https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9215-0967University of Lodz
Faculty of International and Political Studies
Department of British and Commonwealth Studies
e-mail: maria.lukowska@uni.lodz.pl
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9215-0967
University of Lodz
Faculty of International and Political Studies
Department of British and Commonwealth Studies
e-mail: maria.lukowska@uni.lodz.pl
Abstract
This contribution is an attempt at a different reading of Wojciech Gutkowski’s Journey to Kalopeia (1817), which may be of interest to both Polish and Australian readers in the twenty-first century, since it tries to connect Polish history with the dream of the Antipodes represented by Australia. Gutkowski’s book, unknown until 1913, when it was deemed a utopian novel of little scientific value, gained recognition in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. At that time it was studied as a political treatise and an Enlightenment model for the creation of an ideal utopian-socialist-communist state. This paper offers a new reading of the work in question, discussing its cultural-historical aspects as a precursor of a specifically Polish model of a utopian-colonial state.Keywords: Wojciech Gutkowski, Journey to Kalopeia, Australia, Utopia, utopian socialism, utopian-colonial treatise
Wojciech Gutkowski’s Journey to Kalopeia, completed in 1817 and presented for publication at the Warsaw Scientific Society as a political treatise, was a controversial work that aroused interest only after its discovery in 1913. Published in 1956, it can be approached in many ways: as a utopia, a fairy tale, a quasi-historical account, and above all as a manifestation of socialist-communist thought which in the last decade of the 20th century can also be read as an educational treatise (Brański 67–83). This article approaches it as a colonial treatise initiating a discussion on the possibility of creating an independent Poland after the partitions. In this context Journey to Kalopeia was a pioneer endeavour. Even though it contained all the elements of Polish utopian colonialism, it was not known for many years in the period when other Polish concepts of utopian colonialism were being born. Gutkowski’s colonial conception revealed two basic determinants of Polish colonial thought: distance and isolation.
The article offers a reading of Gutkowski’s work from the perspective of political anthropology, and narrows it down to the considerations of the legitimacy of colonial policy. Using the cognitive tools characteristic of ethnoscience, the Author applies the emic/etic analytical procedure, in which the emic layer is an analysis of the conceptual systems contained in the text of Gutkowski’s work as the text of culture. The etic layer, on the other hand, is constituted by studies concerning the work as made by external observers and their studies. Therefore, the Author’s goal was to rediscover Gutkowski’s work, not as a proposal for a new political system for Poland but as an example of a new proposal for the colonial policy. The aim of these considerations is, therefore, to analyse a specific “grammar” of Gutkowski’s ideas about an ideal colonial state, the main paradigms of which were distance and geopolitical isolation. Located at the antipodes of Gutkowski’s previous experiences, Australia became the site of his utopian vision. The question arises, what could Gutkowski’s knowledge of Australia be in 1816?
The extent of knowledge about Australia in Polish culture became first tested in the second half of the eighteenth century, when two Polish citizens, residents of Gdansk of Scottish origin, Jan and Jerzy [John and George] Forster, took part in James Cook’s voyage in the years 1772–1775 as cartographers who made maps of Australia and Oceania for the purposes of the expedition (Słabczyński 342–351). We also know that the first Pole to set foot on Australian soil was Ksawery Karnicki (born in 1750, died in 1801 in Cherbourg). Karniciki was a precursor of Polish Utopian colonialism; after the first partition of Poland in 1772, he emigrated to Chile from where he sailed as a whaler to Australia. A participant in the Bar Confederation and the American War of Independence, together with Paweł Michał Dołęga Mostowski he established the so-called “County of Bridges” or “New Poland” in Florida (Kujawińska Courtney, Penier, Chakrabarti 22). However, he did not leave any descriptions of this country. Gutkowski’s knowledge about the continent was, therefore, limited to information about its part, New South Wales and its role as a penal colony. The role of Australia in the Polish consciousness of the first decade of the nineteenth century was based more on imaginations as an island and remote space than on any specific knowledge.
