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J.HOPKIN / Long Read
Will Poland begin to shake-off its image as the martyr of Europe on the first anniversary of the tragic Smolensk plane crash?
"Poland's messianic complex was first voiced by the Romantic poet and activist Adam Mickiewicz, in his play, Dziady (1832), written in the aftermath of the country's unsuccessful 1830 uprising against the Russian empire, and in the national classic, Pan Tadeusz (1834), an epic poem that wistfully recalls Polish customs, folk songs and the beauty of its land during the partitions that banished Poland from the map altogether for 123 years. In both, Mickiewcz champions the country as the "Christ of Nations", while claiming that Poland's suffering would save Europe as a whole.
