA EUROPAEA, Volume V, Number 8-9, s. 74-90, Poznań-Humań, 2010

The purpose of this article is to analize the historical and ideological background of the Mefod... more The purpose of this article is to analize the historical and ideological background of the Mefodievskii Iubileinyi sbornik, a collective work of Russian and Czech Slavists from Warsaw Imperial University. This book was edited by Anton Semenovich Budilovich and appeared in 1885. In the authors’ opinion, following the defeat of 1863 Uprising, Poland had no choice but to take part in the Panslavic Renaissance guided by Russia and to accept the leading role of the Russian language and Russian Orthodoxy. According to them, Russia was the sole heir of Cyril and Methodius’s mission in Moravia. The authors considered that the Polish periphery of the Russian Empire in this period was a symbol of the clash of civilizations: the Eastern, Greek-Slavic and Orthodox culture and the Western, GermanLatin and „schismatic” one.

Przegląd Wschodni, t. XI, z. 3 (43), s. 489-508, Studium Europy Wschodniej Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Warszawa, 2010

Studi Slavistici, VII, pp. 67-84, Firenze University Press, Firenze, 2009

Fealty to Rome or Loyalty to the Empire? The Uniate Question in the Kingdom of Poland (1831-1863)... more Fealty to Rome or Loyalty to the Empire? The Uniate Question in the Kingdom of Poland (1831-1863)
The article describes the policies that the Tsarist authorities pursued towards the Chełm Greek-Catholic eparchy in the Kingdom of Poland between 1831 and 1863. It focuses in particular on a little-known episode: the attempt to suppress the Chełm eparchy implemented during the episcopate of F.F. Szumborski (1828-1851) with the approval of the viceroy of Poland Paskevich and of Tsar Nicholas I. The conversion of the Uniates to the Orthodox Church, successfully achieved in the Western (Lithuanian-Belarusian) provinces of the Tsarist Empire in 1839, was inscribed in the process of assimilation of these territories, which were considered to have belonged to the Russian state and to the Orthodox Church since the age of Kyivan Rus’. These lands had been incorporated into the Empire by the Partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the second half of the Eighteenth century. The episode described reflects the nationalistic evolution of Imperial policies, but the failure to convert the Chełm Uniates shows that, for reasons of diplomatic balance with the Holy See and the European powers, the Tsar’s government preferred to adopt a policy of compromise, rather than a unilateral resolution of the Uniate question. The Chełm Uniates were not converted to Orthodoxy until after the Polish Uprising of 1863, when a shift towards a broader Russification of the outlying areas of the Empire took place in official policies.

Russica Romana, 2008

Nella storia dell’intelligencija russa dell’Ottocento un posto di rilievo è occupato dal clero or... more Nella storia dell’intelligencija russa dell’Ottocento un posto di rilievo è occupato dal clero ortodosso, inteso in modo particolare nella sua declinazione secolare: il basso clero, detto in altri termini anche clero ‘bianco’ – quello dei popy, dei cerkovnoslužiteli (diaconi e sagrestani), e degli insegnanti di catechismo –, ebbe un ruolo preminente nella formazione dell’intelligencija di origine non nobile, dalle cui fila provennero alcuni dei protagonisti destinati ad animare il dibattito sociale e politico degli ultimi decenni dell’epoca zarista.
Come è noto, il ceto ecclesiastico secolare costituiva una sorta di casta, da cui, di norma, non era possibile affrancarsi. I figli dei popy, i popoviči, nella maggior parte dei casi non seguivano le orme paterne per autentica vocazione, bensì per tradizione familiare: quasi un ‘mestiere’ che passava di padre in figlio.
Iniziata nei primi decenni del xix sec., l’emancipazione dei figli dei popy dall’usuale destino di ministri del culto fu sancita ufficialmente dalla legge del 26 maggio 1869. I popoviči poterono così scegliere liberamente il proprio destino, mentre l’accesso al sacerdozio (e quindi all’iter di studi nei Seminarie nelle Accademie di Teologia) venne concesso a qualunque cittadino, a prescindere dalla sua origine. Numerosi furono i casi di ex-seminaristi che trovarono impiego come funzionari, soprattutto nell’ambito scolastico, nell’opera di russificazione delle okrainy occidentali dell’Impero, in particolare dopo l’insurrezione polacca del gennaio 1863.6 Il presente saggio intende dare un contributo allo studio di questo aspetto ancora poco noto della storia del clero russo del XIX sec., analizzando il ruolo svolto dai popoviči sia come studenti che come docenti all’Università Imperiale di Varsavia nella politica di russificazione del Regno di Polonia. Gli ex-seminaristi furono al centro del dibattito tra i ministri e i consiglieri dello zar, a causa della loro dubbia affidabilità sul piano della lealtà politica e della effettiva capacità di farsi portatori dell’elemento russo-ortodosso presso popoli non russi e di diversa religione.

