ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE - THE ORIGINS OF POLISH RECEPTION (Poczatki polskiej recepcji mysli Alexis de Tocquevillea)

The present article is devoted to the original reception testimonies of A.de Tocqueville amongst Poles. The French thinker is portrayed here as an important intellectual figure for two main fractions of Polish immigration in the 19th century. Tocqueville inspired left wing activists of the Polish Democratic Society, as well as those affiliated to the rightwing Hotel Lambert. Interesting comments on his work were made at the same time by the ultrademocratic Wojciech Darasz and the royalist baron Ferdinand d'Eckstien. The ordinary reception testimonies of the French thinker are connected also with figures such as the Hegelian philosopher August Cieszkowski and Zygmunt Krasinski, one of the finest poets of Polish Romanticism and a great friend of Henry Reeve - the first translator of Tocquevilles's work into English.