Wojciech Gutkowski (1775–1826) was a Polish military engineer, a lieutenant colonel in the Engineer Corps, military educator, writer, freemason, economist, the author of a utopian novel and a representative of Polish political thought of the Enlightenment period. For financial reasons, he started his service in the army very early, as a minelayer in a military school at the age of 14 (in 1789). On 1st May 1794, he was promoted to the Conductor of Military Engineering rank, with an assignment to the Zajączek Corps. In this formation, he went through the uprising campaign of 1794. After the final partition of Poland, he remained in Lublin and devoted himself to agronomic studies and the study of foreign writings on technology, inventions and industry. On 12th January 1807, he joined the Polish army in the rank of captain, and after a short service in the 4th Infantry Regiment he was assigned to the Engineer Corps. In 1808, Gutkowski became a lecturer at the Company School of Artillery and Engineers located in the Warsaw Arsenal, and when this school was renamed The Elementary School of Artillery and Engineers in 1810, he was entrusted with the post of commandant or second-in-command and then promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Thanks to his conscientious work and the support of Prince Józef Poniatowski, he also became deputy head of the Engineer Corps. In 1811, he was appointed an associate member of the Society of Friends of Learning as a person “proficient in mathematics, agricultural works and the improvement of young people in the sciences of war”.
He fought in the War of 1812 on the Bug River and during the retreat found himself in Germany. He survived the siege of Wittenberg and was taken prisoner by the Austrians. In 1814 he returned to Poland. He continued to serve in the Engineer Corps in the army of the Kingdom of Poland and was appointed commander of engineers in Lublin. While staying in Zamość as a professor of architecture at the Zamojskie Lyceum, in 1803 Gutkowski published, first under a joint editorship with B. Kukolnikand then exclusively under his own editorship, 18 volumes of the Zamojski Dziennik Ekonomiczny [Zamość Economic Journal] that contained encyclopaedic information on agronomy, technology and raw materials important for agriculture and rural architectural engineering. In 1806, he published the Economic Catechism for Farmers (a practical guide to animal husbandry, fruit farming, horticulture, arable farming, etc.).[1] He also translated into Polish and published A. H. Meltzer’s work Description and Imaginings of a New Machine Invented for Sowing Grain. During this period, he promoted the technological advancement of agriculture in the “physiocratic” spirit. In 1805, he published his translation of Bossi’s textbook Fundamentals of the Drawing Rules. Thanks to his scientific mobility, he was appointed, at a young age, a corresponding member of the Imperial Economic Society in St. Petersburg (probably as early as 1803) and in 1810 became a member of the Royal Economic and Agricultural Society in Warsaw.
The Lublin period of his life was connected with both his prominent career in the Freemasonry of the Kingdom of Poland and his activity in the organisation of local scientific endeavours. Already at the turn of 1811 and 1812, he was a member of the Warsaw Lodge of Isis, in 1816 he was a member of the Lodge of Equality in Lublin and in 1818, during the election of the “officials of the Lower Chapter” of the True Unity Lodge in the Lublin Valley, he was appointed Master of Ceremonies. Two years later, he was a Scottish Knight of Saint Andrew: fifth degree, in the Lodge of Equality. Together with other prominent Lublin Freemasons in 1816, he developed a vigorous campaign to establish a provincial branch of the Royal Economic and Agricultural Society in Lublin. He drafted the statute of this Society and two years later the statute of the Lublin Society of the Friends of Learning. At this time he also edited “The Rules and Duties of Cadets of the Elementary School of Artillery and Engineering” and in 1812 published an excerpt from Carnot’s book on the defence of fortresses (Bartyś 1983).
