Discussing Pauperism in mid-Nineteenth Century Poland and Russia: A Study of Conceptual Transfers to the Imperial Heartland and Peripheries

Abstract

This article investigates the transfer of the concept of pauperism to the Russian Empire in the 1840s, exploring the published output of authors from the Kingdom of Poland and St Petersburg. Henryk Kamieński and Vladimir A. Milyutin published articles – in 1845 and 1847 respectively – for the first time in their native languages discussing the phenomenon of pauperism in Western Europe. Their reflections are parallel in many respects, especially concerning their conviction that despite the varying economic models, industrialisation and the mechanisation of labour would in general positively influence the social well-being in their native countries, even though it was producing miserable living conditions for the lowest social stratum in the West. The cases examined in this paper may also stimulate methodological reflections on conceptual transfers, and in particular their intricacies in the Eastern and Central European contexts.