Annali di Ca' Foscari, 2006

This paper aims to focus on the question of education in the Polish Kingdom during the years 1862... more This paper aims to focus on the question of education in the Polish Kingdom during the years 1862-1869. Though the University in Warsaw was closed after the 1830 uprising, until 1863 Poles mainly organized lower education on the tradition of the Polish educational system. Thanks to the "loyalty" of a part of the Polish intelligencija to the Russian Tsar, Poles had the possibility to reorganize, in 1862, a Polish University, the so-called "Main-School" (Glavnaja Škola). A few months after its opening, in January 1863, the Polish uprising deeply changed the policies of Russians towards Poles. Besides Miljutin's attempts to reorganize a utopian Polish peasantry and educational system loyal to the Russian Tsar, among the Russian bureaucrats at the Ministry of Education, in primis Count Dmitrij Tolstoj, what prevailed during the second half of the 1860s was the policy of transforming the Polish "Main School" into "Warsaw Imperial University" (Imperatorskij Varšavskij Universitet). The teaching language of the newly founded University (1969) was Russian and gradually Polish teachers were substituted by Russian ones. Our intention is to clarify the process of creation of the Russian University in Warsaw, characterized by an intense debate among the Russian Intelligencija and expecially among ministers, who expounded different and often conflicting intentions with regard to the Polish educational question.

Books by Matteo Piccin

PhD Dissertation, 2011

The Ethnic and Religious Policies of the Tsarist Regime in the Kingdom of Poland: the "Kholm Ques... more The Ethnic and Religious Policies of the Tsarist Regime in the Kingdom of Poland: the "Kholm Question" as a Case of Russian Nation-Building (1831-1912)
This study aims to provide an analysis of Russian nationalism and of the policies of Russification implemented by the tsarist authorities in the western periphery of Russian empire from the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth. The primary focus will be the "Kholm question" in the Kingdom of Poland, in which Russian civil and ecclesiastical authorities became involved in the Russification of the population. In addition, the Russian state aimed to convert the resident Ukrainian (or, as they were officially called, "Little Russian" ) and Byelorussian adherents of the last Greek-Catholic eparchy of the empire to Orthodoxy. The Kholm question represents an interesting case study, which enables us to outline certain aspects of the complex and contradictory relationship between the centre and the periphery of the empire, as well as the different and contrasting understandings of the place of Russian nationality and its relationship with the other nationalities. Finally, this study sheds light on the difficult balance between the Russian State and the Orthodox Church, Catholic and Greek-Catholic Churches.

Book Reviews by Matteo Piccin

Slavia Orientalis, LXXII, pp. 649-652, 2023

Russica Romana, volume xvi, pp. 125-126, 2009

In questo volume in lingua inglese, Darius Staliūnas presenta ad un più ampio pubblico i risultat... more In questo volume in lingua inglese, Darius Staliūnas presenta ad un più ampio pubblico i risultati delle sue ricerche condotte nell’ultimo decennio. Benché parte del materiale sia già apparso in riviste specializzate (prevalentemente in lingua lituana, ma anche in inglese, polacco e russo), nondimeno la trattazione d’insieme che esso riceve in questa sede risulta particolarmente utile per lo storico della Russia del XIX sec., soprattutto per chi si occupa degli effetti del nazionalismo russo nelle periferie dell’Impero. [...]

Russica Romana, volume xvi, pp. 126-127, 2009

Lo studio costituisce un ambizioso tentativo di riassumere in una monografia la complessa e artic... more Lo studio costituisce un ambizioso tentativo di riassumere in una monografia la complessa e articolata questione della recezione dell’idea di Ortodossia in Galizia tra il xixe l’inizio del xxsecolo. [...]