Warsaw [preface 1919]/ E. Wende and Sp./ first edition/ bookbinding, gilt on spine/ pp. IX, [1] 559/ very good condition. Uncommon.
Book dedicated to Roman Dmowski
Contains memoirs and reflections of Zygmunt Wasilewski, pre-war senator, National Democracy politician, from his stay in the depths of Russia. Excerpts of the book were previously published in Moscow, titled. "Internal Orientation."
From the introduction: "I wrote this book not in a bibljothek, but in the field - in the midst of war and revolution, on the battlefield. In this lies its importance and character. I was one of those who took an active part in the war - they chose the front and fought, understanding that this is a war of nations, not only of state armies, and above all that this is Poland's war for freedom and a strong future. The sons went under arms in uniform, the fathers stood up for war work, where it fell to whom. The fate of the war threw me east to Russia, an ally of the states that stood against Germany and vowed to return freedom to Poland. From October 1915 to the end of 1917, editing in Petrograd the political magazine "Polish Affair", founded by the participants of the National Committee on the initiative of R. Dmowski, I was obliged to report on the internal life of a very large Polish society in Russia, multiplied by millions of exits.
(...) The book consists of four parts. In the first, I have collected what has the importance of general reflections in matters of national culture; in the second are chapters, developing those views with examples from current political life; the third - are observations on the Russian soul in the era of breakthrough and decay; the fourth - with the same journalistic method drawn sketches more literary from the subject or historical destiny (silhouettes).
As a whole, it presents a sketchy picture, but organized by the main idea, of a very important and dramatic episode in the life of Poland during the war, a picture seen, by the way, from the inside, from an educational position. It has the character of a memoir because of the person of the writer, but at the same time it plays the role of a dissertation, based on the experience of living facts."
