Maria Rodziewiczówna
Maria Rodziewiczówna (February 2, 1863 – November 16, 1944, near Żelazna) was a Polish writer, among the most famous of the interwar years. Her works often addressed patriotism, idealized rural life, and praised the countryside and peasantry. Rodziewiczówna is also noted for advocating for women's rights.[1] Her writings include "Wrzos" ("Heather"), "Dewajtis", "Lato leśnych ludzi" ("Summer of the Forest People"), "Straszny dziadunio" ("Eerie Grandpa").
Maria Rodziewiczówna | |
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| Born | 2 February 1863 Pieniuha, Volkovyssky Uyezd, Grodno Governorate |
| Died | 16 November 1944 (aged 81) near Żelazna |
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| Occupation | novelist |
| Nationality | Polish |
| Notable works | Lato leśnych ludzi, Między ustami a brzegiem pucharu, Straszny dziadunio |
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Biography
Early life
She came from a land-owning nobility family. She was the daughter of Henryk Rodziewicz, coat of arms Łuk and Amelia née Kurzeniecki. for help given to the January insurgents (storage of weapons) Maria's parents were sentenced to family estate of Pieniaha in Vawkavysk confiscation and to deportation to Siberia. Amelia, who was pregnant with Maria at that time, was allowed to give birth and later was deported by a carriage that she paid for a few months later. During the parents' stay in exile, the Rodziewicz's children were put under the care of various relatives. Initially, Maria's grandparents took care of the Kurzeniecki family in the Zamosze estate near Janów, and after their short death a friend and distant relative of her mother took care of her - Maria Skirmuntt (in Korzeniów in the Pinsk region).
In 1871, as a result of amnesty, Maria's parents returned from exile. At that time, they could only settle outside the lands called by the Russians 'taken away', i.e. not in the Grodno region, where the Rodziewicz family had relatives. They settled in Warsaw, where they were in a very difficult financial situation (father worked as a tenant of the tenement house, mother for some time in a cigarette factory). The family situation improved slightly when a distant relative of Ksawery Pusłowski made Maria's father the administrator of his property. However, real improvement occurred in 1875, when Henryk Rodziewicz inherited the property of Hruszowa in Polesie (1533 ha) from his childless brother Teodor. It was not a family property for a long time (the great-grandfather of Rodziewiczówna bought it from Alexander Suvorov).
Already during her stay in Warsaw Rodziewiczówna began to attend the finishing school of Mrs. Kuczyńska. At the end of 1876, due to the improvement of the financial situation of the family, she was placed in a finishing school in Yazlovets ran by the Congregation of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose superior was Marcelina Darowska (beatified by John Paul II). There she stayed until the summer of 1879, when due to her father's illness and lack of money for further education she had to return to her family (she finished the fifth or sixth grade). Staying in a school in Jazłowiec, where girls in a religious but patriotic atmosphere were prepared primarily for the future role of wife and mother, had a great impact on Rodziewiczówna. Her first works were also to be created here, most likely Kwiat lotosu (lotus flower).
Reign over Hruszowa
In 1881 Rodziewiczówna's father died. After his death, she gradually began to take control of his estate until 1887, when she took it over formally (with the burden of the debts of her father and uncle, as well as the need to repay her siblings). She cut her hair short (with her mother's permission) and in the short skirt and "masculine" coat she took care of Hruszowa, which, however, did not bring much income (despite a large acreage arable land was at most a third of it).
In 1882 Maria Rodziewiczówna debuted under the pen name Mario in 3 and 4 issue of „Dziennik Anonsowy” with two novelettes – Gama uczuć i Z dzienniczka reportera. She used the same pen name in 1884 in Świt, redacted by Maria Konopnicka, with a story Jazon Bobrowski, and a humoresque published in 1885, Farsa panny Heni. Her novel debut was Straszny dziadunio, which won in a 1886 competition held by „Świt”, which publiushed the novel in episodic format.
The relationships of the estate with local Belarussian peasants were varied. In 1890 the writer could face up to two weeks of arrest for „active abuse” (beating) of an Antopol shepherd (the case was solved amicably by paying the shepherd 5 rubles). In December 1900 there was an arson, burning a barn, threshers and cowshed with fifty cattle. The estate dedicated itself to spreading the culture, and local peasants could find medical aid there. In 1937, for anniversary of 50 years of governing Hruszowa (and 50 years of literary work) the villagers gave Rodziewiczówna a dedicared album, bought bells to her chapel and delivered bricks to the construction place of a Catholic church in Antopol for free (the church was co-founded by her).
After the death of her grandmother, mother and sister in the mid-90s, the writer lived in Hruszowa for some time alone. It is difficult to say when Helena Weychert (met in the Stowarzyszenie Ziemianek - Association of Landowners) moved to the estate as Rodziewiczówna's life partner.[2] Weychert introduced changes in the maintenance of the farm (such as the introduction of crop rotation or the launch of a distillery), which improved revenues. After a few years, she moved to Warsaw, buying, together with Rodziewiczówna, a flat on Bracka Street and a property near Falenica.[2]
In 1919 her place was taken in Hruszowa by a new (introduced as a distant relative) partner of the writer - Jadwiga Skirmuntt.[2] Jadwiga dealt with "womanly household and farmkeeping", while Maria "left business and masculine farmkeeping to herself".[3] This relation was described by Skirmuntt in her memoirs with the German word Wahlverwandtschaft, meaning "spiritual affinity" / "affinity by choice".[2]
The writer spent time until World War I in her estate in the company of Jadwiga Skirmuntt or Helena Weychert. Only in winter did she go to Warsaw for 2–3 months. She also made several trips abroad: to Rome (for 500 rubles obtained as a reward for Dewajtis), 2-3 times to southern France, at least once to Munich, Sweden and Norway.