In 1817 Gutkowski wrote the utopian novel entitled Journey to Kalopeia, the Happiest Country in the World, where without Money and without Property, Wealth and Industry, Light and All Goods Are in Greatest Abundance, and where Volume Two of the History of the Life of Boleslaus II, King of Poland, Is to Be Found.[2] The narrative was probably written in 1814 and presented by Gutkowski to the Society of Friends of Learning on 24th November 1817. It tells of a utopian land of happiness in Australia founded by the surviving Boleslaus II the Bold who turns it into New Poland. The citizens of this land, the Kalops (Kalop is a Pole, in Polish: “Polak” spelled backwards), live in the greatest system in the world and are not inclined, under any circumstances, to leave it. The elected Committee of the Science Department strongly condemned the novel on the basis of a critical review by Stanisław Węgrzecki and rejected it on the pretext that it was not a scientific work but a novel (Gross 20–21).
After this criticism, Journey to Kalopeia was forgotten for many years, and so was its author who did not sign the work. It was not until 1913 that W. M. Kozłowski published an article on Gutkowski’s work, using one of his manuscripts (Kozłowski 313–331). He emphasised the Polish character of the work and its extraordinary originality, indicating that the text is not only a political treatise (Najdowski 8–9). Signs of authentic interest in the work appeared only in 1956, when Zygmunt Gross edited the text and provided an introduction. In his review of the book as well as in the introduction Janusz Górski refers to the Polish tradition of socialist utopianism and the plebeian current in Polish social thought (Górski 49). Similarly, Leszek Guzicki (1964) in his doctoral dissertation and later in a related article draws attention to the socio-economic dimension of Gutkowski’s work and to his utopian-socialist conceptions. An intriguing interpretation of the Journey is provided in the criticism of Janusz Marchewa (1975), who perceives in it a manifestation of Polish messianism and the millenarianism of the Polish socialist concepts. In his 1976 publication on the Polish socialist thought in the 19th and 20th centuries, Marian Żychowski refers to the Journey as one of its first manifestations. Irena Koberdowa goes much further, attributing Gutkowski’s “communist” views to his idea of creating model industrial and agricultural settlements (103). Journey to Kalopeia becomes the departure point for Rett Ludwikowski’s reflections on the main currents of political thought in the years 1815–1890 (466). Maria Borucka-Arctowa (1957) finds an undercurrent of the anti-feudal ideology in the Journey, while Bogdan Suchodolski (1963) notices links between its Author’s beliefs and the thought of Thomas More as well as the French Enlightenment movement of Étienne-Gabriel Morelly. The volume by Julian Bartyś (1983) devoted to Gutkowski and his work is, on the other hand, characterised by superficiality and a perfunctory approach to the sources. In the 1990s, Roman Andrzej Tokarczyk (1993) mentioned Gutkowki’s Journey to Kalopeia when writing about Polish Utopian thought (33).
All these past studies examine Gutkowski’s work in the context of his life and views in a one-sided, socio-political manner. It is no coincidence that studies written under different socio-political circumstances in Poland focused exclusively on its political and innovative aspects, placing Gutkowski’s text in the socialist or even communist tradition of the Polish Enlightenment. It is also no coincidence that another aspect of this novel has been overlooked; namely, its supposed purpose, to be read as a colonial treatise since at that time the Polish colonial thought was out of the question. In my opinion, however, it is necessary to look at the work from this perspective and ask where, why and how Kalopeia or mythical “new Poland” was founded. These questions, in turn, generate yet another one concerning the extent of knowledge about Australia in Poland at the time Gutkowski was writing his work.
The very existence of Journey means that already at the time of the partitions of Poland there emerged the idea of creating a new free country in a very remote area of the world. Looking at the plot of the Journey one can notice one characteristic feature. The state of the Kalops was established as anew on an unknown land, on an island, without any surrounding neighbours. This brings to mind another outstanding writer and thinker of the Polish Enlightenment, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, who admired Great Britain and envied it its insular location and the lack of hostile neighbours:
Gutkowski writes in the introduction to his novel that his protagonist, a landowner who owned several villages, sold them or entrusted the management to his brother.
