A Man of Honour: Adam Czartoryski as a Statesman of Russia and Poland 1795-1831

This book is a study of the political career of Prince Adam Czartoryski, a Polish patriot who rose to become foreign minister of the Russian Empire under Tsar Alexander I. A controversial figure in the history of both Poland and Russia, Czartoryski played a leading role in the struggle against Napoleon Bonaparte and was instrumental in the establishment of a Polish state by the congress of Vienna. W.H. Zawadzki's scholarly account explores the personal, political, ideological, and economic bases of Czartoryski's long association with Russia. He assesses Czartoryski's role in international relations during the Napoleonic era, and examines his contribution to the cause of enlightened reform. Czartoryski emerges as an intellectual-cum-statesman, a committed opponent of Napoleonic imperialism, an advocate of a new European order based on nationality and liberal constitutionalism, and an early exponent of Pan-Slavism. “A Man of Honour” sets Czartoryski in his context as a major figure in the political history of early nineteenth-century Europe and deepens our understanding of the complex elements at work in the founding of modern Poland.