In 1905 she began organizing social activities (social tensions and the image of workers' misery made a huge impression on her). In 1906, she founded the secret women's association Unia. She also contributed to the establishment of a grocery store and a store selling folk products in Warsaw, as well as a common room in the Kobryń poviat.
World War I
The outbreak of World War I found Rodziewiczówna in Warsaw. She took part in the organization of a military hospital, she also helped organize cheap kitchens for intelligentsia and academic assistance. In 1915 she returned to Hruszowa for some time, taking care of the refugees she had tried to keep there. In the years 1919–1920 she initiated a number of social activities in the area of Hruszowa, establishing an agricultural circle, building a steam room, and rebuilding the cheder in Antopol. During the Polish-Bolshevik war, she was in Warsaw, where she was the secretary of the Main Committee of the Polish Red Cross and was appointed the commandant of the Female Volunteer Committee for the Relief of Lviv to the city of Warsaw. For her activity in this field, she was awarded the "Orlęta" Medal of Honor, which was accompanied by a diploma signed by general Tadeusz Rozwadowski.[4] After the end of war, she returned to Hruszowa. Years later, Rodziewiczówna considered this diploma the most important souvenir of her activity.
Interwar period
In the interwar period, she tried to continue her educational and social activities (among others, she organized the Polish House in Antopol, she also financed the construction of a floor at the Kobryn School of her own name). However, government policy in Kresy aroused her disapproval. She ideologically associated the maintenance of "Polishness" in these lands with the role of landowners and the Church. Meanwhile, the authorities demanded that her part of the estate (150 ha) be handed over for the needs of settlement, which were also personally disputed with the starosta from Kobryn. She became a protector and co-founder of the Union of Homeland Nobility.
Rodziewiczówna had a critical attitude towards Jews created from her own experience and observations of the environment, whom she considered exploiters (usury), who would significantly contribute to the poverty of the Polesie village and the financial problems of the borderland landowners. This has often been reflected in her works, where there is the figure of an evil Jew, but in some of them she gives examples of positive and kind people who help Poles in troubles (e.g. Jaskółczym szlakiem).
In 1937 she was invited to the authorities of Oboz Zjednoczenia Narodowego. She accepted the invitation but in 1938, in protest against the deeds of OZN authorities, she left the organization.[5]
World War II
The outbreak of World War II found her in Hruszowa. She was displaced from it in October 1939 (the property, after the area was taken over by the Red Army, was taken over by a committee of local people). Based on false documents, she crossed the border of the German occupation and, together with Skirmuntt, got to the transit camp in Łódź at ul. Łąkowa 4, from where they were removed in March 1940 by the Mazaraki family, owners of the property near Tuszyn.
Shortly afterwards she went to Warsaw, i.e. to the General Government, where, assisted by friends, she spent the last years of her life in very difficult material conditions. During the Warsaw Uprising, the ancient writer was already passing by or being moved to several different homes, looked after by friends, the Polish Red Cross and the insurgents.
She left Warsaw after the surrender, spending a few weeks in Milanówek, and then heading to Żelazna - the property of Aleksander Mazaraki jr. near Skierniewice. Placed in a nearby forester's cabin in Leonów. She died of pneumonia in November 1944.
Initially, she was buried in Żelazna, but on November 11, 194 she was buried in the Avenue of the Distinguished at the Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw.
Private life
As a teenager Maria declared that she would never marry.[2] She spent her life with Helena Weychert and Jadwiga Skirmuntt, and their arrangement was that Maria would spend few winter months in Warsaw with Helena, and the rest of the year in Hruszowa with Jadwiga. During her life only Irena Krzywicka would publicly imply that she was a lesbian, in a 1936 article in Wiadomości Literackie.[2] Maria's behavior and attire were very masculine and noted by her contemporaries for that. Krzysztof Tomasik called her "the first butch of Polish literature".[2]
References
- Hawkesworth, C. (10 April 2001). A History of Central European Women's Writing. ISBN 9780333985151.
- Tomasik, Krzysztof, 1978-. Homobiografie. Warszawa. ISBN 978-83-64682-22-3. OCLC 915291354.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- Jadwiga Skirmuntt, Pani na Hruszowej. Dwadzieścia pięć lat wspomnień o Marii Rodziewiczównie. Redacted by Grażyna Łaptos, Wydawnictwo Alfa, Warszawa 1994
- Jan Głuszenia (1997). Strażniczka kresowych stanic. Warszawa.
- "List Marii Rodziewiczówny i odpowiedź gen. Skwarczyńskiego", Gazeta Lwowska (101), p. 3, 6 May 1938
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