'MY LIFE FLOWS IN A TWOFOLD STREAM'. ON ZOFIA ROMANOWICZOWNA AND HER DIARIES ('Zycie moje dwoistym pradem plynie'. O Zofii Rromanowiczownie i jej dziennikach)

Zofia Romanowiczowna's 'Lvov Diary' (1842-1930) prepared and edited by Zbigniew Sudolski (vol. 1-2, Warszawa 2005) is a fascinating reading. It shows a complete life track of its authoress, leading simultaneously through historical, political, and social transformations, psychical alternations, and changes in the way of thinking and understanding of the world. Initially, Romanowiczowna is a young girl shaped by romantic culture, who tries to fulfill her role of 'angel', a consoler, a helper, and a man's confidante. As she fails to fit any of the roles for women of the epoch (a wife, a mother, a nun, a resident at the family), Romanowiczowna maturely and deliberately chooses to work for a few dozens of years as a teacher 'to earn her bread and cheese' and, at the same time, with the sense of social and national mission, she engages into women organizations of emancipation and independence. At the same time, we find records on the dreams of love and disappointment in love, wavering of the amplitude of religiousness and faith, the joy of friendship and kindness, and a bitter taste of loneliness and incomprehension. Life presented from the perspective of external events and internal sensations - this is Zofia Romanowiczowna's diary.