Subsequently, he visits various countries, makes his observations and focuses on Kalopeia, “the happiest country in the world, equal to a paradise on earth”, located in New Holland (Australia), where he travels together with French engineers. Next, he moves towards the interior, into the colony of New South Wales and to the English-managed Port Jackson near Botany Bay (56). There he meets the representatives of the indigenous population and describes them as follows:
Soon he even gets to know their language and hospitality:
About the country itself he writes:
The narrator then sets off for the interior describing the river journey in these words:
He meets local people and asks them about the area:
These impenetrable thickets, the richness of the untamed nature and its wildness, as well as the myth of cannibals become elements constitutive for the construction of the isolated place to which the protagonist is heading:
Through this barrier of isolation the protagonist reaches the “Kalopean Border”, marked by a brick pillar with a representation of the Sun, on which there are inscriptions in Polish, French, English and Latin informing the newcomers about the state border and the laws observed beyond it. Here he encounters a reality completely different from the rumours:
When he meets the inhabitants who speak Polish and who find out that they are dealing with Poles:
The natives they meet turn out to be shepherds of extraordinary beauty and wisdom. The guests are invited to the seat of the headman of the municipality who declares that:
When visiting the community, it turns out that it represents an extraordinary richness and manifestations of such thriftiness “that even in England a farm could not match it” (67).
In addition, all modern inventions are available, such as the telegraph, and the life of the inhabitants is regulated according to a set order. The communities have been named: Caution, Attention, Vigilance, Eavesdroppers, which is supposed to protect the inhabitants from enemy attacks. The narrator learns about the complicated system of power and social advancement, the system of defence organisation, the high development of civilisation and of the military, and then he gains the knowledge of Kalop customs. The citizen of this country remains from birth to death under the protection of the state and the state religion. There is no private property and all goods are commonly owned and collectively produced. No one suffers from hunger or poverty. Everyone has equal access to all common goods, to education and to work. Social hierarchy is based on clerical hierarchy, and everyone occupying successive layers within the organisation remains in a functional relation to the State. The protagonist becomes acquainted with the foundation myth of the Kalopean State or “New Poland” in the antipodes. Its perfection creates a sense of isolation from the rest of the world since nobody wants to leave this paradise. Interestingly, Kalopeia has no foreign policy, is absolutely self-sufficient, and protects its economic and social achievements. There is a complete separation of Church and State there, which is reinforced by the foundation myth.
Afterwards, they set sail from Gdansk to Genoa and Lisbon, and sailing around Africa and the East Indies searched for an island. Initially, they opted for Sumatra, but it was not to be. A storm directed them to New Holland:
After a long search for a suitable area to settle in, having crossed deserts and immense mountain ranges, he found a fitting place:
They decided to establish their colony there and settle in that place using the material goods brought in by ships and then to burn the ships. From the description of Kalopeia we surmise, it was to be a land as rich in resources and as happy as the ancient mountainous and forested Arcadia (Kopaliński 53), with the difference that it was to be an enlightened country, not as primitive as its prototype. Boleslaus started with educational work with the indigenous population and persuaded them to such an extent that all the tribes voluntarily recognised the supremacy of the Polish language and culture, which happened within six years of his arrival. The natives were educated in crafts, arts and state administration. In the year 1088, therefore, he was to offer the country a constitution, the content of which the author includes in his work.[4] Kalopeia was to be a constitutional monarchy (empire) and at the same time a functional state, where private property did not exist and universal egalitarianism prevailed. The official language was Polish and the citizens formed a nation-state by their own choice. They bore Polish surnames and these surnames testified to their righteousness (Prawdzicki, Dobraczyński[5]). In a few days, the protagonist gets to know Kalopeia as an ideal state and is even received by the monarch descending directly from Boleslaus the Great. He becomes acquainted with the calendar established by Boleslaus, the educational system, the complex administration, state holidays and rituals connected with the cycle of human life, in which the state intervenes from the cradle to the grave. He is so enchanted with the organisation of the colony that he speaks of his delight as follows:
Kalopeia itself is to stretch from the Tropic of Capricorn to the island of Diemen (Tasmania). Its size is 600 Kalopean miles, with an inner sea similar to the Caspian Sea that has an underground connection with the Ocean. It lies between 37th parallel south and 160th meridian east from Tenerife’s highest peak. As to the country itself:
The Kalops owe their beauty and development to their isolation. They travel abroad only for educational and informational purposes and to acquire the latest civilised inventions. They are isolated both geographically and politically, but not in terms of their cultivated consciousness, which is symptomatic of the Enlightenment thought. They are also supposed to be well informed about the world and at peace with all other nationalities:
Reading Journey to Kalopoeia along these lines thus leads one to a conclusion that it is not only a political treatise, or the first socialist-communist utopia, but above all a colonial treatise, a specific utopian-colonial vision of a “New Poland” created in an isolated place, separate and remote from its author’s European political and social experience. This vision found its continuators in later years and in a manner completely independent of Gutkowski’s ideas (Łukowska, Stępień 153–172; Łukowska 2014, 543–558; Łukowska 2016, 256–264). This is a vision of the formation of a “New Poland” far from aggressive neighbours, secluded and brought into existence as a result of a very specific social contract with the indigenous population. It was to be created in a peaceful, law-abiding and perfect manner, based on modern thought and civilisational achievements, undisturbed by any outside interference.
The colonial premises on which Kalopoeia was based differ from those characteristic for Western European colonialism, and so is its model of colonial thought. Its essence could be encapsulated through attention to five aspects: historical, political, economic, social, and cultural. In the historical aspect, Polish colonialism was born out of the loss of independence in the period of partitions as a desire to regain independence in a utopian form. It resulted in numerous examples and even real-life experiments to create a “New Poland”, most often on islands, far away from Europe. In its political aspect, it focused on the creation of an independent democratic state, isolated from its neighbours, i.e. potential enemies or invaders. It manifested itself in the form of a belief in peaceful coexistence with the native inhabitants of distant areas and a belief in the possibility of convincing them to become subordinate to and a part of a superior civilisation represented and guaranteed by legal acts. The train of thought intensified in the 20th century when, with the country’s regained independence, it took the form of actual attempts to establish Polish colonies on other continents. In the economic aspect, it pointed to the need to acquire new areas for agricultural purposes, manifesting itself in the legal acquisition of land and its economic exploitation together with the native and indigenous population. Such thinking later resulted in the establishment of settlement colonies on the periphery of the colonised territories. The social aspect of Polish colonial thought was apparent in the aspiration to create utopian egalitarian and agrarian societies. It expressed itself in the forms of establishing close cooperation with colonised societies, which was regulated in the form of established joint works or constitutions through a kind of social contract. The cultural aspect translated into striving for unrestricted development of national cultures and religions, without any restrictions imposed on the colonised peoples. This was to be visible in the peaceful coexistence of different cultures, customs and faiths, religious and cultural tolerance and an offer to accept Polish cultural models as a reasonable choice by the native population. In reality, the paradoxical result of this type of a model was – in cases of actual colonisation of foreign cultural areas – a much stronger integration of the Polish colonisers with the existing indigenous culture than in the identification of the colonised population with the Polish cultural models (Łukowska, Stępień 170–171).
This paper discussed Wojciech Gutkowski’s work from a perspective diverging from a purely political analysis of his treatise. His work is regarded here as an innovative attempt at writing a colonial text containing a suggestion that it would be wise to break the social stalemate resulting from Poland’s loss of independence. Therefore, it can be interpreted as a proposal to rebuild Poland’s sovereignty “elsewhere”, in isolation from the previous troublesome geopolitics. The colony was to become the source of Poland’s integrity, independence and democracy, far from enemies, persecutors and partitioners. Therefore, Gutkowski’s work should be approached not only or not solely from the perspective of political studies, but can be read through the lens of colonial studies, as an attempt to create an Enlightenment model of a utopian-socialist-communist state.
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