Jan Maciejewski "It's nothing! Why must history of Poland repeat itself?"

Rene Girard has found in his research that there was a ritual of offering in pre-Christian cultures. The sacrifice was of animals, but often - of men, and the guilt of all the community was symbolically laid on the victim, and the killing was suposed to be the atonement for this guilt. Hence the word "scapegoat". Jan Maciejewski claims that Poland became such a scapegoat for Europe at the end of the 18th century because the chief figures of the so-called Englightenment perceived it as a 'backward' country whose existence prevents Europe from becoming 'modern'. Looking from another angle, we may notice that 18th century is a war of everyone against everyone, while partitions were the channeling of all this violence and directing it against Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. What may be surprising is that, as Maciejewski claims, Poland in a way accepted the role of a victim. Not only in the sense that the partitions were approved by he Diet (Sejm) under the pressure of Russia, Prussia and Austria, but also - that moment marks the beginning of Polish people offering their lives to bring Poland back. And it wasn't just sacrifice in a fight, but even - the desire of death even before victory. That was what the famous light horsemen of Somosierra wanted. In the same spirit, one of Monte Casino soldiers said "I would like to give one thing to my son - the death of his father at the battlefield".

"Why does mass suicide predominate in our history over trying to fight the enemy?" - we can read on the back cover. In the post-partition period there was just such a wave of suicide and religious indifference. There was a shocking character of Ignacy Marchocki of Mińkowce, who, on the one hand, proclaimed "the state of Mińkowce" independent from Russia after the second partition, and on the other, outlined, literally and precisely, a plan of the suicide of the whole Polish nation. It even detailed in what order people should kill themselves. In his view, it was an expression of despair and oddly understood honour.

Maciejewski finds a lot of offerings in other periods of our history: in the times of the Romantic poets, January Uprising, Katyń, Warsaw Uprising, finally - Smoleńsk plane crash. He show how our history has been an arena of a clash between neo-paganism and Christianity - as it was Christ who annuled the ritual of a scapegoat, proving that the victim is Innocent. It's very much worth getting deeper into this book.